Bosque County: Land and People (A History of Bosque County, Texas) Page: 65
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years, even though people began to move
away.
As early as 1879, there was a public school
in Kimball Bend. The earliest seems to have
been a colored school. After the property
changed ownership, the various plots of land
began to be rented, bringing other people into
the Bend. Records do not show when the
white school was established there, but in
1923 the Kimball Bend School and the
Kimball School consolidated and built a
building near Bee Mountain. In 1936, this
school was consolidated with Kopperl.
The last store in the town of Kimball was
owned by Charley McCullough. Walter C.
Rogers operated a nursery. When land was
bought in preparation for Lake Whitney,
these businesses were included. The Kimball
Cemetery was moved two and one-half miles
east near the newly constructed Highway 174.
Included with this cemetery are cemeteries of
Powell Dale, Pogue, Cedron Creek, and Allen
Bend. A bridge was built on Highway 174
over the Brazos River directly over the old
Chisholm Trail cattle crossing.
Now there are ruins of the old public school
and the academy and a store or two. There
is a park in which pecan trees from the Rogers
Nursery still bear.
Families who lived in this area besides
those already mentioned were Tutt, Graham,
Blackwell, James, Loony, Boggs, Wren, God-
dard, Terry, Callahan, Kirkpatrick, Thomas,
Roy, Baylis, West, Hendrix, Runnels, Nobles,
Shiver, Waller and many more.
by Lucille A. Hughes
LONE OAK
C34
From the book In Rememberance Of Our
Ancestors. The Lone Oak community was
thickly settled for a while. It was first known
as Lick Branch because of the fact that deer
went to this branch to lick salt from the
banks. There was a one-room schoolhouse
where school was held only in the winter
months. Ever so often singing schools were
held there. Later the school was moved about
one mile south of the Lick Branch School and
named Lone Oak School. It was located near
one large oak tree. This schoolhouse also had
one large room and was taught by one
teacher. A number of years ago the building
burned, but the oak tree still stands as a
landmark.
Some of the teachers who taught at Lone
Oak were Mrs. Hazel Hill in 1910, Mrs. Alma
Agins Leonard in 1911, Mrs. Florence Deason
in 1912, Bennie West in 1915, Mrs. Nannie
Hart in 1916-1917, Delphia Osborne Wales in
1918-1919, Maudie Mae Bennett in 1921-
1922, Mrs. Hettie Robinson in 1923, Bay
McGregor in 1924, Vera Glenn in 1925, Leslie
Hart in 1927, and Ida Mae Raines in 1928.Trustees at one time were J.H. (Jepp)
Phillips, J.W. (Wes) Gibbs, and Alec Phipps.
The schoolhouse burned around 1932 and
was never rebuilt. Instead it was consolidated
with Walnut Springs School.
Lone Oak was farm and ranch country.
Every family made its living by farming and
raising cattle, turkeys, chickens, and hogs.
The money crops were corn, cotton, maize,
oats, and rye. Of course, part had to be kept
back to feed the livestock and fowls. Every
family raised hogs to kill to feed the family.Milk, butter and eggs also helped out with the
grocery bill.
Before the schoolhouse burned, prayer
meeting was held every Saturday night.
There was always good singing and good
services. People from Glen Rose, Potts
Valley, and the Chapel would come to help
out. There were a lot of brush arbor meetings
and revivals throughout the years. People
came a long way to be in these services.
People who lived in this area were fine
folks. They were good neighbors who would
help a friend who was sick or in need.
It seems that there was not a place in the
Lone Oak area that was enjoyed as much as
the "Old Sand Hole," a place where genera-
tion after generation went swimming. Most
of the Lone Oak youth learned to swim there.
My parents took us there many times during
the summer, and we learned to swim. One
side of the creek bank was a solid sand rock
that was several feet above the water. The
other bank was low, and the water was clear
and cool. A big round rock stood up above the
water when the creek was not up after a big
rain. We would swim down the creek and
back to the big rock.
Lone Oak today lives only in memory,
except for that one beautiful live oak tree.
There are only three families left in the area.
Ranchers have bought all the land, torn down
the houses, and hauled the lumber away. All
one sees is ranch land, but to those of us who
grew up there, there are happy memories.
by Mrs. Ella Osborne
POWELL DALE
C35
In the mid 1850's Green Powell, father of
George S. Powell and grandfather of Lay,
Green, and Sam Powell, bought land in the
northeastern part of Bosque County includ-
ing that on Mesquite Creek near where it
empties into the Brazos River. He built a one-
story rock house without windows that served
as a home and a fort against Indian attacks.
Later a second story was added.
Mr. Powell built a dam or dike on the creek
to store water to channel down a rock-lined
ditch past a mill wheel and back into the
creek. For many miles people came to the mill
to have their wheat and corn ground into
flour and meal. The mill was later sold to
Thomas M. Hunt, along with the right-of-
way for water to it. Besides the mill there was
a cotton gin, which in later years was owned
and operated by Mank Thomas. Also there
was a store, a post office established 1873, and
a building used as a church meeting place and
a school. This settlement was known as
Powell Dale.
The first postmaster was James A. Hudson.
Others were William H. Lockett, followed by
Thomas H. Lockett, Thomas F. Lockett,William H. Lockett again, Edward T. Barry,
and Hugh Hunt. The post office was discon-
tinued, 1881.
A ferry crossed the Brazos River near
Powell Dale landing on the Hill County side
not far from Fort Graham. Earlier than this
a ferry operated near the mouth of Steel
Creek. Later there were ferry crossings at
Brazos Point and Kimball. There were many
places that the river could be forded during
much of the year. There was such a crossing
near Powell Dale. Also, there was a fordknown as the Thomas Crossing, later the
Jones Crossing, a short distance down the
river from Powell Dale at what is now
Lakeside Village. During normal seasons of
rain the great Brazos de Dios, "Arms of God,"
gathered great quantities of water north and
west of Bosque County causing a rise in the
river which made the use of a ferry especially
needful.
In his book, Ed Nichols Rode A Horse, Mr.
Nichols tells of attending school at Powell
Dale in the late 1860's and early 1870's. He
rode seven miles horseback from Morgan.
Other boys and girls also rode horseback to
attend school there. He said each child took
lunch in a bucket and milk in a bottle, each
vying to have the prettiest bottle.
On arriving at school, ponies were staked
in grass, dinner buckets were hung on pegs
in the house, then play was in order until the
teacher rang a cowbell to call the children
inside. Split logs were used for benches.
School was begun with the youngest getting
first attention. At noon they took their dinner
buckets and milk bottles to the nearby spring
to eat.
The spring was a favorite place for the
women to gather and do their washing.
Consequently, there usually were several
wash pots nearby.
Powell Dale School was Community School
Number 12 in 1879-1880 and had as trustees
Thomas Hunt, T.J. Randal, and A.B. Lane.
The teacher was L.W. Coleman, who was paid
one hundred sixty-two dollars and twenty-
five cents for his service for the term.
In 1884, there began to be a movement to
change the community schools to the school
district system. Transition was slow at first.
Some schools in the county petitioned for an
election to change to the district system so
that a school tax could be voted to be used
for the improvement of the schools. This
move became more evident by 1890-1891. It
was decreed that each district must have at
least sixteen square miles. Apparently be-
cause of this change and the fact that the
Santa Fe Railroad had been built creating the
village of Kopperl to which many residents
of the Powell Dale community moved, there
was no longer a school at Powell Dale. There
seems to be no record of the school after 1888-
1889.
As time passed, the area that was Powell
Dale became known best for "Blue Hole", a
favorite swimming hole.
After Whitney Dam was built, the lake
water covered nearly all of this area. A part
of the mill race can be seen when the lake
level is low. There is one large live oak tree
on a plot large enough for fishermen to camp,
the fishermen never guessing that this was
once a busy village. The nearby mountain is
commonly called Powell Mountain and is
marked as such on the county survey map.by Lucille A. Hughes
. -a65
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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/m1/81/: accessed July 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Denton Public Library.