Garden Valley, Texas, Smith County. (original) (raw)

History in a Pecan Shell

A post office was in operation here before the Civil War (1852). By 1858 the town had a Masonic Lodge, a church and (before public schools) an academy. But in 1860 a �common school system� was in place.

The post office was closed after the Civil War but reopened in 1870.

In the 1880s, with a population of 100, the community shipped produce and cotton (through the neighboring town of Lindale).

The population hit 300 by 1914 and by then the town was wired for telephone service. During the 1930s the post office closed its doors and the population had fallen to 150 in the mid 1940s where it remained for decades.

The community�s school merged with one in neighboring Van Zandt County in the early 1950s and by the end of that decade, there was little more than scattered farms with a church and cemetery.

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