Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Williams

The settlement the Williamses helped start outlived most of its neighbors for a long time. Trickham's school closed in 1936, yet its population rose from seventy-nine in 1930 to 125 in 1940 and did not fall until the mid-1960s. The last general store and gas station closed in 1976, and the post office in 1979. In the mid-1980s the Trickham Union Church, founded by the Baptist preacher Noah T. Byars in 1878 and a union church since 1903, served Methodists, Baptists and Cumberland Presbyterians, and a quilting club met weekly in the old school building.

What the plaque says

William Patrick Williams (ca. 1818-1898) and his wife Elizabeth (Boles) (ca. 1822-1899) migrated to Texas from Mississippi during the Civil War. After a brief stay in Cherokee County, they settled in this area, arriving by wagon train. Their nearby homestead became the nucleus of the neighboring rural settlement, the site of an early school they helped establish. The Williamses and their six children survived many hardships, including Indian raids and a smallpox epidemic. William, often called "Mukewater Bill" for a stream near his home, was a pioneer area leader. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Brownwood State Park — 22 mi
  A CCC park on a reservoir that filled in a single flood before its dam was done, with stone cabins, a hilltop dance pavilion and a grand staircase climbed by dancers arriving by boat.

More markers nearby

• Town of Trickham — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Bangs — 10 mi
• Bangs Public Schools — 11 mi
• John R. Banister — 11 mi