Tours was named for Tours, France.
Texas Historical Marker Text:
The first settlers to this area came by wagon from Teutopolis, Illinois, in 1872. Having arrived on St. Martin's Day, November 11, they called the settlement Martinsville. The name was later changed to Tours in honor of the city in France where St. Martin served as Bishop. After the construction of homes was completed, the settlers began building a structure for the services of St. Martin's Catholic Church. Built under the direction of The Rev. J.L. Bussant, it was dedicated in 1874. The small log building was later replaced in the 1880s by a larger frame edifice. A community school was started in 1883. Classes were conducted in the second floor rooms of the Theodore Schroeder Home (.2 mi. E) until 1890, when a separate school building was completed on the church grounds. Tours was once the site of a post office, harness and saddle shop, cotton gins, saloons, blacksmith shops, meeting halls, and a town brass band. As area farm income decreased in the 1930s and young people left to seek jobs in other cities, the population declined. Several homes, a meeting hall, ball field, and a church building constructed in 1937 remain at the townsite. (1980
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TOURS, TEXAS. Tours, on Farm Road 3149 seventeen miles northeast of Waco in northeast McLennan County, was first called St. Martinville. A wagon train from Teutopolis, Illinois, arrived at the site on November 11, 1874, the feast day of St. Martin of Tours, in response to an appeal from the state of Texas for homesteaders. The site was designated university land. Clemens Uptmor, John and Edward Deiterman, Frank Debbendener, and John and George Schneider brought their families, accompanied by two single men, George Hirschfield and George Busker. Although St. Martinville was founded and named by these German Catholics, settlers of many nationalities joined them. In 1891, when the settlers applied for a post office and learned of another community with the same name in East Texas, they renamed their community Tours, after Tours, France, where St. Martin was bishop in the fourth century. Tours had four general stores, two blacksmith shops, a grain mill, a saddle shop, two cotton gins, and two beer saloons. St. Martin's Church was built in 1890. The children of the town attended the free parochial school and were taught by the Sisters of Divine Providenceqv of San Antonio until 1977, at which time the children were bused to the West Independent School District. In 1896 the town had a population of forty-five and five businesses. The post office closed in 1905 and was replaced by rural delivery from West. In 1936 Tours had sixty-one residents, seven businesses, two churches, one school, and a number of scattered dwellings; by 1941 the population was estimated at 150. Since the 1950s the population has been around 100.
Tours has always been an agricultural community. Crops commercially grown include cotton, sorghum, oats, and wheat. Due to the uncertainty of the yield, most of the farmers hold full-time jobs in Waco or West and work their farms in late afternoons and on weekends; thus Tours has become a bedroom community. In 1970 the town had two businesses, one school, one factory, a community hall, and the church and cemetery. St. Martin Catholic Church was still operating in 1990. Through 2000 the population continued to be reported at 100.
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Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.
It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection (as perceived by some speakers) of its local spoken French, and for the famous Battle of Tours in 732. It is also the site of the cycling race Paris-Tours. Tours is the largest city in the Centre region of France, although it is not the regional capital, which resides in its second-largest city of Orléans. In 2006, the city itself had 142,000 inhabitants and the metropolitan area had 306,974.