Adamsville to celebrate 100 years
By DAVID LOWE Staff Writer

Dr. L.L. Bivins, who practiced medicine and co-owned a drug store in Adamsville, purchased the first automobile in the town.

F rom a frontier town to a

thriving cotton center back to a small village along U.S. Highway 281, Adamsville has seen many changes in the past century. Now, its residents are working to preserve and celebrate the town's history.

The Adamsville Heritage Association will hold a centennial celebration Saturday from 1-4 p.m. at the Adamsville Community Center to commemorate the Jan. 20, 1908, recording of the official Adamsville Township plat. The original land grant will be on display, and a gallery will contain memorabilia from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Heritage Cookbooks and the 2008 Ancestral Calendar will be available for sale.

Adamsville grew with the construction of U.S. 281, and reached its height in the 1930s and 1940s. Along with Conley's Cotton Gin, the town once claimed five general stores, three gas stations and two car repair shops.

Since then, however, many families have divided up their ranches or moved to large cities for higher-paying jobs. Finding Adamsville natives with first- person accounts of the town's history has been difficult, said Betty Rials, Adamsville Heritage Association vice chairman.

Students pose in front of the Straley School, where pupils rode to class on horseback and stayed with the Straley family overnight when inclement weather prevented riding home.

"There's not many left to tell us," she said.

The recent arrival of retirees and other families moving to Adamsville for its quiet, rural environment has motivated residents to research and promote the town's history, Mrs. Rials said.

"As the newcomers come in, we need to preserve the history," she said.

That history includes the tales of Adamsville's early settlers, as well as of stores and other landmarks around the town.

O.H. Perry Townsen arrived in 1854, along with some members of the Stanley family, said Adamsville Heritage Association chairman Wanda Lang. Townsen's nephew, L. Jasper Townsen, followed in 1855. That year, he and his uncle installed a water-powered corn mill on the Lampasas River south of Langford's Cove.

Shiloh Baptist Church, with adjacent tabernacle, became Adamsville Baptist Church in 1923. Joseph Leland Straley, who came to Townsen Mill -- later renamed Adamsville -- in 1856, donated the land for the church, where worship began in 1875.

The settlement bore the name "Townsen Mill" until 1891, when general store owner John T. Adams moved his store and the post office established in 1876 -- up to Highway 66.

A caravan in 1856 brought more settlers from Tennessee and Kentucky, including the Bain, Higgins, Mace, Mitchell, Stanley, Straley and Townsen families.

Other leading families and businessmen included the Philip Smith family, the Jenningses and Dr. L.L. Bivins. Bivins co-owned a drug store and purchased the first car in Adamsville, Mrs. Rials said, along with providing medical services that ranged from delivering babies to removing tonsils.

The Holley family operated a "huge ranch" near Straley Cemetery, Mrs. Lang said, and the John Pattersons -- a family of Scottish stone masons -- settled north of Patterson Creek, where they built a two-story rock house.

"It's just been a landmark for Adamsville for years," Mrs. Lang said.

Although records have survived for many leading families, all the Townsens and Adamses have moved away, and Adamsville Heritage Association members have not been able to locate all their descendants, said Mrs. Rials and Mrs. Lang.

Mrs. Lang has traced her Adamsville ancestors as far back as her great-grandfather, Joseph Leland Straley, who came to Townsen Mill in 1856. Straley donated land for the Straley Cemetery, as well as for Straley School and Shiloh Baptist Church -- both established in 1875. The church changed its name on Sept. 8, 1923 to Adamsville Baptist, and in 1908 Straley School District No. 15 became Adamsville School District No. 15.

School sessions began after the cotton harvest, as that crop became a staple of the Adamsville farming and ranching economy. Many students rode their horses to the Straley School and spent the night at the Straley home if inclement weather kept them from returning to their families after classes ended, Mrs. Lang said.

Adamsville School District No. 15 built a new schoolhouse in 1908, the same year the Straley School building was demolished.

Adamsville residents approved bonds early in 1922 for a new school building, which opened Oct. 23, 1922. Made of rock and covered with stucco, the 63-by- 47-foot schoolhouse contained three large rooms and two study halls.

That school burned March 27, 1942, when film ignited and fell onto the thickly oiled wooden floor during a movie night.

After a few months, school trustees purchased the unused Mountain View School and moved the building from Evant to Adamsville. Students gathered there until February 1964, when the Adamsville school consolidated with Lampasas schools.

The school closure reflected what Mrs. Rials said became a trend in Adamsville after World War II: families leaving their ranches for the higher wages available in big cities. "Everybody left so they could have a job to provide for their families."

Now, although most of Adamsville's population works elsewhere, retirees and others seeking a rural setting are discovering the town. Former residents ready to leave behind large cities are starting to return, too.

"They just are coming from everywhere," Mrs. Rials said.

The Adamsville Heritage Association sent out more than 300 invitations to the centennial gathering and tried to contact all new residents. It's all part of keeping Adamsville's heritage alive.