|
a.
|
Note: George Hulme Rhodes first came to the Rehoboth Community (5 miles southeast of Timpson, Shelby County, Texas), during December 1893. See reprint from newspaper relative to his departure. NOTE: The J. H. Rhodes listed in the article below should be G. H. Rhodes From the paper of Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia of December 4, 1893: TEXAS EMIGRANTS A large party of white persons are here to-night to go tomorrow to Texas. They come from the northern part of the county mostly around Tignall and further north and their tickets are bought for Tenaha, Shelby County, Texas. The following men bought the following number of full tickets: J. H. Rhodes, 3; William Poss, 6; Joseph Shepherd, 2; W. E. Willis, 1; L. Walker (from Woodstock), 3 1/2; Marshall Boatright, 1; Daniel Scoggins, 3 1/2; ---King, 2; J. S. Womack, 7 1/2; G. W. Bunch, 1; Will Poss, 6 1/2; John Womack, 1; Willis Powell, 1; H. Kelley, 3. There are also many children. A number of them have friends already in Texas, and they say that they cannot do worse than they are doing here. Mrs. Shepherd is an old lady 70 years old. Her only child is already in Texas. She said however that she hated to leave Georgia. They were conducted by Robt. Hunt, passenger agent of the Richmond-Danville, and he brought two cars to meet them. The town was full of them last night. We wish them good luck and prosperity in the land in which they are going. Mr. Kelley said that about seventy-five families in Wilkes are talking of going another year. End of newspaper article. He had other brothers who had moved into the area. He made a good crop, returned to Georgia, and later married Myrtis Wright in Lincoln County, Georgia, in 1896. He moved his family to the Rehoboth Community on February. 12, 1902. Texas History: Spanish explorations into Texas, previously sparsely settled by American Indians, began in 1528, but not until 1685, when the French attempted to establish a colony at Matagorda Bay, did the Spanish take settlement in Texas seriously. The number of missions increased, and San Antonio (founded 1718) became the main settlement of Spanish Texas. In 1820 Moses Austin of Virginia secured permission to begin a colony in Texas. When Mexico became independent of Spain in 1821, it consented to the colonial venture under the leadership of Austin's son, Stephen. This colony was the beginning of the Anglo-American settlement of Texas. Texans, both Anglo-Americans and Mexicans, became disgruntled with Mexican rule, particularly after General Antonio L�pez de Santa Anna assumed the Mexican presidency in 1833. The Texans declared independence as the Republic of Texas in 1836 and defeated a Mexican military effort to retain the territory. After a 10-year struggle to remain a viable independent nation, Texas entered the United States in 1845 as the 28th state. Like other Southern states, Texas seceded in 1861 at the beginning of the American Civil War, forcing the ouster of its unionist governor, Sam Houston. Re admission to the Union came in 1869. The discovery of oil in 1901 transformed the state's economy. The people of Texas: Texas has long been a huge reservoir for diverse streams of races and cultures. For the bands of prehistoric hunters, for the waves of Indian tribes, for the Spanish and Mexicans pushing northward, for the Anglo-Americans from the North and East, and for colonizers who came to Texas directly from Europe, there was more than enough room for settlement and for the opportunity to influence the institutions of the state. Some churches still conduct services in Swedish, Czech, or Spanish; throughout the south and west, Spanish remains the family language of many people. During the 19th century there were streams of migration into Texas. Between 1821 and 1836 an estimated 38,000 settlers, on promises of 4,000 acres (1,620 hectares) per family for small fees, trekked from the United States into the territory. In the 30 years before the Civil War, shiploads of Germans, Poles, Czechs, Swedes, Norwegians, and Irish arrived. Church-oriented, they took with them the Roman Catholic and Protestant faiths. During the post-Civil War years numerous families moved from devastated Southern plantations to farms and ranches of the Southwest. From the north central states came communities of farming families with Swedish, Polish, and Irish backgrounds seeking relief from the tight economy. Others came from Europe, including Belgians, Danes, Italians, and Greeks, to become city dwellers, craftsmen, and keepers of small shops. Since the 1960s the Asian population has grown rapidly. About 50,000 Indians live in Texas, but this figure fails to account for the many families who have some Indian ancestry. Most of the present-day Indians are city dwellers, but three tribes remain cohesive units. The Alabama-Coushatta Indians occupy one of the two reservations in the state, in East Texas. The Tigua live on a reservation in El Paso, and the Kickapoo live near Eagle Pass. More than one-fifth of all Texans are of Hispanic descent, and their number continues to grow. Many of the communities along the U.S. side of the southwestern border are almost totally Hispanic, and larger cities such as Brownsville, Laredo, Corpus Christi, El Paso, and San Antonio carry the mark of Spain and Mexico in their architecture, names, and language. With the urbanization of the state and the decrease in the demand for agricultural workers, large Hispanic populations have converged on the major metropolitan centers that lie farther from the border. The Civil War brought freedom for thousands of black slaves within the state. In the 20th century the black population clustered in the central parts of the larger cities, and more than 40 percent of blacks are now concentrated in the urban areas of Dallas and Houston. Settlement of Texas: By the 1730s the Spanish had sent more than 30 expeditions into Texas. San Antonio, which by 1718 housed a military post and a mission, had become the administrative center. Missions, with military support, were established in Nacogdoches in East Texas, Goliad in the south, and near El Paso in the far west. The French also explored Texas. The explorations of Robert Cavelier, Lord de La Salle, and his colony at Matagorda Bay were the bases of French claims to East Texas. Anglo-American colonization gained impetus when the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 and claimed title to lands as far west as the Rio Grande. By 1819, however, the United States had accepted the Sabine River as the western boundary of the Louisiana Territory. Moses Austin secured permission from the Spanish government to colonize 300 families on a grant of 200,000 acres. When Mexico became an independent country in 1821, his son, Stephen F. Austin, received Mexican approval of the grant. He led his first band of settlers to the area along the lower Brazos and Colorado rivers. By 1832 Austin's several colonies had about 8,000 inhabitants. Other colonies brought the territory's Anglo-American population to about 20,000. History of Shelby County, TX: Shelby County is on the eastern boundary of Texas being separated from De Soto Parish and Sabine Parish, Louisiana by the Sabine River. The county seat and largest town is Center, named for its geographic location of the county. Shelby County was first organized under the Mexican government as Tenehaw Municipality, found in 1824. In 1836, the Congress of the Republic of Texas established Shelby County, named for Isaac Shelby, United States Revolutionary soldier from Tennessee. In 1882, the courthouse in Center burned in a fire destroying all county records. A new courthouse was built and completed in 1885 modeled on an Irish castle by architect John Joseph Emmett Gibson, an Irish immigrant. In 1971, the courthouse was recognized in the National Register of Historic Places. Today, the leading industries of Shelby County are poultry and egg processing, sawmills, road construction, agribusiness, general construction, manufacturing of hardwood flooring, hardwood veneer, and plywood. The Toledo Bend Reservoir and Sabine National Forest also attract many tourists. CITIES, TOWNS AND COMMUNITIES IN SHELBY COUNTY: AIKEN, located twelve miles from Center on Highway 7. It was named after Herman Aiken. First post office established in 1889 and closed in 1909. The population of Aiken in 1990 was 75. ARCADIA, located at the junction of Farm Market Road 138 & 1645, ten miles southwest of Center. The population of Arcadia in 1990 was 20. CENTER, the county seat in Shelby County is located seventeen miles from the Louisiana border. J. C. Margaret A. Wilson donated the land for the town in 1856 or 1857. The first post office was opened in 1866. The towns first framed courthouse burned in 1882, and was replaced by J. J. E. Gibson's "Irish Castle." The first telephone service came in 1905 and electricity in 1909. Centers population in 1990 was 4,950. HANSON, located on U.S. Highway 84, three miles west of Joaquin. Hanson was founded in 1905 and named after a local family. HUBER, was located about equal distance, on Highway 87, between Center to the south and Timpson to the north. Timpson and Center are about 15 miles apart. HUXLEY, is on FM 2694 eighteen miles from Center in eastern Shelby County. It was founded about 1890 and received a post office in 1903 with Joseph Hooper as postmaster. The post office operated until 1905. In 1938, the community had a school with 100 students. In 1945 it had a store, a church, and a population of 50. Toledo Bend Reservoir was constructed nearby in the 1960s, and Huxley was incorporated in 1969. In 1970, the town had a population of 302. From that point, the population of the community fluctuated, dropping to 23 by 1972 and then rising to 144 by 1978. By 1988 it had risen to 366 and Huxley had no businesses. In 1990, the population was 335. JAMES, located six miles northeast of Center on U. S. Highway 7. Established round 1890 and named for James Rushing who served as first postmaster when opened from 1901 to 1905. JOAQUIN, is located on U.S. Highway 84 and the Southern Pacific Railroad, fourteen miles northeast of Center in northeastern Shelby County. It was founded in 1885, when Benjamin Franklin Morris donated 100 acres to the Houston, East and West Texas Railway on conditions that a railroad station be constructed on the land. The station and the community that grew up around it were named for Morris's grandson, Joaquin Morris. A post office was established there in 1886 with Eratus F. Sayers as postmaster. In 1990, its population was 805. NEUVILLE, located on FM 2140, nine miles south of Center. It was founded in the latter part of 1800s and named after Stephen de Neuville who in settled there in the 1840s. First post office established in 1901 with William J. Neuville as postmaster but closed by 1966. The population in 1990 was 43. PATROON, located on the banks of Patroon Bayou at junction of Highway 87 and FM 2261, seventeen miles southeast of Center. Patroon was founded just before the Civil War. First post office established in 1868 with William Duffed as postmaster. Post office was closed in 1966. The population in 1990 was 53. PAXTON, located on Highway 84 and Southern Pacific Railroad, twelve miles from Center. Post office established in 1892. The settlement of Paxton was named after a local pioneer family. The population in 1990 was 161. STOCKMAN, located on FM 415, nine miles south of Timpson. It was founded in 1890s and named after H.Q. Stockman. First post office established in 1899 with William T. Wallace as postmaster, but closed in early 1950s. The population in 1990 was 52. TENAHA, is at the junction of U.S. Highways 84, 59, and 96, on the tracks of the Southern Pacific some eleven miles northwest of Center in northern Shelby County. It was founded in 1885 as a shipping point on the Houston East and West Texas Railway, when that railroad was being constructed through the county. The community was named by members of the the Hicks family for Tenehaw Municipality, the original name of Shelby County. A post office was opened there in 1886 with James N. Woodfin as postmaster. Its populations was reported as 1,072 in 1990. TIMPSON, is on the Southern Pacific Railroad at the junctions of US Highway 87, 84, & 59, fifteen miles northwest of Center in north- western Shelby County. It was founded in 1885, when the Houston, East and West Texas Railway was being constructed through the area, and was named for P. B. Timpson, an engineer on the railroad. Timpson received a post office that year with James H. Blankenship as first Postmaster. In 1990, Timpson had 1,029 residents. NACOGDOCHES COUNTY is adjacent to and west of Shelby County, Texas. The city of Nacogdoches sits only 34 miles from Center, Texas and 28 miles from Timpson, Texas. Martinsville is about 15 miles from Nacogdoches; an additional 19 miles and you are in Center. The Huber Community is only about 7 miles northwest of Center. Following is a brief history of this famous area and should give one a feel for the entire East Texas area. NACOGDOCHES A BRIEF HISTORY by Dr. Jere L. Jackson Department of History Chairman, Nacogdoches County Historical Commission ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTRODUCTION Nacogdoches is the "Oldest Town in Texas." Of the things most travelers associate with Texas, oil, cattle, wheeler-dealers, independent nation status, and they all started in Nacogdoches. No one can write a history of Texas without Nacogdoches. PRE-HISTORIC NACOGDOCHES Paleolithic settlement of Nacogdoches began about 10,000 B. C. with early ceramic evidence starting about 2,000 B.C. The area of the downtown, between the LaNana and the Banita Creeks, became a Caddoan site somewhere around 700 B.C. Around 1250 to 1450 A.D., a distinct development associated with Caddoan architectural traditions produced a large nuclear village with attendant structural mounds and mortuary mounds supported by maize agriculture and far flung trade in exotic goods. A civic ceremonial center developed in the plaza area now known as Washington Square in a triangle between three large mounds. This was the Indian center the Spanish discovered. The Nacogdoches Indians were friendly and their word for friend was "tejas." Legend has it that the Indian town was founded when a Caddo chief on the Sabine River sent one of his twin sons three days to the west and the other three days to the east. The settlements they established were Nacogdoches and Natchitoches, Spanish and French spellings of the same Indian tribe. COLONIAL NACOGDOCHES While Cabeza de Vaca explored the interior of Texas in 1528, maps do not show the Spanish in Nacogdoches before 1542 when DeSoto arrived. The first descriptions of the town date from the Frenchman LaSalle's stay in 1685. DeLeon, in 1690, made the first attempt at colonization and education, but Nacogdoches was little more than a pawn in the French and Spanish imperial rivalries at this time. When the French explorer St. Denis mapped out El Camino Real across the state from the Rio Grande to Nacogdoches in 1713 and 1716, the Spanish decided to establish permanent settlements in the area with a series of missions. Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches was one of these, as was Mission Conception later relocated when San Antonio was established. In 1779, Don Antonio Gil Y'Barbo built the Old Stone House, laid out the modern streets, and wrote the first law code. Nacogdoches remained an important Spanish and Mexican colonial outpost, the capital of East Texas, until the Texas Revolution. A total of 26 Texas counties have been carved out of the Nacogdoches province, from Sabine to Dallas. REPUBLICAN NACOGDOCHES THE BATTLE OF NACOGDOCHES. Nacogdoches was the cradle of Texas liberty. In 1832, the citizens of Nacogdoches fired one of the opening guns of the Texas Revolution. The citizens, both Mexican and Anglos, attacked the Mexican garrison under the command of Col. Jose Piedras. The latter held the fortified town center. The garrison was able to defend themselves until Adolphus Sterne showed the newly arrived Redlanders from San Augustine how to out-flank the Mexicans by circling the natural fortress by going through the Washington Square area. The Battle cleared East Texas of Mexican troops and made the independence movement much less dangerous. THE BIVOUAC AND BANQUET FOR THE NEW ORLEANS GREYS. In November of 1835, the citizens of Nacogdoches, led by Adolphus Sterne, helped outfit a volunteer force, the New Orleans Greys, to fight in the Texas War for Independence. One company of Greys, traveled overland to San Antonio by way of Nacogdoches in November of 1835. The 50-100 men camped for a few days at this site near Sterne's home. They were honored with a "Feast of Liberty" in the orchard in front of the house. At the banquet, bear, beef, mutton, turkeys, raccoon, and other specialties were served. With glasses of Rhine wine from Sterne's cellar, toasts were make and speeches delivered. The Greys had walked into Nacogdoches; they left on horses with arms provided by the citizens. They reached San Antonio before the siege of Bexar, December 5-9, 1835. Most of the volunteers died in later battles of the Revolution, many at the Alamo. The city saw three independent republics before the Lone Star Republic. The city flies NINE FLAGS: Spanish, French, Mexican, The Magee-Gutierrez Republic, The Long Republic, The Fredonia Republic, The Lone Star, The Confederate, and The United States. MODERN NACOGDOCHES The first producing oil well in the state was drilled here in 1861. However, it was not oil but the coming of the railroad (Note: as was the case of the Timpson, Tenaha, Shelby County area) that transformed the republican city into an important commercial center. The railroad, and modern highways like 59 and 259, changed the flow of commerce from east/west to north/south. In the 19th century, the local economy was based on cotton, tobacco, timber, education, and general merchandising. Only the last three came into the second half of the 20th century. New industries include poultry, feeds and fertilizers, tools, equipment, banking, recreation, and medical services. The most important asset to the local economy is Stephen F. Austin State University, with 12,000 students and an annual budget of over 24 million dollars. The rapid growth of the city took place in the 1960s with the enlargement of the University.
|
