Tennyson

The Handbook of Texas says Samuel Sayner, an Englishman who settled here in 1882, named the town for the poet. Its 1894 post office took over the duties of the Mule Creek post office, later called Juniper, and the first school was called County Line until 1912. Tennyson had only twenty people in 1910, when the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient began running, and for several years it grew and had several businesses and stores, but growth stopped as cotton farming declined in the 1920s. It had fifty people in 1940 and thirty-five from 1980 through 2000.

What the plaque says

In area roamed by Indians for centuries. Tamed by open-range cattlemen in the late 1870's. Permanent settlement began in 1880's. A post office, named for British poet Alfred Tennyson, was established in 1894 with Mrs. Sarah E. Kiser as the first postmaster. Seven persons have held that office to date (1970). Over years, area has had several schools, but all are now closed. Near Mt. Margaret (height 335 feet), once locale of Indian activities, is now site of annual community homecoming (the Saturday before Labor Day) and Easter sunrise religious services each spring. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Carnegie Library of Ballinger — 20 mi
  A 1909 limestone library with an Ionic portico in a railroad town the Santa Fe created in 1886, one of the few Texas Carnegie libraries still working in its original building.
• Fort Chadbourne — 20 mi
  An 1852 infantry post and Butterfield stage station on a Coke County ranch, its fallen stone buildings rebuilt since 1999 by the descendant of the family that has ranched the land since 1877.
• Miss Hattie's Bordello Museum — 22 mi
  The upstairs rooms on Concho Avenue where a brothel ran from 1902 until the Texas Rangers closed it in 1952, shown on short guided tours with most of the furnishings original.
• San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts — 22 mi
  A free art museum on the Concho beside Fort Concho, founded in the fort's 1868 quartermaster building and known nationally for its biennial ceramics competition.

More markers nearby

• Maverick — 8.0 mi
• First Baptist Church of Bronte — 9.5 mi
• Miles Methodist Church — 12 mi
• Norton — 13 mi