City of Temple
Temple, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded in 1881 on the Santa Fe line, Temple, like dozens of Texas towns, owed its beginning to the railroad and was, in fact, named for a Santa Fe official, B.M Temple. On June 29, 1881, a gala town lot sale, with free barbecue, was held by promoters. In 1882, the Missouri, Kansas, & Texas built through and soon after, Santa Fe made Temple a division point. For some time, however, Temple was a town of shacks and tents with the usual large number of saloons and tough characters found in the early west. Locally, it was called "Tanglefoot", because some citizens found that the combination of muddy streets and liquor made walking rather difficult at times. At 1882, the town was incorporated and two private schools began. The Temple Academy was soon organized and public school was established in 1884. In 1893, the annual Temple "Stag Party" began, growing out of a private Thanksgiving celebration attended by the town's leading men. It was held until 1923. Today Temple is known as a major hospital center of the south, for located here are Santa Fe Hospital (founded 1891), King's Daughters Hospital (1896), the Scott and White Hospital (1904), and the Veterans Administration (formerly McCloskey) Hospital (1942). (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1881 on the Santa Fe line and named for railroad official B. M. Temple, the town began with a barbecue-fueled town-lot sale and a rough early reputation — muddy streets, saloons, and the nickname "Tanglefoot." As a Santa Fe division point and junction with other lines, it grew quickly, established public schools by 1884, and later became a major medical center anchored by the Santa Fe, King's Daughters, Scott & White, and veterans' hospitals.
Why it matters
Temple's evolution from a raw railroad town into a regional hospital hub shows how the rail network first created Texas towns and then shaped their long-term destinies.
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Related people
- · B. M. Temple
Related events
- · Founding of Temple
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Former Site of Y.M.C.A.
Temple, TX
In 1898 the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad chartered a YMCA in Temple and built a three-story hall the next year to lodge and entertain its railway workers. The "Y" also opened its doors to townspeople and pioneered youth athletics before fire destroyed the original building in 1934. Rebuilt and then handed to the USO in 1942, it served the community through war and peace.
Santa Fe Memorial Hospital, Inc.
Temple, TX
Opened in 1891 for workers of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad, this was the first hospital in Temple, its present building's oldest section dating to 1908. For decades the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word provided the nursing care. Early staff physicians A. C. Scott and R. R. White went on to found the renowned Scott and White Clinic, giving Temple a lasting reputation as a medical center.
Missouri, Kansas & Texas (Katy) Railroad Bridge
Belton, TX
When the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad bypassed Belton in 1881, townspeople refused to be left off the map and arranged for a spur into the city. The Katy Railroad arrived in 1882, bridging the Leon River and turning Belton into a shipping hub for Central Texas cotton growers. Around 1900 the line replaced its earlier wooden trestles with this riveted-steel Parker truss, a workmanlike specimen of early 20th-century bridge engineering still standing over the river.
Site of Childers-Shanklin Mill
Belton, TX
Robert Childers, a pioneer settler and veteran of the 1836 Army of Texas, built the first water-powered mill in Bell County here in 1847. Sold in 1856 to G. W. Shanklin, who was said to have built the best water race in Texas, the site also served as a stage stand on the Old Military Road and a crossing point for cattle bound up the trail. It was a hub where settlement, commerce, and travel converged on the early Texas frontier.