Oatmeal is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in Burnet County

Burnet County, Texas

Burnet County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2000, the population was 34,147. The 2008 Census Bureau Estimate was 44,488. Its county seat is Burnet. Burnet is named for David Gouverneur Burnet, the first president of the Republic of Texas...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is situated along RM 243

Ranch to Market Road 243

Ranch to Market Road 243, Ranch Road 243, or RM 243, is a Ranch to Market Road in the U.S. state of Texas maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation . The road, first designated in 1945, is located in Burnet and Williamson counties in the Texas Hill Country and passes through the city of...

, approximately eight miles southeast of Burnet

Burnet, Texas

Burnet is a city in and the county seat of Burnet County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,735 at the 2000 census.Both the city and the county were named for David Gouverneur Burnet, the first president of the Republic of Texas. He also served as Vice President during the...

 and 56 miles northwest of Austin

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

.

History

The area's first settlers were German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 families during the late 1840s. The community's name is either an alteration of a Mr. Othneil – the area's first gristmill owner, or a supposed translation of the name Habermill (Haber being a German dialect

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 word for Hafer, "oats"). A post office was established in 1853 under the name Oatmeal. The first schoolhouse opened in 1858, only to be replaced by a second building eleven years later. A gin built in the 1870s continued to serve as a local landmark into the early 1900s. A cemetery was deeded in 1871, although burials were recorded in the area as early as 1854.

In 1936, Oatmeal had a school, two churches, and scattered dwellings. By 1990, the population was around twenty – consisting mostly of families engaged in farming and ranching. That figure remained the same in 2000.

Stringtown

Following the Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, a colony of freed slaves, "freedmen", settled in the eastern part of Oatmeal. The settlement, known as Stringtown, included homes, a building used as a church and school, and Burnet County's only all-black cemetery. The community of Stringtown remained in existence until the early 1920s.

Oatmeal Festival

Since 1978, the community of Oatmeal and the nearby city of Bertram

Bertram, Texas

Bertram is a city in Burnet County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,122 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Bertram is located at . This is 10 miles east of Burnet and 37 miles northwest of Austin....

 have celebrated an annual Oatmeal Festival. Ken Odiorne, a local resident, started the tradition by writing to the major producers of oatmeal

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is ground oat groats , or a porridge made from oats . Oatmeal can also be ground oat, steel-cut oats, crushed oats, or rolled oats....

 at the time to ask for assistance. Only one company, National Oats, responded.

The Oatmeal Festival has played a significant role in the continued notoriety and existence of Oatmeal, Burnet County's second oldest community.

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