Joppa

Joppa, on Farm Road 210 and the North Fork of the San Gabriel River, seven miles northeast of Bertram in Burnet County, was first called Pool Branch, after a nearby pool formed by a waterfall. At that pool in the 1880s were a cotton gin and a mill; just southeast of the gin were a store and a blacksmith shop. On August 31, 1881, J. S. and Jane Danford of Delaware County, Iowa, gave two acres of land on the north bank of the North Gabriel to be held in trust for a school and a church. The school building was constructed at once and used for classes and church services. Worship was held in the schoolhouse until 1913, when a church building was erected. The local school, the church, and the locality were called Pool Branch until 1891, when the community secured a post office, and the people agreed on the Biblical name Joppa