Roads by the numbers: it’s just not the same

I was talking to a fellow the other day - he was new in town. I asked him where he lived. He said he was living on a place located on County Road 228. I said -Where in the world is that? He said - you go out Highway 97 to Waelder, and about 5 miles out you turn right on County Road 228. I said, Oh, you live on the Denton Creek Road. Now I know where you live.
They have put numbers on all the county roads, you know. I think that is good. The EMS and Law Enforcement people will be able to find us quicker in an emergency.
But in putting numbers on the roads, the roads seem to lose their character, their romance. There is not as much drama in saying one lives on County Road 385 as there is in saying one lives on the Saturn Road. The names of these roads are important, for they represent communities, and in merely saying the name of the roads, there is opened in our memory bank times gone by when there existed a bustling community in Gonzales County. When there was a school there, a cotton gin, a church and a doctor. Just saying County Road numbers does not do anything for me.
But the numbers are a good thing. There is progress and I’m for progress.
Do you know how to describe the route one would take to go to Thompsonville from Gonzales? First you take County Road 239, then turn on County Road 240; stay on County Road 240 for a good while, and then take County Road 423, and finally take County Road 443 and you are in Thompsonville. Man, I’m tired from giving those directions. Now, back in the good old days, we would have said -take the Stieren Road all the way to Thompsonville. And why was it called the Stieren Road - Because it went through the Stieren Community. Stieren is not there anymore, but it was. There was a post office in Stieren. A school, a cotton gin, two blacksmith shops, and a general store. Church services were held in the school. The Lutheran Minister would arrive in Harwood on the train, and a church member would meet him, and provide transportation to Stieren by horse and buggy.
People lived in the Stieren Community. Died there, too. Babies were born. Children grew up. Went to school. Got married. Worked hard. Typical of Gonzales County in our early days.
And now instead of saying Stieren Road we say County Road 239 or 240, or whatever it is. And when we lose the name of the Road, we almost lose part of our history, and when we lose part of our history, we lose part of ourselves. For who we are today is what they were yesterday. And to learn about our fellow citizens who came before us is to learn more about ourselves and who we are.
How does one go to Schoolland from Smiley? One takes County Road 180. What happened to the Schoolland Road? Schoolland. People lived there. Loved there. Died there. How did they handle the Depression of the 1930’s. How did they deal with the boll weevil? Who ran the store. Schoolland. Schoolland Road.
 I tell you what. If you want to find some place in the County, come by my office. I’ll tell you how to get there - how to get to the Hamond Loop, or to Monthalia, or Greenwood, or Elm Slough, or Slayden, or Kokernot, but I will not know the numbers.
And that is part of our history, the history of Gonzales. Gonzales, Texas, is the Birthplace of your Texas Freedom.