Topsey, eight miles northwest of Copperas Cove in southwestern Coryell County on Farm Road 580, is just such a place. Mules were important to a turn-of-the-century farmer and probably don’t get the respect they deserve in history.

Here, at least, a mule is given his due.

Suggestions that the farmer who owned Topsey had another mule named Turvey are unverified. So are reports of there being a Flopsey and Mopsey. But Topsey, a mule with a name straight out of a Beatrix Potter book, is immortalized in the naming of this town.

From a strictly economic standpoint, Topsey has seen better days. Early in the 20th Century, the community had two cotton gins and two general stores as well as a school, a blacksmith and a post office. If Topsey-ites had a cow that needed dipping, the thriving little town had a cattle dipping vat.

The Topsey Community Center, otherwise known as “the old school”, still stands, but the whereabouts of the key is said to be a mystery.

The 100-year old Methodist Church sits on FM 580, a stubborn survivor of the vagaries of the 20th Century. A carpenter, Bill Fickel, built the pulpit and pews in 1918. They are still in use today.