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BECKVILLE,
TEXASPanola
County, East Texas
Highway 149, FM 124 and FM 959
8 miles NE of Carthage
Population:
752 (2000) |
| | Beckville
library and museum
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, April 2006 |
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History in a
Pecan Shell
Named
after early settler Matthew W. Beck who arrived sometime around 1850, the community
was once a mile east of the present location. A post office opened in the late
1850s when the population was estimated at 75. The Texas, Sabine Valley and Northwestern
Railroad was headed straight toward Beckville, but local landowners jacked up
the price of a right-of-way to the point where the railroad decided to build a
mile south where landowner Joe Biggs was more amenable. |
| | Post
Office
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, April 2006 |
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The original townsite
was deserted as people and businesses relocated to the new townsite. In 1889 the
first school was built. By 1914 the population was up to 750. A fire in 1917 destroyed
buildings in downtown Beckville.and the region suffered a drought in 1927. The
population reached 880 people just as the Great Depression was beginning and the
population fell to just 453. The population remained at that level for decades.
It had increased to 783 in the early 1990s and has since decreased to 752. |
Carthage : Music
from two country masters
(Excerpted from "THE EAST TEXAS SUNDAY
DRIVE BOOK" by Bob Bowman)
"... Back
on Texas 43, return to Tatum, take Texas 149 southeast
to the settlement of Beckville, which was founded before the l880s by Matthew
W. Beck, who settled in the area about l850. The town was originally established
about a mile north of its present site but was moved in l887 to be near the railroad.
At Beckville, take FM 124 and proceed in a southerly direction
until you come to the community of Fair Play
at the intersection with U.S. 79..."
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