Our Family Re-union

Grover Cleveland Harris sitting on Barrel at the Barrel Stave Factory in Bloomburg

Sugarcane harvest--Terry, Grover C. Harris, Talmadge Head, John Westbrook.

1944 Graduating Class of McLeod High School Mildred Perry, Herschel Williams, Doris Faye Forbes, Una Peacock, Rosa Lee Wade, Ula, Janet Bumgardner, Dorothy, Dorothy Lee Daniels, Melba Lee Moore, S E Long Jr, Doris, Marie

Greater promise of prosperity was offered by the shear vastness of the Texas landscape. Texans who had settled earlier were not beyond the grasp of War's revenge, they suffered during and for some time after the War between the States. The Reconstruction Years in Texas were faulty in political theory, fallible in practice and subject to great abuses by the Carpetbaggers in power. However faulty, progressive development of East Texas came with swift railroad expansion of the 1870's and 1880's and discovery of the noble pine.

East Texas was a central hub, connecting many east-west and north-south railroad lines. The building of the Texas and Pacific Railway Company in 1873, through Cass County was responsible for the establishment of several Cass County towns and ultimately for the success of the mining and lumber industries. Atlanta, named for its many Georgia folks, was established in 1872 on the T&P line and served as a hub for railway traffic. In 1877, Queen City was established on the T&P line, and became a mining town when resources of iron ore were discovered. Bivens was established when JK and Frank H Bivens built 2 sawmills on the T&P line in the early 1880's. It became a shipping center for farmers and lumbermen. Hughes Springs named for Reece Hughes an early settler, was formally established off the East Line & Red River Railroad and served its area as a supply center down the line from Atlanta.

By the end of 1880, Jay Gould, infamous railroad magnate, had acquired several of the railroad companies operating in Texas. He developed the southern railroad system, mainly operating under the Missouri Pacific Railroad name, crisscrossing the most northeast corner of Texas bringing entrepreneurs like Temple and Kirby, to the vast untapped resources of East Texas pine forests. With railway access, lumbering became the number one industry.

This was the beginning of the 'bonanza era' for East Texas lumber companies, peaking by the early 1890's. The prevailing policy of noted lumber magnates of the day was "cut and get out". There were no laws on selective harvesting of the noble pine. Mass harvesting of the great pine forests were quick. The East Texas pines were known to be 150 feet tall and 5 foot in diameter or more. A sight I would never have the opportunity to see. And, within a few years the lumber companies were ready to "get out" and sell the land they had plundered.(Sources, The New Handbook of Texas, Texas Historical Society. 1996. Various works of Robert S. Maxwell.)

New opportunities opened for families seeking new beginnings. And here, my Mother's family's journey began, down 'the road to East Texas' from Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana.

The earliest members of our family to arrive in East Texas were Joel Harris and Paulena Moore. Their daughter Susie Ida Harris was my great-grandmother. They brought their family by train from Chambers County, Alabama, in 1889-1890. There were cousins, John W. Megginson, and Tom Roberson and other family already settled in Texas. ;Joel and Paulena settled in Bloomburg, Cass County. They also had holdings in Queen City. Paulena's sister, Minnie Moore and Benjamin H. Hammock Jr. soon followed and settled in Bloomburg.