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History
in a Pecan Shell
There never was a man named Joe Lee that
had anything to do with founding the town.
Originally named Mud Springs,
the land was donated by Jefferson Reed, a member of Robertson's colony. Settlement
began in the 1830s. Mud Springs didn't have too much to report until 1903 when
the local school showed a census of 83 students with 2 teachers.
The
town underwent its name change in 1912 when founder Reed's daughter Millie Reed
McLean combined the two names of Joe Reed, a storekeeper and Lee Underwood, the
town's blacksmith.
Joe Lee, Texas kept its school until 1958 when it
merged with Rogers ISD. It also has a church (the
County Line Baptist) and the Reed Cemetery and McLean Cemeteries near the church. |
by
Clay Coppedge
You wouldn't know it by driving through this old community
now - you might not even know you were driving through it at all - but the pioneering
Bell County settlement of Joe Lee has produced two of the state's most respected
historians, Ron Tyler and Malcolm McLean... more
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