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It
is presumptuous for a native of Beaumont
and long-time resident of Nacogdoches
to be writing about Gilmer, Texas.
Only admiration for my long-time friend and publisher of the Gilmer
Mirror - and being able to take advantage of the research of Mary
Kirby - provides the courage to do so.
Well, those things, plus two memorable visits to Gilmer at Sarah's
and Mary's invitation to present programs on country music and the
music of World War
II convinced me that citizens of Gilmer
and Upshur County
are serious about their history. |
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Upshur
County, authorized by the legislature in 1846, and Gilmer,
were named in memory of United States Secretary of War Able Upshur
and Thomas W. Gilmer, who lost their lives in an explosion aboard
the USS Princeton in 1844.
Enabling legislation named the county seat and required that it be
located within five miles of the county's geographical center. A grove
of oaks on the farm of William Hart, which first served as the county
seat, became Old Gilmer when the town's permanent location-approximately
three miles away-was established in 1848. A post office, Masonic Lodge
founded in 1853, and various businesses associated with the area's
prevailing agricultural orientation-especially cotton gins-gave the
community permanence.
Gilmer hosted several schools,
including the Gilmer Masonic Male Academy and Looney School, operated
by Morgan H. Looney. Oran Milo Roberts, elected governor of Texas
in 1878, taught at the Looney School for a time after the Civil War.
Upshur County farmers
became major producers of sweet potatoes early in the twentieth century,
and in 1935 the county's citizens began celebrating their area's major
crop with an annual Yamboree festival. The Yamboree quickly became
the major civic promotion for Gilmer
and remains one of the oldest civic festivals in Texas.
Many of Gilmer's citizens chose to live there and commute to jobs
in larger cities, such as Tyler
or Longview, and
some move even farther away but never lose their hometown orientation.
Two of my friends in Nacogdoches,
Mrs. Jeanne Attaway and Mrs. Maggie Driggers, still call Gilmer
home and I know at least one of them subscribes to the Mirror.
"Home is where the heart is," says the poet; for these, that will
always be Gilmer.
© Archie
P. McDonald
All
Things Historical
March 12, 2006 column
A syndicated column in over 70 East Texas newspapers |
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