Cologne (The Colony, Perdido, Centerville, Ira Station)

Goliad County, TX

Status: Located

Year Established: 1870

Council of Governments: GCRPC

Public History: Cologne, on U.S. Highway 59 near the Victoria county line in eastern Goliad County, was established by two former slaves, Jim Smith and George Washington, as a place where freedmen could settle. Smith and Washington, who operated a freighting and passenger business from Indianola westward, bought 500 acres at the site on Perdido Creek. In 1870 the first families began moving into the settlement, initially called the Colony and later Perdido Community. The name Centerville was adopted after Jim Hall noted that the site was halfway between Goliad and Victoria. Until after the railroad was built the town excluded all White settlers.

Community History: The 1850 Texas Slave Schedule for Goliad County, Texas show T,P.C. Lott as slaveholder of over 23 slaves. The colony was settled around 1870. My great grandparents were slave of either TPC Lott or his brother Robert Lott, the same schedule showing he had 8 slaves. Some literature reflect both arriving in Texas from Alabama in the 1840’s, both deaths in Goliad county. As to whether Lott Road, the location of the Cologne Colony Cemetery, was where land was sold to slaves upon emancipation is unknown. The resource below describes my great, great grandparents as being one of the first family groups to settle in the Cologne community. My grandfather, the son of Lee and Maggie Lott, was born in Cologne, as were my oldest uncle Oral Lott and my father, Harry C Lott.

Cemetery: Cologne Cemetery