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History
in a Pecan Shell
Despite colorful stories (like coffee trees growing
from spilled beans), Coffeeville is named after early settlers.
Coffeeville
used to be considered the destination when people headed west from the then-booming
riverport of Jefferson. Wagon
trains resupplied there. Between 1845 and 1866 Coffeeville received an influx
of plantation owners from southern states who had decided to sell their expensive
land back east and buy new holdings in the much cheaper
. A post office was opened by 1852 and during that decade, the town throve
with three doctors, a large hotel, four stores, a Masonic lodge and even an academy.
During its heyday, Coffeeville had several blacksmiths and recreational activities
included a pool hall and more than one saloon. Governor Edward Clark suggested
that Coffeyville host a Confederate training camp - which was done. But after
the war when the railroad came through Upshur County, the town was bypassed. From
200 people in 1887, it has already shrunk to 153 by 1904. The Coffeyville post
office closed in1915.
During the Great Depression, fifty die-hard residents
kept the town on the map - it remained at that level (census figures are sometimes
reused for decades) through 1990. Today nothing resembling a town remains - it
is now considered a dispersed rural community.
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