Vineyard, Texas

Vineyard is an unincorporated community in Jack County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 37 in 2000.

History
The present-day Vineyard community is the second of its name to exist in Jack County. George Washington Vineyard established the first Vineyard settlement, commonly known as Old Vineyard, in the 1880s. Though unfit for human consumption, the water on the site healed G. W. Vineyard's eye illness and persistent leg sores. In 1882, Vineyard got a post office; the name was changed to Wizard Wells in 1914. The village contained a blacksmith, a barber, and a general store in 1890, along with a population of 100. Around the terminal of the Chicago, Rock Island and Texas Railway, which was eventually renamed the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, a new village was established two miles south of Wizard Wells when the railway was built in 1899 from Bridgeport to Jacksboro. Old Vineyard was renamed Wizard Wells in 1915, and Vineyard became the new name of the community that grew up around the depot. Tom Anderson was the first person to arrive at this Vineyard. Vineyard functioned as a retail and transportation hub for the farming and ranching region following the introduction of the railroad. 212 people were living in Vineyard in 1925. Vineyard had three companies in 1933, including many stores, and was a prosperous hamlet; however, by the 1970s, these businesses were closed. The population plunged to 40 by the 1950s and remained at that level until 1990. The population further declined to 37 in 2000, then to 19 in 2015.

Geography
Vineyard is located at the intersection of U.S. Route 380, Texas State Highway 114, and Farm to Market Road 1156 on Beans Creek, 2 mi south of Wizard Wells and 13 mi southeast of Jacksboro in eastern Jack County.

Education
Vineyard had its own school in 1933. Today, the community is served by the Jacksboro Independent School District.

Notable person

 * Edith Wilmans, lawyer and politician who became the first woman on the Texas State Legislature, lived on a farm in Vineyard in 1935.