Forestburg

Cattlemen including Austin Perryman, Wash Williams and Bob Clark settled here in the early 1850s, though raids kept the place undeveloped until the 1870s. The county's first school opened nearby in 1858. The community began as Horn Hill and became Forest Hill for its grove of live oaks; when the post office refused that name, already in use elsewhere in Texas, it became Forestburg, with mail from 1876. By 1885 it had 200 people, sawmills and cotton gins, and by 1900 it had 372 and a telephone system. It fell to 100 by the mid-1950s and fifty by 2000.

What the plaque says

Established after the Civil War in memory of its pioneers who battled with the Indians, endured hardships and conquered the soil that civilization might live.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stonewall Saloon Museum — 12 mi
  Saint Jo's first permanent building, a stone saloon of 1873 with rooms upstairs for trail drovers, in a town named, the story goes, as a joke on a founder who did not drink.

More markers nearby

• Town of Saint Jo — 12 mi
• Montague Cemetery — 13 mi
• First National Bank of Bowie — 17 mi
• M. Johnson Poultry Ranch — 17 mi