Salty Community
Thorndale, Milam County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Settled in 1860s; named for Salty Creek, cattle licks. Joseph and Sarah Frasure gave site for Methodist Church, 1871. Earliest burial in cemetery was in 1875. Community had school by 1878. Violence erupted in area in 1880s over barbed wire fencing. Salty was designated a voting precinct in 1886. Mail service was initiated 1897. Settlement had telephones, stores, a barber shop, at least three doctors. About 1900 the Annual Salty Singing Convention was founded by A. J. Jackson. This institution remains, although stores and the school were closed in the 1940s.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settled in the 1860s and named for a nearby creek where cattle found salt licks, the Salty community grew up around a Methodist church, a cemetery, and a school by the late 1870s. Barbed-wire fencing sparked violence here in the 1880s, but the settlement matured into a precinct with stores, doctors, and its own annual singing convention founded around 1900 — a tradition that outlived the stores and school themselves.
Why it matters
Salty captures the arc of countless rural Texas communities, from cattle range to fenced farmland, and the folk traditions that held them together long after the businesses closed.
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Related people
- · Joseph Frasure
- · Sarah Frasure
- · A. J. Jackson
Themes & tags
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