Site of Earpville
Longview, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This site was once within the boundary of the community of Earpville, settled in the late 1840s by James Earp (d. 1861) and many of his relatives from Alabama. Located on a stagecoach line, the settlement at its height boasted a post office, stage stop, Methodist church, and retail businesses and was the commercial and social center for farmers in the region. Part of James Earp's original homesite was sold to the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1870. It became the site of the new town of Longview and signaled the decline of Earpville. (1989)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
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.
Why it matters
Earpville's rise and vanishing shows how the coming of the railroad remade the map of Texas, elevating some communities and erasing others.
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Related people
- · James Earp
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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.
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