Lingleville

Before it had a post office, Lingleville was called Needmore. The Handbook of Texas says R. P. Campbell opened a grocery in his house in the hollow below the present townsite in 1884, and the community kept that name until a post office came. It was renamed to honor John Lingle, who had settled there in 1874. The plaque calls the founder Jacob C. Lingle, so the sources differ on his first name. By 1940 the town had four businesses and 200 residents, and the Handbook reports 100 residents from 1980 through 2000.

What the plaque says

Lingleville Founded in 1884 by Jacob C. Lingle, the town of Lingleville originally covered a ten-block area. A post office was established in 1885, and by 1892 the community boasted stores, blacksmith shops, a mill, gin, and three churches. Although bypassed by the railroad, the town thrived and soon included education facilities and more businesses. Almost completely devastated by a downtown robbery and fire in 1901, the town rallied and rebuilt. The 1919 oil boom at the nearby Desdemona oil field brought increased settlement and business to Lingleville. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dublin Bottling Works — 11 mi
  The Erath County plant that bottled Dr Pepper with cane sugar from 1891 until a 2012 settlement ended its Dr Pepper license, and that still makes its own sodas the same way.
• Old Rip at the Eastland County Courthouse — 28 mi
  A horned lizard in a glass-topped casket in the 1928 Eastland courthouse, the creature said to have come out alive from the old building's cornerstone after thirty-one years.

More markers nearby

• Kiker's Gin — 6.4 mi
• The Community of Huckabay — 7.9 mi
• John Tarleton — 9.4 mi
• Historic Brick Streets of Stephenville — 9.6 mi