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| History
in a Pecan Shell
The settlement is said to have been named
for a petticoat lost (and evidently found) at a local dance. The garment had been
recycled from an old coffee sack and had retained the stenciled name: Java
The area was first settled in the late 1840s and early 1850s by settlers
from Alabama and Tennessee, but as a community, Java did’t expand until the 1890s,
when prison crews from the Texas State Penitentiary in Rusk
came to mine coal to fuel the state-owned iron furnace. A small trading post consisting
of a general store and sawmill grew up at the site, and a post office was opened
there in 1895.
In 1906, after the Texas State Railroad was constructed
from Rusk
to Palestine,
the Java post office was closed. Within a short time most of the merchants and
residents had moved to the newly founded town of Maydelle,
on the railroad.
Java celebrated it’s centennial as a ghost town in 2010. |
 |
Cherokee
County, Texas 1907 Postal Map showing Java
(Below
"H" in "CHEROKEE")
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 and vintage/historic/contemporary
photos of their town/subject, please contact
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