Bosque County: Land and People (A History of Bosque County, Texas) Page: 92
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built by Jeff D. Howard, and in 1887, the first
post office was established with Mr. Howard
as postmaster.
After having some difficulty in finding an
acceptable name for the new post office and
one not already in use in the state of Texas,
Mr. Howard sought the help of the Post
Office Department in Washington, D.C.
Asking that they choose a name, Mr. Howard
was sent the name "Mosheim" which is a
German name. Some of the postmasters
following Mr. Howard included Fernandes
M. Arnold, Hiram Hurst, Charles Standard,
and James G. Simms.
Several years later, two more stores were
in operation in Mosheim. One was owned by
Hugh Shafter and the other by R.M.
McMinn.
The first school building was the Live Oak
School and was built in 1890 on the banks of
the little creek that still runs south of
Mosheim. After a few yeara a larger one-room
building was constructed across Live Oak.
Mr. and Mrs. Jack Pedigo were the first
teachers in the new building. Other early
teachers were a Mr. Bates from Turnersville
and Jim McCollum. Bill Hill and Frank
Gouldy were two of the first trustees. This
school building was used until fire destroyed
it. Plans then were made for the larger school
building; however, in the meantime school
was held in the Methodist Church.
One of the first school teachers in Mosheim
was Mrs. T.J. Jones, lovingly called Miss
Lizzie. She came to Mosheim in 1910 and
except for a few years taught there until she
retired in 1957. She taught three generations
of Mosheim residents. To honor this beloved
teacher an addition to the present Commu-
nity Center has been named the "Miss Lizzie
Pavilion."
The first churches in Mosheim were the
Methodist (1891), the Live Oak Baptist, and
a Christian Church. The first pastor of the
Methodist Church was Rev. W.M. McCowan.
The Live Oak Baptist Church was orga-
nized by Hugh Shafer and family, the
Baileys, Cummingses, and others. Some of
the preachers who served the church rode
horseback with saddle bags to carry religious
literature. Some of the early preachers were
Rev. Andy Graves, a relative of the Blanken-
ships, and a Rev. Black. The Christian
Church was later disbanded and the building
was sold to T.J. Sockwell.
Dr. R.H. Simpson of Turnersville was the
first practicing physician in Mosheim. Later
Dr. J.H. Young practiced, and in 1909 Dr.
Walter W. Blankenship bought out his
practice. Dr. Blankenship was a young doctor
just graduated from Vanderbilt Medical
School. With the exception of a short period
during World War I, he practiced in Mosheim
until he died in 1963. (See Blankenship story
in family section.)
Settlers faced many difficulties in the early
days. They were terrorized by robbers,
especially the Stull and Hill Gang who often
came through causing trouble.
Land around Mosheim has proven produc-
tive through the years with good farming and
grass lands. No grass is found today such as
in the past. The story is told that the sage
grass was so tall over the prairies in the 1880s
that W.W. (Bill) Vickrey had to drag a trail
with a log tied under a wagon so that his little
boys, John and Scott, could find their way to
school without getting lost.
There are few descendants of the firstsettlers living around Mosheim now. How-
ever, there are still some descendants of the
Poston, Cummings, Miles, and Lowrance
families in the area. Descendants of the
Vickrey, Miles, and Mitchell families still
own some of the original land.
by Mrs. Leonard Gaskamp
OLD ROCK CHURCH ON HOG
CREEK
C49
~ ~
- ' J ! "' ha.$-w
Rock Church School built on east bank of Hog
Creek on land in the Henry Mardoff Survey.
Odae Cabin, Rock Church community; present
owners-Mr. and Mrs. George Chase.
It was in the mid 1850s when Elijah
Cutbirth, his wife, Annie Odle Cutbirth, and
their nine children came to the land known
as Bosque Territory on the western fringe of
the Texas frontier. As Elijah drove his
covered wagon slowly through the tall, waist
high prairie grass toward the wooded banks
of Hog Creek, his thoughts were preoccupied
with plans for starting life anew in this wild
and unsettled region. A true frontiersman, he
chose a clearing near the creek where there
was an ample supply of wood and water. On
a chosen site, a log cabin was built, and land
was cleared for gardens and crops.
The Elijah Cutbirth family was typical of
the sturdy American pioneers who settled
along the Bosque River and Hog Creek in the
southern regions of Bosque County. Elijah's
Scotch-Irish ancestors were living in America
in the early 1700s, and he was a direct
descendant of Benjamin Cutbirth who was
born in Virginia in the mid 1740s. Benjamin
moved to North Carolina in 1761, and here
he married Elizabeth Wilcoxsen, a niece of
Daniel Boone's. Along with Boone, Benjamin
helped to blaze the Wilderness Road to
Kentucky. Later, he and his wife, Elizabeth,lived on a plantation in Tennessee. Benjam-
in's descendants gradually worked their way
westward through Missouri and Arkansas;
and now, some four generations and one
hundred years later, Elijah Cutbirth and his
family, along with other settlers, were push-
ing forward the line of civilization by opening
up a new western frontier in Bosque Terri-
tory, Texas.
Hog Creek had been named by George B.
Erath in 1837 or 1838 because of the large
number of Mexican hogs which were in the
area. The early settlers chose this region as
one of the first settlements in Bosque Terri-
tory because the military road which joined
Fort Gates and Fort Graham, constructed in
1849, passed near Hog Creek and afforded
the settlers some protection from hostile
Indians. Too, this southwestern part of the
county was nearer to Waco Village and the
few scattered families living in northwestern
McLennan County. By 1860 the settlement
along Hog Creek became one of the earliest
centers of population in Bosque County. In
fact, the Old Rock Church community served
as a hub from which many of the American
pioneers who had first settled here spread to
all parts of the county.
John Thomas was one of the first early
settlers along Hog Creek. The families of
Elijah Cutbirth, A.Y. Reeder, Eldridge
Blount Robertson, Jr., J.J. Cureton, William
S. Gouldy, W.H. Maples, J.T. Vaughan, Jerry
Odle, B.H. Adams, and A.M. Barnett, and
possibly others, were living in this commu-
nity in the early 1860s. The children of these
families attended Mr. Clark's school, estab-
lished in 1855, in the Searsville area.
In January, 1866, A.Y. Reeder and his wife
deeded one acre of land out of the Henry
Mardoff Survey to W.S. Gouldy, J.D. Odle,
W.H. Maples, B.H. Adams, and A.M. Bar-
nett, Building Committee, for and in consi-
deration of building a school, meeting house,
and Masonic Hall. This building, known as
the Rock School and Rock Church on Hog
Creek, was built on the east banks of Hog
Creek consolidating the community. The
first rock school to be built in the county, it
was constructed from native limestone rock
quarried from the Bosque hills. Two brothers
named Logan supervised the building.
In June, 1866, just after the completion of
the building, the Masons, who were to occupy
the upper story, held their first meeting in
their new quarters. John Armstrong was
named the first W.M. and the lodge was
named for him, John Armstrong Lodge
Number 291. (This lodge is still in existence
in Valley Mills in 1985.) The original charter
members of the lodge were: Armstrong, J.K.
Helton, L.H. Scrutchfield, W.H. Maples,
W.C. Barnett, J.D. Odle, B.H. Adams, B.T.
Whitehead, and Thomas Watten. J.A. Thom-
as was the first one to reserve an E.A. degree.
The first floor of the rock building served
as a school during the week and as a church
on Sundays, Y.A. Hamilton and W.E. Ros-
borough were two of the early teachers.
With the establishment of the Rock
Church School, as it was called, children from
surrounding areas came to this school.
George Scrutchfield, son of Lowry Scrutch-
field who moved to the Searsville area in the
late 1860s, attended school at Rock Church.
In an old math text book, George wrote the
names of classmates who had attended or
were attending school around 1870. The
names included: Carrie Mabray, John May-92
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Bosque County History Book Committee. Bosque County: Land and People (A History of Bosque County, Texas), book, 1985; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth91038/m1/108/?q=campbell: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Denton Public Library.