| |
History
in a Pecan Shell
The
J. B. Baldwin family of Marshall
is said to be the source of the name. The community was granted a post office
in 1902 although it was shuttered by 1915.
The 1914 population was given
as 350. The community was served by two general stores and had a cotton gin as
well as two sawmills.
By the worst days of the Great Depression, Baldwin’s
population had plummeted to a mere 25 citizens served by a single store.
The site today shows widely dispersed houses with no town center. |
 |
A Visit to Baldwin
Texas Photographer's
Note
Baldwin is an
unincorporated community in northeast Texas, in Harrison County, on FM-134, about
6-miles west of Karnack, about 9-miles east of
Jefferson, serving the rail
industry.
Note that there is not even a road sign here. Note also, that
it is on several different maps.
The main thing that is here is the Kansas
City Southern Rail siding and a few tracks serving the “TNT Railcar Services”
facility. There used to be a “Rail Plant” there. They welded up 39-foot joints
of rail into quarter mile long lengths of “welded rail” for KCS. It was quite
an operation, doing the welding and loading it onto a special train. I used to
have to go there all the time for KCS when I was employed with KCS (for 30-years).
Also, worked on the special rail train unloading the “welded” rail to be put into
service.
Here is the extremely dangerous “S” curve right over the RR tracks.
- Gerald
Massey, February 2010 | |
|
