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While
some early East Texans named their towns for families, their hometowns or landmarks,
othes were a tad more creative.
Tadmor
Which
brings us to Tadmor in Houston County. Most folks think the name comes from the
expression “let me have a tad more of that.”
Actually, the name comess
from the Bible, where it describes a city built by Solomon “in the wilderness”
or somewhere on the southern border of Palestine.
Chickenfeather
In
Rusk County around 1901, a group of young boys decided to go hunting one autumn
night, but failed to bag any game.
Late in the night, feeling hungry,
they swiped a couple of chickens from a farmer, built a fire behind New Hope Church,
roasted the chickens and satisfied their hunger.
To hide the evidence of
their theft, they tossed the chicken feathers and viscera into a water well from
which churchgoers and school children drew their water each day.
Contaminated
with the chickens’ remains, the well had to be cleaned out and salted to restore
the water to drinkable quality. Thereafter, New Hope was better known as
Chickenfeather.
Pinetucky
Magnolia Springs,
a scattered community in Jasper County, was once known as Pinetucky.
While
the exact origin of the name has been lost, it probably came from the vast stands
of virgin pine trees which covered the area with the addition of “tucky,” which
in the language of the Old South meant land or territory.
Yard
When
a rural community in northwest Anderson County, sent in a list of potential names
for its new post office, a storekeeper accidently included a customer's request
for a yard of cloth. The government named the post office Yard.
Grannie’s
Neck
In Delta County, Mary (Grannie) Sinclair, the matriarch
of her family, raised goats on a three-mile neck of land that jutted into the
South Sulphur River. The community was soon dubbed Grannie’s
Neck.
Lick
Skillet
Lick Skillet is a name
that courses through the history of rural East
Texas. For more than a hundred years or so, it has been attached to communities,
creeks, roads and anything else where people have a sense of humor.
The
name supposedly came about when newcomers arrived late for a community dinner
and found that all of the food had been consumed, leading someone to admonish
them to “lick the skillet.”
Weeping
Mary
Located five miles west of Alto
in Cherokee County, Weeping
Mary was first settled after the Civil War by freed slaves from neighboring
plantations.
It’s name reportedly came from the 20th chapter of the Book
of John, where Mary goes to the tomb of Jesus after he was crucified:
“...and when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing,
and knew not that it was not Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?”
Cuthand
Cuthand and a nearby creek in
Red River County got its names from a Deleware Indian chief who was instrumental
in arranging a treaty with unfriendly Indian tribes.
The chief had lost
three fingers from a sabor’s slash in his younger days and because of his disigurement,
he was thereafter known as Cut Hand.
Bob
Bowman's East Texas April 18, 2010 Column, Modified 1-29-13
A weekly
column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers
Copyright Bob Bowman
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