History
Site of Woodhouse School
Woodhouse School began with the consolidation of the Long Lake, Tucker and Magnolia schools into Consolidated Common School District No. 7. These were all small schools, each with two teachers: one for grades one through four and another for grades five through eight.
History
Slocum Massacre
Racial tensions in America in the early 20th century were sometimes punctuated by violent outbursts. One such occasion began near Slocum and Denson Springs and spread across a wide area near the Anderson-Houston county line. Beginning on the morning of July 29, 1910, groups of armed white men shot and killed African Americans, first firing on a group near Sadler's Creek.
History
St. Philips Episcopal Church of Palestine
During the 1850s Mrs. Frances Henderson, wife of Governor J. Pinckney Henderson, helped found St. Philips as a mission. Upon the petition of the Rev. John Owens, who served part-time as the priest here, the Diocese of Texas in 1860 raised the mission to full parish status. During the Civil War, members met in homes, the Masonic Lodge, or the Methodist sanctuary. In 1863 the Rev.
History
Stafford-Tucker Cemetery
The family of Uriah Monroe and Elizabeth Hanks Stafford came to Texas in the 1840s. In 1851 their son, George Washington, married Susan Woolverton and raised his family in Anderson County. After George W. Stafford's death in 1876 his land passed to his three children, William Uriah, Mary Louisa, and James Monroe Stafford. William later sold his interest to his brother and sister and left the area.
History
Tennessee Colony
Founded in 1838 by settlers who came from the Old South by wagons, seeking fertile, watered farm lands. Later their cotton shipped from Magnolia Ferry on the Trinity created great wealth. Early businesses were a general store, blacksmith shop, cabinet shop (which made furniture still found in area). Town was trade center for places as far away as Dallas.
History
Tennessee Colony Order of the Eastern Star No. 102
Tennessee Colony Order of the Eastern Star No. 102 The first Order of the Eastern Star (OES) Chapter chartered in Anderson County, this organization was founded in 1902 for the wives and female relatives of the members of Tyre Masonic Lodge no. 198. Originally known as the Redbud Chapter, it took the name of the Tennessee Colony Community in 1936.
History
Texas Fruit Palace, Anderson County Fair
Soon after the Civil War, communities sponsored countywide activities that featured new farming equipment, and from this beginning county fairs developed. The Anderson County Fair, established in October 1898, became known as the Texas Fruit Palace because of the number of local orchards.
Transport
Texas State Railroad
The Texas Prison System built a short rail line from the Rusk State Penitentiary to hardwood timber stands where charcoal was made for firing the prison's iron ore furnaces. The rail line became the foundation of the Texas State Railway, organized in 1896 to make the prison self-supporting and to develop the region's economy.
History
The Bowers Mansion
Originally house of merchant Henry Ash; built 1878; bought 1884 by Andrew L. and Nellie O'Connell Bowers, who had architect-builder W. W. Wainright add cupola, gazebo, circular galleries after 1886. Charles Dunbar was architect in 1897 for ornate renovations, and Bowers continued to enlarge and enrich the structure until 1921. Andrew L.
Transport
The I&GN Railroad in Palestine
The I&GN Railroad in Palestine Established as Anderson County seat in 1846 by the Texas Legislature, Palestine grew steadily throughout the remaining 19th century, nearing 9,000 residents by 1900. The town first centered on trade facilitated by the Trinity River, with frequent steamboats bringing in staples in exchange for local and East Texas products.
History
Timothy Stephen Smith
(February 20, 1902 ' April 30, 2000) Born the son of a runaway slave, Smith yearned for a better life. He attended Prairie View A&M College and received a degree in vocational agriculture. He became a teacher, educating the children of North Carolina and Texas for 42 years.
History
Tyre Masonic Lodge No. 198
Tyre Masonic Lodge No. 198 Until this Masonic Lodge was chartered in 1857, local Masons traveled to Magnolia Lodge No. 113 near the Trinity River. On March 3, 1856, seven Tennessee Colony Masons met at the store of James S. Hanks and adopted a resolution to petition the Grand Lodge of Texas for a new lodge. The Grand Lodge approved the request on January 19, 1857, and Tyre Lodge no.
History
William and Caroline Broyles House
A native of Huntsville, Alabama, William Broyles came to Texas following the Civil War. Traveling by boat to Shreveport, Louisiana, he continued his journey to Texas on foot, finally settling in Palestine. Broyles worked as a carpenter and later opened a mercantile store near the Anderson County Courthouse.
History
William Freeman
William Freeman was born a slave in Anderson County on August 1, 1863, to Charlotte Freeman. His mother was a slave and the maid at the Jacob Hunter Plantation near Mound Prairie. After the slaves were freed in 1865, they moved to Palestine.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
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