About Hornsby Bend

Stephen F. Austin granted Reuben Hornsby 4500 acres on October 16, 1832. That land since has been named "Hornsby Bend" and, in the early days of the Republic of Texas, it stood at the most northern, remote tip of Austin's Colony. 

HORNSBY BEND, TEXAS. Hornsby Bend, also known as Hornsby or Hornsby's, is on Farm Road 969 and the Colorado River, nine miles east of Austin in eastern Travis County. It was named for Reuben Hornsby, who settled there in 1832 and served as postmaster during the Republic of Texas era. The community has been called the oldest settlement in Travis County. A United States post office was established at Hornsby Bend in 1856, but it was discontinued during the Civil War and not reopened until 1886. The community had two general stores in 1892. Its post office was discontinued in 1901, and mail for Hornsby Bend was sent to Austin. In 1905 the Hornsby Bend schools combined with those of Dunlap to form the Hornsby-Dunlap common school district. The Hornsby-Dunlap district was annexed to the Del Valle Independent School District in 1967. The population of Hornsby Bend was reported as ten in the 1930s and 1940s and as twenty from the 1950s through 2000.