South East of Pioneer farms in Northeast Austin there once was a little town called Sprinkle Texas. William Sprinkle came to Texas and became a cowboy herding cattle along the Chisholm trial. It was on that trail where he discovered the rich soil and abundant live oaks along Walnut Creek. He decided that was where he would buy 223 acres and settle. William invited his uncle Eramus who’s wife had just past away in Virginia to move to Texas. Eramus had three daughters one was widowed during the Civil War and making a living as a school teacher. Cremora and her four children immigrated with him.
For more information about Eramus ckick here.
The town of Sprinkle began it’s slow decline into oblivion as many small towns in rural Texas did following the demise of the cotton industry and the depression. Today the only remaining building in the real town of Sprinkle is the Barr Mansion.
Click here to learn more about the mansion.
There was also an African American community in Sprinkle including a school.
Picture from Portal to Texas History
To learn about the African American school click here.
When the 90 acre outdoor living history museum Pioneer Farms was created it called the collection of relocated buildings that were placed in a circle the town of Sprinkle in memory of the forgotten town. The other remaining building that is all that is left of Sprinkle Texas is one of the buildings on the town square the Jarmon House (or Jamison) This one-story frame house was built around 1900 by Robert Jarmon, a Kentuckian who came to Texas in 1874 and eventually landed in the tiny community of Sprinkle. Jarmon began clerking in the Sprinkle store, by 1890 was the manager and, by 1897, was an owner. He and his wife Beulah, close friends with the wealthy W.T. Barr family whose Victorian mansion was an area landmark, reared six children and became prominent residents. Their house, built atop a hill, was moved to Pioneer Farms in 2010 to save it from demolition.
Today the ghosts in this house are in an ongoing state of confusion. When the house was moved they set it on the square but when they did it was placed facing a different direction than it had when it was built on the hill in Sprinkle. When the sun and moon rise and fall they cast light in through the windows from a different direction confusing the ghosts inside.
To join our ghost tour at Pioneer Farms click here.
Written by Jeanine Plumer
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