Cincinnati, Texas, Walker County ghost town. (original) (raw)

Site of Cincinnati, Texas showing 1936 Centennial Marker
Photos courtesy Barclay Gibson, May 2013

History in a Pecan Shell

Established as early as 1836-1837, Cincinnati was a ferry crossing and port on the Trinity River. James C. DeWitt is credited as being the town founder. The community sat along the Huntsville - Crockett road.

Growth was very slow in the early years but as the Trinity River trade increased, the town became a collection point for goods to be shipped to Galveston. The river was notorious for stranding vessels due to unpredictable rises and falls in the river level.

Sources report that Cincinnati peaked in the early 1850s. Amenities and businesses included a wagonmaker, blacksmith, a cotton warehouse and two physicians.

The available population figures are only estimates and they vary from 200 to 600 residents before tragedy struck the town in 1853 in the form of a yellow fever epidemic. Reports of a traveler from Galveston bringing the disease to town set off a panic which nearly emptied the town. Although it wasn't as devastating as people feared, the exodus of Cincinnatians never returned. Refugees from Cincinnati provided the initial population for the nearby town of Tuscaloosa.

The town's fate was sealed with the arrival of the railroad in 1872. The main line from Dallas to Houston was at Riverside - a mere 15 miles from Cincinnati. In the early 1880s only 35 people were reported at Cincinnati and those eventually moved away.

Cincinnati 1936 Centennial Marker
On Private Property.
No Location Information
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, May 2013

Texas Centennial Marker:

Site of Cincinnati

Important shipping point in Trinity River navigation. Founded in 1838 by James C. De Witt. Abandoned after yellow fever scourge in 1853.

Cincinnati in 1851 Walker County map
Courtesy Texas General Land Office

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