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ROSSER,
TEXASKaufman County,
North Central Texas
Highway 34
12 miles SW of Kaufman
45 miles SE of Dallas
Population
379 (2000)
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Rosser
depot
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, January 2006 |
History
in a Pecan Shell
Platted
as a townsite in 1851 under the name Trinidad, initial settlement
was before 1850. The town's location on the East Fork of the Trinity
River promised a bright future. The watercourse was navigable at that
time for barge and riverboat traffic. Trinidad experienced healthy
growth prior to the Civil War and the post office opened in 1854.
River commerce decreased after the war as railroads expanded. The
post office (still named Trinidad) closed its doors in 1866. |
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Rosser
depot and water tower
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, January 2006 |
| The Texas and
Pacific Railroad arrived in 1872 and Trinidad hosted scores of railroad
workers, increasing the population and creating a tent boomtown. The
newcomers justified reopening the post office and a new application
was filed under the name of Burton. But Washington
County already had a Burton
and so the town was renamed after Capt. Robert S. Rosser a local landowner
who had become wealthy through land and timber sales. |
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The
post office in Rosser
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, January 2006 |
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Grain
elevator and water tower
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, January 2006 |
Under
the new name, the town continued to prosper. By 1894 there was a gin,
sawmill, and gristmill. A second gin was constructed just after 1900
and the town acquired a hotel. A newspaper was first published in1902,
under the name Review. In the mid-teens a second paper (The
Midget) appeared. In 1904 the population of Rosser was 128 and
by 1925 it had increased to 350 residents.
During the Great Depression, while other East Texas towns were declining,
Rosser experienced a boom of sorts. The town was wired for electricity
and a pork-slaughtering business (which never materialized) was planned. |
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The
closed school in Rosser
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, January 2006 |
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The
Volunteer Fire Department
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, January 2006 |
In 1936 Rosser
claimed a healthy population of 350. It declined from this number
to just 225 by the mid-1950s where it remained through the late '80s.
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