Sparta: a Reminder of our Heritage
Founded in 1854, Bell County and its communities faced many obstacles from its antebellum start through the mid twentieth century.[1] The first settlers in the Texas county encountered deadly raids from the Tonkawa Indian tribes until 1859. When those finally subsided, a drought hindered the economy of an area almost entirely dependent on agriculture. Next came the Civil War and the subsequent reconstruction, which devalued the county’s property by more than half.[2] The Great Depression and two consecutive world wars followed, placing massive burdens on the entire country. However, the residents of Bell County proved to be resilient, hard-workers. They pressed on through hardship and established homesteads, incorporated cities, and built businesses. One town in Bell County, Sparta, was an exemplary example of this truly frontier spirit. Before being submerged beneath the waters of Belton Lake in 1954, Sparta’s tenuous history included a school district, several businesses, a post-office, and thirty-five homesteads.[3]
Many factors attributed to Sparta’s ability to live up to its ancient Greek namesake. One was undoubtedly the character of its founders. The grandsons of the Declaration of Independence signer George Walton, Nelson and Wash Walton, made way to the lower Cowhouse Valley and established a settlement in 1854. This settlement would later become Sparta. Both were experienced farmers and devout Christians. Wash held tent meetings, where a traveling minister baptized converts in the Cowhouse River. Wash built, at his own expense, a two story building on his own property. He let the young community use the building as a church, a school, and for a time the post office.[4] His giving nature and belief in community involvement seemingly carried down through later generations in Sparta. Parson Moses Denman established the first Baptist church in the Cowhouse Valley area in Sparta.[5] One historian of the town found that no one from the community was ever sent to prison.[6]. This allowed the citizens to work together and survive the hardships that led to the demise of other small communities like it. J.J Bishop, a deceased Sparta resident, believed that “no one who has ever been a resident of Sparta need be ashamed of it.”[7]
Early residents of Sparta made their living off the fertile soil and green pastures supplied by the lower Cowhouse Valley. At the time of the settling of Sparta a diverse wildlife population of deer, wild turkeys, wolves, bear, buffalo, antelope, wild horses, ducks, geese, and wild hogs roamed the lands of Bell County.[8] This prime location and natural resources enabled residents to be self-sufficient. They had the ability to grow, hunt, or build everything needed for survival. It wedged a shield between them and the economic woes of the industrial world. With land they did not use to grow their own food, many planted and grew cotton for profit. Sparta’s agrarian society forced mothers and children to help out in the fields and pick rows of cotton. Former Sparta residents, Gladys Keener Chastain and Margaret Bert Wilhite Bounds, told stories of being young and trying any excuse they could to get out of picking cotton in the heat. They pretended to be sick or hide for the day. Their mothers, women who spent their days picking cotton and evenings caring for the family, usually managed to “find them out” and send them back to the fields.[9]
In the early days, Sparta farmers transported their cotton to the gin in Belton. The sixteen-mile trip took the entire day by wagon.[10] These visits to town represent a special occasion for Sparta families. Bounds remembered taking extra time to curl her hair and put on her best dress. The larger town of Belton included stores with ice cream, bananas, and treats that she had never laid eyes upon before.[11] Mothers typically bought household items and fabric for making clothing. In 1879, however, the first store in Sparta opened followed by a cotton gin soon after. This Cooperative Grange Store in Sparta, one of eleven Grange stores in the Bell County area, proved to be the most successful.[12] That success was attributed to the store manager, T.E. Tomilson. After working as the manager for several years, Mr. Tomilson purchased the store himself. He gained popularity by paying 100% of the stock inventory. His gesture of honesty would carry by word of mouth throughout the area, bringing in customers from all around.[13] The early 1890s also brought a second store to Sparta, owned by Frank and Joe Morgan.[14] It was common for customers to trade items with the stores, rather than paying in cash. T.A. Wilhite, recalled cutting down cedar posts to trade for groceries.[15] Both stores sold groceries, housewares, tobacco, and fabrics. The gin processed cotton that local farmers produced. By the turn of the century, the more self-sufficient residents of Sparta no longer made the trip to Belton for goods and services.
Sparta absorbed two neighboring communities: O’Hair’s Mill and Taylor’s Branch.[16] At one time, O’Hair’s Mill had a blacksmith shop, a store, a flour and saw mill, and a cotton gin. One by one, each of these establishments left town, either due to a lack of customers or fire. The citizens of O’Hair’s Mill then began patronizing the establishments of Sparta. Eventually, it was decided that the O’Hair’s Mill school did not have enough pupils and those students were moved to Sparta.[17]
The Sparta school began in a building donated to the community by Ney Walton in 1895. The school district encompassed fifteen square miles[18] and employed two teachers.[19] Chastain demonstrates that farm families allowed teachers to live with them, free of charge, because the drive back and forth to one of the larger towns was too far.[20]
Self-reliant communities in rural Bell County depended on someone willing to take care of medical needs, and Sparta’s sketchy history finds few doctors. Evidence identifies a Dr. Cole, who established a practice in Sparta in 1884.[21] Although the record does not show why, he was not well received by the community and left town a few years later. Another doctor, a Dr. Cummins, picked up where Cole left off. Cummins became the community doctor and a well-liked member of his community. He served Sparta for more than 10 years. [22]
The turn of the century blackened the horizon for Sparta. In 1903, a fire devastated downtown.[23] No businesses remained after the fire. Photographic evidence shows that one store, Robertson’s, was in operation at Sparta during 1938. Evidence also suggests a church remained. Despite the decline in its economic resources, Sparta still managed to maintain status as a haven of life for its citizens.
Sparta remained a viable community in Bell County until the federal government removed its residents in 1954 for the construction of Belton Lake. [24]The lake, built by the Corp of Engineers, was needed to prevent flooding of the Brazos Valley. Sparta, unfortunately, lay in the path of the prospective lake. Residents were paid for their property and forced to move. Bishop, citing the greater good of the county, remembered “hundreds of farms with happy homes may be established along its course with safety from destructive floods.”[25] Other Sparta residents refused to abandon their homesteads. One, Hugh Armen, had his belongings loaded on a truck and shipped to nearby Killeen when he refused to move. .[26]
A once proud and honorable community, Sparta now lies at the depths of Belton Lake. While the farms, churches, schools, and businesses are forever lost, the sense of community lives on. Many residents of Sparta went on to become successful and prominent citizens elsewhere: Pink Denman, son of the first Baptist preacher in the area, would go on to be the Cell County commissioner for twenty years; Dr. Cummins moved his practice to Haskell where he and his children became very successful.[27] This community serves as a reminder of our true Texas roots-- roots in agriculture, close community, and Christianity.
Bibliography
Connor, Seymour and Mark Odintz, "BELL COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcb06), accessed June 24, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
Macaulay, Carol Fiorillo, “Sparta, Texas…Traditions of Self-Sufficiency and Community Solidarity” (Masters Thesis, Texas A&M University, 1998)
Bowmer, Martha, Bell County Revisited, (Temple: Temple Jaycees, 1976)
Bishop, J. J., The Rise and Fall of Sparta: A History of its Beginning and its End, (s. l. : s. n., 1952?)
Sitton, Thad, Harder Than Hardscrabble, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003)
Odintz, Mark, "SPARTA, TX," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hvsav), accessed June 24, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
[1]Seymour V. Connor and Mark Odintz, "BELL COUNTY," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcb06), accessed June 24, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. (Hereafter cited as Handbook of Texas Online, Bell County).
[2]Handbook of Texas Online, Bell County.
[3]Carol Fiorillo Macaulay, “Sparta, Texas…Traditions of Self-Sufficiency and Community Solidarity” (Masters Thesis, Texas A&M University, 1998), 16 (Hereafter Macaulay, page number)
[4]Martha Bowmer, Bell County Revisited, (Temple: Temple Jaycees, 1976), 296-7 (Hereafter Bell County Revisited.)
[5] J.J. Bishop, The Rise and Fall of Sparta: A History of its Beginning and its End, (s. l. : s. n., 1952?) 8 (Hereafter The Rise and Fall of Sparta )
[6] Ibid.. 34
[7]Ibid.. 34.
[8]Handbook of Texas Online, Bell County.
[9].Thad Sitton, Harder Than Hardscrabble, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003) 79
[10]Rise and Fall of Sparta, 35.
[11]Harder than Hardscrabble, 126.
[12]Rise and Fall of Sparta, 37.
[13] Rise and Fall of Sparta, 37
[14] Ibid.. 40
[15]Harder Than Hardscrabble, 120.
[16]Bell County Revisited, 296.
[17]Rise and Fall of Sparta, 36
[18]Macaulay, 16.
[19]Rise and Fall of Sparta, 39.
[20]Harder than Hardscrabble, 195.
[21]Rise and Fall of Sparta, 39.
[22]Ibid., 40.
[23]Ibid.,, 43.
[24]Mark Odintz, "SPARTA, TX," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hvsav), accessed June 24, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
[25]Rise and Fall of Sparta, 54.
[26]Harder Than Hardscrabble, 269.
[27]Rise and Fall of Sparta, 30.