Laneville, Texas. (original) (raw)
History in a Pecan Shell
The town came into being as a crossroads community in the 1880s. The intersection of four "lanes" furnished the town's name. The town was granted a post office in 1888. According to the entry for Laneville in the Handbook of Texas, nothing much happened in Laneville from it's beginning until 1950. The big "event" that year was being included on the list of Rusk County's 14 operating post offices. Laneville's population reached its high-water mark with 320 people.
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A few weeks ago, we reported of the resurgence of outhouses as historical landmarks in East Texas.
Shortly after the column appeared, we learned of what may be the only existing East Texas outhouse ever built by the old Work Projects Administration, a Depression-era federal program which put the jobless to work building public projects.
In 1935, the WPA came to Laneville, a crossroads community in southern Rusk County, and began building rock fences, bridges and other needed projects.
J.M. (Murph) Bryan was the county's Precinct 4 commissioner at the time, and convinced the WPA's local foreman to build an outhouse for his family on a small farm east of Laneville. Bryan paid fifteen dollars for the one-holer.
Today, Bryan's daughter, Mary Lou Bryan, still lives on the family farm -- and has kept Murph's outhouse in tip-top condition....more
Laneville Methodist Church
Photo courtesy Gerald Massey, April 2011
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