History
Swindall School
In the 1880s, the area now known as Van contained a scattered collection of farm houses and a general store. There was no school located close enough for community children to attend regularly. Recognizing the community's need for a school, a local farmer, George W. Swindall, donated one acre for the establishment of a community school ca. 1880.
History
The Canton Herald
"The Canton Herald" has been in continuous operation since 1882. Ellis Campbell (1882-1945), publisher of the "Wills Point Chronicle," purchased the "Herald" in 1915. Campbell and his wife Mary Jane (Gilmore) built a family publishing business that eventually extended into several generations.
History
The Free State of Van Zandt
Pioneer nickname appropriate to this area's many freedoms-- particularly from want and fear. (Food was obtained with little effort; and although the Indians fought white men here as late as 1842, the settlers by 1847 slept in the open with no dread of Indians or wild animals.
History
Tidmore Cemetery
Pioneer L. H. Hobbs arrived in this area in about 1850 and was instrumental in the establishment of the community. He owned 320 acres of land, including this site. Hobbs allowed the King family to bury their two-year-old daughter here, marking the first known use of the burial ground. The oldest documented grave is that of Robert A. Youngblood (d. 1863).
History
Tyler-Porter's Bluff Road
First mapped in 1846 and 1849 by state surveyors John Lawler and Samuel Huffer, this trail may pre-date Mexican rule. Used as a military road and a cattle trail, it extended from Tyler in Smith County to Porter's Bluff in northwestern Navarro County. By 1870, the Memphis and El Paso Stage Line made twelve mail stops along that route, nine of them in Van Zandt County.
History
Union Grove Cemetery
Settlers William McBee and Adam Sullivan established the Union Grove community in 1844. McBee built and operated the first corn mill in Van Zandt County, and Union Grove grew to include a Baptist Church and the McBee School. Charles Rufus Peery donted land for a community burial ground in 1880; the earliest intermenet is Peery's mother-in-law, Mary Ann Hindman Henson.
History
Van Common School
In 1916, Swindall and Spring Hill Schools were consolidated to form Van Common School. Money raised with a bond election and state aid enabled the district to build a new school on five acres less than one mile east of Van.
History
Van School, 1929-1947
The discovery of the Van oil field in 1929 brought about many changes within the community, including an influx of school-aged children that required the transition from a five-room rural school to a large, ultra-modern school campus. While other Texas schools were forced to make budget cuts because of the depression and later World War II, oil revenues enabled the Van schools, led by Supt.
History
Van United Methodist Church
VAN UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IN 1885, A GROUP OF AREA CHRISTIANS ESTABLISHED A CONGREGATION IN THE COMMUNITY OF SWINDALL (LATER VAN) BECAUSE OF THE DIFFICULTY IN TRAVELING TO CHURCHES IN SURROUNDING SETTLEMENTS. ORIGINALLY NAMED ANTIOCH CHURCH, MEMBERS FIRST MET UNDER A BRUSH ARBOR, USING THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DURING POOR WEATHER.
History
Wesley Chapel Cemetery
The Watkins community was settled in the mid-1800s. M. Crosby and his wife Isabell Crosby deeded land for a church and cemetery to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1872. The first recorded burial in this cemetery is that of John I. Sewell, who was buried on the site in 1870 before it was officially designated as a cemetery.
History
White Rose Cemetery
The town of Wills Point was established in the early 1870s on the Texas and Pacific Railroad. It was named for the log cabin/trading post established at a nearby site on the Dallas-Shreveport Road by early settler William Wills. This cemetery began with the burial of Wills on family land in 1864.
History
Wiley Hardeman Post
Pioneer aviator Wiley Hardeman Post was born on November 22, 1898, in the community of Corinth in Van Zandt County, to William Francis and Mae Laine Post, who moved to Oklahoma when Wiley was a boy. Wiley was inspired as a youth to learn to fly. In the late 1920s he obtained flight training, made his first solo flight, and acquired an air transport license.
History
William H. Humphries Home
William Henry (1862-1917) and Molly (1867-1945) Humphries joined a large migration of Mississippi families to Edgewood in the early 1890s. Humphries opened a general store, acquired many acres of farmland, and became a business leader in the growing community. He built this frame Victorian residence in 1893-1894. Here Molly was often hostess to civic and church groups.
History
Wills Point Schools
Wills Point city officials under Mayor Thomas J. McKain established a public school system in 1886. Classes began in a rented building on North Fourth Street with Professor W.I. Cowles as the first superintendent. In 1891, trustees purchased 6.1 acres of the homesite of pioneer area settler John O' Neal.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
