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| | The
creek bed of Calf Creek.
Photo by John Troesser, 2000 |
History
in a Pecan Shell
The most famous reference to Calf Creek is for a
battle fought in 1831. James Bowie, and ten of his closest friends fought
a combined force of Caddo and Lipan Indians along the creek. Estimates vary from
150 to 800 Indians. A nearby historical marker tells the whole story.
The community is, of course, named after the creek (that runs from 10 miles NE
of Menard until it joins the San
Saba River in NW Mason County). This wasn't always the case. The settlement
was first known as Deland, after a Kansas family who settled here in 1874.
From 1906 to 1909 there was a post office in operation under the name Deland,
Texas and it was roughly two miles south of present-day Calf Creek.
From
1909 until 1915 the community moved a mile to the north where a storekeeper named
Lum Tucker opened a post office in his store. Having filed the application, Lum
requested that the post office (and therefore the town) be named after him. Besides
the post office and store, Tucker, Texas also had a blacksmith and cotton gin.
It wasn't until 1915 when the post office moved a mile north and took the
name Calf Creek. |
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The school's front enterance
Photo by John Troesser, 2000 |
| | A
classroom with the floor and blackboards missing.
Photo by John Troesser,
2000 |
| | The
rear of the 1921 schoolhouse
Photo by John Troesser, 2000 |
The old
one-teacher school was replaced in 1921 with a sturdier building with four classrooms.
Enrollment leapt from 21 students in 1898 to around 100 by the early 20s. It merged
with Brady
schools in 1949 when the population was reported as 50.
School consolidations
drew families away from the smaller towns - robbing them of their future. Calf
Creek's population declined even further and the last straw was the closing of
the post office in 1953. It was down to a mere 23 people in 1990, the same estimated
figure on the 2004 state map.
A church and a cemetery appear on county
maps and the ruins of the old school sit a half mile west of the highway.
|
| | "The
road that runs west to the school."
Photo by John Troesser, 2000 |
Calf
Creek Forum Subject:
Calf Creek School
My mother was Minnie Mae Bradshaw. She was the youngest
child of James Henery and Minnie Ann. She had fond memories of attend the old
school at Calf Creek. She and her brother Claude would ride together on a horse
in order to attend school. My father, E H Gray, also attended the Calf Creek school.
The Bradshaw farm is still owned by a family member today and the family gathers
yearly at Lake Brady. - Jane Dumas, August 05, 2005
Subject: The Battle of Calf Creek
I have researched and written on this
subject since about 1974.
That battle occurred in 1831. There were no "settlers"
in that area until 1878 when my ancestor moved to the area. next
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