West Point

West Point is north of State Highway 71 twelve miles west of La Grange in western Fayette County. It occupies lands originally granted to Montreville Woods and Thomas Alley in 1831 and was established during the 1880s at the crossing of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas and the Texas and New Orleans railroads. Montreville Woods was of the extended family of Zadock Woods, veteran of the War of 1812 who was later killed in the Dawson massacre. The Woods family established a fort in the area, and the fertile lands south of the Colorado River became known as Woods Prairie. A post office with F. J. Johnson as postmaster was established in 1894, and by 1900 there were four stores, two physicians, three hotels, two blacksmith shops, two cotton gins, a molasses press, and a cannery. John L. House, merchant and owner of the molasses press, succeeded Johnson as postmaster and served in that capacity for thirty years. Highway 71 bypassed West Point one mile to the south, and some of the community moved to the new highway. During the 1940s West Point had a population of 300, eight businesses, and two churches, but children attended school in La Grange. By 1950 the population had declined to 140 and the number of businesses to six. Increased mobility during the 1950s made it possible for people to live in West Point and work elsewhere. During the 1980s the population increased to 204, but the number of businesses decreased to three. The farmland around West Point was devoted primarily to the production of corn and oil and gas from the Austin Chalk formation. In 1990 the population was 205. The population remained the same in 2000.