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Plantersville
scene
TE photo, June 2004 |
History in
a Pecan Shell
Settled first by Arkansas and Alabamans in the 1830s, The town didn’t
jell until the early 1840s. A two-story Masonic building was built
in the early 1850s, using the familiar school below – lodge above
design.
In addition to the school, two churches used the lodge building until
they could construct their own buildings. The community’s first store
opened before 1860 and a post office was granted in 1856.
The name (said acknowledge the antebellum planters) is credited to
Mrs. J. L. Greene. The community got a shot-in-the-arm in 1879, when
the Montgomery Central Railway connected Montgomery
and Navasota
with a stop at Plantersville. That railroad was bought by the Gulf,
Colorado and Santa Fe a few years later and the line expanded to Conroe
and Beaumont
to the east – and Somerville to the west.
Russian, Pole and German Catholic immigrants created a need for a
Catholic church and in 1894,
St. Mary’s was organized. The 1890 population was 400 but for
some reason, it had fallen to a mere 150 by 1915. It rebounded somewhat
to 200 by the mid 1930s – and remained there for decades. It was still
200 in the late 50s and 212 for 1990 and 2000.
Plantersville, Texas Historic Destinations:
St.
Mary's Catholic Church
Plantersville Cemetery |
The
spooky road to the Plantersville Cemetery
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, October 2007 |
Plantersville
Cemetery
TE photo, June 2004 |
Civil
War Tombstone
TE photo, June 2004 |
Civil
War Tombstone
TE photo, June 2004 |
Prussian
Tombstone
TE photo, June 2004 |
Plantersville
Cemetery Historical Marker
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, October 2007 |
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