Weldon

WELDON, TEXAS . Weldon, on Farm Road 230 twenty-one miles south of Crockett in southern Houston County, was settled just after the Civil War . A post office began operating in 1869, and a school opened in the late 1870s or early 1880s. In the late 1880s the Waco, Beaumont, Trinity and Sabine Railway was extended to Weldon, and the town became a regional lumbering center. By 1885 Weldon had several steam saw and grist mills, a cotton gin, two general stores, a drug store, a meat market, and an estimated population of 150. The town continued to prosper during the 1910s and 1920s, and by the early 1930s it had a population of 200 and several businesses. After World War II many of the residents moved away, and by 1950 the population had dwindled to eighty. In 1990 Weldon had a population of 131. The population remained the same in 2000.