Ames

Ames is on State Highway 36 eight miles northwest of Gatesville in north central Coryell County. It was originally located on the Leon River two miles to the south, but moved closer to the highway. The community was probably named for William Ames, an early settler. In 1889 the Methodist church, which had been located next to the cemetery, was rebuilt near the center of the settlement. It was originally called Union Grove and later known as the Ames Methodist Church. The Ames post office opened in 1893 and was housed in the community store, whose successive proprietors served as postmaster. The church, store, and a school named Enterprise were all located together and stood on land belonging to the Liljeblad family.

Ames acquired telephone service in 1905. At one time it had two switchboards, one of which was used especially to call across the Leon River to Ater and Levita. The community also had a gin and a shop. Electricity reached Ames in 1941. The school, which had been served by two teachers, closed in the early 1940s, and the children were bused to Gatesville. The post office was discontinued in 1957, the same year that the church disbanded. Most members transferred to a church in Jonesboro. The Ames school and the church were torn down, and the store seems to have closed by the early 1960s. Weaver's Chapel Cemetery, the second cemetery established for the community, was still accessible off Highway 36 in the late 1980s. Ames reported a population of ten in 1896 and twenty-five from 1925 through 1967. Still living on or near their ancestors' original land holdings in the late 1980s were descendants of the Liljeblad, Wilson, Wilhelm, Quicksall, Coward, Bell, Yows, and Byrom families. In 2000 the population was ten.