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TRINITY,
TEXASFormer
Trinity County Seat
Trinity County, East
Texas State Highways 19 and Highway 94 with FMs 230, 356, and 1617 Two
Miles NE of the Trinity River 21 Miles NE of Huntsville 20
Miles SW of Groveton
Population: 2,700 (2000) |
Trinity History
in a Pecan Shell
An early community known as Kayser’s Prairie, occupied the land prior
to the 1870s. The town we now know as Trinity became a station on the Houston
and Great Northern Railroad in 1872 although it was first Trinity Station
and then Trinity City before dropping the extra words.
The railroad
increased the population dramatically when it bypassed the county seat (Sumpter,
Texas). Trinity became the county seat in May of 1873 although that status
was short-lived.
In 1874 Pennington
became the county seat, even though Trinity was the county’s railroad center and
its most populated community. The population reached 900 in the mid 1880s which
swelled to 1,200 for the 1890 census.
A fire destroyed 12 houses in 1892
but that doesn’t explain the drop in population (just 500 by 1896).
By
1904 it had 850 residents and the town was electrified in 1906.
A second
fire in 1909 destroyed the town’s business district and a third fire in 1915 (when
the population had reached 1,800) caused further damage, but the town rebuilt
on each occasion. The population grew slowly, reaching nearly 2,650 in 1990.
Trinity
was (after cotton growing declined in the 1920s) a timber center and once had
30 sawmills in operation at its peak.
The Texas Department of Corrections
has several prisons in the area.
Trinity
Historic Attraction: |
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Trinity's
1942 Post Office Mural "Lumber Manufacturing" by Jerry
Bywaters Photo
courtesy Marilyn Tomalavage, 2011 |
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