ROAD TRIP: A BBM Game

[Meryl]

Yturria, TX

[MaineWriter]

Abbott, TX

The town was named after Joseph Abbott, lawyer, teacher, judge, and U. S. congressman for District Twenty (Ellis, Hill, Kaufman, and Navarro counties).

The Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad arrived in 1881 and a post office was opened the following year.

In the 1890s Abbott had two cotton gins, and a gristmill as well as the essential businesses every small town needed. The town had a series of fires (1897, 1903 and 1904) but rebuilt each time. An interurban railway connecting Forth Worth and Waco was established in 1913 - the same year Abott was electrified.

In 1920 a paved highway was built and things looked promising. But after the Great Depression arrived, the town became a flagstop on the railroad. School enrollment was 240 in 1930 but with consolidations of other schools - this increased to over 500.

From only 156 people in 1890, Abbott reached it's peak in 1914 with 713 citizens. By the start of WWII there were only 264 people - not far from what it is today.

It is against the law in Texas to mention Abbott without declaring that Willie Nelson is from Abbott. Old-timers still remember Willie carrying his guitar to school and one person we talked to reported that he thought that Willie's sister played guitar better than he did.



Leslie

[belbbmfan]

Table Rock, Wyoming

[memento]

Kirk, TX

KIRK, TEXAS (Bexar County). Kirk was at the junction of the International-Great Northern and San Antonio Southern railroads, at a site just off present Interstate Highway 35 fourteen miles southwest of downtown San Antonio in southwestern Bexar County. In 1930s the community had a station and a number of houses; children attended school in nearby Von Ormy. The community declined after World War II,qv and by the 1950s it was longer shown on maps.

[MaineWriter]

Kampepen, Mexico

Latitude   20.7167   
Longitude   -89.2500   
Altitude (feet)   52   
Lat (DMS)   20° 43' 0N   Long (DMS)   89° 15' 0W   
Altitude (meters)   15
Time zone (est)   UTC-6(-5DT)
Approximate population for 7 km radius from this point: 4639

Leslie

[moremojo]

Navarro, Texas

--small town of 191 (as of 2000 census), situated in Navarro County.

[jpwagoneer1964]

Ovilla , Tx

[MaineWriter]

Almeda, TX

Dr. Willis King, promoted the townsite on the International-Great Northern Railroad in the early 1880s. Since his position gave him naming rights - he chose his daughter's name.

The town had a population of fifty and a post office in 1893 (closed in 1959). By 1914 the population was up to 200 but down to only eighty by 1925.

Businesses continued to increase up through the 1960s, although residents were without water or a fire department. In 1963 the town was given a sewer system and it has now merged into greater Houston with very little remaining of the original town.

Leslie

[belbbmfan]

Athol, Wyoming

[moremojo]

Lockhart, Texas

--the county seat of Caldwell County. Old Protestant Church (Episcopal) [still standing as of 1945] was used as a hospital during the Civil War.