Nechanitz

Nechanitz is at the junction of Farm roads 3011 and 2145, eleven miles north of La Grange in north central Fayette County. The area was settled in 1853 by Wenzel Matejowsky, the first settler from Bohemia to enter Fayette County, and was named after his native city in Bohemia. The community is located in an area known as Long Prairie, which consists primarily of easily eroded shallow soils drained on the north by Jones Creek and on the south by Rocky Creek. The founder established a store, gin, and post office in 187374, but the community failed to grow. During the first half of the twentieth century Nechanitz maintained its status as a retail center. In 1944 the store and post office were still operated by the son of the founder; the post office set a national record for longevity under one family's operation. By 1950 the store was the only business that remained to serve a population of twenty-five. The post office was closed in the mid-1950s, and the store burned in January 1971, after almost 100 years of operation. In the 1980s Nechanitz had a new store, and in 1990 the population was reported as twenty-one. The population remained the same in 2000.