EULOGY, Texas — A lot of cities and towns in Texas are named after people. However, one place that’s named after a person — kind of — may be the strangest way to honor a loved one.
It’s an hour southwest of Fort Worth and is a place to die for: Eulogy.
Eulogy is a fitting name because it is literally a ghost town.
Paula Athey grew up there when it was still full of life, but it got the name Eulogy long before she came along.
When it was time to name the town back in 1885, they were trying to honor someone who was still alive. That’s why Eulogy wasn’t the first suggestion for the town’s name.
“No, Smithville,” Athey said.
Local businessman Charles Smith was the one who proposed Smithville. He wanted to name it in honor of someone referred to as Uncle Billy Smith.
Unfortunately, there was already a Texas town called Smithville, so they were forced to pick something else.
That led Smith’s sister, Julia Smith Mickey to say, ‘everyone eulogizes Uncle Billy, so let’s call this place 'Eulogy.’”
The name was accepted and the town came to life. Although, one question that almost no one can answer is who was Uncle Billy Smith, and why were they determined to name a town in his honor?
Athey, who knows more about Eulogy than most folks, didn’t even have an answer.
“No, of course not,” she said.
We set out on a mission to find out. After a little digging and a lot of research, we found a headstone at the local cemetery for a man named William Burley Smith.
He was the only "Billy" Smith we could find with any ties to Eulogy. More importantly, he was Charles and Julia’s dad. The likelihood of there being another Billy Smith in this small town, one that they were trying to name the town after is small.
In other words, they were literally trying to name a town in honor of their dad.
William Burley Smith didn’t die until nearly 15 years later, but his legacy lives on with one very, unique Eulogy.