Mt. Eden Community

The Handbook knows the place by its older name, Hickston, on Ranch Road 2814 about six miles south of Waelder. Little is recorded of its earliest years, but Hickston secured a post office in 1898. W. J. Adams was postmaster in 1914, and the office had closed by 1921. In 1936 the twenty-odd farms around Hickston were served by the Mount Eden school, and no businesses were listed there that year. The name still appeared on the county highway map of 1988, though apart from a cemetery little remained to mark the townsite.

What the plaque says

Mt. Eden Community Formerly enslaved men and women developed the Hickston Community (now known as Mt. Eden) looking to forge a new life after Emancipation. Clara Balridge, Robert and Emma Stockton and Boyd James were early landowners in this agricultural community, which provided food for several local markets and stores. The community established a school, cemetery, post office, two stores and two churches, Baptist and AME congregations sharing one facility. In 1914, the Baptist church built its own structure. The original Mt. Eden school building was moved to Waelder, and in 1966, moved back to the church site. Area population declined in the mid-1900s, but the legacy of the intrepid freedmen and women remains. (2023)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lockhart Courthouse Square — 31 mi
  A cotton-era courthouse town named the Barbecue Capital of Texas, built near the 1840 Plum Creek fight that followed the killing of Comanche leaders at peace talks.

More markers nearby

• The Town of Waelder — 6.4 mi
• Hopkinsville Lodge No. 183, A.F. & A.M. — 6.4 mi
• Leander C. Cunningham — 7.0 mi
• Site of Hopkinsville — 11 mi