Simpsonville Newspaper Articles
 

"Tintop" is the name denoting the country store, former cotton gin, houses and other buildings situated at the present intersection of FM 1095 and FM 521, about two miles east of the Tres Palacios River. The store and gin have tin roofs, hence the name "Tintop."

Simpsonville was a railroad station at the site of the intersection of the Buckeye-to-Collegeport railroad and the old Palacios-to-Matagorda county road, about a mile east of Tintop's present site. Neither the railroad nor the original county road remain today.

In 1907 Royal A. Ferris and John N. Simpson, both of Dallas, purchased more than 9,000 acres of land from John P. Pierce and his wife, Louise. This tract of land contained the sites which were to become Simpsonville and Tintop. About three years later, in 1910, part of the 9,000 acres was surveyed and platted as "Ferris and Simpson's Subdivision No. 1."

From old deeds it would appear that the railroad from Buckeye to Collegeport was built in 1910. Where the railroad crossed the old county road connecting Palacios and Matagorda, there were a railroad station house, an artesian well used by the railroad, a cotton gin, and several houses and barns. This was Simpsonville.

A post office was established at Simpsonville in August, 1910, with Guy W. Mann as postmaster followed by Alvena Mann in March, 1917. The post office was discontinued in October, 1917, and the mail for the area was sent to Citrus Grove.

In 1928, after John N. Simpson's interest in the surrounding land had been acquired by the American Exchange National Bank of Dallas, the bank and Royal A. Ferris sold a tract of approximately 3,000 acres (containing Simpsonville and what was to become Tintop) to J. F. Kubela and J. W. Kubela.

J. F. Kubela was born December 1, 1856, in what was then Bohemia, Austria (a part of Czechoslovakia in 1984). he came to this country at the age of fourteen with his parents, who settled in Wisconsin. J. W. Kubela, one of his several sons and daughters, was born October 28, 1880, in Muscoda, Wisconsin. The J. F. Kubela family moved to Texas in 1897 and settled in Wharton County, near the town of Pierce.

At the time the Kubelas purchased the land, the cotton gin at Simpsonville had ceased operating. The new owners felt that it was necessary to have a cotton gin in the area to serve the farmers there, so they sold the six-acre tract which became Tintop to G. G. Lawson and J. G. Walker in 1929. A cotton gin and country store were built on this six-acre tract, which was about a mile west of Simpsonville.

A portion of the old Palacios-to-Matagorda county road was relocated in 1929, a parallel to the old north road and about a quarter of a mile farther north. The new, relocated road eventually became FM 521.

The railroad was abandoned in 1932. The relocation of the county road and the abandonment of the railroad killed what was left of Simpsonville.

Of the 3,014.57 acres purchased by the Kubelas, some were subsequently sold to J. W. Kubela's brother, Stanley "Boots" Kubela. "Boots" established his home on this land, about a mile east of Simpsonville.

Except for the Tintop tract, the rest of the Kubela lands were sold to William Bunge and H. L. Henry, both sons-in-law of J. W. Kubela. The William Bunge family lived about a mile north of Simpsonville for a time, but later moved their home to El Campo. The H. L. Henry family established its home about a quarter of a mile north of Simpsonville.

Prior to his death, "Boots" Kubela and his wife, Robbie S. "Bobbie" Kubela, bought another ranch near Seguin, in Guadalupe County, and re-established their home there. Part of "Boots'" land at Simpsonville was purchased by Carl M. Hansen, Jr. Hansen and his wife Doris (daughter of William Bunge) now live where "Boots'" old ranch house was.

The Tintop six acres are now owned by U. S. McMillan, who was the last person to operate the Tintop cotton gin before it closed.

Nothing seems to stay the same. During the 1950s the part of FM 521 east from Tintop was a shell road, a road improved with a bed of oyster shells. In earlier times, it was a dirt road. Now it is paved, and hundreds of people who would have been completely out of place in the Matagorda County of the 1950s commute daily over this paved road to work at the construction site of the nuclear power plant scarcely more than three miles from Tintop.

Written in 1984.

2008 update: The Tintop property owned by U. S. McMillan was sold in _____.

Copyright 2006 - Present by Carol Sue Gibbs
All rights reserved

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