Adamsville
Adamsville, Lampasas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first permanent settlers came to this area shortly before Lampasas County organized in 1856. Oliver Hazzard Perry Townsen bought 640 acres from Samuel Horrell, Sr. and his wife Elizabeth in 1868. Townsen grew wheat and established a flour mill, and in 1876 became postmaster of Townsen Mills southeast of this site near the Lampasas River. An 1884 business directory noted that the community included steam flour and saw mills, three churches and a school, a doctor, wagonmaker, and general store. After Townsen died in 1891 in a mill accident, a new post office opened at the Smith and Adams general store. John T. Adams, first postmaster of Adamsville, and the Rev. McCall Smith were business partners at the store. In the late 1880s, Rev. Smith and 19 charter members met in L. Jasper and Mary Ann Townsen's home to organize Pleasant Valley Cumberland Presbyterian Church, now Adamsville Presbyterian Church. Samuel and Fannie Straley platted Adamsville in 1908. A newspaper article the following year mentioned Adamsville's ice house, Ladies' Missionary Society, Literary Society, and Woodmen of the World Camp. Straley's School (c. 1885) was also the church for Baptist and Presbyterian congregations. County commissioners created Adamsville School District No. 15 in 1908 and trustees built a new schoolhouse; a larger 1922 schoolhouse was destroyed by fire in 1942. Adamsville consolidated with Lampasas schools in 1964. The Adamsville Community Building was originally a G.I. vocational school for veterans of World War II. J. W. Mitchell organized the Adamsville Volunteer Fire Department about 1967. Adamsville has evolved from a frontier settlement to an active rural community with ongoing events such as church activities, twice-monthly fiddling jam sessions, and community barbecues to welcome hunters during deer season. 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836-2011
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settlement of this Lampasas County community began just before the county organized in 1856, and it grew around Oliver Hazzard Perry Townsen's flour mill on the Lampasas River. By the 1880s the crossroads had steam mills, churches, a school, and a general store whose partners, John T. Adams and Rev. McCall Smith, gave rise to the platted town of Adamsville in 1908. Over the following century it evolved from a frontier milling settlement into a close-knit rural community of fiddling jams and community barbecues.
Why it matters
Adamsville traces the full arc of a Central Texas farm town, from pioneer mill site to enduring rural community, illustrating how mills, post offices, and churches knit the frontier together.
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Related people
- · Oliver Hazzard Perry Townsen
- · John T. Adams
- · Rev. McCall Smith
Themes & tags
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