Oakalla

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Burnet County, there's a little place called Oakalla, and if you blink while you're drivin' through, you might miss the whole story. But that story goes back a long way.

The first settlers showed up in this rich farm and ranch land in the 1850s, drawn by soil that knew how to work. They came, they put down roots, and they got to building something. Now, building something takes time.

It takes a post office. And on May 19, 1879, Oakalla got one. That's the moment a community stops being a collection of folks and starts being a place with a name on it.

By 1881, Oakalla wasn't messin' around. A doctor, a drugstore, a blacksmith shop, and a cotton gin. You stop and think about what those four things together mean, and you're lookin' at the full picture of frontier life: somebody to patch you up, somewhere to get your medicine, a man to shoe your horse and fix your plow, and a gin to turn your cotton into a future.

Schools in those early years were private affairs, until the community got together and built something cooperative, with classrooms up on the second floor. The two-acre school site was officially deeded in 1890, giving the whole arrangement a proper legal footing. And on Sundays, folks didn't have a church building to gather in.

They worshipped in the schoolhouse. When the weather was kind, they worshipped under brush arbors, open to the sky. That went on until 1908, when the Oakalla Baptist Church erected a meetinghouse.

Took a while, but they built it. Then came the kind of quiet ending that a lot of small Texas communities know well. In 1958, the school consolidated with Lampasas.

The building didn't go dark, though. It became a community center. The gathering didn't stop.

It just changed its name.

What the marker says

The first settlers in this rich farm and ranch land arrived in the 1850s. Oakalla Post Office was established May 19, 1879. Schools were private until a cooperative was built which provided classrooms on the second floor. Oakalla boasted a doctor, drugstore, blacksmith shop, and a cotton gin by 1881. The two-acre school site was deeded in 1890. Worship was held in the schoolhouse and in brush arbors until 1908 when Oakalla Baptist Church erected a meetinghouse. The school consolidated in 1958 with Lampasas and the building became a community center.