City of Springtown

Springtown grew up with its newspapers and a one-dollar stage. The Handbook of Texas says the post office has operated continuously since June 1875, and the town incorporated in 1884 with J. A. Graves as first mayor. The Springtown Male and Female Institute opened the same year. The first newspaper, the Springtown Sentinel, began in 1881. By 1890 Springtown had four churches, two cotton gins, a steam corn mill and a daily stage to Weatherford for a dollar. Population grew from 500 in 1890 to nearly 800 in 1940, then roughly doubled as Fort Worth commuters arrived.

What the plaque says

City of Springtown In 1856, Captain Joseph Ward, a native of New Jersey, settled on a creek fed by numerous springs seventeen miles northeast of Weatherford. In 1859, Ward designed the town square and named the plate Littleton's Springs after a pioneer family. The first settlers in Springtown found about twenty-five active springs within three major areas: Smith Springs, Malone Springs and Kinnard Springs. The town received its present name of Springtown in the mid-1870s because of the beautiful springs that came to the surface on the creek bank just south of the public square. From the beginning, Springtown Square has always been a bustling place of activity with many businesses nearby. Located in the center of town near a well, the square served as a meeting and gathering place where folks came to town to shop, trade and visit. The First Methodist Church was organized in 1857. In 1866, the new union church building housed the Methodists, Baptists and Cumberland Presbyterians, coming together with a different minister to lead services each week. By 1877, the town boasted a school, a hotel, two general stores, two blacksmith shops and three cotton gins. White's Funeral Home began in 1908 and has served the community for over 100 years. Many schools were established early on and Springtown became known as the educational capital of Northwest Texas from 1884 to 1894. By 1949-50, Springtown schools were among the most modern and financially independent in Parker County due to oil discovery in the district. Springtown is often called Parker County's second city. From small beginnings, the town has grown dramatically and will continue to be a source of pride in the community. (2017)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Chandor Gardens — 16 mi
  A portrait painter's English-and-Chinese garden rooms, blasted and planted from a bare 3.5-acre hillside in Weatherford beginning in 1936, abandoned after 1978 and reopened by the city in 2002.
• Wise County Courthouse — 19 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's granite Romanesque courthouse of 1895-96 in Decatur, built after fire destroyed the Second Empire courthouse and set off a fight over the county seat.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 23 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.
• Lake Mineral Wells State Park and Trailway — 23 mi
  A Cross Timbers park on the old Camp Wolters grounds, built around a 1922 water-supply lake for a spa town, with Penitentiary Hollow's rock climbing and a 20-mile trailway.

More markers nearby

• William and Elisabeth Woody Homestead — 3.0 mi
• Veal's Station — 3.9 mi
• Keeter Cemetery — 6.6 mi
• "Machine Gun" Kelley — 7.0 mi