Elizabethtown, Texas

Texas

This town was called Bugtown because insects once swarmed a revival meeting so thickly the preacher had to quit.

historicalroadside

Before it was Elizabethtown, people called this place Bugtown. According to folks in nearby Justin, the name came from one night at a camp meeting, when so many bugs swarmed in that the preaching had to stop. The settlers arrived around 1850, part of the Peters Colony. By 1852 the place was a supply station for cowboys pushing herds north to Kansas. Seven years later it had six saloons, a hotel, and a post office. The school topped out at twenty-five students. There were four general stores eventually, two hotels, a livery stable, Baptist and Methodist churches, and a Masonic lodge. Then in 1881 the Texas and Pacific Railway came through Denton County and missed the town by two miles. That was enough. Residents packed up and moved two miles east to a brand new place called Roanoke. They took their businesses with them. They took the churches. They even took the Masonic lodge.

This is the first of 2 parts. The rest runs about 2 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.

What this was written from
Elizabethtown was once known as Bugtown after so many bugs swarmed in on a camp meeting one night that the preaching had to be stopped

Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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