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MOLINE,
TEXAS
Texas Ghost
Town
Lampasas County, Texas Hill Country
Ranch Road 1047
Near the Mills County Line
15 miles NE of Lometa (via
Ranch Road 581)
Population: 40 (estimate - same number from 1970)
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"Looking
north on FM 1047"
Photo by Mark Mauldin, July, 2005 |
History in
a Pecan Shell
Settlement began around 1884. A blacksmith opened shop with a corn
mill as a side business. The name is said to come from homesick Hossiers
- pining for their previous home of Moline, Illinois. Another story
is that the name came from the popular Moline plow - one of which
was present when town-naming was being discussed. A cotton gin opened
in 1900 and in 1910 a post office was established in J. W. Trussell's
store.
The town was fortunate enough to have a physician (Dr. Hicks) who
not only opened a drugstore - but also opened a rare emergency operating
room.
Moline's first school was a one-room building 2½ miles south of town.
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Moline
School Site Marker >
The historical marker for the Moline school is just south of Moline
below the school site on FM 1047. Part of the structure can still
be seen on the hill. |
In the 20s a
man named Jim Tom Brown built a garage over the foundations of the
former blacksmith shop.
In the 1930s the town had thirty-five people or so and three stores.
By 1935 a teacherage was added. Moline reached its population zenith
in the early 1940s with around 100 people calling the town home.
Moline's student population declined until the students attended classes
in Lometa in 1943 and then onward to Star the following year.
The old school was then converted into a community facility.
The population declined to the point where it was estimated as a mere
sixty in 1949.
The town's post office closed its doors in 1976. Moline had had two
stores plus the post office in the early 1970s. |
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Paul
Lee's General Store/Gas Station/Post Office
Photo by Mark Mauldin, July, 2005 |
| "The stone structure
was Paul Lee's General Store/Gas Station. The store sold various groceries,
feed, and gasoline. It also housed the Moline, Texas Post Office until
the post office closed in the mid-1970's. The store permanently closed
its doors a short time later. " - Donna Kay (Soules) Mauldlin
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