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History in
a Pecan Shell
The exotic name
is said to have derived from a comparison of distances. Karnack's
distance from Port Caddo (Republic
of Texas port of entry) was said to be exactly the same as the
distance between the Egyptian cities of Karnak and Thebes.
In the late 1890s the community was becoming known for shipping cotton.
A Karnack post office opened in 1898 and oilfields around Caddo
Lake began producing eight years later.
Karnack's population in 1915 was 100 (no figures available on the
population of Karnack, Egypt). A general store, gristmill and cotton
gin were in operation at that time.
By 1927 the population had quadrupled to 400 and peaked at 850 in
the early 1940s. |
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Karnack,
Texas Area Attractions:
Lady Bird
Johnson's Childhood Home
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Southwest of Karnack (2½ miles) on Highway 43
"Oonie
Andrews, the ghost who lives in Lady Bird Johnson's family home
at Karnack
She is as much a part of the old mansion that Jett Jones, who grew
up with Oonie, simply considers her "a lady who lives in the house
that nobody else can see."
In 1843, Milt Andrews built a splendid plantation-style mansion
near Karnack. Sometime in the l880s, Andrews' 19-year-old daughter,
Eunice, sat alone in an upstairs bedroom when bolt of lightning
from a stormstruck the chimney, raced down a fireplace, and hit
Oonie. She was burned to death.
Over the years, stories arose that the ghost of Miss Andrews never
left the bedroom. Eerie noises, odd happenings, and ghostly apparitions
soon became common. When the Andrews family sold the house to T.J.
Taylor -- Lady Bird Johnson's father -- in 1902, the ghost went
along with the sale. While Lady Bird said she never saw or heard
the ghost, she admitted feeling a sense of apprehension and unease
in the house as a child."
From Ghosts
in East Texas by Bob Bowman
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| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
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