Bosque County: Land and People (A History of Bosque County, Texas) Page: 52
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44
IREDELL
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Iredell VFW Post 8559
Vinita Blakley
Street scene-Iredell
I UI !tTI
... m . .Iredell State Bank
Continental State Bank, Ired
Early day Baptist Church, Iredell Iredell Public School
524i
tn 4' ,,-
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on the south side of the Bosque River. The
second story was occupied by the Iredell
Masonic Lodge, instituted March 13, 1873.
By the end of 1873, an Odd Fellows Lodge
was in existence and the Iredell Grange was
organized on April 6, 1874. A Rebekah Lodge
was also formed in connection with the Odd
Fellow at Iredell and also at Black Stump
Valley, where the Masons and Odd Fellows
both met in the second story of the school
building.
During the 1870's the fear of Indians was
passing, but Reconstruction after the Civil
War brought much bitterness and lawless-
ness. Times were turbulent and communica-
tion slow. Irate citizens sometimes formed
their own law enforcement against the lawl-
ess elements which evolved. In Austin,
Bosque County and Iredell were considered
lawless and uncivilized. The killing of Ame
Smith (husband of Samantha Jones, step-
daughter of Dixon Walker) was one incident
which might form such opinions. The Negro
who killed Smith and the two white men who
hired him were hanged in a large tree south
of town on the Spring Creek Road-victims
of the lynch law. They lie in unmarked graves
near the center of the Iredell Riverside
Cemetery.
Despite all its troubles, Iredell was becom-
ing a modest village with businesses,
churches, lodges and schools-a second
school was built on the north side of the river
to solve the problems of absenteeism from
school due to floods and high water. Miss Ida
Mingus and Professor Tankersley of Missis-
sippi had charge of this school.
As the 1870's drew to a close, rumors of a
possible railroad caused excitement. One
blacksmith offered twenty thousand dollars
or half his worth and a miller offered to
furnish steam whistles to the railroad com-
pany during his lifetime. The Texas Central
Railroad arrived in the summer of 1880-a
momentous occasion! Iredell was in touch
with the world. The frontier had passed.
Streets were surveyed and town north of the
river was mapped out. A depot was erected
several hundred yards above the mill on the
opposite side (north) of the Bosque. Busi-
nesses began to be built between the depot
and the river.
In Austin the opinion of Iredell had
changed. On April 29, 1882 an Austin paper,
Texas Siftings, described Iredell
as . . . "having some 350 inhabitants, a half
dozen general merchandise houses, one drug
store, one blacksmith shop, one livery stable,
two hotels, two steam cotton gins, one of the
best mills, and decidedly the best school in
Bosque County. Professors R.J. Richey and
B.J. Word deserve credit for overcoming . .
ell . .discensions in this community . . . brin-
ging order out of chaos, and placing upon a
solid basis one of the best regulated and most
progressive schools in Central Texas. . . Th-
ere is also an abundance of fine water,
splendid building stone, female beauty and
fleas, in Iredell. Also a brass band."
A baseball game played at Iredell in 1883
is thought to have been the first played in
Bosque County.
The Old Mill Hole east of the Bosque River
Bridge was the old Chisholm Trail crossing.
The Cumberland Presbyterians erected
the first church building in Iredell about
1881. The second was built by the Baptists
in 1883-4 with nearly 100 members.
In 1884, a disastrous fire swept the business
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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/m1/68/?q=campbell: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Denton Public Library.