Joppa Community

Duane's take

The way I hear it told, this one comes straight off the official marker for the Joppa Community, up in Burnet County, so let me pass it along just as it stands. Now, every community has to start somewhere, and this one started quiet, out in the farming and ranching country of Burnet County. Some of the first settlers to put down roots were the William Alexander Faires family, who arrived in 1874, and right behind them, the Martin Luther Ater family the following year.

Two families, a whole lot of open land, and a future nobody had named yet. At first, folks called the place Pool Branch. There was a nearby pool formed by a waterfall, and if you've got a waterfall and a pool out in the Texas hill country, you work with what the land gives you.

By the 1880s, that same pool had a cotton gin and a mill sitting right on it, and people had taken to calling it Mill Pond. So the water kept its importance, even as the name shifted. And around all that industry grew a proper little settlement.

There was a store. There was a blacksmith shop. And one mile from the gin, a woman named Mrs.

Hattie Snow Smith ran a hat shop out of her own home. A hat shop. One mile from the gin.

You do not find that combination every day. But a community needs more than commerce. It needs a place to learn and a place to worship.

That's where J. S. and Jane Danford come in. They had come from Delaware County, Iowa, and in 1881 they gave two acres for a school and a church.

Now here's the thing about that gift: it came with a condition. The schoolhouse had to be completed by March 1, 1882. A deadline, written right into the arrangement.

The area residents looked at that calendar, looked at each other, and got to work. They met the deadline. Then came 1891, and with it a post office, and with the post office came a new name.

The community went biblical. They called it Joppa. William F.

Childers stepped in as the first postmaster, and for over a decade that post office served as the community's link to the wider world. Rural mail delivery eventually changed the equation, and the post office closed in 1904. Meanwhile, worship had been held in the Joppa Schoolhouse, year after year, until 1913, when the Joppa Baptist Church congregation erected their own meetinghouse.

A building of their own, at last. The school kept serving the community until 1942, when the Joppa School consolidated with Bertram. And here is where the story lands, and it lands with some weight.

Of everything that made up that pioneer settlement, Pool Branch, Mill Pond, Joppa, all those families and shops and gin yards and schoolrooms, what remains today is the church house and the school building, which now serves as a community center. Two buildings. The place where they prayed, and the place where they learned.

Turns out, those are the ones that last.

What the marker says

Some of the first settlers in this farming and ranching community were the William Alexander Faires family in 1874 and the Martin Luther Ater family the next year. The settlement was called "Pool Branch" for a nearby pool formed by a waterfall. In the 1880s a cotton gin and mill were located on the pool which was known as "Mill Pond". There was a store, a blacksmith shop, and one mile from the gin, Mrs. Hattie Snow Smith ran a hat shop in her home. J. S. and Jane Danford of Delaware County, Iowa, gave two acres in 1881 for a school and church, provided the schoolhouse was completed by March 1, 1882. Area residents met the deadline. With the establishment of a post office in 1891, the community's name changed to the biblical, "Joppa". William F. Childers served as the first postmaster. After the coming of rural mail delivery, the post office closed in 1904. Worship was held in the Joppa Schoolhouse until 1913 when the Joppa Baptist Church congregation erected this meetinghouse. The Joppa School consolidated with Bertram in 1942. All that remains of the pioneer settlement is the church house and school building which serves as a community center.