Ponta, Texas, Cherokee County. (original) (raw)

Mud Creek out of its banks in the early 1900s
Photo courtesy Arcadia Publishing and
The Cherokee County Historical Commission

History in a Pecan Shell

Ponta began life in 1901 as "Donaho." When it was bypassed by the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, another town was soon surveyed. Named "Hubb" after the surveyor Hubbard Guinn, storekeeper Robert Montgomery changed the name to the Latin word for bridge when he became postmaster in 1903. Mr. Mongomery had moved his business from Donaho and had a vested interest in the community's future. Although the name was Latin, the watercourse was still over Mud Creek.

Ponta got a bank and before long it developed all the essential businesses for an up-and-coming town. They even had a doctor and a Masonic Lodge. Like the rest of East Texas, timber was the major economic engine until the twenties when people started noticing the forests rapidly being depleted.

The town lost its post office in 1972 and a decline set in. The bank failed and the cotton gin closed. Both the doctor and druggist died and even the Masonic lodge moved (to New Summerfield). In the1980s, Ponta only had two churches and a few houses left from its glory days.

The population has been given as 50 since 1970.

1907 postal map showing Ponta in N Cherokee County
From Texas state map #2090
Courtesy Texas General Land Office

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