Tours Community
Tours, McLennan County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first settlers to this area came by wagon from Teutopolis, Illinois, in 1872. Having arrived on St. Martin's Day, November 11, they called the settlement Martinsville. The name was later changed to Tours in honor of the city in France where St. Martin served as Bishop. After the construction of homes was completed, the settlers began building a structure for the services of St. Martin's Catholic Church. Built under the direction of The Rev. J.L. Bussant, it was dedicated in 1874. The small log building was later replaced in the 1880s by a larger frame edifice. A community school was started in 1883. Classes were conducted in the second floor rooms of the Theodore Schroeder Home (.2 mi. E) until 1890, when a separate school building was completed on the church grounds. Tours was once the site of a post office, harness and saddle shop, cotton gins, saloons, blacksmith shops, meeting halls, and a town brass band. As area farm income decreased in the 1930s and young people left to seek jobs in other cities, the population declined. Several homes, a meeting hall, ball field, and a church building constructed in 1937 remain at the townsite. (1980)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1872 a group of settlers rolled in by wagon from Teutopolis, Illinois, arriving on St. Martin's Day and first calling their new home Martinsville. They soon renamed it Tours for the French city where St. Martin had been bishop, and built a log Catholic church dedicated in 1874. A school, shops, saloons, and even a brass band followed, but the community faded as Depression-era farm income fell and young people left for the cities.
Why it matters
Tours is a window into the German Catholic immigrant settlements that dotted central Texas, and into the slow decline of countless small farm communities in the 20th century.
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Related people
- · J. L. Bussant
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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George Washington Savage
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