Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Harwood, TX

Harwood is an unincorporated community in northern Gonzales County, on the Southern Pacific Railroad line and U.S. Highway 90, about a mile north of Interstate Highway 10.

Harwood was founded in 1874 during the westward expansion of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway.

The town was named for Thomas Moore Harwood, a lawyer from nearby Gonzales who had moved to Texas in 1850 and begun practicing law in Gonzales in 1853.

Before the railroad town existed, a post office operated nearby from 1872 to 1874 under the name Mule Creek, taken from a local stream on the Gonzales-to-Lockhart stage route.

Harwood grew quickly, reaching 155 people by 1880 and a peak of about 350 in the early 1890s.

Harwood incorporated in 1913, apparently for the unusual reason of preventing the opening of a saloon that most local voters opposed.

From its founding until the 1940s, Harwood was a rail center for shipping cotton, cattle, and firewood, and in 1882 local businessmen built a branch rail line from Harwood to Gonzales, twelve miles away.

Harwood's population slid from 225 in 1930 to 157 in 1950 and 112 in 1970, and the town gave up its incorporation during the 1970s.

The Handbook of Texas estimated Harwood's population at about 112 residents in both 1990 and 2000.

Harwood keeps its own post office under ZIP code 78632, and in 1990 the community still had a restaurant, two churches, a large farm and ranch supply store, and a community center housing a museum of local memorabilia.