Moline School Site
Lometa, Lampasas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Moline community was settled on the north central boundary line of Lampasas County in the 1880s. Early families in the area were the Carswells, Cooks, Andersons, Woods, Bakers, O'Neals, Hairstons, Pattersons, Poes, Murphys, Adamses, and Woolseys. Children of the settlers attended school in Payne Gap (Mills County) or in the Gray community. Facilities at these schools grew too small to accommodate the number of children in the area. In 1916, Kenneth A. and Olive Patterson donated five acres of land for the Moline School. Prominently sited on a hill (100 yds. SE) overlooking the community, the original three-room building was constructed by G. C. O'Neal with the help of other citizens. From 1916 until 1949, Moline School grew to include five classrooms, a science lab, library, homemaking room, shop, lunchroom, and a four-room teacherage. During its peak enrollment in the early 1930s, Moline was the largest rural school in Lampasas County. Although the school closed in 1949 and Moline is now a ghost town, their history is an important part of the heritage of Lampasas County.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The Moline community took root along Lampasas County's northern edge in the 1880s, and by 1916 its growing families needed their own school after neighboring ones overflowed. Kenneth and Olive Patterson donated five acres, and citizens raised a three-room building on a prominent hill. Over the next three decades Moline expanded into the largest rural school in the county before closing in 1949; the community around it faded into a ghost town.
Why it matters
The rise and fall of the Moline School mirrors the story of countless rural American communities that flourished around a schoolhouse and then vanished with consolidation and rural depopulation.
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Related people
- · Kenneth A. Patterson
- · Olive Patterson
- · G. C. O'Neal
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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