Fate, Texas (original) (raw)
Fate City Hall
Photo courtesy Mike Price, September 2009
Photographer's Note:
Fate Texas Today - "This looks to have been a very small town that is being totally swallowed by new housing development. Would not be surprised to learn that 90 plus percent of the town is less than 5-10 years old." - Mike Price, September 2009
History in a Pecan ShellThe name isn�t fate as in destiny and it doesn�t mean predestination (unless you plan to go there). Early settler Lafayette Brown was popular enough with his neighbors that they suggested his shortened name �Fate� be used for the community.
By 1880 the town was granted a post office and within a few years it had a population of 75 supported by two stores, two cotton gins and a school.
In 1886, word had leaked that the railroad (the Missouri, Kansas and Texas) was building through and Dr. Wylie T. Barnes. Barnes platted a new town on his property, modestly naming the community Barnes City. Since the land was a mere .5 mile from the old Fate, residents had no problem moving that short distance. But if Dr. Barnes had grandiose dreams for his namesake town, they were dashed in 1887 when locals balked at having to fill out another post office application. Instead, the new post office acquired the name of the old post office. It was Fate.
Fate spent the last decade of the 19th century adding people and businesses. Growth was slow but steady and by the 1920 census, the town was a single person short of 300 residents.
Shortly after WWI the highway through Fate was built, but it worsened the situation rather than improve it. People were able to easily leave Fate for the services and goods that their tiny community couldn�t supply.
As the Great Depression arrived, Fate�s population dropped by 1/3 to 194 . Just prior to WWII it was already down to 127. As the war effort increased job opportunities in Dallas and Fort Worth, Fate lost population but after the war it started to rise, eventually reaching nearly 500 for the 1990 census. The 2000 census reported 497 people in Fate.
Fate, Texas Landmarks
Fate Presbyterian Church
Photo courtesy Mike Price, September 2009
Fate Presbyterian Church stained-glass windows
Photo courtesy Mike Price, September 2009
Fate Presbyterian Church historical marker
Photo courtesy Mike Price, September 2009
Historical Marker:
Fate Presbyterian Church
When Presbyterians organized this congregation in the middle 1880s, the community of Fate was developing as a new settlement on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. Among the eighteen individuals who chartered the church were members of the Leonard, Kale, McLendon, Cooper, Wilson, Bonsel, Morgan, Holiday, and Sawyer families.
In the early years, a circuit rider served as minister of this and other area churches. One early circuit rider was the Rev. J. A. Hornbeak (d. 1939), who was serving as minister of the Fate Presbyterian Church in 1894 when the members constructed the first sanctuary. Located on Brown Street, it was built under the supervision of head carpenter H. A. Kale (1834-1921), a charter member of the congregation. The church continued to worship in the structure until the early 1920s. In 1926, a new church building was completed at this site.
With historic ties to the earliest days of the Fate community, the Fate Presbyterian Church remains an important institution in Rockwall County. Church members have included many community leaders and pioneer area settlers.
Central Baptist Church
Photo courtesy Mike Price, September 2009
Fire Engines
Photo courtesy Mike Price, September 2009
Texas Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories, landmarks and vintage/historic photos, please contact us.