Fields Spur

Leo, three miles southeast of Lexington in western Lee County, grew up around a stop on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and was known for a time as Field's Spur, after Dr. J. A. Fields. Around 1900 the name Leo, or Leo Switch, was adopted. In 1892 the predominantly black community purchased a lot for a school a mile north of Leo Switch, but, since the site had no drinking water the school was built in 1894 at Doak Springs, three miles away. By 1907 a school was operating in St. James Church nearer Leo, but Leo residents finally built a school on the original site they had purchased in 1892. In 1918 the school was consolidated with the Biehl school and in 1951 with the Lexington Independent School District. In the 1930s Leo had the school and a number of scattered dwellings. The church continued to serve area residents in the early 1980s. The population was ten in 2000.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.