JONESBORO

                    
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JONESBORO

 

From Vol IV, pg. 42 of Central Texas Histories and Biographies-first pub.1893--

"In the year 1866," says a recent letter from William L. Jones, who has been a Texan for fifty-three years, " David Jones and I erected a steam saw and grist mill on the Coryell and Hamilton county line, at which time there were very few persons living in the valley of the Leon nearer than Gatesville, and none where the town of Jonesboro now stands." Homeseekers, whom the war had ruined or left penniless, began to come in, and sought employment about the mill. These were: David Jones, P. P. Jones, James Pennington, Simmons & Green, blacksmiths, Daniel and Tom McCarty , Dr. J. R. Small, W. A. Chancey, Daniel Murray, J. L. McElroy, Charles Pate, T. J. Neil, J. F. Stickney, and John Nall.

Mr. Nall opened a store at once, but it soon passed into other hands; Joseph Key had it awhile, then J. F. Stickney, then Mr. McElroy, and finally in 1872, W. L. Jones and M. J. Strickland. It was about 1869 that those interested in a church and school, and the society of Masons, struck upon a plan of building a two-story frame building, the lower part of which should be used for school and church purposes, and the upper part for the secret order. This was done, and in June, 1873, the Masonic lodge was chartered. The place had no name, except Jones' Mill, and the first post office bore that name, with Charles Pate as Postmaster. The real name of the place was given to it by some wholesale dealer's packer, for this packer had addressed the first box of goods ever received there, as " Jonesboro, Tex." This suited the people, and soon the post office was changed to that name. 

The town suffered some from the Indians in 1869 and 1871, as it was on the border. The population in 1890, the first census that quoted the town separately, showed 207 people. Mr. Jones estimated that "now(1893) it is about 650."

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"JONESBORO, TX." The Handbook of Texas Online 

 

 

 
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People and Places: Gazetteer of Hamilton County, TX
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Copyright © March, 1998
by Elreeta Crain Weathers, B.A., M.Ed.,  
(also Mrs.,  Mom, and Ph. T.)

A Work In Progress