INDIAN GAP

                    
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INDIAN GAP

INDIAN GAP history is filled with Indian lore. "Old settlers say that an Indian chief was killed there years ago in a fight between two tribes of Indians. He was buried on the mountain top where the Gerrell’s monument now stands. Traditionally the mountain top was used for Indian dances and celebrations. John A. McCaleb said that when he was a child there were no trees growing on the top of the mountain, as if it had been used for a dancing ground, and that he had found many Indian arrow heads and beads there. Tradition also says that the point of the mountain was used for an Indian lookout. The Comanche Indians used the gap between the mountains as a route for raiding the area". 

Indian Gap
is approximately eighteen miles west of Hamilton on FM 218 near the Mills and Comanche County lines and in the western corner of Hamilton County.

Hawley Gerrell settled at Indian Gap in 1877. Cutting rock from the mountain, he constructed a two-story limestone house which still stands. His home was used as a post office, a church, a school, a store, and a social center.

James G. Robinson was named the first postmaster at Indian Gap on 23 January, 1879. He was succeed by Hawley Gerrells on 22 November, 1880.

Dr. John Richard Reiger, born 30 May, 1834, in Carlisle County, KY, came to Hamilton County in May, 1876, and in August, 1876, bought 235 acres of land at School Land Cove from Robert S. Howell. Dr. Reiger, a prominent doctor at Indian Gap, purchased another 100 acres later. Dr. Reiger practiced medicine in both Indian Gap and in Pottsville

John Boler, born 22 April, 1827, in Clark County, AL, purchased 240 acres of land on the Cowhouse Creek near Indian Gap in August, 1883. In 1885 Mr. Boler moved to Pottsville to open a store. 

Henry Adkins Shipman, who arrived in Hamilton County in November, 1884, opened the townsite of Indian Gap in 1889  moving his store (purchased from Hawley Gerrells) and post office to this townsite in 1892.

Aubrey Keel was born in Indian Gap in 1901. In 1998, at age 97, he is astoundingly active and alert. Mr. Keel uses two computers. See his biography in the Biographies of Hamilton County.

INDIAN GAP PICNIC & RODEO, 1934

"INDIAN GAP, TX." The Handbook of Texas Online

 

 
Home ] Up ] INDIAN GAP POST OFFICE ] INDIAN GAP SCHOOL ] NEWSPAPER ] CHURCHES ] INDIAN GAP CEMETERY ] INDIAN GAP REGISTERED VOTERS, 1937 ]


People and Places: Gazetteer of Hamilton County, TX
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Copyright © March, 1998
by Elreeta Crain Weathers, B.A., M.Ed.,  
(also Mrs.,  Mom, and Ph. T.)

A Work In Progress