Reynard Community
Grapeland, Houston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Pioneer settlers began arriving in this area in the late 1830s. By the late 1850s a rural community known as Trinity Chapel had built up. Thomas Jefferson Fox and his family established a farm here in the late 1880s. When a post office was opened in 1901 the community was named Reynard (French for fox). At its peak Reynard boasted two general stores, a church, school, cotton gin, sawmill, and numerous scattered farms. Although the community declined by the 1940s, descendants of pioneer Reynard families still live in Houston County. (1989)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Reynard began as one of the scattered farm settlements that filled East Texas after the late 1830s, first known as Trinity Chapel until Thomas Jefferson Fox established his family's farm here in the 1880s. When a post office opened in 1901, the community took the name Reynard — French for "fox," a nod to its leading family. At its height it held two general stores, a church, a school, a cotton gin, and a sawmill before fading by the 1940s into the memory of the families who remain in Houston County.
Why it matters
Reynard's rise and decline traces the life cycle of the small agricultural community, the vanishing kind of settlement that once organized rural American life.
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Related people
- · Thomas Jefferson Fox
Themes & tags
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