New Boston, Texas, Bowie County. (original) (raw)

New Boston cotton scene in the 1900s
Photo courtesy texasoldphotos.com

History in a Pecan Shell

A timeline of significant and selected historical events in Bowie County:

1876: City of Boston negotiates with railroad for a new townsite to be on the railroad - New Boston and Old Boston coexist four miles apart without creating a ghost town from displaced businesses.
1884: Population reaches 400
1887: Post office was granted
1900: Population reaches 762
A short-lived boom increased the population from just over 800 (1925) to 1,300 by 1929.
By 1931 it was back under 1,000 people.

The Star Army Ammunition Plant and the Red River Army Depot were built just SE of New Boston during WWII, bolstering the economy and providing new residents. They remain the county's major employers.

New Boston Pioneer Days Festival
Photo courtesy Gerald Massey, August 2010

New Boston, Texas Chronicles

Richard Ellis
Namesake of Ellis County

by Mike Cox ("Texas Tales" Column)

"... His family buried him on the plantation about three miles north of present New Boston. With the passage of time, the location of his grave was forgotten. But on Sept. 26, 1929, the Dallas Morning News reported that Ellis' "long lost grave" had been found.

"A dense forest of huge pine trees grew up in the family cemetery and the tombstone placed on the grave was dislodged and fell," the newspaper reported. "Rep. R.M. Hubbard of New Boston�employed laborers to remove the surface of the earth in the old cemetery, resulting in the discovery of the footstone marked with the initials 'R.E.' The base of the headstone also was found intact."

Workers exhumed Ellis' remains for reburial in the State Cemetery in Austin that October.

In the spring of 1935, one year shy of a century since Ellis steered the Declaration of Independence and the republic's Constitution through the parliamentary process, the Legislature appropriated $15,000 for a statue in his honor...." more

1907 Bowie County postal map showing Boston and New Boston
From Texas state map #2090
Courtesy Texas General Land Office

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