Abbott

Abbott burned and rebuilt more than once. The Handbook of Texas lists fires in 1897, 1903 and 1904. Electricity came in 1913 with the Southern Traction Company's interurban, and in 1920 a highway was built through the middle of town beside the Katy and interurban lines. Abbott incorporated in 1916 with C. W. Thompson as mayor. Population peaked at 713 around 1914 and fell to 264 by 1941, and by 1932 the Katy stopped only when flagged. The entry also notes that Willie Nelson is from Abbott.

What the plaque says

Abbott In 1881, on land owned by G.M. Dodge, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (Katy) Railroad built a line through a new town named for Joseph Abbott, a Hill County resident, lawyer and U.S. Congressman. Winston W. Treadwell soon opened a general store managed by L.C. Barnett, who built and occupied the town's first residence. Ten years later, the community supported a school, several businesses, a post office and three churches. Abbott suffered major fires at the turn of the 20th century, but its residents rebuilt. Today, their history is maintained through religious and educational institutions, as well as cemeteries, which chronicle the lives of generations of area residents. (2006)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hill County Courthouse — 9.4 mi
  Wesley C. Dodson's limestone Second Empire courthouse of 1890 on the Hillsboro square, gutted by fire on New Year's Day 1993 and rededicated in 1999 after a rebuilding that two Willie Nelson concerts helped pay for.
• Waco Mammoth National Monument — 20 mi
  A bone bed on the Bosque River where a nursery herd of at least 19 Columbian mammoths was trapped and drowned by floodwater 65,000 to 72,000 years ago, left in place under a dig shelter.
• Waco Suspension Bridge — 23 mi
  A Brazos crossing opened in January 1870 as the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi, tolled until 1889, closed to vehicles in 1971 and now walked.
• Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum — 23 mi
  The official state repository of Texas Ranger memorabilia, opened in 1968 in Fort Fisher Park on the Brazos, named for a Ranger post of 1837 whose site no one has located.

More markers nearby

• Abbott Schools — 0.3 mi
• First Baptist Church of West — 5.6 mi
• The Crash at Crush — 5.7 mi
• West — 5.9 mi