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.
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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.
Illinois Bend Memorial Cemetery
Saint Jo, TX
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.
City of Alvord
Alvord, TX
A small farming community had already taken root along an old Indian trail when the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad reached the site in 1882. First called Nina, the town was renamed Alvord in 1883, likely for railroad president J.B. Alvord, and quickly filled with mercantile stores, a bank, hotels, and even a second-floor opera house above a saloon. Farming, ranching, and later oil kept the town alive.
Sanger and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway
Sanger, TX
Sanger began in 1886 as a simple water stop on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway running north from Fort Worth toward Indian Territory. Its nearness to cattle ranches and the Chisholm Trail spurred the railroad to add cattle pens, a depot, and a side track, and landowner Elizabeth Huling platted a town around it, donating lots for a school, church, and square. Rebuilt after an 1890 fire and anchored by a flour mill, the town shifted from cattle shipping to farming as the new century arrived.