|
|
NEW BOSTON,
TEXAS
Bowie County Seat,
East
Texas
I-30 and Hwy 8
21 miles W of Texarkana
41 miles E of Clarksville
Population: 4,808 (2000) 5,057 (1990)
|
New
Boston cotton scene in the 1900s
Photo courtesy texasoldphotos.com |
History in
a Pecan Shell
A
timeline of significant and selected historical events in Bowie County:
1876: City of Boston negotiates with railroad for a new townsite to
be on the railroad - New Boston and Old Boston coexist four miles
apart without creating a ghost town from displaced businesses.
1884: Population reaches 400
1887: Post office was granted
1900: Population reaches 762
A short-lived boom increased the population from just over 800 (1925)
to 1,300 by 1929.
By 1931 it was back under 1,000 people.
The Star Army Ammunition Plant and the Red River Army Depot were built
just SE of New Boston during WWII, bolstering the economy and providing
new residents. They remain the county's major employers.
Bowie
County Courthouse |
The
1891 Bowie County jail was used until 1984. It still stands on the
southeast corner of the old courthouse square in New Boston.
Photo courtesy Terry
Jeanson, December 2006
More Texas Jails |
People
Richard Ellis
by Mike Cox ("Texas Tales" Column)
Namesake of Ellis County
"... His family buried him on the plantation about three miles
north of present New Boston. With the passage of time, the location
of his grave was forgotten. But on Sept. 26, 1929, the Dallas Morning
News reported that Ellis' "long lost grave" had been found.
"A dense forest of huge pine trees grew up in the family cemetery
and the tombstone placed on the grave was dislodged and fell," the
newspaper reported. "Rep. R.M. Hubbard of New Boston…employed laborers
to remove the surface of the earth in the old cemetery, resulting
in the discovery of the footstone marked with the initials 'R.E.'
The base of the headstone also was found intact."
Workers exhumed Ellis' remains for reburial in the State
Cemetery in Austin that October.
In the spring of 1935, one year shy of a century since Ellis steered
the Declaration of Independence and the republic's Constitution through
the parliamentary process, the Legislature appropriated $15,000 for
a statue in his honor...." more
|
|
|
