Brief history of Lampasas County

Earliest known construction in the area of Texas that is now known as Lampasas County occurred in 1756 when a Spanish expedition built a short-lived presidio near Lucy Creek. This venture enabled Thomas Isaac Cox, an expedition member, and his family to return for many years, capturing wild horses for the Revolutionary War and for the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

John Burleson’s military service in the Texas Revolution earned him title to the Lampasas Springs area and settlement began. Nearby frontier forts and the Military/Wire (telegraph) Road encouraged area settlement to proceed in earnest during the 1850s. Town lots were sold July 4, 1855. That year also saw the first sermon, the first murder, and the first Masonic Lodge in the area. By March of 1856 there were enough people to establish the county.

During the Civil War period the Lampasas Guards served to protect the settlers from irate Indians; the Lometa-area salt springs furnished salt to the Confederacy; horse races were advertised; and settlement continued. Ex-slaves held an emancipation picnic at Gooch Springs. Chisholm Trail cattle drives frequently trudged through the county, and the stagecoach from Austin ran three times per week.

The Reconstruction period saw a wave of immigration into the county, the establishment of hotels and a horse race track; the construction of many community schools, churches, cemeteries, saloons, mills, and post offices; the organization of the Grange; and a period of many gunfights and other lawlessness, including the beginning of the Horrell-Higgins feud. The city of Lampasas was incorporated as livestock roamed the square. Sheep ranching and fence-cutting came to the area. The county’s Farmers Alliance led to the beginning of the American Populist Party.

In the 1880s Lampasas was favored with a railhead, and its heyday period as the “Saratoga of the South” lasted for five years with the rise of a grand courthouse; Centenary College; and two great resort areas, Hanna Springs Pavilion and the Park Hotel near Hancock Springs, which were connected by a mule-drawn street car. The “Texas Evangelist” held a great revival and 300 souls were baptized. Texas Bankers Association was organized. Then the “end of track” proceeded further west, leaving Lampasas in its smoke with no less than seven large fires in the city in 1887 alone. A volunteer fire department was organized.

During the 1890s “The Chicken Wagon” train of Wells-Fargo shipped over 22,000 chickens in one year to Temple. The county seat got street lights and hosted Texas Farmers’ Alliance Convention, Democratic State Convention, and Reunion of Confederate Veterans. Imposing two-story stone schools were built in Lometa and Lampasas.

In 1905 the Texas Baptist Association established a 200-acre retreat at Hancock Springs. Rural Free Delivery caused the discontinuation of many post offices. Popular mid-month Trades Days were held on the square from the 1920s until the 1950’s.

The decade of the Depression saw much development in the county, some with assistance of New Deal programs. Gunderland Park, a new post office building, major highways, City Hall, public library, city offices, fire department, American Legion, and Rollins-Brook Hospital were major accomplishments.

Many County schools consolidated in the 1930s and 1940s. Rural electrification came, the Farm Bureau, and dairying. In the 1950s Camp Hood brought more development to the county, which then participated in Operation Long Horn, a huge military maneuver.

During its first century as a county seat, Lampasas had several notable floods, especially in 1873, 1913, 1936, and 1957. It then established several flood control levees.

Today Lampasas continues to be a thriving county with a growing population.