Benton City School House

All of this post (except for the photos) is brought to you by the websites Texas Escapes(One of my favorite sites) and Texas State Historical Association .

First let me introduce you to the history of Benton City.
Benton City, Tx
Benton was settled in 1876 and was granted a post office that same year. It has three possible namesakes. The first was Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, the second Samuel L. Benton who served at San Jacinto or possibly one of Samuel Benton’s sons. Since the sons inherited land in this area, it was likely one of them.

By 1878 the town had a Masonic lodge, the Benton City institute and its own newspaper. By 1879 residents of Benton attempted to form a separate county, but Medina and Bexar counties weren’t willing to contribute any of their land for the experiment.

The town suffered a blow to its collective ego when it was bypassed by the railroad (the International-Great Northern) in 1881.

By the mid 1880s the population was a mere 50 residents. In 1904 it reported just over 300 residents, but ten years later it was down to 200.

In 1904 the Benton school employed two teachers to instruct 75 students. By 1914 there were 104 students, but the high school merged with the Lytle district in 1919.

The population returned to just 50 residents by the mid 1920s. The grammar school closed in the mid 1930s and today the ruins of the Masonic lodge and the city cemetery are all that are left from Benton’s “golden age.”


The School:
Benton City Institute, originally known as Benton City Normal Institute, was founded in 1876 and located on the ground floor of the Masonic building in Benton. The school, first run by Col. John D. Morrison, offered accounting, law, music, and surveying, plus basic academic subjects. It was funded partially by the state, though it was a private institution. The remainder of its funding came from tuition. By 1878 the institute was coeducational and owned and run by Professor and Mrs. Bernard C. Hendrix, formerly of Kentucky. When the Masons moved to Lytle in 1909, the institute expanded to utilize the entire building. The school was renamed Benton School in 1889 and Old Rock School in 1910. The institution ceased to exist when the Benton schools were consolidated with those of Lytle in 1919. A state historical marker was erected at the ruins of the building in 1971.
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Hi, it's me. I don't know about you but to me that was interesting! I am fasinated by town history and especially ghost town history.

Well let me clarify a mistake in the last paragraph. There is no marker at the school, maybe there was at one time but not anymore.

Now lets get to the photos. I saw in the Lyle visitors book, the historical school and begged hubby to take me. He was such a good sport about it. I had such a blast, it was truly amazing.

Writer's Workshop: Where do I live?

This week I decided to go with prompt #2...Where do I Live?
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Right here in this little bubble I call life. Oh, maybe you would like more info than just that.

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I live on a county road, in a county that is ate up with county roads. Matter of a fact I live on the county line and just down the road is another county line. The area is referred to as tri-county. Living on the county line is not that good, cause when it comes to road maintenance (that we need really bad) there is lots of confusion as to who is responsible. Quibble-Quabble..
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I live on a T, I can see the stop sign from my kitchen window(at an angle). My view is not great. I have a trailer on both sides of me, they are the bread and I am the peanut butter. The tail end of my trailer faces the road. If only I could turn this sucker around and have it facing the beautiful field behind us or even having it face the road and the field on the other side, but nooo my view are my neighbors. If only I could get my genie powers to work.
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I am surrounded by three small towns that are full of undiscovered history, one 4 miles to the east, one 5 miles south and one 7 miles north. Big bad ass San Antonio is 25 miles just to the outer loop. Thankfully the small towns have most all the stores I need to go to. Dollar this and dollar that, grocery store, hardware store (good for a few things), thrift store, flea market and finally a brand new auto parts store.
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I live in the country. Drive down the road for a mile in any direction and it opens up to fields of corn, cotton, maize, hay or just gobs of wildflowers. Pastures that have peacocks, goats, mules, horses or cows. There are also the many many groves of pecan (pe-caun or pe-can, say it as you will.) trees. I am truly falling for this area, it has been taking a while for me to get used to, but it's getting better the more I venture out and explore.

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I live in Texas! The big country. Big skies, big land and big longhorns!


And lets not forget the cotton and oil.

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For more great writing or to join in..go see Mama Kat.

Walk With Me Through Lytle, Texas

When I come into town and turn on Main St. this memorial is the first thing I see.


Then the lovely gazebo and park bench area.


Directly across the street is this really neat looking building that is currently a parts and old farm equipment store.


A look up the street. I will be turning left at the second large mass of trees.


I have turned left off of Main St and I am headed to the railroad tracks. See those pillars there at the side of the street, those can be found through out the town. I don't know why, YET.


The railroad was at one time the center hub of the town. As you will notice all the older buildings face or at one time faced the tracks.


The building to the right used to be the Seed or Feed Dock (I couldn't tell exactly what it said).


This red building has me so intrigued as to what it used to be. As you can see it is nothing now, but still looks great!


This is a little strip of business which houses the newspaper I didn't know we had.


A little Barbacoa joint. I just think the building looks really neat. (if you don't know what barbacoa is...well, lets just say...I don't like it)


Across the street is a fabulous building that reminds me of an old bank OR some rich persons house. It is now the office of a Chiropractor, who I would love to go see! That is it below on the right.


The arches in those windows are stained glass. Very lovely.


This old building (I was told) used to be the jail. It was closed when I went by, the inside is just as appealing and I was hoping to get pics. Maybe next time me and hubby go there, it is his favorite store in the whole town.


These set of buildings seem to be the oldest and a great example of what I was saying about them facing the railroad tracks, they are currently used as the backs of the business's. As you can tell they are not kept up as well as a store front would be.


This has to be my favorite old building in the whole town. The bricks have so much character. To me, it looks like an old carriage house or stables.

Well, that was a short walk through the backside of Main St. and Adam's St. that flank the railroad tracks.

There is still more to come like the mill and the old church, just for starters.
I hope yall enjoyed the tour.

Lytle Cummunity Cemetery Part 2

So yesterday I was talking about the local cemetery and giving you some of it's lovely history, I didn't get to the parts that really got to me or caught my eye.
Lets start with what caught my eye.
Vases...





A mind could go wild as to what this is doing in a cemetery or what it says about the person it is for.


Benches...




This is a piece of one of the poorer quality crosses. It was laying under a bush with a sea shell laid on top of it.

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Now on to the more interesting stones...

Thy life was beauty, truth, goodness and love. If I was to get buried and have a headstone...Yup, I want that! The sweetest definition of someones life. Don't cha think?


A real live (umm..no. I meant dead) Texas Ranger! How cool is that for this little tiny town?!


This angel is awesome! Although she looks to have had some really rough times trying to protect her cemetery.

Another thing I noticed was that all the headstones are facing the east. Anyone know why?

This little decoration tugged at my heart. A little five year old boy, who would be nine today. He was truly loved and is sorely missed. I'm sure.


This stone was hiding in a bushy tree and all you can see is the years. Yes folks he/she was only a year old, but that is not what bothered me. It was the fact that if you didn't notice it when standing in a certain spot, then you would never notice it at all. You see the green bushy tree to the left of the angel's head (above pic), it was hiding under the other side of it.


Another thing I noticed is that if the grave was in an enclosed gate or framed with a cement border, the upkeep must be up to family members or someone else cause this poor grave needs some maintenance! I find that curious since the rest of the place is kept up real well.



I have one more stone that has consumed my brain, but you'll have to wait for that post cause I am currently trying to gather some info on it.