NEVADA, TEXAS

History in a Pecan Shell

Settlement began four miles north of present-day Nevada in the mid-1840s with the community of McMinn Chapel. Founder John McMinn and his extended family provided the core of the town.

Nevada, developed in the early 1860s when Granville Stinebaugh arrived and bought acreage, naming the embryo community after the Nevada Territory. A post office was granted in 1880 and the railroad arrived in 1888.

Nevada’s role was a modest one – a shipping point and market for the agrarian region. From only 50 people in the mid 1880s it grew to just under 600 by 1920.

In the mid 1920s Nevada had 625 residents and its future looked bright. But on May 9th 1927 the town was struck by a killer tornado which dealt the community a blow it never recovered from. With 27 killed and 75 injured, it ranks as one of Texas’ most destructive tornados.

The Great Depression didn’t help, nor did the drawing off of population during postwar prosperity. The population had been reduced to 386, and that number was used for the next three decades. It finally broke 400 for the 1980 census and added 56 more for 1990.

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