Long Branch, Texas, Panola County. (original) (raw)

History in a Pecan Shell

Named after an alluvial arm of Murvaul Bayou, the community was settled prior to the Civil War. A post office was granted in 1858.

The community had an operating grist mill prior to 1880 and by the middle of that decade, the town had a store, school and church as well as five (!) cotton gins and two sawmills. The population at that time was around 100.

Around 1900 a narrow-gauge logging railroad was constructed between Timpson and Henderson, ruinning through the town of Long Branch. By 1914 the population had increased to 400.

In the 1920s as the timber reserves diminished, the community entered a decline. The narrow-gauge railroad was abandoned in 1923 and by 1925 the population was down to 175. It remained the same in the mid 1930s.

After WWII the commercial district closed one by one. The Long Branch school merged with Carthage, and the population has remained just under 200 for the 1990 and 2000 census.

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