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KEY, TEXAS. Key is at the junction of U.S. Highway 180 and Farm Road 178, twelve miles east of Lamesa in east central Dawson County. It had a population of ten and three businesses in 1930. The Key Baptist Church was consolidated with the Pioneer Bethany and Mount Olive churches in 1914. After a church fire in 1923 part of the church community moved three miles south to build the Midway Baptist Church, while the remaining congregation built a new church at Key, which was expanded in 1948. In 1947 Key had a school, a church, five businesses, and seventy-five people. The population was seventy-five in 1950 and forty in 1980. In 1990 it was reported as twenty. The population remained the same in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mathew Clay Lindsey, The Trail of Years in Dawson County (Fort Worth: Wallace, 1958?).

William R. Hunt

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/KK/hrk9.html (accessed November 22, 2008).

(NOTE: "s.v." stands for sub verbo, "under the word.")

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Last Updated: January 17, 2008
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