Lissie, Texas

Lissie is an unincorporated community in Wharton County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had an estimated population of 70 in 2000. It is located within the Greater Houston metropolitan area.

History
Despite the completion of the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway through the region in 1859, it wasn't until 1878 that a sizable population of settlers began to inhabit the region by West Bernard Creek. A station was built next to the railroad, and a post office was established in 1878. As the neighborhood expanded, it acquired a Methodist church, a hotel, and several other businesses, earning the moniker New Philadelphia. Due to the nearly two million Welsh miners who lost their jobs during the severe depression that began in Great Britain in 1876, its residents moved away. The Workmen's Emigration Organization was established in 1878 to help families immigrate to Texas. William G. Kingsbury, a Texas Land Emigration agent in London, issued advertising to persuade families to immigrate. Those going to Texas would profit from owning, for only 320 pounds, "A 4-room house with a 1-acre garden, half of which will be prepared for planting trees and seeds, is located on 80–100 acres of prime grassland that is fenced and enclosed. An efficient yoke of docile cattle with a yoke and chains. Four milch cows and four calves, a plow, farm equipment, and a typical Texas horse with saddle and bridle. The home has a full set of cooking utensils and an American cook stove. There is also a nearby water well, pump, and cistern. 200 fruit and decorative trees, 2 pigs, and 12 hens are delivered." Up to the time of their first crop, they would be given a credit of £10 each month for consumables. The Rhymney and Rhondda valleys produced the majority of the emigrants. Even though they allegedly liked Texas, several factors made the enterprise a failure. When the cash from the emigration society was not sent, credit to purchase groceries was suspended. Several immigrants also arrived after the crop-planting season. Only five or six families were still living here after less than ten years.

Disputes arose since the region used to be an open range for cattle. The majority of New Philadelphia was destroyed by fire, which an old-timer alleged was started "to keep away livestock thieves and squatters" in 1961. The local post office was discontinued in 1891. With offices in Houston, Eagle Lake, and Chesterville, John Linderholm, manager of the Southern Texas Colonization Company in Chicago and president of the Fidelity Emigration Company in Kansas City, Missouri, bought more than 60,000 acre in Wharton and Colorado counties in the late 1800s. The pamphlet for the project, Solid Facts About Sunny Southern Texas, was primarily intended for people in the northern states. The former Grand Army of the Republic commander-in-chief Paul Vandervoort is given credit for writing the text. It promised "40 acre a living, 80 acre comfort, and 160 acre wealth." Anybody buying 160 acres received a free round-trip rail ticket. When more farmers than miners showed up for this endeavor, it turned out to be more successful. Several of the crops they had cultivated in the North were planted, but the soil and weather led to disappointing results. According to the pamphlet, it was possible to effectively cultivate oats, rye, barley, and other cereals in addition to oranges, peaches, strawberries, and other fruits. They also turned out to be inappropriate for the area.

The destiny of the Lissie prairie was altered with the introduction of rice production. The Beaumont prairie was used for rice farming in 1892. Capt. William Dunovant decided to plant forty acres of rice on the southern end of Eagle Lake in 1898 as a result of this fruitful harvest. In B. L. Vineyard's opinion, rice provided opportunities for the prairie regions near Eagle Lake. In 1899, Vineyard established the Eagle Lake Rice Irrigation Corporation and constructed a water-pumping facility there. His canal reached Lissie to the east. Rice very likely prevented land promoter Linderholm from being attacked by his customers, the majority of whom were barely surviving. On the eastern border of Chesterville, three miles north of Lissie, he drilled the first irrigation well in 1899. More than 150 shallow wells were present in the area in a short period. East of Lissie, a steam electric generating station was constructed in 1903 to power seven wells that were later abandoned after canal irrigation from the Colorado River was perfected. The leading rice-producing regions in Texas at this point were the Beaumont prairie in Jefferson County and the Lissie prairie. According to the 1989 numbers, Colorado County and Wharton County are Texas' top two rice-producing counties.

Long-term residents of the area enjoyed very strong earnings thanks to the high price of rice and the discovery of natural gas in the Lissie region. Oil and rice prices fell precipitously in the 1980s, which forced some farmers to switch to other crops or declare bankruptcy. Due to the influx of customers from the nearby towns of Eagle Lake and East Bernard, Lissie's business district was gone by 1990. The only active businesses in Lissie at this time were a tiny garage, a rice drier, and a greenhouse nursery. Every winter, hunters travel to the Lissie area because it is on the Central Flyway for geese and ducks. The Lissie grassland and the surrounding Eagle Lake are both recognized as the "goose-hunting capital of the world." The majority of rice farmers rent out their property to hunters or operate hunting clubs, and they describe this additional income as a "third crop." The Lissie phones were on the Eagle Lake exchange in the early 1990s. In 1990, the Lissie post office served roughly 75 families. 100 people lived in Lissie in 1927, while 70 people did so in 1950. In 1990, the town had three enterprises and an estimated 70 residents. In 2000, the population was unchanged. Early in the 1990s, a cemetery was directly to the east of State Highway 90A.

Lissie has a post office with the ZIP code 77454.

Geography
Lissie is located along U.S. Highway 90A, 10 mi west of East Bernard and 6.5 mi east of Eagle Lake on the Southern Pacific Railroad in northern Wharton County.

Education
Since 1956, Lissie has been served by the East Bernard Independent School District.

Notable person

 * James Garrett Freeman - murderer