Town of Saint Jo
Saint Jo, Montague County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of oldest towns in Montague County. Founded in 1850s, during great California Gold Rush, by E.S. and Ithane Singletary (Brothers) and John Hughes, who hoped to find gold here. The community they started became known as "Head of Elm" for its location at headwaters of Elm Fork of Trinity River. In 1858 Head of Elm ran--and lost--race for county seat. A post office opened here (at site of marker) in 1859, with John Womble, another pioneer, as postmaster. An early store and saloon were owned by Dominick Burns. Next spurt of growth for town came with locating of Chisholm Cattle Trail through here about 1868. In 1871 village had a post office, blacksmith shop, and five stores. In 1872 I.H. Boggess (owner of the famous Stonewall Saloon) and Joe Howell bought 640 acres of land and laid out townsite, which Boggess named "Joe", for Howell. One story says he decided to add "Saint" because Joe was a staunch non-drinker; another version claims he added it to make the name longer. In 1874 citizens built an all-faiths church and in 1876 a newspaper was established. Saint Jo was organized as a town in 1880; incorporated in 1886. Population has remained about 1,000 since that time and economy is still based on farming and ranching. (1972)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Saint Jo began in the 1850s as "Head of Elm," a settlement at the headwaters of the Elm Fork of the Trinity River founded by hopefuls chasing rumors of gold. Its fortunes turned when the Chisholm Trail routed cattle drives through town around 1868, bringing stores, saloons, and a growing population. Renamed for pioneer Joe Howell — with "Saint" added, one story says, because he was a teetotaler — the town incorporated in 1886 and has held near 1,000 residents on farming and ranching ever since.
Why it matters
Saint Jo captures the arc of a North Texas frontier town, born of gold fever and made permanent by the great cattle-trail economy that defined the post-Civil War West.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Saint Jo sits in Montague County, in the North Texas country that was, in the 1850s, very much the frontier's leading edge. This was the era of the early Texas republic's legacy and westward expansion, when settlers pushed into new country chasing land, opportunity, and rumor. And in that decade one rumor outshone all others: gold.
The California Gold Rush had set the whole nation in motion, and its fever reached far beyond California itself. Hopeful men prospected and dreamed in unlikely places, and it was gold — or the hope of it — that first drew settlers to the headwaters of the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, at a spot they came to call "Head of Elm."
The deeper transformation of this country, though, would come not from gold but from cattle. After the Civil War, the great trail-driving economy remade the post-war West, and North Texas lay squarely in its path. A town's fate in this era often turned on a single question: did the trail come through, or didn't it?
People & events
The settlement was founded in the 1850s by brothers E.S. and Ithane Singletary, together with John Hughes, who hoped to find gold at the headwaters of the Elm Fork. The gold did not materialize, but the community did. In 1858 Head of Elm ran for county seat — and lost — and in 1859 a post office opened at the marker's site, with pioneer John Womble as postmaster. Early enterprise included a store and saloon owned by Dominick Burns.
The town's fortunes turned around 1868, when the Chisholm cattle trail was routed through the area. By 1871 the village boasted a post office, a blacksmith shop, and five stores. In 1872 I.H. Boggess — owner of the famous Stonewall Saloon — and Joe Howell bought 640 acres and laid out a proper townsite, which Boggess named "Joe" in honor of Howell.
The "Saint" is the town's favorite riddle. One story holds that Boggess added it because Joe Howell was a staunch non-drinker; another claims he simply wanted a longer name. Either way, growth followed: an all-faiths church went up in 1874, a newspaper was established in 1876, the town organized in 1880, and it incorporated in 1886. Its population has hovered near a thousand ever since, on an economy still built on farming and ranching.
Its place in the American story
Saint Jo compresses the whole arc of the North Texas frontier into a single town's story. It was born of gold fever — that quintessentially American impulse to chase fortune over the horizon — and though the gold never came, the hope was enough to plant a community where none had been.
Then came the cattle trails, and with them the economy that defined the post-Civil War West. The Chisholm Trail moved vast herds north to the railheads, and the towns lucky enough to lie along it became waystations of that great migration: places of stores, blacksmiths, saloons, and the churn of drovers passing through. Saint Jo's leap from a struggling settlement to a village of five stores in the years after the trail arrived is the trail economy in miniature.
And then there is what did not happen. Saint Jo did not boom into a city; its population settled near a thousand and stayed there, its economy rooted in the surrounding farms and ranches. That, too, is deeply representative — for every trail town that swelled into a metropolis, many more found their level and became the steady, enduring small towns that still define rural America.
If you visit
Come to Saint Jo to read a whole frontier era off one town square. This is one of the oldest towns in Montague County, and it still carries the marks of the story on its face — a place that has held near a thousand souls for well over a century, its life still tied to the farming and ranching country around it.
Let the origins do their work on your imagination. Stand near the old post office site and picture the Singletary brothers and John Hughes arriving in the 1850s certain there was gold at the head of Elm, then picture the same ground a decade later as Chisholm Trail cattle moved through and stores multiplied. The town's very name is a puzzle to carry with you: was the "Saint" a tribute to a teetotaler named Joe, or just a whim to lengthen the word?
This is a working small town rather than a staged attraction, so slow down and take it in. Look for the layers — the trail-era street grid laid out in 1872, the long habit of church and community — and appreciate a place that was dreamed up on a gold rumor and made permanent by the great cattle drives of the American West.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · E.S. Singletary
- · Ithane Singletary
- · John Hughes
- · I.H. Boggess
- · Joe Howell
Related events
- · Chisholm Trail cattle drives
- · California Gold Rush
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Stonewall Saloon
Saint Jo, TX
Built of native stone in 1873, the Stonewall Saloon was Saint Jo's first permanent building and a welcome rest stop for cowboys driving cattle up the trail through North Texas. After county prohibition arrived in 1897 it traded whiskey for ledgers, housing offices and a bank, and it was named for Confederate general "Stonewall" Jackson. Stuccoed in the 1930s and given a wooden facade in 1964, it still anchors the town square.
Head of Elm (Saint Jo)
Saint Jo, TX
Long before the town of Saint Jo was founded here in 1873, this spot at the head of Elm Creek was a landmark on the frontier crossed by government survey expeditions, a proposed federal railroad route, and the U.S. 2nd Cavalry under Albert Sidney Johnston marching to establish Texas frontier forts. A post office opened in 1860, and the site steadily grew from a waypoint into a permanent settlement.
Illinois Bend Memorial Cemetery
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A community rose here on the Red River around the start of the Civil War, and after the war nearby Red River Station became a favored crossing where Longhorn herds forded on the Chisholm Trail. Known first as Maxwell or Wardville, it took the name Illinois Bend—for some settlers' home state—by 1877, growing to include schools, stores, a cotton gin, churches, and river ferries. Its burial ground, with the earliest marked grave from 1873, remains cared for by a local cemetery association.
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