Calaveras
Calaveras (Spanish for "skulls") is at the junction
of U.S. Highway 181 and Farm Road 3444, eight miles northwest
of Floresville in northwestern Wilson County. It was originally
in Bexar County and was called Wright when it was established
in the early 1860s. A boundary change put the site in Wilson County
in 1869, and the name was changed when a post office was granted
in 1882.
The population was twenty in 1885, when B. Johnson was
postmaster and mail was brought by horse from San Antonio. The
San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway reached the area in 1886.
By 1892 the town had a hotel, three brickyards, a saloon, a barber
shop, a bakery, two general stores, a meat market, and a reported
250 residents. A Calaveras school was in operation by 1896, when
it had an enrollment of sixty-three. The town reached a peak population
of 369 in 1900.
In 1925 the post office was closed, and the station
was reduced to a flag stop. In 1947 Calaveras had one business
and a population of 100. Since that time the population has remained
steady, and in 2000 Calaveras still had 100 residents.