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Large hardcover, 423 pages plus extensive family name index. Brief history of Anderson County, Texas (county seat is Palestine) followed by histories of numerous early arriving families.

An illustrated history of Palestine, Texas, paired with histories of the local companies.

From its roots in the unbroken wilderness of central East Texas, Anderson County has overcome many adversities to become the crossroads of East Texas. In the 1830s, rugged pioneers came to the fertile Trinity River Valley to carve out a place for themselves from the untamed country. These pioneers began a settlement along a stream about 10 miles east of the Trinity River in what would become Anderson County. Other families joined their effort, and Fort Houston was soon built in 1835–1836 to protect settlers from the dangers inherent to the wild frontier . . . Read more

A collection of excerpts from the Country Editor column that appeared in the Frankston Citizen in Texas for a period of 42 years from 1933 to 1975 written by Quanah Price. . . Learn more

In late July 1910, a shocking number of African Americans in Texas were slaughtered by white mobs in the Slocum area of Anderson County and the Percilla-Augusta region of neighboring Houston County. The number of dead surpassed the casualties of the Rosewood Massacre in Florida and rivaled those of the Tulsa Riots in Oklahoma, but the incident--one of the largest mass murders of blacks in American history--is now largely forgotten. Investigate the facts behind this harrowing act of genocide in E.R. Bills's compelling inquiry into the Slocum Massacre . . . Read more

Few people lived in the Neches River bottom as late as 1970. Man was noticeable only in the occasional cabin or lean-to hunting camps built on the higher river bank ground. Some of these camps belonged to locals known as the Dog People because of their hunting methods—handed down by their ancestors who had found this wilderness shortly before the Civil War—using a local-bred dog called a cur. The dog was bred for bravery, endurance, and devotion and would run its quarry until it bayed or turned back so the hunter could kill it. This type of hunting—not to be confused with sport—was a method of survival that often prevented starvation for families during the Depression years. . . Read more

Wanted: Historic County Jails of Texas

Along with the settlement of the Texas frontier came rustlers, public drunks, gunfighters, and other outlaws. A jail in which to incarcerate the lawbreakers was thus often the first public building raised in a new town.

Found Inside: "On October 4,, 1846, the Anderson County commissioners ordered a jail to be built. The county had no courthouse -- only a rented house or temporary building. The jail was the dungeon type, which had a first floor accessible only by a trapdoor in the second story. Typically the dungeon was  . . . " Read more Look inside

The thirty-three Depression-era interviews presented here were culled from the WPA-Federal Writers' Project. They faithfully show how old-time Texas cowhands lived and how they felt about their glamour-less existence. "when we got to Anderson County, Dad made the rounds, made his deals, then we rounded up the cattle we were to drive west. " ... Read more Look inside

Because Texas emerged from the western frontier relatively late in the formation of the antebellum nation, it is frequently and incorrectly perceived as fundamentally western in its political and social orientation. Found inside: "His wife having been sold, and facing punishment himself, a slave who belonged to Irving Jones in Anderson County committed suicide. He "stood it as long as he could," said the bondsman who told the story . . . Read more Look inside

Anderson County Unclaimed Estates

These Deceased Residents of Palestine, Frankston, and Elhhart, Texas Left  $66,855 in Unclaimed Money for Their Heirs. Know the Heirs? Check the list and let them know they can collect it from the Texas Comptroller's Office . . . see the list