Creagleville
Grand Saline, Van Zandt County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The rural community of Creagleville traces its beginnings to the 1840s. It was named for German native Henry Creagle (1826-1872), who settled in Van Zandt County about 1847. The community was located on the Dallas-Shreveport Road, a major east-west thorough-fare across the north portion of the county. The road, which bisected Henry Creagle's land survey, was used by Creagleville farmers, immigrants, freight wagons, and stock drovers. A school was founded in Creagleville by 1854, and a schoolhouse was built near the Creagle home. As the agricultural community of farmers grew, homes were built, a church was established, a cotton gin and gristmill were erected, and a cemetery was established. Three acres were deeded for the original cemetery by B. F. Wheeler in 1879, although burials had taken place earlier. The community eventually declined as citizens moved away; the school was consolidated with Grand Saline in 1941, and the church closed in 1991. The cemetery remains active and contains burials of more than 50 Civil War veterans, early settlers to the area, and their descendants. (1997)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Creagleville took shape in the 1840s along the Dallas-Shreveport Road, a major route across northern Van Zandt County, and was named for German immigrant Henry Creagle, who settled here about 1847. A school appeared by 1854, and the farming community soon gained a church, cotton gin, gristmill, and cemetery. As families moved away the village faded — its school consolidated in 1941, its church closed in 1991 — but the cemetery, holding more than fifty Civil War veterans, endures.
Why it matters
Creagleville shows how immigrant settlers and a wagon road could seed a farming community, and how such places quietly rose and vanished across nineteenth-century Texas.
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Related people
- · Henry Creagle
- · B. F. Wheeler
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Poletown and Rhodesburg
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During the Civil War, families fleeing the war's front lines settled unattended land here, forming a community that became Poletown, perhaps for the poles used in building homes. In 1895 Tom Alexander laid out the town of Rhodesburg to honor populist Jacob C. Rhodes, who organized the Socialist Party of Texas and hosted its first state convention. Socialist encampments met west of Grand Saline for over a decade, and the party drew thirty percent of Van Zandt County's vote in 1912 before fracturing.
John H. Reagan
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