The Lancaster area was early called "the garden spot of Texas." Without easy access to outside markets, however, the original settlers were subsistence farmers, growing what they required for food and little more. They broke the prairie sod with . . . — — Map (db m300844) HM
A Bledsoe (1801-1882) arrived in this area in 1846, coming from Missouri, to which he had emigrated from Lancaster, Garrard County, Kentucky about 1830. Stories say his father looked at him when he was born and commented approvingly, "He is a . . . — — Map (db m300516) HM
On April 25, 1994 at 9:38 p.m. one or more tornadoes traveled through the heart of Lancaster. Over 200 homes and 26 businesses in the area were destroyed or severely damaged. Three people died, several were seriously hurt and hundreds left . . . — — Map (db m300488) HM
Thirteen of the first settlers here, led by Elder Roderick Rawlins met on Sunday, July 5, 1846, and entered into a written agreement "to associate together as a church of Christ, taking the scripture alone as our Rule of Faith and practice." The . . . — — Map (db m300534) HM
Despite competition of Pleasant Run, Lancaster had a substantial growth during the 1850's. The first store on the square was operated by, James H. Holloway with Pleasant Taylor and later Myron P. Everts as partners. In 1860 Taylor and Everts sold . . . — — Map (db m300841) HM
Lancaster's first physician, Dr. Samuel T. Bledsoe, a Peters colonist emigrating here prior to 1848, set up practice in the Moffett Hotel. Dr. James H. Swindells began practice in 1850. In 1852, Dr. Henry Jackson Moffett served Lancaster as a . . . — — Map (db m300845) HM
Earliest grave here is that of Lizzie Richardson, a pioneer child who died in the summer of 1845. The site for the cemetery was chosen by Roderick Rawlins, one of the area's first settlers; he was buried here in 1848. Among the graves in the older . . . — — Map (db m152508) HM
19th century Texas frontier champion who became foundation sire for the most popular Quarter Horse strain of the 20th century. A Virginia type horse foaled by a Kentucky thoroughbred mare, Steel Dust was brought in 1844 as a colt to the Texas . . . — — Map (db m300846) HM
During the 1840s and 1850s, Lancaster Baptists met periodically in private homes. On Sept. 29, 1867, fourteen charter members gathered to organize the Missionary Baptist Church. They worshiped first in the Masonic Hall, a two-story frame building . . . — — Map (db m152516) HM
On July 5, 1846, Roderick Rawlins (1776 - 1848) and 13 settlers began this fellowship. They met in homes and a one-room log schoolhouse. For years ordained members and itinerant preachers led services. After disruptions of the Civil War, the . . . — — Map (db m152539) HM
In 1856 the Rev. Michael Dickson and nine charter members met in a crude cabinet workshop to organize this church. Services were first held in an early schoolhouse, shared with other denominations. After the Civil War, the Ladies Aid Society . . . — — Map (db m152523) HM
Itinerant preachers often met with local Methodists in early days of settlement. Organized on May 25, 1868, by the Rev. Andrew Davis, this is one of the oldest churches in North Texas. Services were held in Masonic Hall until a church building was . . . — — Map (db m152524) HM
Lucy Frances Jeffries (1840-1931) of Virginia married Henry Head, and while bringing up their four children discovered her talent for cooking. From 1891 to 1918, in her large home on this site, Mrs. Head operated a boarding house famous for good . . . — — Map (db m312072) HM
The first white settler on Ten Mile Creek, then called Pleasant Run, in what later became Dallas County, then in Robertson County was Elder Roderick Rawlins (1776 1844) who led a party of approximately thirty persons from Greene County, Illinois, . . . — — Map (db m300512) HM
Some parents envisioned high education in Lancaster. They formed a stock committee in the 1890's to obtain such a facility. Randolph Clark, unhappy with the major changes at Add-Ran University, accepted an invitation to head a school built for him. . . . — — Map (db m300484) HM
The Thomas McKee Ellis (1799-1890) house, parts of which date back to 1846, was one of the first clapboard houses built in the Lancaster community. Several other specimens of this type of construction have been wrecked in and about Lancaster since . . . — — Map (db m300485) HM
No Indians resided on Ten Mile Creek, then known as Plesant Run, upon arrival of the first white settlers in this area in 1844. Game, however, abounded, with buffalo and antelope on the prairie and deer, bear, panther and other wild life within the . . . — — Map (db m300513) HM
Patrick (Pat) Garrett came to Lancaster from Claiborne Alabama in 1869. Residents remember him as a typical young man of his time. He left here in 1876, despondent that his suit for the hand of a young lady had been denied by her father. His close . . . — — Map (db m300843) HM
The first log school in Lancaster was built in 1846 at Clear Springs one mile north of the original settlement of Hardscrabble. In 1863, as more families moved in, the Masonic Lodge building served as a school. Education was available to all . . . — — Map (db m152502) HM
Tennessee native James Barker Lowrey (b. 1823) came to Texas in 1859 with his wife, Elizabeth (Hunter), and their children. In 1881 he purchased this 124-acre tract of land. Three years later Lowrey conveyed title to the property to his second . . . — — Map (db m162317) HM
This was the site of the Valley View Station, a stop on the Interurban Train Line between Lancaster and Waco. On November 2, 1912, Lancaster City Marshal Peter (P.M.) Solomon and Deputy Tom Ellis boarded a southbound Interurban Train in Lancaster . . . — — Map (db m152611)
Lancaster as we remember 1890-1900 -------
Each morning the tinkle of the cow bells as the milch cows drifted home from their daily pasture on Ten Mile Creek, on Sundays the melody of the church bells--day after day the ring of the anvils in . . . — — Map (db m300486) HM
Madison Moultrie Miller (1814-1860) came to Texas from Alabama in 1844. Enlisting in the Texas Rangers, he served under W.A.A. (Bigfoot) Wallace until 1846. Examining the Ten Mile Creek area, he selected a homestead and courted and won Mary (Polly) . . . — — Map (db m300515) HM
Madison Moultrie Miller (1814-60) came west from Alabama and served under W. W. "Bigfoot" Wallace in 1844-45 as a Texas Ranger. Settling here in 1846 with a motherless daughter and son, he soon married Mary (Polly) Parks Rawlins, daughter of this . . . — — Map (db m152608) HM
Prior to the automobile era, Lancastrians were largely dependent on their own resources for entertainment. Horse racing remained popular for decades. Most of the men were hunters and when game became thin along Ten Mile Creek local Nimrods . . . — — Map (db m300482) HM
In 1868, Lancaster’s first school for African American children opened in a former Confederate pistol factory. Soon after, “Lancaster Colored School” on Keller Branch served 73 students. In 1906, trustees allowed adults to offer night . . . — — Map (db m152506) HM
According to oral tradition, this congregation was organized in 1870 by the freed Blacks of the Lancaster community. Land for a church building was acquired in the late 1870s, during the pastorate of the Rev. Augustus Ferrin, but the sanctuary was . . . — — Map (db m152541) HM
Established by Joseph H. Sherrard, William L. Killem, Pleasant Taylor and John M. Crockett in 1862 to manufacture pistols for the State of Texas. — — Map (db m152507) HM
Among the stock brought to Texas by Jones, Greene and Middleton M. Perry, sons-in-law of Thomas McKee Ellis, was a yearly colt, nondescript in appearance except for lines which suggested to the two farmers and stockmen that he might develop into a . . . — — Map (db m300535) HM
Founded by A. Bledsoe (1801 - 1882), from Kentucky, joined by his son-in-law, Roderick A. Rawlins (1833 - 1910), and Mrs. Mildred Parks Rawlins (1789 - 1875). The elder Rawlins family came to this locality in 1844. Bledsoe, later to become Texas . . . — — Map (db m152519) HM
From the beginning of its existence until well after World War II the Town Square was the center of nearly all Lancaster business activities. The first stores were wood structures, and most of these destroyed in devastating fires in 1877 and 1889. . . . — — Map (db m300517) HM
The earliest Lancastrians traveled afoot, by horseback or road in a wagon. Roads were cleared of trees and graded as smooth as possible with farm tools with gravel and bridges when county funds were available. Rain halted travel.
Beginning in . . . — — Map (db m300483) HM
This residence was built for W. A. (1861 - 1907) and Minnie (White) Strain (1867 - 1957), whose pioneer family bought this property in 1846. Begun in 1895, the structure was completed in late 1896. Noted architect James E. Flanders of the Dallas . . . — — Map (db m152540) HM
Kentucky native William Johnson Winniford (1827 - 1915) came to Texas as a Peters Colonist in 1845. A participant in California's Gold Rush, he returned and homesteaded 320 acres here in 1853. He married Sarah Allen Lewis in 1865. Their son, John . . . — — Map (db m162566) HM
