Spivey Crossing
Aquilla, Hill County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Spivey Crossing is a farming community located along the Brazos River Valley. Established as early as 1854, Spivey Crossing was an old wagon trail crossing named for Temple Spivey, the first known settler of the Smith Bend Community of Bosque County. Spivey was a wealthy planter who migrated to Cherokee County in 1849. He purchased land in 1853 in McLennan County (present-day Bosque County) on the west bend of the Brazos River. The old wagon crossing named after Spivey was located about one half mile upstream of Cedar Creek which flows from Bosque County into the Brazos River. The Spivey Crossing Community was formerly known as the Lebanon Community and was established around the Lebanon Methodist Church established in 1856. Temple Spivey lived on Mill Creek on the north side of the Brazos River in Bosque County while a group of farmers arrived in the area that became the Lebanon Community around 1855. William E. Anderson and David Hughes Williams became the first documented permanent settlers of the Lebanon Community. In 1880, the Lebanon Methodist Episcopal Church, south was destroyed by fire and the congregation decided to move to a new location to accommodate the expanding community. A new church and school were built two miles east of the original. After the consolidation of the school with the Aquilla School District in 1945 the Lebanon Community gradually became known as Spivey Crossing. This community was closely linked with other Brazos River Valley Communities that were connected through the old Brazos River Wagon Crossings, including Spivey Crossing. (2015)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Spivey Crossing began as a wagon-trail ford on the Brazos River, established as early as 1854 and named for planter Temple Spivey. The surrounding settlement, originally the Lebanon Community, grew up around the Lebanon Methodist Church of 1856; after fire destroyed the church in 1880, both church and school moved to accommodate a growing population. The name Spivey Crossing gradually took hold after the school consolidated with Aquilla in 1945.
Why it matters
Spivey Crossing preserves the memory of the river-ford communities that laced the Brazos Valley, where a wagon crossing, a church, and a school were enough to make a place a home.
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Related people
- · Temple Spivey
- · William E. Anderson
- · David Hughes Williams
Themes & tags
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