Bosque County: Land and People (A History of Bosque County, Texas) Page: 87
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CAYOTE COMMUNITY
a
Cayote School (1919-1972).
The Cayote community is located in the
southeast part of Bosque County on FM
Road 56 between Valley Mills and Lake
Whitney.
The village near picturesque Childress
Creek with its beautiful live oak trees had its
beginning in 1866 or 1867 when the late John
Cox built a grocery store on the lone prairie
a few yards east of where Mrs. Sidney Lettie
Eakin now lives and approximately two miles
southwest of the present location. The store
was known as the "Lone Grocery," and the
famous Old Chisholm Trail passed nearby.
Among early settlers was N.A. Evans, who
preempted the now known Eakin place in the
early to mid 1870s. Captain Evans, as he was
called (formerly a member of the Tennessee
Volunteers during the Texas War with
Mexico) ran a blacksmith shop serving the
community and also shod horses and repaired
wagons for cowboys traveling the Chisholm
Trail. He was one of the first to put land into
cultivation in the community and served as
the first Justice of Peace in his precinct.
When settlers first came, the area was a
beautiful prairie with tall native grasses and
only trees along the creek. The tall grasses
have been described as "blue sage as tall as
your head," and "riding horseback, the grass
would shine a man's boots in the stirrups."
One lady remembers how strange it was to
hear the cattle being driven along the cattle
trails and not be able to see them; only the
cowboys on horseback could be seen above
the tall grass. Land could be bought for fifty
cents to one dollar per acre or for a good horse
and saddle.
Around 1875 A.J. Blackwell built the first
barbed wire fence in the community. Because
of fence cutters, this fence had to be rebuilt
about seven times before it became perma-
nent.
In 1870 Cox's "Lone Grocery" was sold to
Robert Y. and Willie B. Goodall. About four
years later, it was moved to the village's
present location on Childress Creek to be
near a better source of water.
It was soon after this move that the village
received its name. There are slightly different
versions, some more detailed than others, but
all share two common points.
A passerby on horseback stopped at the
store late one afternoon when a discussion
was going on about what the place should be
named. Coyotes were howling a few yards
down the creek when this conversation took
place, and the passerby asked, "Why don't
you name it Coyote?" Sometime later, pos-sibly when application for post office was
being made, someone in authority put an "A"
in place of the first "0" in the name, but when
informed of the error, would not change it, so
the community has since been known as
"Cayote."
The Cayote store also served as post office
when granted December 29, 1879. Robert
Goodall was the first postmaster. The post
office was discontinued after the rural route
from Valley Mills was established around
1910.
Goodall Brothers sold the store to Parker
Kellum. Mr. Kellum owned much of the land
in the area and also operated the first cotton
gin in the early 1880s. It burned around 1912
but was rebuilt.
Mr. Kellum sold the store to A.A. and Alex
McNeill of Valley Mills around 1892. The
McNeill Brothers operated a large mercantile
store, and during their ownership, moved the
store away from the creek Old Salem, a one-
room school about three miles northeast of
the village, located on the Eulass Jones place.
One of the early teachers was Pink Burch.
The teachers usually boarded with a family
of the students they taught and walked or
rode horseback to school with the students.
Parents were often concerned that the chil-
dren would get lost on their way to or from
school, especially in the tall grasses, and they
were cautioned to stay on the well-marked
trails.
Another school was located to the east on
a hill a short distance from "Dripping
Springs," three or four miles south of Cayote
on Childress Creek. This spring was said to
have never gone dry, and it was a well known
creek crossing, campground, meeting place
for barbecues, picnics, a swimming hole, and
site for revival meetings where the congrega-
tion sat on split logs and baptisms were held
in the creek.
Some years later, a small school near this
part of the creek was known as Cross Roads.
Still another, four miles northeast of the
village of Cayote, was known as Center Hill
or "Boxie."
In the early 1880s, through the efforts of
Parker Kellum and L.W. Chase, a large frame
building which served as a school and union
church was built near where the present
church stands. This building was destroyed
by fire in the early 1890s. Two other smaller
frame buildings were erected before the
school population increased, and a four-room
brick school was built in 1919-1920. Years
later when students were given the opportu-
nity to ride buses to neighboring schools, the
high school eventually consolidated with
Valley Mills in 1945 followed by the elemen-
tary school in 1948-49.
Community worship services began with
joint denominational meetings, and this
continued for many years after the organiza-
tion of the Cayote Methodist Church in 1906.
The first pastor was Rev. L.B. Saxon and the
first Sunday School superintendent was M.G.
Whitney. Services were held in the school
buildings and, in the summer, under brush
arbors.
During this same year, citizens of German
descent also organized a church, St. John's
Evangelical and Reformed Church, four
miles west of Cayote. Across the road east of
the church was a small cemetery known as
Bismarck, which is still in use. In earlier years
this area was referred to as the "Behnke
Settlement." In 1948 this church merged with/;
/- - - _?
LCT t IaMcNeill Bros. Store, Cayote, 1892.
Woodmen of the World Hall and Tabernacle,
1912.
rt'YCayote Methodist Church (1915-1958).
Cayote Methodist Church, rebuilt in 1958.87
it
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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/m1/103/: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Denton Public Library.