Douglas

Douglas is near Hope Pond, eleven miles east of Tyler and one mile south of State Highway 31 in eastern Smith County. The site was originally part of the Barns Clark survey; the Old Mound Indian Trail, or the old Jamestown-Tyler road, ran through the area. Maps for 1936 showed four school buildings and one nearby dwelling. That year the Douglas school employed five teachers and enrolled 130 black students in grades one through eleven. The community also contained sparsely scattered farms and a cemetery. By 1952 the Douglas school, along with other local rural schools, had been consolidated into the Arp Independent School District. In 1966 the community comprised one abandoned business, a church, and a number of dwellings scattered along dirt roads south of State Highway 31. By 1973 only a cluster of farms and a grain elevator remained. Douglas was still identified on maps in 1981.