LAWHON SPRINGS COMMUNITY

Williamson Co., TEXAS

 

.   Lawhon Springs is a rural community located in the Albert Nantz League survey on F.M. 619 some 12 miles from Elgin and 20 miles from Lexington, in northwestern Lee County.  Located primary in Milam Co. then onto Williamson Co., before it became a permanent part of Lee County, Texas.  In the same area two other communities closely tie into Lawhon Springs.  It is impossible to speak of one without naming the others, which are Beaukiss and Siloam.   

Samuel Moore Slaughter is credited for establishing Beaukiss and he is buried in the Lawhon Springs Cemetery.  Marmaduke Gardner from South Carolina is credited for having established Siloam and he is buried in the Lawhon-Gardner Family Cemetery about 2 miles away on the “Down Home Ranch” property. 

Lawhon Springs was first known as Yegua Springs by the Indians, then John L Smith and son Sam Smith arrived in 1848, purchased the land, built log cabins, dug out the springs and named it The Sam Smith Springs.  John L. Smith died November 24, 1851 and his son Sam, we’re told gave one acre of land for a cemetery and his father John L Smith was the first buried there.  Sam sold the 300 acres around the spring to John A. Lawrence, who then sold to David B. Lawhon, who gave another two acres to the same cemetery changing the name to Lawhon Springs and Lawhon Springs Cemetery.  


In the Lee County Deed Records Volume K pages 9-10 shows on December 2, 1884 D.B. Lawhon sold it for $48.00 to John W. Lawrence, John H. Roff, Israel Dewey, G.W. Dewey and B.B. Westbrook, trustees of the 2 & 8/10 acres cemetery located in the Albert Nantz League.  (the same land known as the Sam Smith Tract)  The cemetery trustees have the right to lay off and divide into lots which may be sold to individuals and fees may be charged for burials of persons not owning lots and the money collected from the sale or fees shall be used by trustees to keep the property in repair.


Early settlers came in the 1840’ and 1850’s from North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia.  This is a list of settlers from tombstones found in the Lawhon Springs Cemetery, the Lawhon-Gardner Family Cemetery and the deed records.

Post Oak Island Beaukiss Lodge No. 181

LAWHON Springs Cemetery

Bartholomew WESTBROOK John Wesley Lawhon John L Smith

Many questions are being asked, by interested persons, concerning the history of Lawhon Springs, especially the locations of the schools.  This is an attempt to give as best I can, the History of Lawhon Springs for all who need answers.  Below are photos for the article.  Enjoy.  Audrey Rother

 

From Deed Records

Heirs of Elizabeth Hill Westbrook are;

B.B. Westbrook, L.A. Harkins husband of Elva Harkins the only child of Elizabeth Barker deceased who was the daughter of Bartholomew & Elizabeth Hill Westbrook; J.A. Barker son of Mary E. Barker married first to Jesse Barker and after his death she married Joseph W. Westbrook by whom she had two children Walter L. & B. Lee Westbrook and Lou A. Westbrook daughter of Bartholomew & Elizabeth & the wife of Ira W.Olive. (Ira W. Olive was a brother to Print Olive of the noted Olive family  Marmaduke  Gardner also had a daughter, Elmira, who married  Thomas J. Olive, also a brother to Print Olive.).

William J Lawhon     Nelson Overton & wf Alvina Overton     R.C. Lawhon

  
 

Lawhon Springs Schools  

Lawhon Springs School

Schoolhouse # 1

The first schoolhouse was known as Smith School.  It was construction of logs by the early settlers.  Mrs Winnie Morris related that the log school, known as Smith School, was near Kidd Tank and brush arbor.  As a young girl Winnie traveled west from her family home to swim in Kidd Tank.  Later it was known as  Clear Tank.  A photo or drawing of the log school is not available.  But the area was visited by the writer and photos taken of the hill where the school once stood and the tank nearby.

 In 1854 Bartholomew Westbrook purchased 200 acres in the Albert Nantz League with his own money from G.W. Glasscock and at that time the land was in Milam County.  This property borders F.M. 619 and lies to the right of 619 when going toward Beaukiss

  
 

Land for School # 2

Lawhon Springs School No. 2

On October 26th 1877, Bartholomew Westbrook & wife Elizabeth Hill Westbrook deeded to F.S. Wade, worshipful master, J.S. Smith, senior warden, and L.R. Davis, junior warden of Post Oak Island Lodge No. 181, one acre to be held in trust for Post Island Lodge No. 181, by them, to be used as a site for Church, School and Lodge Room (above for lodge) with the express understanding that on the same no spiritous, sinous or malt liquors are never to be sold.

  
 

Schoolhouse # 2

The railroad missed the town of Post Oak Island, causing  Post Oak Island Lodge No. 181, chartered in 1856 in Williamson County to move their building to the one acre school grounds on the Bartholomew Westbrook place in 1878.  It stands to reason the building was not moved whole, but reassembled on the one acre and later divided into two buildings, a school (lower floor) which remained and the upper portion moved to Beaukiss which is still  used  as a lodge today.  It was here that the tradition of using the lodge to serve the community as a school and a meeting place originated.  My grandfather, Hode Hobbs, an early student, recalled in later years how he as a young boy watched as the building was torn down leaving the lower floor in place for a school and the lumber from the upper half used to construct the new lodge building at Beaukiss.  We do know that a Mr. John Cummings helped repair the building when it changed from a two-story to a one-story school in the 1890’s.  It was a plank lumber building with two rooms located on Bartholomew Westbrook’s land east of the springs. This school had double doors in the east end and two single doors on the north side and the first windows were wooden shutters.  This school was moved across the road (now F.M. 619) by James Julius Fagg’s oxen in about 1916 using logs as rollers to the present school site.  The same building then was torn down in about 1920.  The enrollment for 1897/1898 was 92 pupils, and 85 pupils in 1901/1902.

 Mrs Elizabeth Hill Westbrook died in 1887.  In 1890, three years later, Bartholomew Westbrook sold his 200 acre tract in the Albert Nantz League to John C. Lawhon and David B. Lawhon.  Bartholomew died in 1896, having owned his land for about 36 years.

A deed record of Williamson County located in Lee County Deed Records names J.W. Lawhon worshipful master, J.W. Barber senior warden, and J.W. Spencer junior warden of Post Oak Island Lodge No. 181 of  Beaukiss, Texas deeded  to W.J. L. Cornell, and J.J. Fagg school trustees of Lawhon Springs School Community, one acre for $10.00, to be held in trust for church and school purposes with the understanding that the Christian, Baptist, Methodist and Universalist Churches each to have one day in each month .This one acre has its beginning on the west boundary line of the B.B. Westbrook survey.  Witnessed at Beaukiss, Texas on the 22nd day of July 1905 by J.W. Lawhon worshipful master, J.W. Barber senior warden, and J.W. Spencer junior warden.

  
 

School house # 3

In about 1920 a brand new two-room building was built by the men of the community at the present site, which is across the road and a little to the southwest from the earlier site.    This new school burned on March 31, 1924.  Mozel Parr was the primary teacher and Anna Mae Price the principal.  The evening of the 31st Mozel told her students; Oscar Lawhon, H.T. Ward and Horace Barnett to load the stove with wood, the boys did as they were told.  Ira Whitlock was in the field plowing for Wesley Lawhon and looked up, seeing the smoke billowing up, thinking it was his own house on fire.  He lived in the log house built by Sam Smith next to the school.  He went with his team as quickly as possible to the barn with the team and had his brothers unhitch the team and he ran all the way home.  When he got there it was the school burning.   As the children arrived on April 1 "April Fools Day" for classes they learned their school was a pile of ashes. Some cried.  Some shouted with joy.

The remaining six weeks of school was held in the hayloft of Wesley Lawhon’s barn.  The pupils studied with the chickens, cows and other animals in the barn.

  

 

  Schoolhouse # 4

The present building, built in the summer of 1924 was constructed by the men of the community, with Sam Sanders as the main carpenter.  This building is located exactly in the same place as the school that burned and is an exact duplication of the previous one.  School opened the following fall right on time.

The school started out as a community school, then changed about  1911, to a county school.  In 1897-1898, J.F. Houghton taught and   J.J. Fagg served as trustee.   James Shaw and Brother Lee Craft were some of the earlier teachers.   When Bro. Lee Craft taught he brought a jug of buttermilk and put it in the springs to keep it cool until lunchtime.  One of the boy students put dirt in his jug.  The teacher called them all in one day and told them “Now the one that put that dirt in my jug of buttermilk has a tiny piece of cotton sticking on his nose."   The guilty one wiped his nose quickly and the teacher then knew who did it.

There was no school at Lawhon Springs in 1910, due to lack of funds and the students went to Siloam School, Beaukiss School and Knobbs Springs School.  Beaukiss teachers were Effie Magee and Mary McElroy.   When Siloam School closed and their pupils came to Lawhon Springs, some went to Woodrow School.   Vera  Knight (Mrs. Dan Knight) taught the last years and  in 1948/1949. She became ill and that year she was assisted by Mrs. Marie Lane.

Lawhon Springs School consolidated with Lexington Independent School District in 1949.  Students were bused to Lexington and Thrall Schools.   The building remains as a community gathering place for various functions. 

Notes about the school photos:

 Historian, Charlene Hanson Jordan, brought school # 2 photo to the school reunion in 2003 for identification.  No one was able to identify the picture.  I researched the photo and learned that it was in the possession of the late Donald Whitten at the Elgin Museum and that Curtis Craig had identified his father, Dee Craig, as a student in the picture.  I got in touch with Curtis Craig and he sent me a copy of the identical photo, stating that his father was the lad standing on the rock at the corner of the building and in a 2nd picture his father was the one with his face almost hidden.  He knew his father went to Lawhon Springs School and to Elm Grove School.  This is not the Elm Grove School picture. My conclusion is that school # 2 is the lower floor of the Post Oak island Lodge building left standing on Westbrook land and was moved on rollers to the present site, possibly remodeled a bit as the windows are not shutters, then torn down to make room for school # 3 that burned, and school # 4 that remains today. 

Sources used were; A History of Post Oak Island Lodge No. 181 A.F. & A.M. by Jackson Daughtery; History of Lawhon Springs by Birdie Hobbs Morgan; Lee County Deed Records; Dud Morris,  Ruth Lawhon Bostic and E.H. Lawhon

 

 

 

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