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New
Boston cotton scene in the 1900s
Photo courtesy texasoldphotos.com |
History
in a Pecan Shell A
timeline of significant and selected historical events in Bowie County:
1876: City of Boston negotiates with railroad for a new townsite to be on the
railroad - New Boston and Old Boston coexist
four miles apart without creating a ghost town from displaced businesses.
1884: Population reaches 400
1887: Post office was granted
1900: Population
reaches 762
A short-lived boom increased the population from just over 800
(1925) to 1,300 by 1929.
By 1931 it was back under 1,000 people.
The Star Army Ammunition Plant and the Red River Army Depot were built just SE
of New Boston during WWII,
bolstering the economy and providing new residents. They remain the county's major
employers.
Bowie
County Courthouse
New
Boston Hotels |
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People
Richard Ellis
by Mike Cox ("Texas Tales" Column)
Namesake of Ellis
County
"... His family buried him on the plantation about three
miles north of present New Boston. With the passage of time, the location
of his grave was forgotten. But on Sept. 26, 1929, the Dallas Morning News reported
that Ellis' "long lost grave" had been found.
"A dense forest of huge
pine trees grew up in the family cemetery and the tombstone placed on the grave
was dislodged and fell," the newspaper reported. "Rep. R.M. Hubbard of New Boston…employed
laborers to remove the surface of the earth in the old cemetery, resulting in
the discovery of the footstone marked with the initials 'R.E.' The base of the
headstone also was found intact."
Workers exhumed Ellis' remains for
reburial in the State
Cemetery in Austin that October.
In the spring of 1935, one year
shy of a century since Ellis steered the Declaration of Independence and the republic's
Constitution through the parliamentary process, the Legislature appropriated $15,000
for a statue in his honor...." more
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1907
Bowie County postal map showing Boston and New
Boston
(Above
"W" in "BOWIE")
Courtesy Texas General Land Office |
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