History of Lolita, Texas: From Trading Post to Town
Published: 1952
Updated: November 29, 2019
Lolita is on the Lavaca River two miles north of the site of Philip Dimitt's 1830 trading post and four miles south of Lake Texana in southern Jackson County. By 1840 the area was settled by Isaac N. Mitchell, whose son later acquired the old George Ewing league and part of the Stephen F. Austin grant. In 1880 the Mitchell spread was fenced with the first barbed wire in Jackson County. In 1909 a townsite was laid out and called Lolita after Lolita Reese, a granddaughter of Texas Revolution veteran Charles Keller Reese. The St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway erected a switch in Lolita that year, and the community received a post office, a store, and a gin. By 1910 the Red Bluff and Lolita school districts had split, and most of the residents and businesses of Red Bluff shifted to Lolita. By the end of Word War II Lolita had five stores and a population of 200. The population crested at 462 in 1969, at which time seven businesses served the community. By 1988, however, the number of residents had dropped to 300, and business firms had dropped to five. In 1990 the population was still recorded as 300. The population grew to 548 by 2000.
Bibliography:
Ira T. Taylor, The Cavalcade of Jackson County (San Antonio: Naylor, 1938).
Places:
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Stephen L. Hardin, “Lolita, TX,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/lolita-tx.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
HLL54
- 1952
- November 29, 2019
