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KENNARD, TEXAS
Houston County,
East Texas
31°21'21"N 95°11'7"W (31.355866, -95.185384)
FM 2781, FM 357 and State Hwy 7
Surrounded by Davy Crockett National Fores
16 Miles E of Crockett the county
seat
37 Miles SW of Nacogdoches
Zip Code 75847
Area code 936
Population: 325 Est. (2019)
337 (2010) 317 (2000) 341 (1990)
Kennard, Texas Area Hotels ›
Crockett
Hotels |
History in
a Pecan Shell
Settled as early
as the 1850s, things didn't really get started until the arrival of
the Central Coal and Coke Company (aka The Four C) of St. Louis. Timber
was the game in 1899 and the company set up a sawmill not far from
present-day Ratcliff. After the Four
C Mill opened, it soon relocated to Cochino Bayou and the town that
grew up around the mill became Kennard when a post office was granted
in 1902.
Growth was nearly immediate and by 1914, Kennard had a thriving population
of 600 residents served by a bank, drugstore and eight (!) general
stores. The Four C Mill kept the stores in business as the town's
main employer.
It was thought that the vast pine forests would last forever, but
they played out in a decade, leaving some 120,000 acres of pine stumps.
The mill was dismantled and the barren landscape was acquired by the
U.S. Government. The area went from being a CCCC property to being
reforested by the CCC during the make-work projects of the Great Depression.
Despite the mill closing, the reforestation project kept the town
alive. The mass planting eventually became part of the Davy Crockett
National Forest.
The population in the Mid 1930s remained at 600 but the postwar search
for jobs reduced the number of residents to 340 by the early 1950s.
Kennard incorporated in 1969 and five years later the Kennard ISD
was formed of 47 scattered schools. From a count of 341 residents
in 1990, the population of Kennard declined to 317 for the 2000 census. |
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1907 postal map
showing Kennard in E Houston
County
From Texas state map #2090
Courtesy
Texas General Land Office |
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