Gatesville, Texas, Coryell County seat, History, attractions, landmarks, historical stories, photos, country drive, hotels & more. (original) (raw)

Gatesville, Texas Bird's Eye View
1884 Old Map by August Koch
Gatesville Public Library

Gatesville History
Historical Marker (In front of Gatesville City Hall):

Gatesville

County seat of Coryell County, Gatesville began in 1854 after the county was created. Richard Grant, an Indian trader and local landowner, donated the townsite. It was named for Old Fort Gates (1849-1852), which had been established 5 miles east for Indian protection. The Fort, named for U.S. Army major G. R. Gates, was the first settlement in the county. For a few months Fort Gates served as county seat, but then Gatesville was chosen.

The County's first mail line -- from Gatesville to Belton -- was set up in 1855. The town grew slowly at first, suffering from intermittent Indian raids, but the period from 1870 to 1882 saw great progress. In 1870 the town was incorporated and in 1872 a courthouse was built. When St. Louis & Southwestern railroad ran a spur line to Gatesville in 1882, the citizens held a gala welcoming celebration. With the railroad came prosperity and many new homes and businesses. A fine opera house, frontier symbol of culture, was erected and numerous civic improvements were initiated. Today the town is the home of the Gatesville and Mountain View State schools for boys. The economy of the area is based on ranching and agriculture.

1970

Gatesville, Texas Landmarks/Attractions

1939 Photo courtesy of TXDoT

Pecan Grove and Baptist Church SE of Gatesville
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, 2004

A Coryell County Drive

FM 116: In The Shadow of Fort Hood

by Clay Coppedge

Driving north from Copperas Cove to Gatesville on FM 116 you're never far from Fort Hood.... Copperas Cove is ringed by five hills, a pattern drivers will see repeated on the way to Gatesville. A few miles out of town you come to FM 580, and if you just feel like it you can detour to the town of Topsey...

If, instead of heading to Topsey you get on 116 you will drive up on a green, bowl-shaped valley cut by scenic creeks. Nestled between the hills and creeks is the community of Pidcoke, named for the Pidcocke family, early English colonists to the area. It's not hard to see what drew the Pidcockes here. The creeks would have been as good a reason to settle here as anything. This is good ranch country; the best side of the grass is already topside.

A detour in Pidcoke to see the local cemetery is a good one, but follow the road past the cemetery to catch some fine glimpses of Bee House Creek and a couple of panoramas of the valley. Bee House was once the home of a communal house called Bee House Hall. Residents wanted to name the community Bee Hive but the post office decided it would be Bee House instead....

Six miles southeast of Pidcoke used to be the community of Stampede ... read full article

Gatesville, TX Chronicles

• Shoot-out in Gatesville 1894 by Mike Cox
  "...Newspaper owners knew they needed as many readers as possible to attract advertisers, since business owners naturally wanted their ads to get as much attention as possible. Editors well understood that sensationalism sold newspapers. ...[B]eyond generating revenue and espousing one's viewpoint, most publishers and their editors honestly saw themselves as the public's watchdog, the inky guardian of the First Amendment. Of course, this could be dangerous, especially in early day Texas. Whipping a newspaper editor, or even killing him for what he published was not unheard of.
  But what happened in Gatesville in the summer of 1894 was far less common..." more
• The Life and Times of Big Bill Babb by Clay Coppedge
  "...This happened in the early days of Coryell County, when Central Texas ranches functioned a lot like the feudal system in England in the Middle Ages. Ranches were kingdoms, each with its own ruler and an army of knights to enforce the ruler's will. Crockett King, William Oglesby and Big Bill Babb were the kings of Coryell County...." more
• The Old Book Shelf by Mike Cox. ("Texas Tales" column)
  This shelf, standing in a back corner of the Coryell County Museum in Gatesville, has a story as interesting as any of the books it ever held. A novel-in-wood, it represents a Texas family saga extending from before the Civil War through the Great Depression and into the modern era.
• The Most Famous Bathtub in Coryell County by Clay Coppedge
  "Thomas and Laquita Barton's house outside of town has the first bathtub in Coryell County, a hand-carved limestone classic...."more
• Cranfill by Mike Cox. ("Texas Tales" column)
  For about the last quarter of the 19th century, and the first two decades of the 20th century, being a "wet" or a "dry" defined a Texan politically much more accurately than being Democrat or Republican. Both sides of the issue passionately believed they were in the right. Often, they were willing to fight over their belief, sometimes to the death. That's what J.B. Cranfill was up to in 1882 when he started a newspaper in Gatesville, the Advance...... more
  Gatesville Hotels › Book Hotel Here

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