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Snow Town scene
Photo courtesy Paul Latour |
A History of
Snow Town, TX
By
Paul Latour
Snow Town, sometimes mistaken as Snow Hill on some Texas maps,
lies just East of Lake Livingston south of Oakhurst
and North of Stephen Creek off of FM 156.
The town is named after one of the early pioneers of the area, Thomas
H. Snow, who ran a saloon and store. The town later banned alcohol
consumption, so Thomas Snow moved to “Rough Edge”, an area five miles
South of Snow Town to rebuild his saloon business. He later died in
a cotton gin mishap, and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Coldspring
Cemetery.
Snow Town never had much of a boom in population and remains sparsely
populated today as it did long ago. It never even progressed so far
as to get a post office (in its own name), and the population initially
had to go to Dodge occasionally to pick
up their mail. It is said they never got a lot of mail though, and
so in that sense you could say they were socially isolated.
In 1899 the sawmill town of Oakhurst
established a post office. Every man was needed at the Oakhurst mill,
so later various men from Snow Town began to carry and deliver the
mail.
Snow Town did see some growth in 1908, when the Oakhurst mill bought
out another mill, the Palmetto sawmill, and then combined their production
at the Oakhurst
location, drawing a few of the Snow Town residents to the mill. Eventually
a rail line was established connecting Oakhurst
to Dodge, resulting in a train depot
at Snow Town. Residents of Snow Town could take the train to Dodge
for 25 cents or from Snow Town to Oakhurst
for 10 cents. Snow Town had members in the Ku
Klux Klan and in 1921 they held a march at the depot where 300
people gathered to watch.
At its height, Snow Town had five stores, including at one time a
barber shop and pool hall. Over time the business owners aged and
died, and with it the short life of Snow Town began to fade.
The Oakhurst sawmill shut down in 1930, leading to a serious drop
in population of the area. This event led to the overall death of
Oakhurst
which further hampered economic activity in Snow Town. Eventually
the Post Office moved once again, this time off of Highway 190.
Nowadays, a lot of what was Snow Town is supposedly called Oakhurst,
because at one point the Oakhurst Post Office was transferred to Snow
Town but retained its name of the Oakhurst Post Office. Topographic
maps indicate Snow Hill Road passes through the heart of what was
once Snow Town. Old maps also indicate that there was once a chapel
in Snow Town, with a possible cemetery adjacent to it, but it is either
lost or on private property. The area now has a large Christmas tree
farm, few residents, and a few old buildings.
Sources:
San Jacinto
County: A Glimpse Into the Past Version 1: A Collection of Historical
Articles
Dim Trails
and Blurred Footprints: A History of San Jacinto County, Texas.
Published by the San Jacinto County Historical Commission. Printed
in 1982. “History of Snowtown” by Iva Blalock.
Information
about Snow Town: http://www.millhollowtexas.com/page6.htm
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Snow Town scene
Photo courtesy Paul Latour |
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