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One
of my favorite rural counties in East
Texas celebrated its 140th anniversary this year.
Named for the 1836
battle which ended the Texas revolution against Mexico, San Jacinto County
lies south of Livingston and
is sprinkled with some of the most interesting small towns in East
Texas.
Coldspring,
the county seat, is actually two towns. The town’s first site, often called “Old
Town,” was built in an area called “the gullies,” where heavy rains was always
washing away buildings and other improvements.
The county’s first jail
still stands in the gullies and housed inmates until the early 1980s when a new
jail was built on a hill. The new Coldspring
was also built atop the hill with a new courthouse
in 1918.
On Highway 190 is Oakhurst, which was once a prosperous sawmill
town named for Oakhurst, Oklahoma, home of several lumber men who moved to Texas.
Three
miles north of Oakhurst is Raven Hill, the one-time home of Sam
Houston, the hero of San
Jacinto. The hill got its name from an Indian name for Houston.
Further
up Highway 190 from Oakhurst is Point
Blank, which was originally named Point Blanc by a Frenchwoman who moved here
from Alabama. The town was also called Point White and White Point.
About
a mile south of Point Blank
is Robinson Cemetery, where a large monument marks the grave of Governor George
Tyler Wood, who served from 1849 to 1851. Wood’s grave was unmarked for more than
a half-century until the monument was built.
At Coldspring,
historical markers dot the community. Coldspring United Methodist Church is believed
to be the oldest Methodist church in continuous use in Texas
.
Another church, Evergreen United Methodist, was organized in 1862, several
years before the county was formed.
The Trapp-McClanahan house, built
around 1880, is privately owned and Council Hill, also located on private property,
was the home of Vernal B. Lea, brother of Mrs. Sam Houston.
Several old
cemeteries dot the county, including Laurel Hill, where General James Davis is
buried.
Old Waverly,
an early center of culture, is located on Highway 150 about 14 miles west of Coldspring.
The
town of Shepherd, located on
U.S. 59, originated near Old Drew’s Landing on the Trinity River, and the Coushatta
Indians inhabited an area on Coley Creek from 1835 to 1900.
©
Bob Bowman
September 5, 2011
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