History
Sarah Rosalie Patten Buchanan
(April 23, 1855-February 24, 1941) Quitman native Sarah Rosalie "Rosa" Patten married future state senator John Creighton Buchanan in 1877. They moved to Mineola, and in 1884 Sarah was left a 29-year-old widow with three young children to support. She became a schoolteacher, and in 1892 was appointed by her friend Governor James S.
Entertainment & Sports
Select Theater
The Select Theater was the seventh in a long line of Mineola venues dating from 1886. Mrs. Martha (Mattie) Hooks named the theater for Select Pictures, a Texas motion picture franchise, in 1920. Mrs. Hooks and her husband R. T. Hooks operated the Select Theater for many years. In 1948 the Select was remodeled with such features as a gradually sloping floor and an elevated stage.
History
Shady Grove Cemetery
This open landscape cemetery, one of the oldest burial grounds in Wood County, first served pioneer settlers of the Shady Grove community. One of the earliest area settlers was Reuben Elledge, who brought his family here c. 1845. Elledge figured prominently in the development of Wood County as a commissioner and chief justice (county judge).
Architecture
Site of Barney B. Hart House
A 1906 two-story home was constructed by J.J. McLeod for attorney Barney B. Hart (1845-1925), and the home remained virtually unchanged since a breakfast room was added to the original structure in 1916. Hart family members lived in the home until the 1982 death of Dr. T.H. Peterson, widower of Barney's daughter, Pollie Hart Peterson.
History
Site of Coleman Family Drug Store and Clinic
Dr. Walter Jackson Coleman and his wife, Mary Eugenia (DuBose), moved to Texas with their family from Isney, Alabama in 1897. After settling in the railroad town of Mineola, a traveling salesman persuaded Dr. Coleman to invest in the pharmacy business, resulting in establishment of the Coleman Family Drug Store in 1902. Early on, Dr.
History
Site of Little Indiana School
In 1900 a group of Indiana families, led by John M. Hart and Roland Alexander, migrated to this area of Texas. They arrived to find the land, which had been promoted as abundant in timber and rich soil, to be unfertile and susceptible to flooding. Many of the pioneers returned to their home state, but those who remained established a community they named Little Indiana.
History
Site of Public Mineral Water Well
Mineola settlers chose this area, nicknamed "the Forks of the River," for its abundance of water. The town's first water service was administered by A. W. Front, who made daily deliveries to his 50 clients. A water well was located on this site as early as 1885; workmen drilling for salt between 1889 and 1890 discovered mineral water.
History
The Thomas Breen Family
Irish immigrant Thomas Breen came to Mineola working for the Texas & Pacific Railroad Company, which reached the town in May 1873. He stayed to be the first ticket agent. In the late 1870s, he wed Irish native Lucy Wilson. In the 1880s, he opened a hardware store. He served for many years as postmaster and later as city alderman.
History
William Jesse McDonald
(September 28, 1852 - January 15, 1918) Born in Mississippi, "Bill" McDonald moved with his family to Rusk County, Texas, about 1866. During Reconstruction, McDonald was tried for treason after a conflict with Union authorities but was acquitted. He established W. J. McDonald and Co., one of the first mercantile firms in Mineola, by 1873.
Transport
Wisener Field
The age of aviation came to Mineola on July 4, 1917, when a Curtis JN-4D "Jenny" biplane, piloted by a member of the U. S. Army Signal Corps, landed at this field. Called Massengale Meadow at the time, the site's flat terrain proved conducive to the establishment of one of the first airports in Texas.
Architecture
Wood County Courthouse
The Texas legislature created Wood County in 1850 with Quitman as the county seat. The county first used a log courthouse on the south side of the square before building a two-story frame structure, which burned in 1878. The county's third courthouse, designed by the noted F.E. Ruffini, was completed in 1884. It burned in 1924, and the county hired C.H.
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.
