The Alameda - Cheaney Project donated a 1917 Eastland County
map to the Eastland County Museum recently. The map shows many
communities, schools, and churches that have long vanished from
the landscape. Old roads, wagon trails and even homestead locations
from the earliest days of the county's history are visible on
a digitally-enlarged version of the map, also shared by the project.
Come by the museum and find the Bug Tussle School (you were right,
Mr. Kimbrough), Rustler, the Marsden School, the Tanner School,
the Freedom School, the Bluff Branch School, German Church, the
Thurman School, the rail line to our county's only Thurber mine
and many other exciting locales. By combining the path of the
census taker with the homesteads on the map, and now being able
to identify old wagon roads, researchers interested in all parts
of Eastland County history can help unlock mysteries from long
ago. One known homestead dates to the 1860s.
Jeff Clark - Jdclark3312@aol.com