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The Town of Twin Groceriesby
Bob Bowman | |
A
recent caller from Bowie County had an intriguing question recently, “Does East
Texas have a town named Twin Groceries?”
The answer is yes and no.
Around 1850, John Arthur helped settle the town of Saltillo
on the Old Jefferson wagon road sixteen miles east of Sulphur
Springs in Hopkins County. He named it after a town in Mexico.
Saltillo
soon became a popular place for teamsters, leading to the establishment of a post
office in 1860 with Moses Russell as the postmaster.
The town also had
a gristmill, a cotton gin and a store.
A second store was opened on the
opposite side of the road from Arthur’s store and for the first time, the community
was known as “Twin Groceries” for obvious reasons.
But the name didn’t
last long and Saltillo reemerged.
By 1885. Saltillo had a water-powered
gristmill, two churches, a school and a population of about sixty. But what about
Saltillo’s name?
Admittedly,
it is not as colorful as Twin Groceries, but it does have an interesting history.
Saltillo, Mexico, the namesake of the one in Hopkins County, and Austin
both share a special place in Texas
history. Both were Texas capitals.
Saltillo was the capitol of Texas
when its territory was part of the Mexican state of Coahulia before Texas won
its independence and Austin became the
capital of of the Republic of Texas.
In
1986, while I was serving on the Texas Sesquicentennial Commission, a delegation
from Saltillo, Mexico, journeyed to Austin
to help Texas celebrate its 150th birthday.
In 1887, the St. Louis and
Southwestern Railroad built a line a few miles north of Saltillo,
Texas, and one of the town’s twin grocery stores moved to the train station
site. Twin Groceries had no reason to use its name anymore.
Saltillo
opened a school in 1905 with an enrollment of eighty-four. And in 1909, the Gulf
Pipe LIne was laid through Hopkins County near Saltillo,
further spurring its growth.
The town kept growing and soon had a population
of 350, a number of stores, several barber shops, a bank, a printing house, and
a newspaper known a the Saltillo Signal.
The town grew until the 1920s,
but the Depression years reduced its prosperity and its population fell to 250.
Today,
Saltillo is still an active
settlement of about 200 folks and a few stores at the intersection of U.S. 67,
Farm Road 900, and the railroad. The town is also less than a mile from Interstate
30.
Sadly, there is nothing left of Twin Groceries but a colorful old name.
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