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Fate City Hall
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, September 2009 |
Photographer's
Note:
Fate Texas Today - "This looks
to have been a very small town that is being totally swallowed by
new housing development. Would not be surprised to learn that 90 plus
percent of the town is less than 5-10 years old." - Mike
Price, September 2009
History in a Pecan Shell
The name isn’t fate as in destiny and it doesn’t mean
predestination (unless you plan to go there). Early settler Lafayette
Brown was popular enough with his neighbors that they suggested his
shortened name “Fate” be used for the community.
By 1880 the town was granted a post office and within a few years
it had a population of 75 supported by two stores, two cotton gins
and a school.
In 1886, word had leaked that the railroad (the Missouri, Kansas and
Texas) was building through and Dr. Wylie T. Barnes. Barnes platted
a new town on his property, modestly naming the community Barnes City.
Since the land was a mere .5 mile from the old Fate, residents had
no problem moving that short distance. But if Dr. Barnes had grandiose
dreams for his namesake town, they were dashed in 1887 when locals
balked at having to fill out another post office application. Instead,
the new post office acquired the name of the old post office. It was
Fate.
Fate spent the last decade of the 19th century adding people and businesses.
Growth was slow but steady and by the 1920 census, the town was a
single person short of 300 residents.
Shortly after WWI the
highway through Fate was built, but it worsened the situation rather
than improve it. People were able to easily leave Fate for the services
and goods that their tiny community couldn’t supply.
As the Great Depression arrived, Fate’s population dropped by 1/3
to 194 . Just prior to WWII
it was already down to 127. As the war effort increased job opportunities
in Dallas and Fort
Worth, Fate lost population but after the war it started to rise,
eventually reaching nearly 500 for the 1990 census. The 2000 census
reported 497 people in Fate. |
Fate
Presbyterian Church
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, September 2009 |
Fate
Presbyterian Church stained-glass windows
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, September 2009 |
Fate
Presbyterian Church historical marker
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, September 2009 |
Historical Marker:
Fate Presbyterian
Church
When Presbyterians
organized this congregation in the middle 1880s, the community of
Fate was developing as a new settlement on the Missouri, Kansas and
Texas Railroad. Among the eighteen individuals who chartered the church
were members of the Leonard, Kale, McLendon, Cooper, Wilson, Bonsel,
Morgan, Holiday, and Sawyer families.
In the early years, a circuit rider served as minister of this and
other area churches. One early circuit rider was the Rev. J. A. Hornbeak
(d. 1939), who was serving as minister of the Fate Presbyterian Church
in 1894 when the members constructed the first sanctuary. Located
on Brown Street, it was built under the supervision of head carpenter
H. A. Kale (1834-1921), a charter member of the congregation. The
church continued to worship in the structure until the early 1920s.
In 1926, a new church building was completed at this site.
With historic ties to the earliest days of the Fate community, the
Fate Presbyterian Church remains an important institution in Rockwall
County. Church members have included many community leaders and
pioneer area settlers. |
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Central
Baptist Church
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, September 2009 |
Fire
Engines
Photo courtesy Mike
Price, September 2009 |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and vintage/historic photos, please contact
us. |
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