Shankleville roots

A Bit of Newton History

 

The following article is copied from the Newton County News, Thursday, April 17, 1986, page 10:

 

 

GLIMPSES OF NEWTON COUNTY

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AT A TIME

 

1846-1871:  The first 25 years of Newton County was crucial in many ways.  The county government had to be established by organization and then put into working order.  A lengthy dispute about where the county seat would be located was settled by legislative act designating Newton as the best location.  Many problems presented themselves:  roads, schools, taxes, offices needed, transportation, and land surveys.

 

The Civil War came in 1861-1865 and caused much disruption in the county although there wasn’t any fighting on Newton County soil.  Approximately 400 men from Newton County were engaged in the fighting:  Militia companies were established in each precinct.  The Commissioners’ Court outfitted those who volunteered and bought horses for them.  At one time the court appropriated $8,000 for the needy families.  The court gave dependent families $22 for each child to last them for a period of six months.  At times during the war, the people were given salt, corn, beef, and pork.  After the war a company of six or eight Union Soldiers was stationed in Newton.  The people were primarily engaged in making a living after the war years.

 

1872-1896:  In 1872 the military rule of Texas was lifted and Texans had control of her government again.

 

Farming was the principal way of making a living in Newton County until about 1880 when the lumbering industry supplanted it.  In 1872 cotton was the leading product.  Since 1880 timber has been the county’s main source of wealth.  The County came to be ranked first in long leaf pine timber.  When railways came into Texas the lumber companies began to build the “big mills”.  IN Newton County in 1995 the Sabine Tram Company began logging in the south end of the county and built a mill in Deweyville a few years later.  It was in this period that the funds for a school system were hard to get.  Several “colleges” were set up and run on a corporation system.  In June, 1882, W. S. Ikard of Clay County bought the land (25 million square vares) which had been awarded by the state legislature in 1951 and located in Archer County, for $1.25 an acre and the money used for schools.

 

1897-1921:  The Spanish American War coming in 1898 seems to have had very little effect on the activities of Newton County.  Railways came into the county in 1901 and ran from Orange to Newton.  In 1918 the same line was extended to Wiergate, Texas.  In 1905 and 1906, Jasper and Eastern Railroad was built from Kirbyville to the Sabine River on the Louisiana line.  World War I came in 1917 and it affected the county in every phase of its activities.  Men of the county directed the work of the Red Cross, Food Administration, and Civil Defense as well as served in the armed services.

 

Lumber continued to be the main industry and probably reached its peak during this time.  The first bank and news papers appeared in Newton.  The court house that stands today was built in 1902-1903.

 

1922-1946:  Although this period of 25 years started off during a “boom” period it saw “a great depression” in the 30’s and another great world war.  Before the depression roads were built across the county to accommodate the new method of transportation, the automobile.  World War II came in 1942.  A greater disruption of the usual progress of the county was caused by this war than any other previously as was in the nation itself.  The county was heavily organized into all the war activities:  Red Cross, United Service Organization, bond drives, food, gasoline, and automobile rationing, and man power for both the war and defense industries.  Men and women began to commute to the coast area for work in the defense industries and thereby began a practice that is continued until the present.  The County reached its highest population count in 1940 at 13,700.

 

1947-1971:  During the ‘40’s the big mills of the lumber industry began to decline and vanish.  Many of the sites of the big sawmills became “ghost towns”.  Other sites continued on a smaller basis.  The lumber companies began to practice conservation forest methods and the lumber industry continued to be of major importance in Newton County.  There has been considerable development in livestock farming, poultry production, pulpwood production, and reforestation.  Production of oil began in the southern part of the county.  Toledo Bend Dam was built in the ‘60’s and brought great changes in the industry, transportation, power production, recreation, and home building in the north end of the county.

 

Electricity became available throughout the rural section during the 1940’s via Rural Electrification Projects and by Gulf States Utility Company.  Entering the decade of the 70’s Newton County had over 40 communities, three school districts, a wealth of untapped resources, and favorable outlook for growth.

 

1972-1986:  Fifteen years into the next 25 year period finds Newton County with its largest population since 1940.  According to the latest census, the population totals 13,274.  In 1940, the population was 13,275.  In 1940, the population was 13,700.  Industrial growth and development increased from 1970 on with the building of the Kirby Plywood Mill in Fawil, near Bon Wier, the settling and development of the Toledo Bend Dam Reservoir area, the reforesting of many acres of cut-off land, the building of more miles of FM Roads and RR 255, the use of Revenue Sharing funds to repair and restore facilities, the renovating of the county court house and the building of a new Law Enforcement Center.

 

The Newton County Historical Commission has led in establishing Historical Markers which now total 31 in the county.  The NCHC has established a Texas History Resource Center in the Newton Public Library.

 

Many social services have been established or expanded.  Department of Human Resources, Agency for the Aging, Deep East Texas Development of Government, Mental Health, Mental Retardation Center, a 48 bed hospital, new building for the Newton County News, Newton Public Library, a new funeral home, Shady Acres Nursing Home, and recreational areas.

 

The extension services headed by the County Agent for Agriculture and County Agent for the homemakers maintain an on-going Long Range Development Program survey and update its findings every six years and reports to the people.  This planning agency along with the local government and community improvement organization assure the county of awareness of its advantages and possibilities.