Election Oak

Bosque County began with commissioners looking for a middle. After the legislature organized the county in 1854, six commissioners chose the seat, and the Handbook of Texas says they accepted 100 acres from Dr. Josephus M. Steiner and twenty from Andrew Montgomery. George B. Erath surveyed the townsite. Lots sold at auction on July 4, 1854, and William McCurry had built a one-room log courthouse by fall. The name Meridian was proposed by Commissioner Jasper N. Mabray, the Handbook says, though it calls the origin somewhat obscure.

What the plaque says

Election Oak One of three polling places in first election held after Bosque County was organized in 1854. Of 21 votes cast on that occasion (August 7, 1854) in county, 17 were polled under this tree. J. K. Helton was election judge. Officials elected were: L. H. Scrutchfield, judge; P. Bryant, sheriff; Jasper N. Mabray, clerk; Isaac Gary, assessor-collector; Archibald Kell, treasurer. In later years, Bosque County Old Settlers Association used this site for reunions, by the courtesy of Tom M. Pool, owner of the land. Site was known locally as Pool Park. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bosque Museum — 4.1 mi
  A Clifton museum holding what it calls the largest repository of Norwegian artifacts in the South and Southwest, with Bosque County finds some 10,000 years old and a log cabin built by the Olson family.
• Meridian State Park — 14 mi
  A 505-acre park in Bosque County where World War I veterans of a Civilian Conservation Corps company dammed Bee Creek in 1933-34 for a 72-acre lake and cut stone buildings around it.
• Waco Mammoth National Monument — 24 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 — 27 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.

More markers nearby

• Clifton Lutheran College — 4.1 mi
• Lowry Hampton Scrutchfield — 4.6 mi
• Site of Clifton Mill — 5.0 mi
• Original Site of Valley Mills — 6.0 mi