Leesville, Texas facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Leesville
Unincorporated City
Sandies Creek Iron Rail-Bridge ca. 1899; Leesville historical-marker below
Nickname(s):  Sandies, Capote, Leesburg, E.W. Cullen "Little Red Schoolhouse Station"
Motto(s):  Come and Grind It; Staying Happy
Tracts	Sandies—E.W. Cullen League; Capote—De la Baume Leagues (6)
Jurisdiction	25th Texas District Court, Guadalupe Courthouse
Subregion	East Central Texas
Region	Texas Triangle
Granted	1806 (de la Baume)
Settled	ca. 1830s-1861 (pre-Civil War)
Founded	1874
Recognized	ca. 1891 (state law)
Founded by	Newburn H. Guinn, Developer; Changed from Leesburg to Leesville by U.S. Postal Service
Named for	Lee Guinn, daughter of founder
Precinct	Electoral Precinct 13
Former Seats	Late-1800s: Texas House District 90; "Leesville Precinct," Justice of the Peace
Government
• Type	De facto; 19th-century Court of law, 19th-century Home guard
• Body	Historical, event associations with the Leesville name; Special municipally owned corporation
Area
• Total	32,793 acre (13,271 ha)
• Water	.12 sq mi (0.3 km2)
Elevation	520 ft (160 m)
Highest elevation (Capote's Knob)	670 ft (200 m)
Population  (2018-2019)
• Total	384
• Density	7.53/sq mi (2.91/km2)
• Traffic	12,179 vehicles (AADT)
• Traffic density	238.8/sq mi (92.2/km2)
• West Capote	1,647 (rural Guadalupe County)
Time zone	UTC−06:00 (CST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−05:00 (CDT)
ZIP code	Postmaster: 78122-9998; SH80/FM466/FM1682: 78122-42XX; 3700-3799 FM1682: 78122-43XX Succeeding: La Vernia, 78121 Preceding: McQueeney, 78123
Location	SE Guadalupe County line; West Gonzales County; South of Belmont; North of Nixon; West of Bebe
Expressway
U.S. Route
Proximate rail	San Marcos Station
Proximate primary airport	Austin–Bergstrom International Airport
Website	U.S. Post Office, Leesville

Leesville's architecture, 19th-20th century;
small brick and wood structures

Map of Leesville Land Tracts

Leesville is an unincorporated city of 384 residents distributed over 51 square miles in the Gonzales—Guadalupe County, Texas area ( SH 80 / FM 1682), electorally known as local Precinct 13; defined by the south of its Capote Hills ("El Capote Ranch") at the “Leesville Quad” intersection ( FM 466 / SH 80) and the north of Sandies Creek ( FM 1117 / SH 80 / SH 97), twelve miles southeast of Seguin. Beginning in the 19th-century, the municipal identity of Leesville was founded upon being one of the first Justice of the Peace Precincts of its original county-area, as prescribed in the Texas Constitution; as well as once generally serving as the primary seat of a former Texas House District 90, once rated at more than 1,000 constituents. Straddling and nearing the southeastern border of Guadalupe County, the real estate origins of Leesville go back to the 1800s survey-plots of Texas Revolution figures Ezekiel Wimberly Cullen (late owner of Sandies Creek) and Count Joseph de la Baume of France (late owner of Capote Hills); the latter retaining Texas's founding father Stephen F. Austin as an attorney, to reacquire the early-1800s Spanish land-tract, after Mexico's Independence from Spain in 1825. Divided by FM 1682 joining with Gonzales—Guadalupe County Road 121 West, Leesville's northern territory is closest to the Austin Metropolitan Areas through SH 80 / US 183, while the southern territory is closest to the San Antonio Metropolitan Areas through SH 97 / US 87.

In 1844, De la Baume's heirs sold out to newly-elected Judge Michael Erskine, a then-future Confederate Army commander of the Sandies Creek, Leesville area; the namesake of Leesville's founder "N. Guinn" serving under this "Sandies Home Guard" as a Third Lieutenant in 1861. Erskine held most of the land in the Leesville-area until 1882 when it was purchased by a group of speculative investors, including Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt. The lien on the property was held by the Scottish-American Mortgage Company, Ltd., financiers of the well-known Swan Land and Cattle Co. and Prairie Land and Cattle Co. The original 12-acre residential Capote Ranch headquarters in the "Alameda" of Downtown San Antonio, formerly known as "La Baume Place" upon the St. Joseph Catholic Church, has since been relinquished and divested from the property. From this time period into present-day, just before and after Judge Leroy G. Denman took ownership, the complexities of this large estate and its jurisdiction have led to direct interventions by late San Antonio mayor John W. Smith; and the Texas Courts of Appeals (its caselaw cited in ConocoPhillips Co. v. Ramirez), through the trust of Trinity University and the San Antonio Museum of Art.

As the 19th-century concluded, its expatriate George W. Littlefield acted as a significant Texan architectural patron and proprietor of the Driskill Hotel, the Littlefield House and the Littlefield Building in Austin, Texas; he relocated to what is now Downtown Austin after three of his family members died in a gunfight in 1880s Leesville. During the Spanish–American War, Theodore Roosevelt rode a Capote, Leesville area horse, "Seguin", at the Battle of San Juan Hill (1898). Several other horses from the area were used by the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry ("Roosevelt's Rough Riders") as well. During this time, Frederick Law Olmsted, then-future designer of New York City’s Central Park, made the area’s principal species of trees and agriculture as a point of his studies.

Through the early 20th-century, rail transport and interurban rail were proposed and built intermittently, including a 1916 Houston—San Antonio electric railway concept and proposal, with Leesville as a main line station. Towards the late 20th-century, the ventures either remained undeveloped or developed then terminated with the rail easements sold to the Lower Colorado River Authority, as an overhead power line. At present, the primary industries of the Capote-Sandies, Leesville area are under the real estate holdings of vast Texas Wildlife Management Areas, and the primary Quien Sabe Ranch that raises Santa Gertrudis cattle of King Ranch Running W Bull descent. The most valuable asset in this area is a $149-million water facility and 40-mile pipeline, that can store and move up to 11.6 million gallons of water towards the Greater San Antonio areas. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, 12,179 vehicles travel through the Leesville-area daily, with the busiest intersection rated at 2,978 vehicles; thru-traffic utilizes Leesville routes to generally bypass SH 123 upon Wilson County—Seguin.

Images for kids

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  Leesville, known only as "Sandy Creek" in 1839

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  Leesville, listed only as "Capote" in 1856

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  Downtown Leesville, early-1900s

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  Ezekiel Wimberly Cullen, an original owner of Leesville

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  James W. Peebles, Leesville District Rep.; 21st-22nd Texas Legislature

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  Leesville's former sign, now stolen

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  George W. Littlefield, notable former resident of Leesville

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  Joseph de la Baume served as an officer to Marquis de Lafayette (above) in the American Revolution, before acquiring the local land tract of 6 leagues (27,000 acres) from Spain in 1806

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  Former location of the El Capote Ranch owner-headquarters, once known as "La Baume Place," now an urban park across from San Antonio's St. Joseph Catholic Church and Rivercenter

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  Roosevelt's 1898 horse, depicted above, is claimed to have been from the El Capote Ranch

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  Oaks trees (Quercus) and wildflowers, west of Leesville

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  Tropical Depression Eight of 1981, Rain Totals; Leesville indicated with Indigo (>15-inches of Rain)

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  Texas Governor Thomas Mitchell Campbell dispatched a campaign surrogate to the Leesville Farmers' Union in 1906

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  In 1896, nominated for vice president by a Leesville delegate, Thomas E. Watson championed poor farmers as a leader of the Populist Party