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History in
a Pecan Shell
From
Country Stores by Bob
Bowman
"... Most of the old country stores faded away because the towns
they served also died as farming ceased to be a significant part of
the East Texas economy.
A good example was Denning, on Farm Road 3409 eight miles west
of San Augustine.
A post office was opened there in 1891 and by 1896 Denning had about
50 residents, two general stores, two cotton gins, two sawmills, two
flour mills, and three blacksmith shops.
By 1904 the town had a one-teacher school for forty-seven white children
and another for twenty-four black pupils. About a dozen years later,
the town had 200 inhabitants.
After that, Denning began to fade away.
The post office was closed in the 1930s, the population dwindled to
75 by 1939 and the town’s school was merged with another district.
In January, I drove through Denning looking for the settlement of
New
Hope. and was surprised that most of Denning’s old institutional
buildings, such as its post office, school and gins, were still standing,
but were only shells of what they were in the 1930s and 1940s.
Driving back to Lufkin,
I counted nearly a dozen of old country stores that are now empty..."
more
Bob Bowman's East Texas May
31, 2009 Column |
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