Midyett Springs
De Berry, Panola County, Texas
Marker Inscription
These springs, used by settlers prior to 1850, became the center of a thriving farm community and health resort in the 1880s. Originally known as Breckenridge Springs, the name was changed in 1887 when a post office opened in the store of Spencer Midyett. The town included a cotton gin, sawmill, stores, and school. A boarding house and hotel served those seeking cures through use of the mineral water. As timber became scarce after World War I, Midyett declined. The post office closed in 1920 and the school consolidated with the Carthage district in the 1940s.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Deep in the piney woods of East Texas, these mineral springs drew settlers before 1850 and blossomed in the 1880s into a bustling farm town and health resort called Breckenridge Springs. After Spencer Midyett's store landed a post office in 1887, the renamed community swelled with a cotton gin, sawmill, stores, a school, and a hotel and boarding house catering to visitors who believed the mineral waters could cure what ailed them. Like so many East Texas timber towns, Midyett faded once the forests were logged out after World War I, its post office closing in 1920 and its school folding into Carthage's by the 1940s.
Why it matters
Midyett captures the boom-and-bust arc of countless rural Southern communities that rose on natural resources and popular health fads, then quietly vanished when the timber and the visitors ran out.
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Related people
- · Spencer Midyett
Themes & tags
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