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Most
historians love old maps. They squint at them for hours, often finding places
they never knew existed.
A few months ago, Walter Williams dropped by
my office in Lufkin, clutching
a map from East Texas in 1882. It
was like an early Christmas gift.
East
Texas, naturally, was a lot different in 1882 than it is today--126 years
later.
Some towns, like Lufkin,
didn’t exist, although it was founded later that year when the Houston, East and
West Texas Railroad came to Angelina County.
The railroad, which began
in Houston, had only made it to Moscow
in Polk County by 1882. In 1886, it would arrive in Shreveport, opening up the
East Texas forests to lumbering, new
economic growth and dozens of new towns.
While there were a lot of railroads
in Texas in the 1880s, the principal forested area
around Nacogdoches, Center,
San Augustine, Jasper
and Hemphill did not have a
major line until 1882.
In 1882, East
Texas had a bevy of small towns that have since vanished or moved elsewhere--places
like Salem in Newton County, Cheeseland
in Angelina Count, Ogburn in Smith County, Cuthand
in Red River County, Pinetown
and Larissa in Cherokee County.
and Marianna in Polk County.
Ironically, while East
Texas has only one town named Zavalla (in Angelina County) today, it had two
in 1882. One stood in Cherokee County and another
was in Jasper County. Both have disappeared.
All of the Zavallas took
their name from Lorenzo de Zavalla, a leader in the Texas revolution in the 1830s.
Like Lufkin, Kountze,
Hardin County’s present county seat, wasn’t on the map. The county seat at that
time was known as Hardin.
Since rivers were still navigable in 1882, the
map showed many towns standing on river bluffs--places like Niblet’s Bluff on
the Sabine River, Sullivan’s Bluff on the Neches,
Commerce (not the town northeast of Dallas) on the Trinity, and Pulaski, also
on the Sabine River.
There were also a considerable number of oddly-named
towns in 1882.
Sea, which was far removed from any big body of water,
was in Houston County.
Willow Hole was in Madison County, Cotton Plant
was in Delta County, Corn Hill stood in Fannin County, and Guy’s Store was in
Leon County.
Texas and Louisiana shared at least one town name--Longstreet.
The one in Texas stood in Montgomery County and a second Longstreet (a place where
my family lived during World
War II) stood near Logansport, Louisiana.
Today, while we have three
Bostons in East Texas (all of them are in Bowie County), there was only one in
1883. Today’s Bostons are Old
Boston, New Boston and
just plain Boston.
Bob
Bowman's East Texas
November 28, 2010Column.
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers |
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