Lilac

Lilac was Oak Point until 1883, when a post office gave it the new name; it kept the office until 1905. The Handbook of Texas counts 100 residents and a steam gristmill and cotton gin in 1884, with cotton, hides and grain going out. In 1903 the community had three schools: one for 32 Black students and two for 97 White students. They were merged into the Sharp district in 1931, and about forty people remained by the end of the decade. The 1988 county highway map showed a church and two cemeteries.

What the plaque says

Lilac Primarily a farming and stockraising settlement, Lilac was originally known as Oak Point. Dr. John H. Graves, a dentist and planter, brought his family to Milam County in 1858. The community which developed around his farm was named Lilac in 1883 when a U. S. post office was established. The Graves family continued to reside in the area for generations, donating land for a school, Baptist church, and Methodist encampment. At its height Lilac included two stores, a cotton gin, blacksmith shop, and homes. It declined after a 1921 flood and the Great Depression. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 15 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.
• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 25 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.

More markers nearby

• Urban Cemetery — 2.2 mi
• Sharp — 2.7 mi
• William Persky — 3.8 mi
• Davilla Baptist Church — 4.8 mi