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A
History of Snow Town, TXBy
Paul Latour
Snow Town, sometimes mistaken as Snow Hill on some
Texas maps, lies just East of Lake Livingston south of Oakhurst
and North of Stephen Creek off of F.M. 156.
The town is named after one
of the early pioneers of the area, Thomas H. Snow, who ran a saloon and store.
The town later banned alcohol consumption, so Thomas Snow moved to “Rough Edge”,
an area five miles South of Snow Town to rebuild his saloon business. He later
died in a cotton gin mishap, and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Coldspring
Cemetery.
Snow Town never had much of a boom in population and remains
sparsely populated today as it did long ago. It never even progressed so far as
to get a post office (in its own name), and the population initially had to go
to Dodge occasionally to pick up their mail. It
is said they never got a lot of mail though, and so in that sense you could say
they were socially isolated.
In 1899 the sawmill town of Oakhurst
established a post office. Every man was needed at the Oakhurst mill, so later
various men from Snow Town began to carry and deliver the mail.
Snow Town
did see some growth in 1908, when the Oakhurst mill bought out another mill, the
Palmetto sawmill, and then combined their production at the Oakhurst
location, drawing a few of the Snow Town residents to the mill. Eventually a rail
line was established connecting Oakhurst
to Dodge, resulting in a train depot at Snow Town.
Residents of Snow Town could take the train to Dodge
for 25 cents or from Snow Town to Oakhurst
for 10 cents. Snow Town had members in the Ku
Klux Klan and in 1921 they held a march at the depot where 300 people gathered
to watch.
At its height, Snow Town had five stores, including at one time
a barber shop and pool hall. Over time the business owners aged and died, and
with it the short life of Snow Town began to fade.
The Oakhurst sawmill
shut down in 1930, leading to a serious drop in population of the area. This event
led to the overall death of Oakhurst
which further hampered economic activity in Snow Town. Eventually the Post Office
moved once again, this time off of Highway 190.
Nowadays, a lot of what
was Snow Town is supposedly called Oakhurst,
because at one point the Oakhurst Post Office was transferred to Snow Town but
retained its name of the Oakhurst Post Office. Topographic maps indicate Snow
Hill Road passes through the heart of what was once Snow Town. Old maps also indicate
that there was once a chapel in Snow Town, with a possible cemetery adjacent to
it, but it is either lost or on private property. The area now has a large Christmas
tree farm, few residents, and a few old buildings.
Sources:
San
Jacinto County: A Glimpse Into the Past Version 1: A Collection of Historical
Articles
Dim Trails and Blurred Footprints: A History of San Jacinto County, Texas. Published
by the San Jacinto County Historical Commission. Printed in 1982. “History of
Snowtown” by Iva Blalock.Information
about Snow Town: http://www.millhollowtexas.com/page6.htm |
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| Photo
courtesy Paul Latour |
Snow
Town scenes
Photo
courtesy Paul Latour |
1940s
San Jacinto County map showing Oakhurst
& Dodge
(Above
"SAN" in "SAN JACINTO" near Walker/San Jacinto County line)
Courtesy
Texas General Land Office |
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