Welcome to the
WILSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Wilson County, Texas

Floresville, by Maurine Liles 

      Floresville, the county seat of Wilson County, is steeped in the history of a proud Spanish heritage, longhorn cattle, the American cowboy, king cotton and the fantastic peanut.  This historic old city is located along the San Antonio River and sits on part of a large Spanish land grant, the Juan and Simon Arocha land grant.  

Josefa Flores Barker inherited some of this land and donated a site for the establishment of Floresville. The town was surveyed and laid out in 1873.   Floresville bears the name of her Flores ancestors. Descendents of the Flores family live here today as honored citizens of this fair city.

Cotton and livestock caused Floresville to grow and peanuts developed as a cash crop about 1915.  Local people began to call Floresville the “Peanut Capital of Texas”.   In the 1940s Floresville was bustling with trade.  Many farm people came into town on Saturdays to shop, visit with friends and go to the local theater.

According to the Handbook of Texas on Line, there were approximately 112 businesses in Floresville in the 1950s.   But by 1990 this number had dwindled to about 75.  Sadly, much of the local work force commuted to San Antonio.  Some local citizens wanted to see Floresville prosper again and they set about reaching this goal.     They had much to work with. The fabric of the city is it’s historic buildings. They still stand, proud and picturesque today as they did in the past.  Floresville is rich in ethnic diversity, rich in history and rich in friendly, hard working people.  

A visitor can walk the streets of this quaint villa and let his mind wonder back to past eras, ___ A time when people rode into

town on horseback or in wagons, ___ A time when women wore long skirts, bib bonnets, and men wore side arms, ___ A time in 1883 when the famed architect, Alfred Giles started designing the beautiful Wilson County Courthouse, ___ A time not so far past when the Arcadia Theater was open and showing movies as it is today. 

Floresville Town Site, by Maurine Liles
The Floresville town site was part of the 1782 Juan and Simon Arocha Spanish land grant. The original grant, consisting of 8 leagues of land, was located along the San Antonio River. The Arocha ranch was known as San Rafael.  Its southern was boundary was Rancho Francisco. The eastern boundary was at the head of a creek called El Real. it was bounded on the north by a creek called Arroyo de Aguila, and on the west by the San Antonio River. In later years the land grant was divided up and sold. Don Erasmo Seguin obtained Tract six of this grant.   The Floresville town site is located on Tract seven. Part of tract seven belonged to José María Flores and his wife, Leonidas Seguin Flores (daughter of Erasmo Seguin). Their daughter, Josepha Flores Barker (wife of Samuel Barker, the first sheriff of Wilson County) inherited some of the land from her parents. She donated a portion of her land to Wilson County for a town site.  This town would be called Floresville.