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History
in a Pecan Shell
Bragg was a rather late arrival in East
Texas. Named after Confederate general Braxton Bragg (also the
namesake of Fort Bragg, North Carolina), the community sprang up alongside
the tracks of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe railroad in 1901.
This was when the Big Thicket was being exploited for its lumber.
A sawmill was built that year and burned two years later. The community
might have died at that point but was saved when the railroad laid
a branch line to the town of Saratoga
that was then booming. The town acquired a post office (closed in
1914), a hotel and a proper depot. But other than a transient population
revolving around the oil and timber interests, Bragg was perhaps too
close to the county seat to prosper on its own.
The railroad abandoned the line to Saratoga
in 1934 and removed its buildings - leaving a stripped down town that
had once held promise. No population figures are available, but the
area has remained inhabited.
Bragg, Texas
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Hardin
County 1907 postal map showing Bragg, W of Kountze,
and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad
From Texas state map #2090
Courtesy
Texas General Land Office |
Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
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