DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Friendship Community in Williamson County. Picture a place that's been swallowed whole — not by time, not by neglect, but by water. Right now, somewhere beneath the surface of Granger Lake, there's a piece of Texas that used to have a cotton gin, a store, a Baptist church, a tabernacle, a schoolhouse, a cemetery, and a whole lot of living going on.
You're driving above a ghost town that got a lake poured on top of it, and the story of how that happened is worth every mile. It starts in 1847, when brothers Elihu Creswell Allison and James A. Allison rode into what was then Milam County and began ranching along Willis Creek.
The settlement that grew up around them took the family name — Allison. A post office called Conel operated there from 1878 to 1880, and then in 1892 a new post office opened under the name Allison proper. By that point, the community had real substance to it: a cotton gin working the harvest, a store for provisions, a Baptist church for the soul, a tabernacle for the spirit, a Woodmen of the World lodge sharing a schoolhouse — the Allison schoolhouse, later called Old Friendship — and a community cemetery holding the names of the families who built the place.
Now, the community also reflected something worth noting. The farm and ranch families who made their lives along Willis Creek came from Anglo, Czech, and African American backgrounds. Agriculture was the common ground, and it remained the economic base throughout the community's entire existence.
Then came 1921. The San Gabriel River flooded — devastatingly, the marker says, and that word is earning its keep. The gin was destroyed.
The store was destroyed. The tabernacle was destroyed. When the water finally pulled back, the people of Allison looked at what remained and made a decision.
They moved to higher ground nearby and built something new. They called it Friendship. And Friendship prospered.
Businesses took root. The social calendar filled up — three-day fairs with political speeches and rodeos. That's not a small-town affair; that's an event.
A new Friendship schoolhouse opened in 1923, following consolidation with the Centerville and Enterprise schools. Then in 1958, Friendship merged with Granger school, but the building didn't go idle — it stayed on as a community center for elections, a meeting place for farmers and homemakers. The community kept finding uses for what it had built.
Then the 1970s arrived, and with them the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the construction of the Laneport Dam across the San Gabriel River — later known as Granger Dam. Most residents dispersed.
The lake rose. And the site of Allison, Old Friendship, went under. The burials in the Allison cemetery were relocated to cemeteries in Granger.
The community that had survived a catastrophic flood in 1921 by simply moving uphill had nowhere left to move. Much of what we know about the early life of that community was preserved by one person: Stacy Mikulencak Labaj, born in 1903 and gone in 1977, who went out and collected oral histories from longtime residents. She gathered the voices before they were lost.
And today, a reunion of Friendship families and friends keeps those memories alive for generations who never stood on that ground — ground that's been underwater for decades now. Some places get forgotten. Friendship, it turns out, is not one of them.
What the marker says
Beneath the waters of Granger Lake, constructed by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in the 1970s, lies the site of an early agricultural settlement known as Allison and later as Friendship. Brothers Elihu Creswell Allison and James A. Allison began ranching here in 1847, in what was then Milam County. A post office named Conel operated 1878-80, and in 1892 a new post office opened for Allison. Located along Willis Creek, Allison boasted a cotton gin, a store, a Baptist church, a tabernacle, a community cemetery and the Allison schoolhouse, later known as Old Friendship, shared with a Woodmen of the World lodge. The devastating 1921 San Gabriel River flood destroyed the gin, store and tabernacle, and the new Friendship community developed nearby on higher ground. It prospered with businesses and social events, such as three-day fairs featuring political speeches and rodeos. Following consolidation with Centerville and Enterprise schools, a new Friendship schoolhouse opened in 1923. In 1958, Friendship merged with Granger school, but the building remained a community center for elections and a meeting place for farmers and homemakers. Agriculture remained the economic base of the community throughout its existence, and local farm and ranch families reflected diverse cultures, including Anglo, Czech and African American. Most residents dispersed in the 1970s, after construction of the Laneport (later Granger) Dam across the San Gabriel River. Allison (Old Friendship) Cemetery burials were relocated to Granger cemeteries. Much of the recorded early life of the community was the work of Stacy Mikulencak Labaj (1903-77), who collected oral histories with longtime residents. Today, a reunion of Friendship families and friends keeps the memories alive for future generations. (2006)