Pete Kendall: Ghosts of hamlets past haunt Johnson County

As Johnson County communities go, Rock Tank was no hole in the road during The Great Depression. In truth, it was about half a hole.

But excitement could be plentiful, which is why Rock Tank ranks near the top of the list of area ghost towns today.

We remember it for Bonnie and Clyde. Also for Bone Corner.

Doris Lanfear, born in 1929 and a proud graduate of Rock Tank school, eagerly supplies details.

“We lived on a family farm west of Watts Chapel near what is now Farm Road 4,” she said. “A little road that went to our farm came out right beside this big oak tree. This man and woman had pulled their vehicle off the road and under the tree.

“My father, Charley Harvey, was riding his horse, Old Buck, up to the store in Sand Flat. He noticed the car under the tree. Being the good neighbor that he was, he jumped off his horse and said, ‘Can I help you?’

“Well, Bonnie Parker got out of the car and put her foot on the running board. She had a gun in her hand. She told my father, ‘You get on your horse, go home and keep your mouth shut.’ He got on his horse and came home, but he didn’t keep his mouth shut. He came in the back door huffing and puffing. My mother thought it was hilarious, but she didn’t laugh in front of Dad. She went to the kitchen and chuckled until she realized he was telling the truth.”

This would have been 1934, Doris said.

Bonnie and Clyde sightings were common in these parts back then. They were said to occasionally enjoy lunch on the lawn of the Hood County courthouse, probably on their way to Mineral Wells for crazy water.

As for Bone Corner, “It was between my house and Rock Tank school,” Doris said. “A body had been found years before at the base of the hill. Whenever I approached Bone Corner going to school and coming home from school, I ran. My older brother Bill had frightened me with scary stories about it. He was forever ornery.”

You won’t find much if you’re looking for Rock Tank now.

“Earl Gatlin lives where the school was, and the windmill still stands and runs,” Doris said. “That’s all there is.”

The same could be said for any number of Johnson County hamlets. Or former hamlets.

Barnesville, presently a wide spot in the road on the way from Cleburne to Waxahachie, was mighty big stuff in the 19th century.

Moses, Ben and Andrew Barnes founded it along with Jaud and John Dee in 1853. The location appeared sensible — rich dirt, ample elbow room, easy future access to I-35.

But what really must have appealed to the gents was Chambers Creek.

Water was something you kind of had to have in those days if you wanted to survive a Texas summer. The Lake Aquilla pipeline was still several years down the road.

By 1885, Barnesville had two grist mills, a cotton gin, two churches, the school and a population of 150.

Then, in the 1880s, the death knell sounded.

The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe and the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroads breezed into eastern Johnson County and missed poor Barnesville by a country mile.

The little town struggled to keep its school doors open with one teacher and 49 students in 1903.

Soon thereafter, Barnesville was a bundle of memories, a church and a cemetery in a pastoral setting on County Road 206 south of CR 107.

Barnesville is among the contenders for most noteworthy apparition in Johnson County.

There are others such as Stovall, Falls, Beulah, Marystown, Bruce, Cross Timbers, Stubblefield, Rock Creek, Quicksand, Equistria, Cuba, Donald, Buchanan, Buel, Freeland, the aforementioned Watts Chapel and Union Hill.

Stovall was named for John W. Stovall. It got its post office in 1884 and lost it in 1891.

Falls’ post office lasted from 1884-86. The town name of Beulah — 1882 — was changed to the town name of Virgile in 1890. It didn’t amount to a whole lot as either.

Marystown was settled in 1870 and got its post office four years later.

About a year before the post office was boarded up, most of the residents hightailed it for Egan some two miles away.

Smart move. Egan was a stop on the Katy line.

Stubblefield was founded in 1857 by John B. Westbrook, who went into business with a grist mill and saw mill. The cemetery is located on CR 313A off Farm-to-Market Road 2415 south of Alvarado.

Rock Creek popped up north of Godley around 1858 and popped down around 1860.

Not much is known of Quicksand, except that its population must have been sucked right into the ground.

Quicksand’s post office was established in September 1871 and was discontinued in July of the same year.

Equistria was about nine miles from our fair city in southwestern Johnson County. Bruce was a thriving community about 15 miles northwest of Cleburne and a hop, skip and jump from Godley.

By 1930, Bruce was gone with the wind.

The community of Cross Timbers was nestled in northeastern Johnson County and named after the region known as — you might have guessed — the cross timbers. The community was born in 1853, got its post office in 1882, and was busy as a beehive by 1885 with a cotton gin, grist mill, church, school and several commercial enterprises.

Cross Timbers likely welcomed Chisholm Trail longhorn traffic.

The welcome mat was probably not rolled out for Sam Bass and other stagecoach robbers.

Resourceful to the end, they surely rolled out their own.