Brownsboro, Caldwell County, TX ~ The Plum Creek Almanac Project

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Brownsboro – Clear Fork ~ ca 1848

While Clear Fork may have seen settlers arriving a few years earlier, all existing records state that a Baptist Church was organized there in 1848 and is still active today, the oldest church in Caldwell County.

A stage from Gonzales passed by Clear Fork to the Micenheimer (sic) farm and delivered mail to the residents. As a result of this stop, a post office was opened in 1855 with Thomas Burkhead as postmaster; however, it lasted only a year. The residents continued receiving mail until the 1870s.

A school was established and originally met in the church; later a log cabin was constructed using split logs for the seats and desks. By 1879 there were 51 pupils in attendance.

Mr. Wm. Mooney established a grist mill on the Clear Fork; two Brown brothers started a grocery store, and a blacksmith shop began operating. A cotton gin was erected close to Robert Brown's farm, and a Dr. John Dickerson established a medical practice. The community that grew up around the church was named for R. A. Brown.

In the 1920s the community's economy received a boost from the discovery of oil in nearby fields. Brownsboro had a store, a gin, and a school, in addition to the church, to serve about fifty families. In the 1930s the community had a semiprofessional baseball team.

Brownsboro began to fade in the 1940s, when the population fell to twenty-five. Area children attended the nearby Oakland school until it was consolidated with the Lockhart Independent School District in 1949. A few scattered houses remained at the site of Brownsboro in the 1980s. Descendants of the original settlers still reside in the community.

Sources
1. Caldwell County Kin: The First 150 Years published by the Genealogical and Historical Society of Caldwell County, November 2000, C-10
2. Plum Creek Almanac Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 1998
3. Historical Caldwell County, where roots intertwine originally published by The Mark Withers Trail Drive Museum, Caldwell County, Texas, 1984, page 240

The Plum Creek Almanac is a project of  The Genealogical and Historical Society of Caldwell County.

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