Leesburg, Texas. (original) (raw)

History in a Pecan Shell

The town was named to honor early settler John Lee. A three-way election was held in 1874 to determine the county seat of Camp county. Leesburg came in second. That same year a post office opened as Leesburgh and the town went by that spelling until around 1900 when the h was dropped. With the arrival of the East Line and Red River Railroad in the late 1870s, Leesburg was made a stop.

By the mid 1884s the town had a population of 50. It tripled by 1890 and doubled from that figure to 300 by 1896. It remained at that level into the Great Depression, but by WWII, it had declined to an estimate of 120. Leesburg schools merged with the Pittsburg

Independent School District in the mid 1950s and the population reached 75, climbing slowly to the current 115.

Texas Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories, landmarks and vintage/historic photos, please contact us.