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Gentlemen
in the Gent Band
Courtesy
Arcadia Publishing & Cherokee County Historical Commission |
History
in a Pecan Shell
Gent aka Ghent, Texas was on Gent Mountain.
In the late 1840s people from Alabama and Tennessee made the long journey
to East Texas. A place known as Sand
Springs was established around 1854, but the community didn't really develop until
the late 1870s.
A post office opened in 1879 and whether the name was
Gent or Ghent, it doesn't make too much difference now. It was either named after
the Belgian city - or the greeting of "Howdy Gent," - a greeting that is supposed
to have been in en vogue at the time.
In 1890 Gent had 500 people and
two stores, two churches, several saw mills, and a school. Gent, like nearby Pine
Town, began to decline when Maydelle
appeared alongside the rails of the Texas
State Railroad in 1900.
Gent's post office closed in 1906, and by
1913 the town was a virtual ghost. A Texas Historical Commission marker
has been placed (on FM 2138 about 3 miles N of Maydelle)
to identify the townsite. |
Historical
Marker Text Gent
VillageLocated
on top of Gent Mountain between two creeks, the village of Gent was settled in
the 1850s primarily by families from Alabama and Tennessee in search of good farmland.
The early settlers quickly established religious and educational institutions,
and by 1900 the village boasted several stores, mills and cotton gins as well.
Construction of the Texas
State Railroad from Rusk to
Palestine
and the founding of the town of Maydelle
(1.5 mi. s.) in 1910 pulled business away from Gent. Gradually the village was
abandoned, and today not a single structure remains. |
Cherokee
County, Texas 1907 Postal Map still showing Gent
(Above
"H" in "CHEROKEE")
Courtesy
Texas General Land Office |
Nearby
Destinations
Cherokee
County Towns & Ghost Towns
Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history and vintage/historic/contemporary
photos of their town/subject, please contact
us. |
Recommended
Book
Cherokee County, Texas | |
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