Pine Town

PINE TOWN, TEXAS . Pine Town was near the confluence of Tails Creek and One Arm Creek ten miles southwest of Rusk in west central Cherokee County. The area was first settled in 1845 and quickly became a stopping point for stagecoaches on the road from Rusk to Palestine. A post office for the stop was authorized on March 8, 1847, and operated briefly under the name U. Auglin, a misspelling of the name of the postmaster, Valentin Auglin. A new post office opened in 1848 under the name Pine Town. A school district was formed in 1854, and a Masonic lodge was established just before the Civil War . Despite its name, Pine Town remained a dispersed rural community, with several stores, mills, and gins spread throughout the area. The post office closed in 1874, but the community maintained its identity until 1900, when the Texas State Railroad was constructed from Rusk to Palestine. Within a short time most of the merchants and residents of Pine Town had moved to the newly founded town of Maydelle, on the railroad, and by 1920 Pine Town had disappeared. In the early 1990s only a few scattered dwellings remained in the area.