Navidad

NAVIDAD, TEXAS. Navidad is on Farm Road 822 ten miles west of Edna in the Navidad gas field in northwestern Jackson County. Soon after 1845 German immigrant John Jacob Knopp settled the area. Navidad functioned as a mail stop from 1869 to 1882, 1891 to 1918, and 1920 to the late 1950s, at which time the post office closed for the last time. By 1892 the community was on the New York, Texas and Mexican Railway and by 1896 its population had reached 200. By 1914 Navidad had acquired a telephone connection and become a banking and shipping center for local farmers. By 1926, however, the population had dwindled to twenty-eight. In 1936 Navidad consisted of a rural school, one business establishment, and about seventeen farms running along a bladed earth road. From 1926 to 1969 the number of residents hovered around twenty-eight, but by 1988 Navidad consisted of little more than widely scattered dwellings. The population grew to 227 by 2000.

Washington, D. C., Never Knew About Burnettsville Post Office Here

(Editor’s Note: A story in last week’s Herald concerning the closing of the Post Office at Navidad brought this interesting letter from H. K. “Cap” Staples, retired publisher of The Herald.)

With your permission I would like to make a few comments regarding the article in last week’s Herald about the Navidad Post Office being discontinued.

There is a bit of Jackson County history attached to this post office. I believe The Herald said the post office was established in 1920. Of course, of my own knowledge, I know its birth goes much farther back than that.

While I have no definite “facts and figures” at hand to peg the exact date of the establishment, but memory and close association with many of the pioneer citizens of that community lead me to believe Navidad became a post office between 1880 and 1883.

In addition to an historical story there is also an unusual and amusing story connected with this post office. I know many people have wondered why the office was called “Navidad” when it was located on or near the Lavaca River.

This is the way “I heard it:”

Dr. Will Ferrell, who owned and lived on the place now owned by Chas. Marthiljohni, owned and operated a small drug store in a building near the former Asbeck home. This is about four miles north of Edna on the Navidad River, and known as the Burnettsville neighborhood. Somehow and in some way the people of this community were given a U. S. post office to be called the “Navidad Post Office.” The Ferrell drug store building also housed the post office. Geo. A. Staples, who resided close by and who taught a “high school” at Burnettsville, acted as post master. We imagine the duties of the little office demanded very little time and attention as mail from the new town of Edna was brought in only twice a week—by pony express.

(It is even possible that the Navidad post office existed while Texana was still the county seat. Texana was abandoned in 1882.)

Some time about 1884 or 1885 Dr. Ferrell died and his drug store was closed. About this time Ed Bonham, father of Edna’s former citizen, Guy Bonham, opened a general mercantile store up on the Lavaca River 10 or 15 miles northwest of Edna—then a very young county seat.

Now, as just how the Navidad post office was moved from the Burnettsville neighborhood to the Bonham store up on the Lavaca River we again lack some of the “facts and figures.” But we have always heard this story:

The citizens of the Burnettsville neighborhood felt that the new county seat only 4 miles off, could well serve their postal needs, and would like to discontinue their post office. In fact, they were willing to just give it away to anyone wanting a slightly used post office. Mr. Bonham thought the addition of a new post office to his new store would give it prestige, so it’s not difficult to guess what became of the Navidad post office on the Navidad River or why the post office up on the Lavaca River was called “Navidad.”

We might also mention that it is believed that this was the first and only deal in history where Washington, D. C. and the U. S. Post Office Department used no red tape. The reason is these high authorities were never consulted in the matter, and probably still think the Navidad post office is located in the Burnettsville neighborhood on the Navidad River.

H. K. “Cap” Staples

Edna Herald, Thursday, January 13, 1955

NAVIDAD POSTOFFICE

Williford, Wm. W., 26 Apr 1869

Burnett, Wm., 24 Jly 1871

Staples, Geo. A., 26 May 1874

Wilby, F. W., 16 Aug 1875

Pinckard, Jett, 20 Nov 1877

Staples, Geo. A., 18 Mar 1878

Gerst, Jos., 24 May 1882

Discontinued 15 Dec 1882; mail to Texana

[Apparently re-established]

Bonham, Ed., 3 Aug 1891

Mize, Floyd, 3 May 1909

Waddle, Homer A., 21 Feb 1912

Hayes, Marie, 23 Jan 1913

Billups, John E., 18 Mar 1914

Stell, Jas. C., 25 Mar 1916

Discontinued 15 Jly 1918; mail to Edna

(Re-established) Terrell, Ralph, 6 Apr 1920
 

Navidad Newspaper Columns
 

Navidad Items
Jackson County Clarion, Texana

Navidad, July 28, 1880

Considerable rain has fallen the past week, and farmers are fearful that the continued wet weather will contribute to the health and activity of the vivacious cotton worms. So far the streams have not overflowed, hence the corn is still safe.

There is considerable improvement going on in the neighborhood. Dr. J. M. Sellers and Mr. Ben Rogers are putting up houses about two miles from Navidad and Mr. Henry Rogers will soon begin the erection of a home in the suburbs.

Population is now increasing some, on the 25th inst., a son was born to the wife of Mr. Walter White.

On last Sunday Rev. Mr. Kilpatrick, Presbyterian minister from Flatonia, preached a good sermon to a large and attentive congregation.

On last Saturday night, the Navidad Debating Society, R. T. Baylor, president was organized.. The question to discuss was one requiring the speakers to bring to the front all the woeful tales of bloodshed from the time of Abel to King. Theban's recent attempt to practice medicine, wherein he slew seven hundred of his faithful subjects to cure his grandmother of a fever, and such an array was brought forward that the lamps burnt red in sympathy. The president, although a "bigger man than Grant," could not decide the question on the merits of the argument, so it was left to the audience who disposed of it. Your correspondent, like the war horse of Scripture, "snuffed the battle from afar," or, in other words, he took notes from a back bench while the others were enjoying their self-inflicted torture.

OMEGA.

Edna Weekly Herald, March 31, 1932
 

Thirty –Six Years Ago
Jackson County Progress, published June 6, 1901

Navidad

Having been gone acting agent for the Bracken, Waldrop and Webb Aggregation Show of Dudes and Snakes and upon my return seeing nothing from our community I will try to have something more to share.

Health is good and corn and cotton crops fine. Boll weevil are here, but we are fighting them. We are thankful for the method the business men of Edna have adopted to rid the fields of the bugs, and we think some of them could have subscribed more. Why, our merchant and ginner, Mr. Ed Bonham, says that he has $25.00 to go into the fund and will pay it over to your committee at any time when called upon. Will some of the business men of Edna who pretend to have the interest of the poor farmer at heart, do as well as Mr. Bonham?

Mr. Tom Tyson is having a large quantity of lumber sawed at the H. Hillman saw  mill for a large barn.

Mrs. F. M. Warden, of Houston, is visiting her brother, Mr. J. H. Waldrop and family, the first they have seen one another in ten years, and the meeting was a happy one.

Mr. Adams Webb has sold his interest in the snake line to Mr. Dan Norris of Inez, who has the largest collection of reptiles in the world. He will buy every snake taken to him.

Oh. Dickson, what do you think one of the mossbacks of our community had the impudence to say I was a liar the other day. Well, maybe so, but as I have been accused of almost everything, one more count in the indictment don’t matter one way or the other to me. It is true I have done most everything a man could do and dodge the penitentiary, so I don’t guess it would hurt me to lie a little now and then, but right here I want to say to Mr. Mossback that the truth and only the truth is eternal; it was not born and can not die; it may be obscured by the clouds of falsehood or buried in the debris of brutish ignorance but it can never be destroyed; it exists in every atom; lives in every flower and flames in every star, and when the heavens and earth shall pass away and the universe return to cosmic dust divine truth will stand uncathered amid the crash of matter and the wreck of words, and as for falsehood I have this much to say, that falsehood is a morpheous monster conceived in the brain of knaves and brought forth by the breath of fools. It is a moral pestilence, a miasmic vapor that passes like a blast from hell over the face of the world and is gone forever. It may leave death in its wake and disaster dire it; may place on the brow of purity, the brand of the courtesan and cover the hero with stigma of the coward; it may wreck hopes and ruin homes, cause blood to flow and hearts to break; it may pollute the altar and disgrace the throne, corrupt courts and curse the land but the lie can not live forever and when it’s dead and damned there’s none so poor as to do it reverence. Such is my sentiments.

Stop, I see a bug, bound to catch it.—WOODCHUCK

Edna Weekly Tribune, June 24, 1937
 

Navidad Items

Mr. and Mrs. A. D. DeBord and family spent Sunday afternoon with Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Nickel.

Misses Maxine Whitley and Loine and Sybil Miller, who are attending the Edna high school spent the week end with homefolks.

Messrs. Jesse and Jim Knopp spent Sunday with her mother, Mrs. Jas. Knopp.

Misses ___, Katherine and Iris Knopp were guests of their mother, Mrs. Jas Knopp over the week end.

Mr. and Mrs. R. P. Finch spent Sunday afternoon with his mother.

Mr. and Mrs. R. P. Fitch were in Edna Saturday.

Mr. and Mrs. Will Whitley were visitors in Edna Saturday.

Mr. and Mrs. Bill Porche and little daughter, Mary Louise, were getting cedar trees Sunday.

Messrs. Henry Peters Jr. and P. J. James were in Edna Friday on business mission.

Mr. and Mrs. R. J. James visited in the home of Mr. and Mrs. John James of Fordtran Sunday.

Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Nickel and family transacted business in Edna Saturday.

Perfect Spellers

Second Grade: Bernadina Guiterrz, Olivio Velo, Thelma Shows
Fourth Grade: Florence Wilkerson
Fifth Grade: Louise Nickel, Janice Miller, Thomas Wilkerson, William Wilkerson
Sixth Grade: Ray Wilkerson, Annie Peters

Edna Weekly Herald, February 18, 1932
 

Navidad Items

Miss Pauline Collins spent Sunday afternoon with Mrs. A. L. Nickel.

Messrs. Rube DeBord Jr. and Bill Staggs spent Monday night at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Adron DeBord.

Miss Loine Miller spent the holidays with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Miller.

Clara Mae, Wanda and Jessie Lee Knopp spent Friday afternoon with Loine DeBord.

Mr. and Mrs. D. H. Knopp and baby spent the week end with homefolks.

Messrs. Henry Peters senior and junior, were in Edna Tuesday.

Perfect Spellers

Second Grade: Emmie Wilkerson, Bernodia Guiterrz, Olivia Vela, Roy Gerald Wilkerson, Wanda Knopp

Third Grade: Clara Mae Knopp

Fifth Grade: Janice Miller, Thomas Wilkerson

Edna Weekly Herald, February 25, 1932
 

Navidad Items

Mr. and Mrs. R. P. Fitch were in Edna Saturday.

Mr. and Mrs. Archie Wilkerson spent the week end with Mr. and Mrs. Curlee of Edna.

Mr. and Mrs. A. DeBord were in Edna Saturday.

Mr. Jesse Knopp spent the week end with his mother, Mrs. Jas. Knopp.

Misses Catherine, Lily and Iris Knopp spent the week end with their mother, Mrs. Jas. Knopp.

Miss Loine Miller spent the week end with homefolks.

Mr. and Mrs. D. H. Knopp were Edna visitors Sunday.

Anita DeBord visited Pauline Collins Saturday night.

Mr. and Mrs. Adron DeBord aned children, Loine, Jessie and Maxine, visited the home of A. L. Nickel Saturday night.

Alton Collins of Edna visited the Navidad school and community Thursday and Friday.

Mr. Adron DeBord and children visited Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Page Sunday night.

Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Nickel and family spent Saturday afternoon in Edna.

Henry Whitley visited Janice Miller Sunday.

We are sorry to report the serious illness of Mrs. Cox at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Will Whitley. Mrs. Louise Cosper of Houston, Mrs. Nugent Whitley of Hayes Ranch, Luther Hudler of Beaumont, Mr. and Mrs. Will Jamerson of Houston, Mr. and Mrs. John James of Fordtran and Mr. and Mrs. A. T. Gloor of Morales, have visited her bedside.

Perfect Spellers

First Grade: Ida Mae Miller, Cecelio Guiterrez
Second Grade: Emmie Wilkerson, Thelma Shows, Roy Gerald Wilkerson
Fifth Grade: Janice Miller, Thomas Wilkerson

Edna Weekly Herald, March 3, 1932
 

Navidad Items

Mr. and Mrs. R. P. Finch and family spent Sunday with Mr. Finch’s mother.

Mr. and Mrs. A. DeBord and family spent the week end with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Miller.

Mrs. Jas. Knopp, Miss Lula Knopp and Mr. Jesse Knopp and children spent Sunday afternoon with Mr. and Mrs. Johnnie Cox at Morales.

Miss Pauline Collins spent Sunday afternoon with Mrs. R. J. James.

Mr. Jesse Knopp spent Sunday with his mother, Mrs. Jas. Knopp.

Mr. and Mrs. Adron DeBord and family visited Mr. and Mrs. Steven Seabo Sunday.

Anita DeBord spent Thursday with Pauline Collins.

Mr. Adron DeBord visited in the Ezzell section Monday.

The snow that fell Thursday and Friday was greatly enjoyed by the Navidad people.

Roland Terrell had the misfortune to stick a nail deeply into his hand. We hope he will get along all right.

Perfect Spellers

Second Grade: Joyce Miller, Emilie Wilkerson, Wanda Knopp, Loine DeBord, Thelma Shows
Third Grade: Clara Mae Knopp
Fifth Grade: Louise Nickel, Janice Miller, Thomas Wilkerson

Edna Weekly Herald, March 17, 1932
 

Navidad Items

Joyce Miller spent Saturday night with Rosalie Peters.

Mr. and Mrs. R. J. James spent Sunday with Mr. and Mrs. John James of Frodtran.

____ and James Knopp spent the week end with their mother.

Mr. and Mrs. Dick Knopp spent Sunday with his mother, Mrs. Jas. Knopp.

Mr. and Mrs. Johnnie Cox spent Sunday with Mrs. Jas. Knopp.

Mrs. Jas. Knopp went to Victoria this week to visit her daughter, Miss Iris, who is ill.

Mr. and Mrs. R. P. Fitch and sons spent Sunday in Fordtran.

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Whitley and family spent Sunday with Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Long.

Miss Pauline Collins spent Saturday with Miss Ollie Lee Whitley.

Mr. and Mrs. L. A. Karl and family of Koerth spent the week end with Mr. and Mrs. Willie Wilkerson.

Mr. Adron DeBord and daughters, Anita and Loine, were in Edna Saturday.

Misses Annie and Ruth Caton, who teach the Navidad school, are ill with flu. We wish them a speedy recovery.

Mr. and Mrs. Aaron DeBord and children visited Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs at Ezell Sunday.

Perfect Spellers

Second Grade: Thelma Shows, Emmie Wilkerson, Joyce Miller, Wanda Knopp
Third Grade: Clara Mae Knopp

(Note—Read over letter, closely after it has been written to see if any omissions have been made. This week in the list of perfect spellers two pupils are listed only as Robert and Rosalie, and, in view of the fact we do not know their last names, they have to be left off the list.)

Edna Weekly Herald, March 24, 1932
 

Navidad Busy Bee Club

Our last meeting was held at the home of Mrs. Joe Whitley and everyone had a nice time. Our subject was “Yard Improvement,” which we are very much interested in.

We are sorry that several of our members were absent and hope that all will be present at our next meeting which will be at Mrs. Knopp’s home on the 30^th of July.—Miss Maudia Crisp, Reporter

Edna Weekly Herald, July 23, 1936
 

Navidad P. T. A.

The people of the Navidad community met at the school house on Thursday, November 12^th and organized a P. T. A.

Miss Yetive Green, the principal, started the meeting with some songs—some sung by the school pupils and some by everyone. She then explained the meaning of a P. T. A. The club enrolled twenty members. The following officers were elected:

President—Miss Yetive Green
Vice-Pres.—Mrs. Ralph Terrell
Secretary—Mr. C. J. Miller
Treasurer—Mr. Henry Peters
Reporter—Mrs. Alvin Miller

The club decided to sell cake and coffee at the dance at the school house.

The regular meeting of the club is to be held on the second Thursday night in each month.—Reporter

Edna Weekly Herald – November 26, 1936
 

Navidad News

Among those from this section visiting Edna Saturday were Mr. and Mrs. Adron DeBord and family, Mrs. Jas. Knopp and family, Mrs. Peters and children, Mr. Sid and Jake Page and children, Mr. and Mrs. Will Whitley, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Whitley and son, Mr. Henry Long and sons, Clarence and John Henry, Mrs. C. J. Miller and children, Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Miller and Mr. and Mrs. Sayler.

Mrs. Louise Cosper and Charles Edward of Houston are visiting Mr. and Mrs. Will Whitley.

Carl, Clara and Johnnie Marthiljohni and Mr. Henry Long and son, John Henry were Sunday visitors in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Adron DeBord.

Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Terrell and family were Victoria visitors Wednesday.

Edna Weekly Tribune, December 24, 1936
 

Navidad P. T. A.

The Navidad P. T. A. met at the school hours on Thursday night, Dec. 17^th. The Club was called to order by the president. The cake and coffee sellers reported very good sales and a nice sum of money made at the dance two weeks ago. Quite a number of Christmas plans were made. The club will sell cake and coffee at the dance on December 26^th.

Everyone in the community is urged to attend the next meeting to be held on the second Thursday night in January at the school house.—Reporter

Edna Weekly Herald, December 24, 1936
 

Navidad News

Those who were Edna visitors Saturday from this section were Mr. and Mrs. Adron DeBord and family, Mrs. James Knopp and family, Mr. and Mrs. Will Whitley and daughter, Miss Maxine, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Whitley and son and Mrs. A. A. Miller.

Mr. and Mrs. Jim Langsford of Catarina spent Christmas here with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Peters.

Miss Maxine Whitley, who is attending school at San Marcos, spent Christmas with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Whitley, in this community.

Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Miller and family and Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Miller spent Christmas Day in Victoria with relatives.

Mr. and Mrs. Lathy Parr of Victoria spent Christmas Day with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Whitley.

There was a large crowd present at the dance in the Navidad school house Saturday night and everyone seemed to have had an enjoyable time.

Edna Weekly Herald, December 31, 1936
 

Among the Schools
by I. T. Taylor, Jackson County School Superintendent

Navidad

The Navidad school is progressing very nicely under the leadership of Miss Faye Marvin. They have made quite a bit of improvement on their school yard. The school room was very clean and many pot plants growing to be studies by the students as well as to inspire them. The school was very inviting and homelike for the students.

This school has a very strong energetic P. T. A., which is accomplishing much for the best interest of the Navidad School.

Edna Weekly Herald, March 2, 1939