Don-Tol, Texas | |
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 Don-Tol sign along FM 1301 looking north | |
  Don-Tol, Texas Location within the state of Texas Show map of Texas Don-Tol, Texas Don-Tol, Texas (the United States) Show map of the United States | |
| Coordinates:29°13′23″N95°55′00″W / 29.22306°N 95.91667°W /29.22306; -95.91667 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Texas |
| County | Wharton |
| Elevation | 72 ft (22 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| ZIP code | 77420 |
| Area code | 979 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1379672[1] |
Don-Tol is a smallunincorporated community in southeasternWharton County, in theU.S. state ofTexas. The community is located alongFM 1301 southeast ofBoling. There is a Don-Tol sign on FM 1301 at County Road 100. The name was used by Mexican workers to address William Toliver Taylor, the owner of a post-Civil War sugar cane plantation.
The Taylor family moved to Texas in 1846. After theCivil War, brothers William Toliver Taylor and Solomon Tyre Taylor became partners with G. C. Duncan, who owned 583 acres (236 ha) of land in easternWharton County. The venture was a success and the two men bought Duncan's acreage. The Taylors expanded their property to 12,000 acres (4,856 ha), growing corn, cotton, sugar cane, and other crops. The brothers hired Mexican workers to farm their land and the laborers began calling Toliver "Don Tol" in the Spanish style. When the Taylors split the plantation, Tyre named his western half Parkdale, while Toliver named his eastern portion Don Tol. The brothers' hog pasture was sold to the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company and became the town ofNewgulf.[2]
In 1936, there was a factory in Don-Tol. Five years later, its school was absorbed by theBoling Independent School District.[3] A descendant of Toliver, Glenn B. Taylor was killed duringWorld War II when his plane went down inFrench Indochina.[2] As recently as 1989, theSouthern Pacific Railroad ran north and south along FM 1301, while theAtchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway ran east and west[3] along the path of the present-day electric transmission lines. Both sets of railroad tracks were gone in 2014.[4]
Don-Tol is on FM 1301 at the intersection of County Road 101, also known as Dontol Road, a distance of 3.6 miles (5.8 km) southeast ofBoling, 15.0 miles (24.1 km) southeast ofWharton and 2.8 miles (4.5 km) north ofPledger, a community inMatagorda County.Caney Creek meanders through the area toward the south. There is a business located at County Road 101 and FM 1301. The Don-Tol sign is located to the south at the County Road 100 junction. To the north, there is an electric power sub-station where an overhead transmission line runs east and west.[4]
Municipalities and communities ofWharton County, Texas,United States | ||
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| Ghost towns | ||