McLennan County, Texas
West is home to 14 official Texas Historical Commission markers — each one telling a piece of the city’s story. Browse the markers below, then find them on the map and discover more nearby with RoadHistorical.
A head-on collision between two locomotives was staged on Sept. 15, 1896, as a publicity stunt for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad. Over 30,000 spectators gathered at the crash site, named "crush" for MKT…
View on map ↗The Rev. D.C. Kinnard began the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1875. The first building on this site was erected in 1883. Walter Bennett Martin constructed the present building in 1901. Czechs organized a…
View on map ↗Founded in 1858 in the pioneer settlement of Bold Springs, this church developed under the leadership of postmaster and farmer Alberto Vaughn and 32 charter members. The congregation erected a frame church building…
View on map ↗One of the first German settlers in the area, August Groppe, Sr. (1840-1919) had this structure built in 1892, the year the town of West was incorporated. A prominent cotton farmer and businessman. Groppe hired local…
View on map ↗This congregation originated as part of earlier church in Martinville (now Tours). After the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad came through the area about 1890, church members in west received permission from the…
View on map ↗In 1874, German immigrant August Groppe, Sr., purchased this land and began a family farm. Groppe, a founder of West's German community, bought additional farmland in 1883 and hired local builder Joseph Huber to…
View on map ↗This community traces its origin to the establishment by entrepreneur Thomas M. West of a stagecoach stop, dry goods store and post office here in the late 1860s. Known as the Bold Springs Settlement, these commercial…
View on map ↗Constructed by town founder Thomas M. West and local contractor J.W. Bridges about 1890, this building housed two saloons until prohibition in 1919 promoted its conversion into a grocery store and bakery. Jim Tobola…
View on map ↗Early Catholic settlers in northern McLennan County worshipped at St. Martin's Church in Tours, five miles southeast of present West. After more immigrant Catholic families of Czech, Moravian, Slovak, and German origin…
View on map ↗St. Mary's Catholic Church was officially organized in West in 1892. Because parents wanted a Catholic education for their children, Father F. G. Sebik wrote to Reverend Mother Florence, Superior General of the Sisters…
View on map ↗Czech immigrants began settling in this area of McLennan County about 1875. Early families included those of Josef Masek and John Foit. They attended St. Peter's Evangelical Church, founded and attended by German…
View on map ↗A wagon train of German Catholic settlers from Teutopolis, Illinois arrived in this area on November 11, 1874, the feast day of St. Martin of Tours. That year, they built and dedicated a log cabin church to St. Martin.…
View on map ↗ISAAC BUTLER “DOC” CAUBLE (1820-1904) BUILT A CABIN IN 1850 NEAR ONE OF SEVERAL FLOWING SPRINGS THAT WAS HOME TO GENERATIONS OF NATIVE AMERICANS. CAUBLE’S YOUNG SON, JAMES, WAS A FRIEND TO A COMANCHE BOY WHO DIED AND…
View on map ↗LIBERTY GROVE WAS A LOOSE-KNIT FARMING COMMUNITY LOCATED IN THE EXTREME NORTHEASTERN CORNER OF McLENNAN COUNTY. IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY, A MASONIC LODGE AND SCHOOL MARKED THE CENTER OF THE SCATTERED SETTLEMENT. LIBERTY…
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