City of Temple

The plaque says Temple was named for a Santa Fe official. Bernard Moore Temple was the railway's chief engineer. Born in Virginia in 1843, he served in the Confederate artillery, then learned railroad engineering in Kansas, Nebraska and East Texas under Octave Chanute and Grenville Dodge. Appointed chief engineer of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe in 1878, he supervised 359 miles of track from Arcola to Fort Worth and Lampasas, built to high standards and pushed fast. Later he served as Galveston's city engineer and waterworks superintendent, and he died there in 1901.

What the plaque says

City of Temple Founded in 1881 on the Santa Fe line, Temple, like dozens of Texas towns, owed its beginning to the railroad and was, in fact, named for a Santa Fe official, B.M Temple. On June 29, 1881, a gala town lot sale, with free barbecue, was held by promoters. In 1882, the Missouri, Kansas, & Texas built through and soon after, Santa Fe made Temple a division point. For some time, however, Temple was a town of shacks and tents with the usual large number of saloons and tough characters found in the early west. Locally, it was called "Tanglefoot", because some citizens found that the combination of muddy streets and liquor made walking rather difficult at times. At 1882, the town was incorporated and two private schools began. The Temple Academy was soon organized and public school was established in 1884. In 1893, the annual Temple "Stag Party" began, growing out of a private Thanksgiving celebration attended by the town's leading men. It was held until 1923. Today Temple is known as a major hospital center of the south, for located here are Santa Fe Hospital (founded 1891), King's Daughters Hospital (1896), the Scott and White Hospital (1904), and the Veterans Administration (formerly McCloskey) Hospital (1942). (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 0.3 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Mother Neff State Park — 18 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 28 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Site of the Organization of the Texas Forestry Association — steps away
• Temple College — steps away
• Knob Creek Lodge No. 401, A.F. & A.M. — steps away
• 42nd Reunion of Hood's Texas Brigade — steps away