Adamsville

The first permanent settlers came to this area shortly before Lampasas County organized in 1856. Oliver Hazzard Perry Townsen bought 640 acres from Samuel Horrell, Sr. and his wife Elizabeth in 1868, grew wheat, established a flour mill, and in 1876 became postmaster of Townsen Mills southeast of this site near the Lampasas River. By 1884 the community included steam flour and saw mills, three churches and a school, a doctor, wagonmaker, and general store. After Townsen died in 1891 in a mill accident, a new post office opened at the Smith and Adams General Store, where John T. Adams, the first postmaster of Adamsville, and the Rev. McCall Smith were business partners. In the late 1880s, Rev. Smith and 19 charter members met in L. Jasper and Mary Ann Townsen's home to organize Pleasant Valley Cumberland Presbyterian Church, now Adamsville Presbyterian Church. Samuel and Fannie Straley platted Adamsville in 1908, and a newspaper article the following year mentioned the town's ice house, Ladies' Missionary Society, Literary Society, and Woodmen of the World Camp. Straley's School, circa 1885, also served as the church for Baptist and Presbyterian congregations. County commissioners created Adamsville School District No. 15 in 1908 and trustees built a new schoolhouse; a larger 1922 schoolhouse was destroyed by fire in 1942. Adamsville consolidated with Lampasas Schools in 1964. The Adamsville community building was originally a G.I. vocational school for veterans of World War II, and J.W. Mitchell organized the Adamsville volunteer fire department about 1967. Adamsville has evolved from a frontier settlement to an active rural community with ongoing events such as church activities, twice-monthly fiddling jam sessions, and community barbecues during deer season.

Texas · United States