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The oldest county
in Texas was a booming place in the Pineywoods many years ago. Early settlers
chose to make their homes under the pine tree canvas of Houston County, and tame
the area. Communities began to take shape and lives were lived as the winds of
change blew.
Remains of one early East
Texas settlement can be found down a winding red dirt road approximately 12
miles east of Grapeland, near
present day Percilla Community.
Though little remains of a once thriving community known as Waneta, an oak frame
school house still stands today. | 
Some say the settlement
of the Waneta Community can been traced back to 1835, when a man by the name of
Frank Austin arrived in the area. Austin is said to have built a general store
of which he dubbed the Waneta Store.
Other early settlers began to followed
suit and purchased land within the area. Ruben Lively, Charles W. Butler, William
L. Dickey and George Daniel Scarborough, were among respected landowners in the
Waneta Community. Other families such as the Herringtons, Barnes, Goffs, Richs,
Teems, Brumleys, and Hendricks also helped settle the area as they arrived from
what is believed to have been Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. Still, other
families poured into the area and the community began to thrive.
Farming
was the main source of income for Waneta families during the early days. Several
cotton gins were located there, one of which was the Sewall Gin. Waneta farmers
would harvest the cotton and transport it by wagon into Grapeland
where they would sell it.
The little community of Waneta was well-rounded.
There was also a blacksmith shop run by a man who was affectionately known throughout
the community as “Dad” Graves, as well as a small church known as the New Hope
Baptist Church.
In 1852 a man named Charles W. Butler, who would later
make a contribution to the community, purchased land and established a farm. By
the 1870s a number of families were living in the vicinity and the rural community
was bustling.
A post office was established by 1899 in Waneta, and served
the community for many years. The post office was located on property owned at
that time by Charlie and Mary Ramey. The post office was later moved to Percilla,
and eventually became part of the Grapeland
postal system.
An article from a 1901 edition of the Grapeland Messenger
portrayed the Waneta Community through a “strangers” eyes. The reporter used the
term “versts” (Russian or Swedish measure equal to .66 of a mile) to explain the
location of the community, an area which the writer said “revels in quasi-city
luxury of one general store and a post office.”
According to the reporter,
the general store in Waneta was an excellent place to shop. The reporter said
“everything from a paper of pins to a gang plow; from a pair of socks to a suit
of clothes are constantly on tap.”
The reporter described the area to
his readers with fondness, and facts. His article included a lay of the land,
which was a combination of rich soil capable of yielding a bale of cotton per
acre, and good quality sandstone that could be quarried from the hills. According
to the reporter, the sandstone could be quarried for a nominal cost and used for
building.
“Easy terms are given on realty, and to buy land and build a
home is a comparatively easy matter,” the article stated.
According to
the visiting reporter, the diversification idea had not been practiced in this
area. He stated, “Fertilizers and “pore” folks are alike unknown qualities, and
the people, without an exception, seem to be prosperous, happy and contented,”
in regard to Waneta and its citizens.
The reporter recorded his experience
as a fond one, as he told of the Waneta Community’s “open-handed hospitality”
and noted, such treatment was not reserved for only the good citizens of Waneta.
He was a stranger within the Waneta Community, yet treated exceptionally and as
if one of their own. His article told of “pressing invitations” that were extended
to anyone who arrived at any of the Waneta citizen’s home near meal times.
“No antebellum slave king could more royally entertain than these good people,
and as we ride way beneath the golden glory, the billow bronze and velvet azure
of a winter sky, we devoutly wish that all the world was peopled with such as
these,” the reporter stated at the close of his article.
With a post office,
a general store, cotton gins, and a black smith in the community the only thing
missing was a school. |
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The first school that
was established in Waneta was called Red Prairie School. The school was
located on land owned Augustus Peterson of Sweden. A few years later the school
was moved to the William Lively place. In 1913 the school was again moved, this
time to land donated by Charles W. Butler. Red Prairie School and New
Hope School were then consolidated and named Waneta School. The Waneta
school opened in 1914.
The first and original school was first under the
direction of two teachers, Mae Rae and Lola Dennis. When the Waneta School was
built, a third teacher was added to accommodate the school population of approximately
200 students. Some years later an auditorium was added and church services were
also held in the building.
The oak frame school house with two chimneys
served the Waneta Community until 1949, when it was consolidated with the Grapeland
school system and closed its doors. The community only declined after the 1940s,
leaving little more than the school house and memories. Weekly church services
and an annual reunion for ex-students were still held in the old school house
until the late 1970s. |
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| The Waneta School,
which is still standing in the same place, looks as if it will soon blow away
with the winds of change. A sagging rusty barbed wire fence nailed to old cedar
posts encompasses the site. The school is an interesting building to behold, despite
the state of ill repair it is in. The weather beaten tin roof has turned a brilliant
rusty maroon over the years. Trees have pushed up from beneath the wooden floors,
reaching for the light that streams in from gaping holes in the ceiling. Vines
attempt to choke the building, and snake in and out of the windows. Portions of
the building are also caving in. |
Waneta
Community and School Historical Marker
Photo by Dana
Goolsby, October 2010 |
According to some
who have visited the site in recent years, voo doo dolls left by witches can be
found on occasion. Alters built as a tribute to headless dolls have been seen
in the old school house as well. Local ghost hunters do not linger long at the
Waneta School, and often talk about a strange feeling that can be felt by those
brave enough to enter. Stragglers and wanderers also hole up in the historic building
despite the dangers of the dilapidating building, in order to take refuge from
whatever they are straying from.
The Waneta Community has joined the dust
of the past as the winds of change have blown about in the Pineywoods. Waneta
is no longer a bustling and thriving community, and only recognizable due to a
historic marker that sits in front of the lone school house from the past, and
by way of local legends and a few old photographs. An old school house and memories
of the early settlers who lived, worked and died there remain, but both are quickly
fading.
© Dana
Goolsby
"In The Pines With
Dana Goolsby"
January 16, 2011 Column
Reporter of The Grapeland Messenger
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