Lott

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, straight from Falls County. Sit back and let Duane lay it out for you. Now, some towns come to be by accident, by stubbornness, or by a river that refused to move.

But Lott, Texas, came to be by geometry. Sit on that a moment. A straight line.

Cameron to Waco, draw it on a map, and right there in the middle of that line, in 1889, somebody looked at a patch of Falls County land and said: that is the spot. The San Antonio and Arkansas Pass Railroad was coming through, and when a railroad comes through, towns have a way of following. The Texas Townsite Company needed land to work with, and they found their sellers in Captain and Mrs.

George H. Gassaway, a couple of area pioneers who had purchased seven thousand acres back in 1871. Seven thousand acres.

That is not a farm, friends, that is an ambition. The railroad was given a right-of-way, and just like that, the machinery of a new town started turning. The town was named in honor of the railroad's own president, Uriah Lott, who lived from 1842 to 1915, and whose name you can still read on the marker to this day.

Now here is where the story picks up pace. The construction crew was still out there driving spikes and grading earth when the businesses started appearing. Did not wait for an invitation.

Did not wait for a ribbon cutting. They just arrived. A post office was established.

And then, in a November 1890 election, the city was incorporated. Come December, the people elected their city officers, and Albert B. Hemphill became the first mayor of Lott, Texas.

The Texas Townsite Company, to their credit, donated land to the town for a school and for churches, and the first school opened in 1890. Churches of several denominations followed, and fraternal organizations took root, and then in 1895 the Lott Volunteer Fire Department was organized. A town building itself from the ground up in real time.

Once the railroad was complete, Lott hit a stretch of rapid growth, the kind every young town hopes for. The railroad route eventually closed in 1949, which would have been the end of the story for a lot of places. But Lott, Texas, had been planted on that straight line between Cameron and Waco with enough intention behind it that the town just kept going.

Flourished, the marker says. And sometimes, that one word is the whole ending you need.

What the marker says

Located on a straight line from Cameron to Waco, this site was the natural choice for development of a new town along the San Antonio and Arkansas Pass Railroad in 1889. The Texas Townsite Company bought land from area pioneers Captain and Mrs. George H. Gassaway, who had purchased 7,000 acres in 1871. The railroad was given a right-of-way, and development began on a town, named in honor of railroad president Uriah Lott (1842- 1915). As the construction crew worked to complete the rail line businesses sprang to life in the new town. A post office was established, and the city was incorporated in a November 1890 election. City officers were elected in December, and Albert B. Hemphill became the first mayor. The Texas Townsite Company donated land to the town for a school and churches. The first school opened in 1890, followed by churches of several denominations. Fraternal organizations were established, and the Lott Volunteer Fire Department was organized in 1895. Following the completion of the railroad, Lott experienced a time of rapid growth. Although the railroad route closed in 1949, the town flourished.