|
|
BULLARD,
TEXAS
AKA Etna and
Hewsville
Smith County, East Texas
US 69 and FMs 2493, 2137, and 344
12 miles S of Tyler
15 miles N of Jacksonville
Population: 1,150 (2000)
Book
Your Hotel Here & Save
Tyler Hotels
|
Downtown Bullard
Photo courtesy Lori Martin, December 2005 |
History in
a Pecan Shell
The Etna post office, just west of Bullard was granted in 1867,
even though settlers had been in the vicinity since the early 1850s.
John and Emma Bullard arrivied about 1870 and a new post office named
Hewsville opened in Bullard's store in 1881. This caused the closing
of the Etna post office in 1883 and a renaming of the Hewsville
post office to Bullard.
When the Kansas and Gulf Short Line Railroad extended their route
from Tyler
to Lufkin they passed
through Bullard and built a depot. In 1890 there were 200 residents
and the town had most essential business plus a doctor and a telegraph
office.
The railroad was renamed several times - becoming the St. Louis, Arkansas
and Texas Railway and then (1892) the Tyler and Southwestern Railway.
In 1903 the two schools (segregated) had five teachers and 186 students
between them.
By 1914 the population had doubled to 400 and the railroad changed
names once again - becoming the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad. |
 |
Another view
of downtown Bullard
Photo courtesy Lori Martin, December 2005 |
The 1920s saw
the opening of a theater and the forming of a community band. The
town also gained some notoriety for its unique holding tank - a 7
foot diameter wooden tub with bars mounted on a wagon frame. When
full, the contraption was driven to Tyler for emptying.
The population was still just 450 after WWII and the community didn't
get a city council until and until 1948.
By the mid 1960s the population had declined to only 300 but rebounded
by 1973 when it was back up to 573. The community is now concentrated
around the crossroads and most resident commute to nearby Tyler.
|
|
|
Old
barn near downtown Bullard
Photo courtesy Lori Martin, March 2001 |
| |
| "Old
Barn in Bullard Texas. This barn was across the Street from the Douglas
Cemetery. It was on the Property of the Old Douglas Plantation. I
Don't know when the barn was built but I took the picture in 2001
and I drove by the other day and the barn was now a pile of rubble."
- Lori Martin, December 2005 |
|
|
