LOIRE, TEXAS (Wilson County). Loire, on Farm Road 536 fifteen miles west of Floresville in extreme western Wilson County, was first settled in the 1890s. A post office operated at the site from 1895 to 1912. The community is said to have been named by J. M. Swindler, the first postmaster, who moved to the area with a group of settlers from the Loire river valley of central France. In 1896 the town reported a population of 200 and also had St. Luke's Catholic Church, a carpenter, a mason, and a school. In the mid-1930s Loire had a school, a church, a store, and a number of houses. After WWII the school was closed, but in the early 1990s a church, a community center, a cemetery, and a few scattered dwellings still remained. In 2000 Loire had a population of fifty.

Christopher Long and Linda Peterson, "LOIRE, TX (WILSON COUNTY)," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hrlyn), Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 

James M. Swindler was the postmaster at Loire from July, 1895 to January, 1910. 

Atascosa County History (Pleasanton, Texas: Atascosa History Committee, 1984). Margaret G. Clover, The Place Names of Atascosa County (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1952).