Hagerville Community
Houston County, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Kentuckian James Henry Hager (1822-1879) and his wife Naoma (Clark) came to Texas in the 1840s. Hager, a farmer and cabinet maker, opened a blacksmith shop and mill in Houston County. The Nacogdoches-to-Navasota stage and mail road ran beside his log home. Hager's son, James Polk, began a post office in 1891 and named the area "Hagersville". Another son, W.J.(Bill) donated land for a schoolhouse that was used for worship. Many residents moved closer to the sawmills and the post office closed in 1905. Business declined but the Community retains its identity.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Kentuckian James Henry Hager brought his family to Texas in the 1840s and set up a blacksmith shop and mill in Houston County, beside the busy Nacogdoches-to-Navasota stage and mail road. His son opened a post office in 1891 and named the settlement Hagerville, and another son donated land for a schoolhouse that doubled as a church. As residents drifted toward the sawmills the post office closed in 1905, though the community kept its name.
Why it matters
Hagerville is a portrait of the small crossroads settlements that rose and faded across rural Texas as roads, mills, and railroads shifted the map.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James Henry Hager
- · Naoma Clark Hager
- · James Polk Hager
- · W. J. Hager
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Community of Coltharp
Houston County, TX
By the late 1850s Eli Coltharp had settled beside Cochina Bayou, opening a store and post office along the stage route west of Nacogdoches. The little farm community of Coltharp Hill soon boasted a gin, gristmill, and shops, and its school building doubled as a Masonic lodge. When the railroad passed it by and a sawmill opened nearby in 1901, farming faded and the post office closed by 1909.
Randolph Community
Kennard, TX
In 1838, during the days of the Republic of Texas, Cyrus Halbert Randolph founded this community along the San Felipe de Austin–Nacogdoches mail route, one of the vital overland links stitching together frontier East Texas. A public servant many times over, Randolph helped the settlement grow a school, a post office, and a cluster of stores and shops. When Randolph lost its 1860 bid to take the county seat from Crockett, the town slowly faded, its post office closing for good in 1881.
Pine Springs Campground
Weches, TX
Long before Europeans arrived, the Tejas Indians favored this spring-fed grove for its game and fresh water, and the site kept drawing travelers for centuries afterward. Sitting beside El Camino Real — the King's Highway that linked Spanish missions and presidios across the province — it hosted explorers, missionaries, traders, and later the wagon trains of 19th-century pioneers who circled up in the trees to rest. Hunting parties would camp here for weeks at a stretch well into the settlement era.
The Joseph R. Rice Log Cabin
Grapeland, TX
Joseph Redmond Rice and his young wife, Willie Masters Rice, built this log cabin in the mid-nineteenth century—he cutting the timber while she snaked the logs into place—on a homesite that became a noted way-station along the old San Antonio Road. They raised nine children there, enlarging the cabin as the family grew. Long after it had become a mere farm storage shed, the Texas Centennial Commission marked it in 1936, and in 1973 it was given to the state, moved here, and restored for exhibition.