Alvarado, Texas, Johnson County. (original) (raw)

Johnson County, Central Texas North

32� 24' 23" N, 97� 12' 46" W (32.406389, -97.212778)

Junction of US 67 & 81 and I-35W
15 miles E of Cleburne the county seat
26 miles S of Fort Worth
39 miles SW of Dallas
ZIP code 76009
Area code 817
Population: 4,739 (2020)
3,785 (2010) 3,288 (2000) 2,918 (1990)

Historical Marker (College Street, Alvarado Town Square, Alvarado):

Alvarado

Early settler David Mitchell established a trading post near here in the late 1840s, about the time colonists of W. S. Peters' empresario grant began to settle the area. Colonist William Balch, who settled on an area land grant in 1852, was later to become known as the "Father of Alvarado" for his efforts in having the townsite surveyed in 1854, establishing the first general merchandise stores on the square, and for donating land for a cemetery, school, and union church.

The town, named for Alvarado, Mexico, soon boasted a post office, homes, businesses, and churches. A community school established about 1855 became The Alvarado Masonic Institute in 1875. Rail lines extended through Alvarado by the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1881 and by the Chicago, Texas, and Mexican Central Railroad in 1884 spurred a local economic boom. By 1885 Alvarado had several churches, two schools, two gins, an opera house, a bank, a newspaper, and a population of about 2,000. The Masonic Institute became the Alvarado Normal Institute in 1899 and Alvarado High School in 1908-09.

A large jail/town hall erected at this site in the mid-1880s was removed in the 1920s and replaced with a garden arrangement; a gazebo was added later.

Photographer's Note:
"Alvarado has at least two former depots. The one pictures here has some city function. The other is a private residence that now has no appearance of a ever being a depot." - Barclay Gibson

Outlaws Benjamin Bickerstaff and Josiah Thompson
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson July 2011

Historical Marker (City square, E. Weaver Ave. & S. Spears St.):

Outlaws Benjamin Bickerstaff and Josiah Thompson

Near this site in 1869, Alvarado citizens ended the lives of outlaws Benjamin Bickerstaff and Josiah Thompson. A former Confederate veteran and prisoner of war, Bickerstaff was wanted for the murder of an African American man in Louisiana shortly after the Civil War. He later joined Alvarado business owner Josiah Thompson, also a Confederate veteran, and the two are believed to have participated in numerous robberies and murders in this area, including incidents in Alvarado. When they rode together into town on April 5, 1869, organized citizens shot them numerous times. They were buried in Balch (Old Alvarado) Cemetery.
(2006)

More Outlaws

Nearby Destinations

Alvarado Park Lake - On US 67 three miles east of I-35W
www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fish/infish/lakes/alvarado/lake\_id.htm

Alvarado is only:
26 miles S of Fort Worth on I-35W
30 miles N of Hillsboro on I-35W
15 miles E of Cleburne on US 67
26 miles W of Waxahachie via US 287

Alvarado Chamber of Commerce 400 E. Hwy 67 Alvarado, Texas 76009
(817) 783-2233

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