Ogletree Stagestop and Post Office
Copperas Cove, Coryell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After Marsden Ogletree (1819-1896) and his family migrated from Georgia, he recieved a land grant in 1878. Inscriptions on two stones in this house indicate the structure was erected the same year. It served as the family home, grain store, and stopping place for the Lampasas to Belton stagecoach. Since the mail arrived by stage, a post office was opened here in 1879 with Ogletree as postmaster. Legend says that the settlement received the name "Coperas Cove" from a copperas-tasting spring in the cove of a nearby mountain. Samuel Gilmore served as the second Postmaster. In 1881 Gilmore's father-in-law Jesse M. Clements (1822-1900) and his wife Charley deeded land for the right-of-way to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad. The following year the railroad laid out the new townsite of Copperas Cove. Soon the center of the community, including the post office, moved over to the railroad. Later the town corrected the spelling of its name to "Copperas Cove." In 1891 Clements bought this house and used it as the headquarters for his large ranching operations. The old stone stagestop remains a visible link with the community's pioneer heritage.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Marsden Ogletree brought his family west from Georgia and took up an 1878 land grant, the stone house he raised became far more than a home. It doubled as a grain store and as a stopping place on the stage line running between Lampasas and Belton, and once the mail began arriving by coach, a post office opened here in 1879 with Ogletree as its first postmaster. When the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad laid out a new townsite nearby in 1882, the community's center — post office and all — drifted toward the tracks, leaving the old stagestop behind.
Why it matters
The building traces in miniature how a Texas town was born: a lone frontier household that served as store, stage stop, and post office until the railroad arrived and pulled the settlement toward its rails.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the late 1870s, the rolling country between the Lampasas and Leon rivers in Central Texas was still frontier. The Civil War and Reconstruction were over, and families from the older Southern states were moving west in large numbers to take up Texas land. Many of them came from Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas, looking for cheap acreage and a new start.
Before the railroads came, stagecoaches tied these scattered settlements together. The stage lines carried passengers and, just as important, the U.S. mail. A farmhouse along a stage route could quickly become a community's post office, general store and news center all at once.
Then the railroads arrived, and they rearranged Texas. When a railroad company laid out a townsite, businesses, churches and post offices often moved to be near the depot. Places that had grown up around a stage stop could empty out in a few years. The story of this stone building follows exactly that pattern.
People & events
Marsden Ogletree was nearly sixty when he and his family came from Georgia and received a land grant here in 1878. Stones set into the walls of this house carry inscriptions showing it was built that same year. It was far more than a family home: it stored grain and served as a stop for the stagecoach running between Lampasas and Belton.
The mail came by that stage, so in 1879 a post office opened in the house with Ogletree as postmaster. Local tradition says the settlement's name came from a spring in the cove of a nearby mountain, whose water tasted of copperas, an old word for a mineral salt of iron. The first spelling, "Coperas Cove," was later corrected by the town. Samuel Gilmore followed Ogletree as postmaster.
Family ties and the railroad set the next chapter. In 1881 Gilmore's father-in-law, Jesse M. Clements, and his wife Charley deeded right-of-way land to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad. A year later the railroad laid out a new Copperas Cove townsite, and the community's center, post office included, moved to the tracks. Clements did not forget the old house. In 1891 he bought it and made it headquarters for his large ranching operation, giving the stagestop a second life.
Its place in the American story
This small stone house shows one of the most common patterns in American western settlement. First came a homestead, then a stage stop, then a post office. Finally the railroad arrived and moved the town. Hundreds of communities across the West were born, and many relocated, this way.
The post office matters to that story. In the nineteenth century, a post office was often the first sign that the federal government recognized a place. Its name went on official maps, and the postmaster was often the best-known person around. When a post office moved, the town's identity usually went with it.
The Clements chapter shows another big shift: the change from open frontier to large-scale ranching once the railroad could carry cattle to market. By the 1890s, the same building that had sheltered stage travelers was running a ranch business connected to national markets by rail.
If you visit
Look closely at the stonework. The date stones mentioned on the marker are what tie the building to 1878, and the house's solid, simple build tells you something about how frontier families built to last with the materials around them. Imagine a stagecoach pulling up after the long run from Lampasas, with passengers stretching their legs and a mail sack changing hands.
Think about the name too. Somewhere in the hills around here was the spring with the copperas taste that, according to legend, gave the town its name. The land still has those coves and mountain edges, even with modern Copperas Cove built up around it.
The stagestop fits nicely into a Central Texas drive between Lampasas and Belton, roughly the old stage route. Copperas Cove today sits beside one of the largest Army posts in the country, so the town you drive through looks nothing like the one this house knew. That contrast is a good reason to stop and look at the stone building where it began.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Marsden Ogletree
- · Jesse M. Clements
- · Samuel Gilmore
Related events
- · Founding of Copperas Cove
- · Arrival of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad
Themes & tags
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