Cherokee County History Page: 49
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to the community was made possible by the Rural Electrification
Administration in 1940.
In the lean days of the Depression, community life was enhanced
by county agents who sponsored clubs to instruct rural families on
ways to make the best of what they had. The county's first home
demonstration agent, Mrs. Irene Price Odom, was instrumental in
organizing Women's Home Demonstration (WHD) clubs to in-
struct and assist in better homemaking that raised the standard of
rural life.
An incomplete list of Cove Springs family names would include
Adams, Butler, Brooks, Baker, Bardwell, Broadway, Beaty, Bailey,
Baxter, Collie, Chastain, Coats, Creel, Crysups, Durrett, Douglas,
Dunn, Dunnam, Dudley, Forsythe, Foster, Freeland, Greer, Hood,
Holcomb, Huddleston, Harris, Issacks, Jackson, Jones, Johnston,
Johnson, Kerr, Kaich, Lane, Langston, Lindner, Moseley, McAnally,
Morris, Mullins, Matthews, Norman, Nunnally, Owen, Priestly,
Rountree, Reagan, Sanders, Scott, Smith, Stephenson, Sowell, Sla-
ton, Stallings, Teasdale, Tarrant, Teal, Thompson, Terry, Tippett,
Tipton, Tippings, Turney, Walters, Walker, Watts, Wade, and Mc-
Daniel. - Margaret Lindner.
CRAFT
SOUTH OF JACKSONVILLE on US 69 the village of Craft grew up
in the 1890's on the route of the narrow gauge Kansas & Gulf Short
Line Railroad. The farming community was originally called
"Independence" and was settled by the Jarratt, Felps, Goodson,
Ross, Walker, Casey, Meador, Thompson, and Dennison families.
In April, 1891, about 20 self-asserting community residents, who
were members of neighboring Corinth Baptist Church, formed
their own congregation called the Baptist Church of Christ at
Shiloh, but soon changed the name to the Baptist Church in Christ
at Independence. In 1892 the first church building was erected
southeast of where the old road crossed the railroad. Renamed
Craft Baptist Church in 1899, the vital congregation still worships
in a second church built in 1910 a short distance west of the old
church site. The church plant has been enlarged as its members
have increased.
A one-teacher school, also called Independence, existed before
1884 west of the first church. In 1916 a new, two-story frame
building, constructed on two acres of the C. W. Walker farm west of
the original site, had rooms for three teachers and a music and
expression coach. That school burned and was replaced by a mod-
ern brick building on the east side of US 69. In 1956 the Craft
School District 41 was consolidated with Jacksonville Independent
School District. Two school principals at Craft, E. L. Penland and
E. S. Erwin, later became County Superintendents of Public In-
struction.
Thomas J. Craft was appointed Craft's postmaster Oct. 21, 1891,
and the community's name was changed from Independence to
Craft in his honor. The office was housed in various homes and
store buildings. William S. Ault, the last postmaster, served
longest in office - Dec. 14, 1912, until the mail service was discon-
tinued March 31, 1929.
Only two mercantile houses operated in Craft at any one time.
The two original stores, one owned by Thomas Craft and the other
by Joseph G. Homrighouse, sat side-by-side east of the railroad on
the old road to Jacksonville. Craft's store was later operated by
Jesse H. Lunsford, his son, Willie H. Lunsford, and Parlon H.
Morton and William S. Ault. Ault eventually moved the stock intothe old two-story school and later built a small store which lasted
until 1942. Homrighouse sold his clothing store and millinery shop
to George McWilliams, the railroad depot agent. After the Jack-
sonville-Rusk road (US 69) was routed east of the town, the old
store buildings were abandoned. In 1946 Lawrence E. Tinsley built
the last remaining store at Craft on the west side of the new
highway.
As mentioned in the section on agriculture, Texas' first carload
of tomatoes was shipped from Craft June 14, 1897. The St. Louis-Southwestern Railroad Company of Texas, which controlled the
Kansas & Gulf Short Line, built a large packing shed and depot
across the road from the store buildings. C. D. Jarratt and A. Y.
Shoemaker and later C. S. Ousley and T. T. Booth operated this
shed. In tomato deal's last days, O. D. Warren managed the shed
about 1933. A smaller shed built south by Grady Ault and Charlie
Jarratt was operated later by Jim R. Dennison.
Like many rural towns, Craft fell victim to urbanization after
World War II. Today the village supports one store and the Baptist
Church. - Bernard Mayfield.
CUNEY
THE EVOLVEMENT of black communities in Cherokee County is
an untapped field for historical research that deserves broader
treatment than is possible in this short narrative.
After the Civil War and the emancipation of slaves, black people
were cast suddenly into a free society, without experience in mak-
ing their own way. They gathered in small. isolated colonies where
a few were able to purchase land, but most became tenant farmers.
Some of the prosperous black communities that have survived in
the region are Shady Grove, Woodville, Pine Hill, Mt. Haven,
Church Hill, Pine Grove, Pleasant Plains, Elm Grove, Old Larissa,
and Weeping Mary.
Best known of all, however, is the town of Cuney, about one mile
east of the Neches River along US 175. Initially, the village began
near the now abandoned Texas & New Orleans Railroad (Southern
Pacific) parallel to an old road marked out in 1846 to Kickapoo in
Anderson County. In 1929 when the new highway was built to the
north, the town migrated to its present location.
Although the municipality is relatively young in county history,
the surrounding community began about 1870 and was called
"Andy" for Andrew Bragg, a former slave and the first black
landowner in the area. Nelson Sneed and Marsh Kissentanner
bought a farm together in the neighborhood in 1871. Sneed's former
owner, Dr. Elijah Dodson, paid wages to the slave who managed to
buy his freedom in 1858. Sneed was a community founder and his
descendants were active in the town. Bishop Sneed, a grandson of
Nelson Sneed, was Cuney's postmaster from 1923-1970, and was
known in the East Texas area as an oil and gas lease operator.
Most of the early settlers were former slaves freed from nearby
pre-Civil War plantations. According to the 1870 United States
census, some of the new arrivals were Armstead Burrel, Michael
Beaufort, Robert Jones, Phillip Gordon, Issac Taylor (preacher),
George McCartney, Howard Williamson, Frank Young, Louis
Hodge, and James Robertson. By 1880 they were joined by Jordans,
Scotts, Thomases, Reddicks, Brunsens, Andersons, Hentons, Riv-
ers, and Dennises.
The majority of these people found employment either as tenant
farmers or as laborers at nearby sawmills. The already active
community prospered more when the railroad came in 1902 and
established a flag stop depot, and provided speedy transportation
of farm produce and lumber to markets.
Along in 1914-16, H. L. Price, cashier of the Farmers and Citi-
zens Saving Bank in Palestine, Tex., noted the opportunity for
development as he traveled through Cuney on business. Resigning
his bank position, Price moved to Cuney in December, 1916, and
persuaded localites W. D. Thomas, J. Z. Thomas, W. A. Hall, John
Bragg, W. C. Price (his son), and C. A. Dial of Palestine to join him
in incorporating the Andy Realty Co. (Texas Charter No. 31073)for the purpose of buying and selling real estate and generally
developing all-black towns and villages. Between the time the
charter was issued April 17, 1917, and was dissolved April 10, 1928,
the company devoted most of its energy to promoting Cuney. H. L.
Price named the town for his son, Cuney Price, who was named for
Norris Wright Cuney, a prominent black statesman and politician
of Galveston, who headed the Republican Party in Texas until
1896.
The Cuney post office was authorized Nov. 26, 1917, with Lillie49
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Cherokee County Historical Commission (Tex.). Cherokee County History, book, 2001; Jacksonville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth354360/m1/59/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Cherokee County Historical Commission.