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History in
a Pecan Shell
A man named Aden
Posey settled here in the mid 1840s and a community eventually grew
around a gristmill. The sleepy hamlet sat there not making waves for
the rest of the 19th Century.
The denizens farmed and ate grist and by the turn of the century produced
enough children for a school. As soon as the kids could write, they
needed a post office and one was opened in 1902 under the name of
Reuben. The name wasn’t well
accepted and in just a few months of operation, the community was
renamed to honor the original settler.
The post office closed in 1906 although the town seems to have peaked
sometime between1910 – 1920. Their “commercial district” was made
up of two stores, a cotton gin and a blacksmith,. It was the town's
proximity to the county seat that doomed real growth.
The cotton gin burned in the mid 1920s – about the time of the boll
weevil infestation and when the The Great Depression arrived,
the community wassomehow able to maintain both stores, as well as
the school and church, but not much more.
By the time of the 1940 census there were only 20 people left which
forced a consolidation of the community school with those in neighboring
towns.
It has since been designated a “dispersed rural community” with only
scattered residences, the church and its adjoining cemetery.
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Hopkins
/ Delta County map
showing Reuben
Modification of Texas state map #2090
Courtesy
Texas General Land Office |
| 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
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