| |
History in a Pecan
Shell
Once
called "Skin Tight"
after the business tactics of early trader and storekeeper Henry L. Reeves, the
more acceptable name of Lone Star was submitted when a post office was applied
for in 1883. The office was granted and Lone Star was off to a great start. With
160 people and a gristmill, cotton gin, a sawmill, store and school, the future
looked bright. But "downtown" Lone Star burned in an 1893 fire. Rebuilding was
immediate and the town doubled its population by the mid-1890s.
But with
the new century, Lone Star started to dim. In 1903 the Texas and New Orleans Railroad
bypassed the town and most residents moved to Ponta.
The 1915 population was down to 200 and the post office closed in 1916.
Oil was discovered in 1939 and it seemed as though it might resurrect the town,
but production was anemic and hopes were dashed.
Still, 73 people remained
in Lone Star through WWII.
The post-war population drifted away and except for a lone building, and a state
historical marker, Lone Star joined a long list of former
East Texas towns.
See 1940s Cherokee
County Map |
Historical
Marker Text
On FM 235, 4 miles SW of New
Summerfield
Lone
StarThe ante bellum
community of Lone Star, a center of trade, education and culture in the 1880s,
experienced its greatest growth after the Civil War. Known first as "Skin
Tight," it was named Lone Star when a post office opened in 1883. The town
once had several businesses, a public school, four churches, two lodges and the
Lone Star Institute. The town began to decline after a disastrous fire in 1893.
Decline continued when the T & N O Railroad bypassed Lone Star. Hope for the community's
revival died when two oil field discoveries did not prove to be profitable. |
Mone
on Lone Star, Texas
from "Bob
Bowman's East Texas":
In the early 1830s, when cattle buyer Henry Reeves and his partner, a man known
only as Ball, built a store on the Rusk-Henderson road, visiting customers started
calling the settlement “Skin Tight”... more
“How
many towns named Lone Star are located in Texas?”
At my last count, there were
ten, and six of them are in East Texas... more
|
1940s
Cherokee County map showing Lone Star and Ponta
(Above
"EE" in "C-H-E-R-O-K-E-E")
Courtesy Texas General Land
Office | |
|
