DUANE
Duane's take
The marker out here in Grayson County is the one telling this story, and I'm just the voice passing it along. Now, picture this — somewhere in the rolling country of Grayson County, there are two large white mounds of rock sitting out in the landscape like they've been waiting for somebody to notice them. Somebody did.
The community that grew up near those mounds took the name straight from what folks could see with their own eyes: Whitemound. In 1849, a man named Henry Lackey made his way down from Missouri with his nine children in tow. Nine.
That is not a typo. Henry Lackey arrived with nine children and the apparent intention to put down roots, and that is exactly what he did. The town began to take shape, and at the center of it all was a grist mill — A.
S. Lackey's grist mill — which became the kind of anchor that draws people in the way a good mill will do. Before long, Whitemound had itself a post office, churches, businesses, and more than one doctor walking its streets.
It even had Bosworth Academy, which is the sort of thing a town puts up when it figures it's going to be around for a while. And for a time, it looked like Whitemound had every reason to believe exactly that. Then came 1888, and with it, the Cotton Belt Railroad — or rather, the Cotton Belt Railroad's decision to go somewhere else.
The railroad bypassed this site, and when a railroad makes that kind of choice, a town tends to feel it all the way down to its foundation. Most of the residents moved away. The mill, the academy, the doctors, the businesses — the life of the place drifted off toward wherever the tracks actually ran.
Those two white mounds of rock are still out there, though. They were there before Henry Lackey arrived with his nine children, and they're still here now, keeping the name alive long after the town moved on.
What the marker says
Named for two large white mounds of rock nearby. Settled 1849 by Henry Lackey and his 9 children, from Missouri. Town grew up around A. S. Lackey grist mill. It had a post office, churches, businesses, several doctors, and Bosworth Academy. Most residents moved away after Cotton Belt Railroad bypassed this site in 1888.