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History in
a Pecan Shell
Settlement began four miles north of present-day Nevada in the mid-1840s
with the community of McMinn Chapel. Founder John McMinn and his
extended family provided the core of the town.
Nevada, developed in the early 1860s when Granville Stinebaugh arrived
and bought acreage, naming the embryo community after the Nevada
Territory. A post office was granted in 1880 and the railroad arrived
in 1888.
Nevada’s role was a modest one – a shipping point and market for
the agrarian region. From only 50 people in the mid 1880s it grew
to just under 600 by 1920.
In the mid
1920s Nevada had 625 residents and its future looked bright. But
on May 9th 1927 the town was struck by a killer tornado which dealt
the community a blow it never recovered from. With 27 killed and
75 injured, it ranks as one of Texas’ most destructive tornados.
The Great Depression
didn’t help, nor did the drawing off of population during postwar
prosperity. The population had been reduced to 386, and that number
was used for the next three decades. It finally broke 400 for the
1980 census and added 56 more for 1990.
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