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Communities & Towns

Panola County is the home of several famous persons including Walter Prescott Webb (1888-1963), historian & singing sensations "Tex" Ritter (1905-1974) & Jim Reeves (1923-1964)

Panola County, Texas

Beckville (Town) Bethany (Community) Carthage County Seat Clayton (Community) DeBerry (Community) Deadwood (Community) Fairplay (Community) Galloway (Community) Gary (Town) Longbranch (Community) Pulaski (Community) Woods (Community)

Allen Bryan   Robert E Kyle

Allen Bryan (my great, great grandfather) & his family settled in Woods, Panola Co, Texas in 1854, where he had purchased 4,444 acres of land from John E. MYRICK. East Texas which was part of a wilderness at the time of purchase.

Woods, Texas is located on U.S. Highway 59 eleven miles southeast of Carthage in southeastern Panola County. It was first called Hull's Store for C. F. HULL, who settled at the site in the early 1850s. When a post office was granted in 1854, the settlement's name was changed to Woods after Theodorick B. WOOD, who served as first postmaster. A combination school and Methodist church was built before 1858. By 1885, Woods had a district school, three churches, a steam sawmill, three general stores, two blacksmiths, and an estimated population of 200. The post office closed in 1906, and by 1910 the population had fallen to 100. In the mid-1930s Woods had a church, a school, and two stores; the reported population in 1936 was thirty. The school was consolidated with the Carthage school in the 1940s, but in the mid-1960s the settlement still had two churches, a community center, and an estimated forty residents. In 1990 Woods was a dispersed community with a population of sixty-five.

The Methodist Church, later rebuilt in 1876, with only minor changes made since that time is one of the oldest buildings still in use in Panola County. It is recorded was recorded as a "Texas Historic Landmark" in 1970, and was added to the list in the "National Register of Historic Places" in 1980.

The land for Woods Cemetery was conveyed in 1858, by James B ARMSTRONG with the earliest grave dating back to 1860. Many Bryan's & related descendants and kin are buried there including my great, great grandparents, Allen BRYAN (1798-1862) & Sarah POU BRYAN (1807-1891). Sarah's father, John POU, III (1783-1863), my great, great, great grandfather, is also buried there.

It is reported that the finest bale of cotton the world has ever seen was produced by Hardy G HOOKER on his farm in Woods Post Office. Reportedly the bale was bought by the Liverpool Cotton Exchange & displayed in England for one season. The New York Cotton Exchange then bought & returned the bale to the United States. It is now on display in New York, bagged in silk and linen, bound with sterling silver ties, and enclosed in glass. (NOTE: I have not verified this, but if true it is a tribute to Panola County farmers of its day .. if not true, it makes for good folklore)

According to an article that appeared in the San Marcos, Texas Newspaper 10 May 1940, where Julia Bryan DeSteiger, daughter of Allen Bryan & Sarah Pou, recounts her families move from Alabama to Texas she stated the following:

"Later we built a house which was used for both church and school. My mother was a devout Baptist. Our nearest neighbor and very good friend John ARMSTRONG, was a Methodist. As we had no preacher, mother and Mr. ARMSTRONG agreed to let the first preacher who held service decide the denominational name of the church. Mr. ARMSTRONG beat mother in finding a preacher, so it was called the Methodist Church although it was used by other denominations.

The seats in this church building were made from logs, split open to form a level surface and supported by wooden legs which were driven into auger holes. The one church room was divided in the middle by a railing about three feet high. Negro slaves sat on one side of the railing and white people on the other side. We carved out little pieces of timber with holes in them to hold the tallow candles. The candles served as lights at night service. It was in this little log church before I was grown that I joined the Baptist church. I have taken great interest in church work ever since."

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Several of the BRYAN Clan settled in Beckville, Panola County, Texas. Among them were my great grandparents John Henry BRYAN (1830-abt 1920) & Nancy Elizabeth KYLE BRYAN (1842-1921) both buried at Harris Chapel Cemetery in Beckville.

Beckville, Texas located at the junction of State Highway 149 and Farm roads 124 and 959, eight miles northeast of Carthage in northeastern Panola County.

• Established about 1850 when Matthew W. Beck built a home & put in a stock of goods & supplies for the convenience of settlers & travelers along the road between Douglas, in Nacogdoches County, and Shreveport, La. A settlement soon grew there.

• 1857 A Local Post Office was opened.

• By 1885 there were two churches, two steam gristmills, three general stores, a hotel, a blacksmith and an estimated population of seventy-five.

• In 1886 the Texas, Sabine Valley & Northwestern Railway was built through the county. The residents of Beckville requested such high prices for their property that the railroad bypassed them.

• 1886 Joe Biggs, sold some of his land that was located about one mile south of Beckville for a more reasonable price.

• 1886-1889 Most business owners moved their businesses to the railroad and old Beckville became completely deserted.

• 1889 - the first school was built

• 1897 - the school's enrollment was 151 with 3 teachers

• 1914 - population was approximately 750

• 1917 - fire destroyed part of the businesses

• 1927 - Drought and the onset of the "Great Depression" halted the town's growth

• 1929 - Beckville was incorporated - population was approximately 880

• 1930 - In the mid-1930's the population had dropped to approximately 453

• 1990 - Population was 783 & in the early 1990's the town had 15 rated businesses

Bethany, Panola County, Texas is located on Highway 79 at the Louisiana State Line, has a Louisiana post office. Originally settled in 1840 and known as Vernon - Bethany was a stopping point for settlers moving to Texas from the "Old South". It acquired the name Bethany in 1849 when a post office was established. In 1860, the post office was relocated to Caddo Parish, Louisiana. Bethany began to decline after the Civil War and by the late 1890's the local school had nine students.

In the 1920's development of the Bethany gas field brought a resurgence to the small community and by the 1930's the community had two churches, five stores, and one elementary school. Bethany began to decline again after World War II. In the early 1990's Bethany was a rural community with a church and a few stores. One of the stores was built on the "State Line" in 1889 by a barkeeper and wanted to take advantage of the differences in the State Laws between Texas & Louisiana - in one half of the store drinking was legal while in the other half it was legal to gamble.

Carthage, Panola County, Texas, located at the intersections of US Highways 59 & 79, forty-two miles west of Shreveport, Louisiana it became the County Seat in 1848, when the county commissioners selected it as the county's geographic center and the town. Pulaski, a settlement on the east bank of the Sabine River, had been the temporary County Seat since 1846. Spearman Holland was credited with naming the town Carthage, after his former home in Carthage, Mississippi. Jonathan Anderson, who lived four or five miles southeast of the site, owned the land and offered to donate 100 acres for the town. In 1848, when the commissioners' court met for the first time in the new location, he deeded the 100 acres to Panola County. The legislative act authorizing the county specified that the county seat be laid out into convenient lots with space in the center to erect a courthouse. Lots were staked out and sold at public auction; the proceeds were to be used to construct public buildings. The county government was dependent upon the Panola County Commissioners' Court, which was responsible for overseeing road construction, for setting ferry fees, for law enforcement, and for other business concerning the general public.

• 1848 - Carthage was voted as the new county seat.
• 1849 - Post Office was established
• 1849 - A Courthouse was built of peeled pine logs.
• 1853 - The Log Courthouse was replaced by a brick structure.
• 1860 - Carthage had 1 school, church & the Panola Male & Female Academy, founded by L.C. Libby.
• 1874 - Carthage was incorporated in 1874, but it soon reverted to management by the county court.
• 1885 - Gothic Style Courthouse was built to replace the overcrowded brick building.
• 1885 - By 1885 The Panola Watchman Newspaper was being published by T.E. Boren.
• 1888 - The Texas, Sabine Valley & Northwest Railway was extended to Carthage.
• 1890 - By 1890 a second weekly newspaper was published b G.D. Guest & H.M. Knight.
• 1902 - Carthage was incorporated under the council form, but it later dissolved again.
• 1913 - Carthage adopted the commission form of government, still in place today, which consists of
  a mayor, a city manager, and city commissioners.
• 1920 - Carthage had a population of 1,366.
• 1940's - mid-1940's - Population 2,178 - Carthage was known as the Gas Capital
  of the World - (a title claimed by other cities during the same era)
• 1953 - A brick courthouse was dedicated on Sycamore Street
• 1953 - The old courthouse was auctioned off and the square cleared for a public park.
• 1956 - The public park was named for Jonathan Anderson who donated land in 1848.
• 1990 - Population was 6496.

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Clayton, Panola County, Texas was established in 1845 by Jacob Cariker, a native of Georgia. It is located 16-miles southwest of Carthage at the junction of Texas State Highway 315 & Farm Road 1970. Cariker had first settled at a location 8-miles west of Carthage where he build a house 2-miles southwest of Reed's Settlement, one of the earliest communities in Panola County. During the 1870's most of the white residents from Reed's Settlement moved to the Cariker site. In 1874, a post office was opened under the name Clayton. Cariker had suggested the name Claybourne after one of his former slaves, but there was already another town by that name. So he chose the name Clayton after Clayton, Alabama. In 1876 there was a Baptist College located in Clayton, Texas. In 1965 the school was consolidated with the Carthage School District.

DeBerry, Panola County, Texas was first established under the name of Evergreen prior to the Civil War, after which the name was changed to DeBerry for Alfred Wesley DeBerry, a prominent citizen and legislator. DeBerry is located at the junction of U.S. Highway 79 & Farm Roads 31 and 1794 some fourteen miles northeast of Carthage in northeastern Panola County.

A post office was first opened in 1874 and by 1885 the community had a stream gristmill, two churches, three schools eight general stores and a population of approximately 150. The schools were consolidated with Carthage School District after World War II.

Famous Country Singer Jim Reeves attended DeBerry school in 1936 I am not sure if he lived there through out his childhood or not.

Deadwood, Panola County, Texas was settled in 1837 by Adam LaGrone who built a home on Socogee Creek. About 1860 H.C. LaGrone, son of Adam, built a mill and gin that became the nucleus of the small settlement. The settlement first known as Linus was renamed in 1882, when the residents applied for a post office and found there was already another town by and post office by the name "Linus". The name Deadwood was then chosen at a town meeting. By 1885, Deadwood had two churches, school, steam cotton gin & gristmill and population of approximately 50. In 1900 a hotel was built in Deadwood but went out of business within a few short years. The school was consolidated with Carthage School district after World War II.

Fairplay, Panola County, Texas is the oldest community in the county. Located approximately 10 miles west of Carthage on Highway 79, it was established in 1836. It received its name from John Allison, the first county judge and the name who gave Panola County its name.

Galloway, Panola County, Texas established soon after the Civil War is located on Farm Road 31 seventeen miles southeast of Carthage in southeastern Panola County. In the early 1800's a school was established and by 1897 it had an enrollment of 30. The school was consolidated with Carthage School district after World War II.

Gary, Panola County, Texas is located on Farm Road 10 about ten miles south of Carthage. Originally called Zuber - its name was changed to Gary in 1898 when the Marshall, Timpson and Sabine Pass Railroad was built between Timpson and Carthage. The first known settler was about 1844/45 when J.H. Thomas built a home which was a longtime landmark. Zuber had a post office, cotton gin and general store. In 1898 the railroad reached the Thomas J. Hull farm midway between the two towns, and Hull and S. Smith Garrison collaborated in establishing a twenty-acre townsite. A depot opened, and the settlement was named in honor of Garrison's grandson, Gary Sanford. The post office was moved from Mt Bethel and renamed Gary in 1899. The town was a bustling sawmill town with a cotton gin, sawmills, hotel, stores and saloons. The Red Front Saloon was the center of social activities of the "rougher" sort until the county became dry in 1905. In the 1930's & 1940's Gary was the center of the tomato industry.

Both Walter Prescott Webb & Woodard Maurice "Tex" Ritter were born in Gary. Both WEBB & RITTER have connections to the BRYAN Clan in that area, either direct bloodline or through marriage.

Walter Prescott Webb (1888-1963), was a historian and author. He was the son of Casner P. and Mary Elizabeth (Kyle) Webb.

Woodard Maurice "Tex" Ritter (1905-1974), Country Singer and known as "America's Most Beloved Cowboy", was the son of James Everett and Elizabeth (Matthews) Ritter.

Long Branch, Panola County, Texas is located on Farm Road 348 some fourteen miles southwest of Carthage in southwestern Panola County. It was first settled prior to the Civil War and was named for the long sandy arm of the Murvaul Bayou. In 1858 a post office was established and in 1874 a Baptist church was organized. A gristmill was built by A.P. Wherry prior to 1880 and by 1885 there was a church, school, five cotton gins, two sawmills, a general store and a population of about 100 in Long Branch. The post office was closed about 1926 and the school was consolidated with Carthage School district after World War II.

Pulaski, Panola County, Texas is located on the east bank of the Sabine River some 15 miles east of Carthage. Pulaski was a "ferry town" and located more than seven miles form the center of the county. On 18 Jul 1846 an election was held to elect county officials. In need of a county seat, a public vote was held 23 Aug 1846 to name Pulaski or Grand Bluff the county seat. Pulaski won out by a small percentage. After dissatisfied citizens challenged the legality of the choice, Chief Justice Allison ruled that Pulaski would be the temporary county seat until appeals could be examined. Because the legislature specified that the county seat was to be within five miles of the center of the county, it took two years for the county to choose a permanent seat of government. In August 1848, an election determined the county seat and new county officers. The county seat was established in Carthage, nearer to the center of the county. and in September 1848, Chief Justice Thomas G. Davenport met with his first court session at Carthage.

The area of Pulaski had formerly been in Harrison County and it had for a time been tried as Harrison County Seat. Pulaski even held court for Harrison County before the permanent seat of justice was established at Marshall in 1842.

The first Panola County Commissioners' Court met in Pulaski on 09 Sep 1846 - officers present for court were: John Allison, the first Chief Justice (County Judge), and Commissioners: Richard Golden, James Williams, Terrel Henson and Charles Moorman. Since Allison had come from Panola County, Mississippi, he asked that the new county be called Panola, an Indian word meaning "cotton."

Minutes from the first Meeting:

Several interesting items of business were conducted:

• It was ordered and adjudged "that Pulaski be the County Site, "pro tem", until a county site could be established by law." This law required that the permanent site chosen must be as near the center of the county as possible. (hence Carthage was chosen as County Seat in 1848)

Ferriage for crossing the river at Pulaski was set as follows:

Panola County, Texas is located in northeastern Texas, bordered on the east by Louisiana, on the south by Shelby County, on the west by Rusk County, and on the north by Harrison County. The county seat is in Carthage. The name Panola is derived from ponolo, the Cherokee word for "cotton." Panola County covers 842 square miles of gentle rolling plains and small hills drained by the Sabine River, which cuts across the county diagonally from northwest to southeast.

On March 30, 1846, the Texas legislature established Panola County from parts of Shelby and Harrison counties. This came as the result when Texas President, Sam Houston, ordered out the militia to stop the feud that erupted in the early 1840's between two factions who called themselves Regulators and Moderators. The skirmishes continued for almost 4-years from Harrison County and the Caddo Lake area through Shelby and San Augustine Counties and into Sabine County. The so-called Regulator-Moderator War grew out of the unsettled border conditions; the Neutral Ground furnished a secure residence for lawless men, and their activities caused the growth of vigilante groups.

In 1840 the boundary between the Republic of Texas and the United States (the line that later became the county's eastern boundary) was settled. The Sabine River was established as the boundary south of the thirty-second parallel, but it was necessary to send a commission of representatives from both countries to survey the line north of the parallel. On 23 April 1841, the commission set a granite marker at the location of the thirty-second parallel, 100 feet off present State Highway 31. The western side of the shaft was inscribed with the letters "R. T." (for Republic of Texas); the eastern side was inscribed "U. S." and the southern side, "Merid, Boundary, Established A.D. 1840." The marker, the only one of its kind, still stands on the line between Panola County and DeSoto Parish, Louisiana.

Panola County has had two county seats in its history with the first being in Pulaski (1846) and the second (and final) being in Carthage (1848).

The earliest known white settlement in the area was established by Daniel Martin in 1833. The Martins came to Texas from Missouri intending to join the colony founded by Stephen F. Austin, but after traveling down Trammel's Trace, they camped on a hill near a creek, west of the site of present Beckville. Deciding to stop there, they built a small fort and set up a trading post; the creek became known as Martin's Creek. A second settlement was established near the site of present of Clayton by Rev. Isaac Reed and a large group of relatives. Reed led the settlers to the place and purchased land from Manuel Antonio Romero. Because Mexican colonization laws prohibited settlement within a strip of land twenty leagues wide along the United States boundary, it was 1835 before Anglo settlers in the area could secure land titles from Mexico. But after the Texas Revolution in 1836, the area experienced a great land rush. In 1837 the LaGrone Settlement was established east of the Sabine River near the Louisiana border. The LaGrones' wagon train had passed through the area in 1832, but due to Indian unrest the family had traveled further into Texas; after Texas won its independence, they returned to an appealing spot they had found previously.

Robert E KYLE (1805 NC-1875 TX), my great, great grandfather & father-in-law to my great grandfather John Henry BRYAN, came to Texas in 1839 from Tippen County, MS and settled in the Old Center area. He purchased land in Nacogdoches County upon first arriving. He built his homeplace near the Old McFadden's Creek, Panola Co, TX.

By 1840 at least forty-nine families were established in the area that became Panola County. The majority came from Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Alabama. Some brought slaves with them to Texas; by 1846, according to local tax records, there were 574 slaves in the area.

Allen BRYAN (1798-1862), my great, great grandfather purchased 4,444 acres of land in Panola County (Woods) in 1853. He moved his family from Russell County, Alabama. See Story of the Bryan's journey for more details. About the same time his brother, Decalb "D.C." and nephew Lucius BRYAN moved from Russell County, Alabama to Shelby County, Texas. Allen's land extended from Panola to Shelby Counties.

By 1850 farms in the county encompassed more than 116,000 acres, 13,000 of which were classified as "improved." Almost 109,000 bushels of corn were produced that year, along with 887 bales of cotton and other crops such as sweet potatoes, peas, and orchard fruits. Livestock raising was an important part of the local economy; there were 885 sheep, 2,253 milk cows, and 4,000 other cattle at that time. According to the United States census 2,676 people were living in the county that year, including 2 free blacks and 1,193 slaves. The county supported four public schools, where four teachers taught seventy-nine pupils. By 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, the economy had grown to include 585 farms encompassing 237,000 acres, of which 49,000 acres were improved. The census reported 6,392 whites and 3,727 slaves that year. There were no free blacks. According to the census there were 445 slaveholders in the county; 75 of these owned ten or more slaves, 25 owned twenty or more slaves, and only two owned fifty or more slaves. Most owned fewer than five. Almost 327,000 bushels of corn were grown in the county that year, and cotton production had expanded substantially to 8,272 bales. The county contributed at least one company of soldiers to the Confederate cause during the Civil War, and late in the conflict the area was invaded by Union troops, who took food and other supplies from Carthage. The number of slaves in the county increased to 3,110 by 1864, possibly due to southerners fleeing west with their slaves during the war. The county continued to grow slowly during the immediate postwar period. There were 911 farms and 10,119 people in the area in 1870 and 1,670 farms and 21,424 people by 1880. The economy continued to be based on cotton farming; in 1880, 28,500 acres were planted in cotton, and 10,344 bales were produced that year. Corn remained the county's other important crop; that year 27,000 acres were devoted to it. The area's 8,820 cattle and 1,140 sheep were also sources of income for local farmers; crops such as wheat, oats, and sorghum were also grown. Meanwhile the lumber industry, which had begun before the Civil War, became increasingly important; by the early 1880s millions of board feet of lumber were being taken from the county's pine forests. Logging intensified in the area after 1885, when a narrow-gauge log railroad out of Longview built into the county. In 1888 it was upgraded to standard gauge, and its tracks were extended into Carthage. The line eventually became part of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. Tying the area to national markets, the railroad also encouraged the development of the area's mineral wealth. As early as 1889 a geological survey discovered rich deposits of lignite in the county, and before the turn of the century a limited mining operation began in the Martin Creek area. It was soon abandoned due to the plentiful supply of wood for fuel.

A county flag, adopted in 1976, shows six representative products of the county's growth: cotton for farming; trees for lumbering; an oil well for minerals; a chicken for poultry processing; a steer for cattle ranching; and a chunk of coal for strip-mining.

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PRO TEM - Temporary - i.e. A judge pro tem is not a regular judge, but someone (usually a lawyer) who is brought in to serve temporarily as a judge with the consent of the parties. Many courts use pro tem judges because there are too many cases for the regular judges to handle. - Return to Story