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A new museum in RuskHeritage
Center of Cherokee County
Rusk,
Texasby
Bob Bowman | |
An
old grocery store in Rusk now houses
memorabilia telling the rich history of Rusk
and Cherokee County--one of the oldest counties in East
Texas.
The old Barr grocery store was donated to Rusk
by the Norman Foundation of Jacksonville
and remodeled with the financial help of the T.L.L. Temple Foundation of Diboll
and the Pineywoods Foundation of Lufkin.
The building, known as the The Heritage Center of Cherokee County, sits a block
off Rusk’s
courthouse square Cherokee County was occupied by Indians long before white
men traveled west to Texas from the Old South. Arrowheads,
pottery shards and other relics from the Indian era can be found regularly in
the county.
Exhibits at the Heritage Center include an old poster bed
once used by Texas Governor Jim
Hogg, who lived in Rusk; photos
and other items from New
Birmingham, an iron-making community that once stood on Rusk’s
outskirts; and items from the Texas
State Railroad, which still carries passengers on a route between Rusk
and Palestine.
Visitors
will also find a wealth of old photos from early Cherokee County scattered throughout
the museum, reflecting what Rusk
and the county looked like decades ago.
Combined
with the opening of the Museum was an autograph party for Marie Whitehead’s book,
“The History of the Rusk Cherokeean, 1847-1973.” Mrs. Whitehead is the
paper’s publisher.
The Cherokeean traces its origin to the years after
the Civil War and is a descendant of the Rusk Pioneer and the Cherokee Sentinel.
The paper was also known as the Texas Observer, in which Governor
Hogg had an interest.
A few years ago, the Cherokeean was merged with
the Alto Herald, and lays claim as the oldest, continuously-operated weekly newspaper
in Texas. | |
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