Gent, Texas, aka Ghent, Cherokee County Ghost Town. (original) (raw)

Gent, Texas Band group photo

Gentlemen in the Gent Band
Courtesy Arcadia Publishing & Cherokee County Historical Commission

History in a Pecan Shell

Gent aka Ghent, Texas was on Gent Mountain.

In the late 1840s people from Alabama and Tennessee made the long journey to East Texas. A place known as Sand Springs was established around 1854, but the community didn't really develop until the late 1870s.

A post office opened in 1879 and whether the name was Gent or Ghent, it doesn't make too much difference now. It was either named after the Belgian city - or the greeting of "Howdy Gent," - a greeting that is supposed to have been in en vogue at the time.

In 1890 Gent had 500 people and two stores, two churches, several saw mills, and a school. Gent, like nearby Pine Town, began to decline when Maydelle appeared alongside the rails of the Texas State Railroad in 1900.

Gent's post office closed in 1906, and by 1913 the town was a virtual ghost. A Texas Historical Commission marker has been placed (on FM 2138 about 3 miles N of Maydelle) to identify the townsite.

Historical Marker:

Gent Village

Located on top of Gent Mountain between two creeks, the village of Gent was settled in the 1850s primarily by families from Alabama and Tennessee in search of good farmland. The early settlers quickly established religious and educational institutions, and by 1900 the village boasted several stores, mills and cotton gins as well. Construction of the Texas State Railroad from Rusk to Palestine and the founding of the town of Maydelle (1.5 mi. s.) in 1910 pulled business away from Gent. Gradually the village was abandoned, and today not a single structure remains.

Cherokee County 1907 Postal Map still showing Gent
(Above "H" in "CHEROKEE")
From Texas state map #2090
Courtesy Texas General Land Office

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