Edith
Robert Lee, Coke County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Settled by cattlemen who ran herds on open range, and stock-farming homesteaders. Development began in early 1880's after Winfield Scott, rancher, fenced his spread. Area had three schools, lodge hall, tabernacle, general store, cotton gin and blacksmith shop. The post office, established in 1890, was named for Edith Bonsall, an admired young lady of Ballinger. It closed in 1955. Dwindling schools combined, then consolidated with those of nearby Robert Lee. As trend toward urban living increased, Edith declined. (1969)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Edith took root in the early 1880s after rancher Winfield Scott fenced his range, drawing both open-range cattlemen and stock-farming homesteaders. At its height it held three schools, a lodge hall, tabernacle, general store, cotton gin, and blacksmith shop, with a post office opened in 1890 and named for an admired young woman of Ballinger. As schools consolidated and families moved toward the cities, the post office closed in 1955 and the town faded.
Why it matters
Edith's rise and fall traces the shift from open-range ranching to fenced farming and, finally, the 20th-century drift from country to city that emptied rural America.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Winfield Scott
- · Edith Bonsall
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Coke County Jail
Robert Lee, TX
Built in 1907 by the Southern Structural Steel Company of San Antonio, this jail replaced Coke County's original one-room lumber lockup of about 1891. At least seven early sheriffs lived on the ground floor and doubled as jailkeepers, tending an average of only about four short-term prisoners a month. The gallows built on the second floor were never used—the county never sentenced anyone to death.
Hayrick Lodge 696, A.F. & A.M.
Robert Lee, TX
This Masonic lodge was organized in 1890 at Hayrick, the first seat of newly formed Coke County on the West Texas frontier, and moved to Robert Lee the following year when the county seat shifted. Its two-story hall, raised in 1906 from concrete blocks a contractor mixed and cast by hand, doubled as a home for local businesses and even U.S. offices on its ground floor. Fraternal halls like this one were the civic anchors of small ranching towns, offering meeting space, services, and continuity as settlements took root.
First Methodist Church of Robert Lee
Robert Lee, TX
Organized in 1891 as settlers were still putting down roots in the ranch country of west-central Texas, this Methodist congregation grew through three successive sanctuaries. The frame buildings of 1896 and 1907 gave way in 1928 to the present Classical Revival structure, with its art-glass windows and triumphal-arch entry marking a young town's investment in permanence.
Fence-Cutting War
Robert Lee, TX
When drought scorched West Texas in the 1880s, a bitter struggle erupted between landless cattlemen who relied on free grass and ranchers stringing the new barbed wire across the open range. Masked "Nippers" cut fences by night—some ranchers lost thousands of dollars in burned posts and wire—as fencing off waterholes and public land pushed cowmen toward ruin. Only new laws under Governor John Ireland finally quelled the violence.