Hallsville
Hallsville, Harrison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Formerly Hallville. Successor to Fort Crawford and Ash Springs, pioneer settlements of 1840s. Hallsville was founded when Texas & Pacific Railway was built. First train arrived Aug. 17, 1869. Western terminus for a time, and site (1870-73) of T. & P. shops, town attracted ox-wagon freighting in wool, cotton and buffalo hides from the West. Hallsville, named for Kentuckians Elijah and Volney Hall, received charter Aug. 13, 1870. Volney Hall was a vice president of the old Southern Pacific Railway, which was rechartered as the T. & P. Acquired Sub-Courthouse, 1965.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Successor to the 1840s pioneer settlements of Fort Crawford and Ash Springs, Hallsville sprang up where the Texas & Pacific Railway's first train arrived on August 17, 1869. As a temporary western terminus and site of the railroad's shops, it drew ox-wagon freighters hauling wool, cotton, and buffalo hides in from the West. Named for the Kentucky brothers Elijah and Volney Hall, it was chartered in 1870.
Why it matters
Hallsville is a textbook railroad town, born where the rails ended and the frontier freight trade began, illustrating how track-laying created towns across post-war Texas.
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Related people
- · Elijah Hall
- · Volney Hall
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Hallsville Cemetery
Hallsville, TX
When railroad developers laid out Hallsville in 1869, they set aside ground for a burial place, and in 1875 the local Masonic lodge acquired three acres from the Texas & Pacific Railway and dedicated it as a community cemetery. Graves were even moved here from the older, fading settlements of Ash Springs and Fort Crawford as families followed the railhead. For generations, spring cleaning days doubled as community reunions where politicians stumped, veterans were honored, and children learned their family history among the headstones.
Site of Earpville
Longview, TX
Earpville was settled in the late 1840s by James Earp and his relatives from Alabama, growing along a stagecoach line into a hub with a post office, stage stop, Methodist church, and stores that served the region's farmers. When part of Earp's homesite was sold to the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1870, the new town of Longview rose beside the tracks and Earpville faded away. Its disappearance is a classic case of the railroad choosing a town's fate.
O. H. Methvin
Longview, TX
Georgia-born O. H. Methvin came to Texas around 1848 with his wife Margaret and his father, settling on land in what was then Upshur County. In 1870 he gave 100 acres to the Southern Pacific Railroad, an act that founded the city of Longview; three years later it became the seat of the newly organized Gregg County. Methvin's land gift turned a railroad stop into a county town.
O. H. Methvin, Sr., Founder of Longview
Longview, TX
O. H. Methvin (1815–1882) came to Texas from Georgia around 1848 and bought some 1,200 acres of East Texas, including a cornfield on this site. In 1870 he deeded 100 acres to the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the town that grew along the line was named Longview for the sweeping view surveyors admired from nearby Rock Hill. When Gregg County formed in 1873, Longview became its county seat, a city born from one landowner's gift to the railroad.