Joppa Community

The Pool Branch name held until 1891, when residents chose a Bible name for the new post office. A telephone line reached Joppa on May 19, 1904, and an iron bridge was built across the North San Gabriel in 1907; it was still in use in 1989. The Pedernales Electric Cooperative brought electricity in 1939. Friday and Saturday night socials and Sunday night singings, building up to an annual picnic, filled community life as late as the 1930s. In 2000 the Handbook of Texas counted thirty-four people.

What the plaque says

Joppa Community Some of the first settlers in this farming and ranching community were the William Alexander Faires family in 1874 and the Martin Luther Ater family the next year. The settlement was called "Pool Branch" for a nearby pool formed by a waterfall. In the 1880s a cotton gin and mill were located on the pool which was known as "Mill Pond". There was a store, a blacksmith shop, and one mile from the gin, Mrs. Hattie Snow Smith ran a hat shop in her home. J. S. and Jane Danford of Delaware County, Iowa, gave two acres in 1881 for a school and church, provided the schoolhouse was completed by March 1, 1882. Area residents met the deadline. With the establishment of a post office in 1891, the community's name changed to the biblical, "Joppa". William F. Childers served as the first postmaster. After the coming of rural mail delivery, the post office closed in 1904. Worship was held in the Joppa Schoolhouse until 1913 when the Joppa Baptist Church congregation erected this meetinghouse. The Joppa School consolidated with Bertram in 1942. All that remains of the pioneer settlement is the church house and school building which serves as a community center. (1979)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge: Doeskin Ranch — 14 mi
  A free federal refuge north of Lake Travis kept for two songbirds that need old juniper and oak, with trails at the Doeskin Ranch unit near Bertram.
• Hancock Springs Park — 18 mi
  Lampasas's city park on Sulphur Creek, with a spring-fed swimming pool that holds about 69 degrees all year, the walls of the old bathhouse and a golf course.
• Inks Lake State Park — 21 mi
  A state park on a constant-level lake of the Colorado, between Buchanan and Inks dams, with pink granite and gneiss at the water and CCC work along Park Road 4.
• Longhorn Cavern State Park — 21 mi
  A cave carved by an underground river in the Hill Country, cleared of mud by hand in the 1930s and reached down 52 stone steps on a guided tour.

More markers nearby

• Shady Grove Community — 3.1 mi
• Black's Fort — 3.2 mi
• Site of Town of Strickling — 4.2 mi
• Bertram School — 5.6 mi