Fredonia, Texas, Gregg County ghost town. (original) (raw)

CR2500 Fredonia Road Sign
Photo courtesy Gerald Massey, March 2011

History on a Pecan Shell

Founded on the banks of the Sabine River when it was still Rusk County, the site is now firmly in Gregg County. Founder Haden Edwards was awarded a contract to colonize the area in 1825, but this was later canceled. The disagreement had led to a rebellion against Mexico which could be thought of as a prelude to the Texas Revolution. It wasn't, but it could be thought of as.

After the Revolution, which Edwards survived. He filed his survey and started selling lots on both sides of the Sabine. No plat for the future town is extant, although inexact maps include the intended towns of Fredonia and it's planned sister - Cotton Plant.

A ferry was in operation in the 1840s but it wasn't until the 1850s when the town was thriving as a cotton town (not from the sale of lots). The Sabine River was navigable at that time and business was brisk with supplies forwarded from merchants in New Orleans. The town had three huge warehouses and around 50 permanent structures including a post office (1849 to 1859 and then reopened in 1856 to remain until 1859). River navigation was rough and overland routes were established when the water was low but it was eventually the Civil War that doomed "Old" Fredonia.

By 1870, realizing things would never get back to normal, the town was dropped from the national post office registry.

A second Fredonia, formed by emancipated slaves, formed two miles south of the original site and it is this Fredonia that appears on most maps from 1870 on.

The Gregg County Historical Museum in Longview has detailed information of both Fredonias.

From 1858 Texas state map showing Upshur County, and Fredonia (N of New Danville) on the bank of Sabine River
Courtesy Texas General Land Office

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