Community of Concho

The Handbook of Texas says Concho's first school opened in 1906-07 with one teacher, and that by 1908 the community had a Woodmen of the World lodge. In 1940 its seven-grade school had two teachers and an average daily attendance of thirty-one, and by 1955 the district had been consolidated with Paint Rock's. The population was put at twenty in 1914, fifteen in 1925, fifty in 1939 and thirty in 1968, and a 1987 topographic map showed a cemetery and one occupied building.

What the plaque says

As settlers came to the area in the late 1800's, a small farming community developed here along the Concho River. In 1905 a post office opened in the home of W. D. Cape. In 1906 J. W. Barr (d. 1964) opened a general store at this site. As the business center for the surrounding rural area, the settlement was also the site of a school, two churches, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, and a cemetery. Although the population had declined by the 1940's and the post office was closed in 1954, the site of the pioneer community serves as a reminder of the area's early settlers. (1983)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnegie Library of Ballinger — 16 mi
  A 1909 limestone library with an Ionic portico in a railroad town the Santa Fe created in 1886, one of the few Texas Carnegie libraries still working in its original building.

More markers nearby

• Site of Mission San Clemente — 4.6 mi
• Rich Coffey House — 5.7 mi
• John S. Chisum, Confederate Beef Contractor — 6.7 mi
• Concho County — 6.8 mi