Ames, Coryell County, Texas

For the city in Liberty County, see Ames, Texas.

Ames, Coryell County, Texas
Unincorporated community
Ames Ames
Coordinates: 31°31′16″N 97°46′46″W
Country	United States
State	Texas
County	Coryell
Elevation	922 ft (281 m)
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central (CST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code	254
GNIS feature ID	1379340

Ames is an unincorporated community in Coryell County, in the U.S. state of Texas. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 10 in 2000. It is located within the Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood metropolitan area.

History

William Ames, a pioneer settler, was possibly honored with the community's name. The Methodist church, which had previously been situated next to the cemetery, was rebuilt close to the settlement's center in 1889. Union Grove was the initial name, and afterward, it became known as the Ames Methodist Church. The town store, whose consecutive owners served as the postmaster, was the location of the Ames post office when it opened its doors in 1893. On land owned by the Liljeblad family, a store and a church were all situated close by. In 1905, telephone service was installed in Ames. It once had two switchboards, one of which was used specifically for calls to Ater and Levita across the Leon River. There was a shop and a gin in the community. Ames received electricity in 1941. The church was dissolved in 1957, the same year that the post office was shut down. The majority of the congregants moved to a Jonesboro church. By the early 1960s, the business appeared to have closed and the chapel had been demolished. In the late 1980s, Weaver's Chapel Cemetery, the second cemetery built for the settlement was still reachable from Highway 36. Ten people lived in Ames in 1896, and 25 lived there between 1925 and 1967. In the late 1980s, descendants of the Liljeblad, Wilson, Wilhelm, Quicksall, Coward, Bell, Yows, and Byrom families were still residing on or close to the original property holdings. The population was ten in 2000.

Geography

Ames is located on Texas State Highway 36, 8 mi (13 km) northwest of Gatesville in north-central Coryell County. It moved closer to the highway from its original location on the Leon River two miles to the south.

Education

Ames had a school called Enterprise School. It was served by two teachers and closed in the early 1940s. After it was razed, kids soon rode the bus to school in Gatesville. Today, the community is served by the Gatesville Independent School District.