Bibb Community

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Bibb Community, out in Comanche County. Now, some towns go out loud. Railroad bypasses them, or a flood takes the whole thing, and everybody knows the moment it ended.

Bibb went quieter than that. But that doesn't mean the story isn't worth telling. It very much is.

Back in the 1870s, Anglo settlers started moving into this stretch of western Comanche County to farm cotton. Perhaps among the very first to arrive were John Wesley Morris, born in 1834, and his wife Floellar, sometimes called Flullah, a Williams before she married, born in 1839. The couple came up from Alabama, arriving around 1869, and they put down roots.

When the Bibb post office was established in 1878, they didn't build it some grand separate structure. They put it right there in the Morris home. That's how a community gets its footing.

One family says, you got mail, come on in. Then on March 13, 1891, seven men made it official. J.P.

Green, W.C. Jackson, C.W. Atchison, A.J.

Whitaker, D. Pierce, J.H. Bridges, and T.G.

Preston walked in and filed the paperwork platting the town of Bibb. Forty-four lots, centered on Main and Water streets. Now it was a town on paper and in practice both.

And what a little town it grew to be in those 1890s. Two cotton gins working the harvest. Three general stores.

Two drug stores. A school. One broom factory.

One saloon, for those of certain persuasions. A Masonic lodge and an Odd Fellows lodge for those of others. And four churches, a Primitive Baptist, a Methodist Episcopal, a Missionary Baptist, and a Church of Christ, that last one meeting in a building right where the roadside park stands today.

The town kept growin, and growing towns need schools that can keep up. So in 1907, Bibb formed its own independent school district. Then the original schoolhouse burned.

That could have been the end of it, the kind of setback a small town doesn't always survive. But Bibb rebuilt. The second school was a two-story building, two rooms downstairs, lower grades on one side, upper grades on the other.

And the upstairs? That became a meeting hall for the Odd Fellows and the Masons. Practical people, these Bibb folks.

In 1912, that school was serving 101 students. That is not a small number for a west Texas community. But time and change have a way of working on a place.

In 1926, Bibb ISD folded into Beattie ISD. The school itself was subsequently moved to Beattie. The village still showed up on a 1920 map, so it held on a while longer.

But as transportation improved and roads got better, the population began to decrease. Today, Bibb is a ghost town. No trace remaining, the marker says.

Just the land, and the memory, and the record of forty-four lots platted on a March day in 1891. Floellar Morris died in 1903. John Wesley Morris lived until 1924.

They came from Alabama around 1869 and watched it all take shape. Sometimes a community's whole life fits inside one long human life, and that is exactly what happened here in western Comanche County.

What the marker says

The town of Bibb began when Anglo settlers moved to the area in the 1870s to farm cotton. Perhaps among the first settlers was John Wesley (1834-1924) and Floellar (Flullah) (Williams) Morris (1839-1903). The couple arrived from Alabama around 1869. The Bibb post office was established in 1878; located at the Morris home. On March 13, 1891, seven men filed paperwork officially platting the town of Bibb with 44 lots centered on Main and Water streets. The seven included: J.P. Green, W.C. Jackson, C.W. Atchison, A.J. Whitaker, D. Pierce, J.H. Bridges and T.G. Preston. In the 1890s, Bibb had two cotton gins, three general stores, two drug stores, a school, one broom factory, one saloon, a Masonic lodge and an Odd Fellows lodge. The town also had four churches: a Primitive Baptist church, a Methodist Episcopal church, a Missionary Baptist church and a Church of Christ, which met in a building where the roadside park is today. As the population grew, their education needs grew as well. In 1907, an independent school district was formed. Unfortunately, the original schoolhouse burned, but the town rebuilt. The second school was a two-story building with two rooms downstairs, one for lower grades, one for upper grades. The upstairs housed a meeting hall for the Odd Fellows and Masons. In 1912, Bibb had 101 students. In 1926, Bibb ISD folded into Beattie ISD. The Bibb school was subsequently moved to Beattie. The village is shown on a 1920 map, but as transportation and roads began to improve, the town's population began to decrease. Today, Bibb is a ghost town with no trace remaining. Yet Bibb is remembered as an important community in western Comanche County for many decades. (2022)