The 13 Concords of Texas |
The 13 Concords of Texas |
Not every visit to a Concord leads to an interview, an interesting story or an insight on life. This is especially true when I don’t have the time to make a local contact before I travel out of state. The town of Concord in Houston County is mentioned in the Texas Handbook of Texas, Online :
CONCORD, TEXAS (Houston County). Concord was off State Highway 7 eight miles east of Crockett in east central Houston County. It was established after the Civil War. A Presbyterian church was founded there in 1875, and around the same time a school began operating in the church; later a separate school building was constructed. In 1897 the school had an enrollment of forty-six. During the mid-1930s the small community had a church, a cemetery, and a number of houses. After World War II many local residents moved away, and by 1990 only a church and a few widely scattered houses remained in the area. It was a short, and rather disappointing, trip from my base in Crockett to Houston County to see what I could find. All that was left of the community was a pretty graveyard and the barely visible bits of foundation of the old Presbyterian Church.
0 Comments
"Hello" said the little voice. "Were you looking for some information about the history of the Concord Baptist Church? Myself, my sister, and another gentleman would be able to meet you next Saturday." "That would be wonderful I replied. Your last name wouldn't happen to be 'Sudbury' would it?" I had found my contact after all. It had been a frustrating search after a three hour trip to Waco in search of a community that seemed to be hidden from GPS. Eventually I found the old cemetery, and then traced the directions a mile or so through a rather run-down community I had detailed instructions but TO BE CONTINUED. It had been a three hour drive out to Waco, and when I got there my GPS led me completely astray. It actually led me onto a restricted Air Force base. I was scrambling to make it to the Concord Baptist Church before the 6 PM Wednesday evening Bible study. In this part of the country there are two times when people gather together: Sunday morning for church and Wednesday night for Bible study, so this was my one chance to find someone to talk to about Concord in McLennan County. I had left numerous messages on the church's website and answering machine, but hadn't heard back from anyone. I eventually found the church at the end of a rather modest community of mixed residential housing projects. There was no sign of life at the church, so I drove off to visit the Concord cemetery and get a few pictures. When I returned to the church at 6:30, it was clear that there was no Bible study tonight. I took a few more pictures of the exterior and jumped in the car, hungry, tired and frustrated by wasting six hours. As I came to the road, I noticed across the street a guy cleaning out his pickup truck. I put the car in park and sauntered slowly across the street. (They have shotguns in Texas.) I came to the edge of his driveway "Good evening." I tried. "Might be. Depending on who's asking" came the reply. Here's my introduction to Junior Garrett and my usual ice-breaking spiel! It got him talking...
"I bet them Sudbury girls would know, but I don't know how in the world to get in touch with them." Junior and then his wife tried to give me directions across town to the Sudbury, but it was clear that they didn't really know where they lived. It was just in their nature to try to be helpful.
I thanked Junior for his time, sat back in the car and the phone rang. It was Wanda Sudbury. I was invited to attend the reunion of Concord High in Rusk County Texas, and the celebration started with a parade. Grand Marshall of the parade was Ms. Othella Moss, aged 100. The "senior" class at Concord High School... I had the pleasure of spending more than two days in Concord, Rusk County, Texas. Camille served as my guide for most of the time, and she showed me so many picturesque places with sweet little tales. Here is Camille and in front of her home. That blue agave produces one of those stalks every ten years or so, and she bloomed to honor my arrival in Concord Texas. This stalk/bloom was about 40', and the hummingbirds were going nuts. I believe the plant dies after this extraordinary display. Camille's spent as much time as she could at her grandparents house playing with her cousins. I made contact with Camille because there was a picture of her name attached to the Concord Cemetery in Rusk County. It took some convincing to prove to her that I wasn't a scam artist, but once she trusted me, she became my most important guide in Texas. Camille happened to be a local historian and an expert in all things Concord in Rusk County. "My momma used to call them 'Scary Riding' stories." These were the local stories, perhaps stretched a bit, that Camille's mother used to tell when they traveled around town. Click on the link below to hear Camille tell of " Crawford Hamilton's dead arm" Up there is where a mountain lion leap on top of a rider. He got away, but the horse was clawed all down its back side.... "So two riders were out late one night, and they were caught out in a fierce storm so they dismounted and hound shelter in the church. They brought their saddles in to dry out. While they were resting, lightning flashed, and then flashed again and a third time, and when they looked up there was a lady with a a butcher's knife coming at them. They hightailed it and rode bareback all the way home." Mr. Thomas Cook always kept a special breed of day lilies around his house. One night as he was going to bed, he dropped his kerosene lamp and his flannel night shirt caught fire. Tom made it as far as back porch, where he collapsed. According to Camille, when she was a child the outline of the charred body was clearly visible until the porch finally fell apart. There are still day lilies sprinkled around the foundation. To see more images from Concord in Rusk County, please click here
Each of these "Concords" was named in the hope of peace and tranquility, but according to my guide Camille, that's not the way it worked out for the early settlers in this corner of Rusk County, Texas. In 1828, The King of Spain granted William and Polly Elliot of Delaware a massive land grant, and they settled in what is now Rusk County. The Elliots had eight children, but this story focuses on the oldest boy, John Fields Elliot and the two husbands of the two youngest daughters. Eliza Jane Elliot married Matthew Shadden. The Shaddens were, shall we say, from the wrong side of town. There were five brothers, but Matthew seemed to be the best of the lot. The youngest daughter, Parmella Elliott married Elijah "Lige" Phillips. The Phillips owned a nearby farm, and Lige and John Elliot were close friends. During the hard times after the Civil War, Northerners occupied the area, and between 1867-1868 old William Elliot and his wife, Polly, both died, and Matt Shadden's wife, Eliza, died in childbirth. Shadden was left with three daughters, and while John Elliot and Matthew Shadden had long been friends, a fierce dispute arose between these brother-in-laws concerning the Elliot inheritance. Matthew Shadden felt that his daughters were being squeezed out, so he rode over to the Elliot ranch to confront John Elliot. According to Camille, Matthew Shadden said: "I'm going to kill you unless you make it right for my children." John Elliot's reply was "If you get off your horse, I'm going to kill you. Matthew got down from his horse and opened the gate, and was promptly shot dead. Word of their brother's death soon reached the four Shadden brothers. Hans, Bill, Dolph, and Joe came looking for revenge. These brothers were all notorious outlaws; they had a history of death and mayhem in the county, and they brought a gang of 20 others with them. They figured that John Elliot might be hiding at his brother-in-law's Elijah Phillip's house. The Elliots and Phillips had the prime water rights in the area, so under the leadership of a mysterious carpetbagger from the north, Dr. Squire March, a plot was hatched to not only gain revenge for Matthew Shadden's death, but also to murder all the male line of the Elliot and Phillips families. The Shaddens rode in and found Elijah's father, Hayden Phillips, in the front yard. When Hayden Phillips didn't tell them where John Elliott was, they shot him and left him bleeding in the yard. His son, Ben Thomas Phillips was also in the yard, so they killed him. Out back, they found Hayden Phillip's 21 year old son-in-law, Asa Irwin, picking cotton. They dragged him to the front of the house, and in front of the women of the Elliot and Phillips family, they shot him too. After a thorough and frustrating search of the homes in the area, the Shaddens returned to The Phillips front yard where Hayden Phillips lay wounded. They asked him again where John Elliot was and then shot him dead. The Shaddens rode off. Three boys survived. One had been hidden upstairs. The Shadden had dragged a trunk over to an access panel to the attic and searched with their lanterns, but little did they know that young Joel Abner Phillips was hiding in the trunk. The two other boys had hidden inside a chimney at a neighbor's house. Eight years latter, Elijah and Joel Abner Phillips rode to Squire March's place to get revenge on the Shaddens. When they found they were vastly outnumbered, they turned and fled, but they were gunned down - shot in the back. A case was brought against the Shaddens and Dr. March, and they were convicted, but they Texas Supreme Court, still under Reconstruction jurisdiction, overturned the conviction and ruled in favor of the carpetbagger, Dr. March, and the Shaddens boys. Dr. March had said that they were defending themselves against night riders from the KKK. Eventually, justice was served for the Shaddens of Concord. Two were shot in their beds after a drunken poker dispute. One was killed in a shoot out in West Texas, and the eldest, Hans Shadden, killed himself with a knife that he smuggled into jail after being convicted of shooting his friend in the back for no apparent reason. To read more about Hans Shadden, click here To hear about the posse that went after the Shaddens after they killed some fishing buddies, click here. To hear more tales of Concord in Rusk County, please click here.
For more images of Concord in Rusk County, please click here. Just a day before I left for my trip, I was so pleased to find a facebook page and website for The Concord Baptist Church in Upshur County. Too many of these 13 towns had no internet presence, and I had what looked to be a vibrant community centered around their church; and then I clicked on the next link... www.easttexasmatters.com/news/local-news/gilmer-church-burns-down/63421924 On December 31, 2016 the 100 year old church was destroyed. There was a suspicion of arson, but I haven't heard the outcome. Despite the fire, the church was continuing in the same location, so this was the 11th of the 13 Concords I visited. The Handbook of Texas states that Concord, Texas (Upshur County) was probably established before 1900. By 1906 it had two schools with an enrollment of 89. In the 1930's, the community had a school, a church, a store and a sawmill. After WWII, many of its residents moved away, and the school was consolidated with nearby Gilmer. By the 1960's all that remained was a church, a cemetery and a scattering of houses. The demolition crew of the church had been efficient. All that remained was the old bell, an overturned pew, and a few flowers poking out where the front steps had once stood. Excuse the pun, but the the hunt was on. I had driven about 400 miles and had stopped in Concords in Upshur and Wood counties, but the Concord in Hunt County was the last of the 13. Someone had introduced me by saying that my "bucket list was to visit all the places named Concord in East Texas." I guess that was true and yes, I have to admit that's a pretty strange bucket list. I wasn't optimistic about what I was going to find in Hunt County. The only reference to this Concord was a small entry in the Handbook of Texas On-line: "CONCORD, TEXAS (Hunt County). Concord is at the intersection of State Highway 66 and Farm Road 3211, just southwest of Greenville in central Hunt County. The first available population statistics indicate that ten persons lived there in 1936, when two local businesses were in operation. Concord's population was reported as 100 from the 1940s through the mid-1960s, and three businesses operated at the community for the first part of this period. From the 1970s to 2000 Concord reported a population of thirty." That wasn't much to go on. A prolonged search on Google maps showed me nothing. There were no listed businesses, no old articles, no sign of a church or a school in the area. By this time, I was used to making meaning out of not much information. None of the 13 Concords of Texas had more than 200 residents. Some were just a church and a cemetery at a crossroads (see Wood, Upshur, Henderson and Liberty counties). One Concord were just a graveyard (Houston County). One was underwater (Angelina County). One was just a old street sign (Madison County) However in Hunt County I had nothing to go on. Concord in Hunt County came as advertised. 360 degrees of nothing..... I drove around. I walked down a driveway and found an old swimming hole and an abandoned garage or store. There was only one older house with a pickup truck. I wandered outside it for a while, but I probably had a shotgun trained on me the whole time. It was getting dark, starting to rain, so I headed home. There was only one motivation to go to Hunt County. This was the last one - the final Concord in Texas - #13. I am great one for completing seemingly senseless tasks. You should see me weed the grass. It would have driven me nuts if I'd skipped this Concord in Texas. It was a three hour drive back to my bed and breakfast. Today, I had gained no great insights, had met no interesting people and had gathered no amusing tales, but after nearly 3000 miles I had completed my challenge. A post script to this visit to the lost Concord. When I went to type up this tale, I googled "Concord, Hunt County" and on page two of the results came up "Old Concord Baptist Church" northeast of Greenville. As far as I can tell, this was the oldest church in Hunt County, founded in 1844. By 1885, the church had moved many times and it found its current home about 5 miles from where I think Concord used to be. A roadside marker outside the church hints at Concord's former importance: CONCORD BAPTIST CHURCH OLDEST INSTITUTION IN HUNT COUNTY. ORGANIZED 1844 BY REV. BEN WATSON UNDER A TREE NEAR SHADY GROVE. FIRST BUILDING ERECTED NEAR THAT SPOT. SEVERAL MOVES LATER, CONGREGATION SETTLED ON THIS SITE, 1885. CONCORD HELPED ORGANIZE TEXAS BAPTIST CONVENTION IN 1848. Oh heck... does this mean I have to go back?
I wasn't very optimistic about my visit to Concord in Madison County Texas. After an hour drive, I arrived five miles north of Madison to what was once the small community of Concord. I drove up and down the street that had once been the main street of Concord. All that was left of the former farms were large pastures, a couple of chicken factory-farms and an oil field. One-wide trailers were clustered near relatively new ranch houses. All I could do to document the existence of this former community was to take pictures of the streets on Concord Road and old Concord Lane. This was the only proof that a town or community had once existed here. For the first time there was no Concord Church or Concord Cemetery, just a dusty road bisected by a major highway. It was a 5 mile drive 10 minutes out of my way to go to Old Concord Lane, but I'm glad I did. There was an old weathered be sign. I was ready to head off to my next Concord, but I decided to head down old Concord Lane even though it was a dead in the road that became progressively more sketchy.I came upon three houses at the end of the cul-de-sac. I was greeted by a wary and loud black dog, but there were no other signs of life. I am headed back towards the main highway but then stopped and backed up under a shady tree and regrouped for a few minutes. The dog's bark had changed. Sure enough, someone had emerged. Now I didn't know if he'll have a shotgun or not, but I figured I had come all this way to talk to someone. I slowly sauntered up to a rather crusty looking mustachioed guy in dark shades, a stained tee-shirt and underwear. He was holding a heart pillow. "Howdy." "Hey." "I'm looking for a area called Concord." "Yep, when my grandmother lived around here, this was Concord. Excuse me, but I gotta sit down." It turned out he had a good reason for both for the disheveled appearance and hugging a heart pillow. Bryce had been discharged from hospital that day after undergoing heart bypass surgery three days earlier. Bryce and I had a nice long chat about his grandmother's place in Old Concord, and about his dog, and the birds and his garden. It really couldn't have been a more random meeting. A day earlier and he would have been in hospital. If I hadn't decided to slow down a bit, he would never have emerged. Heck he wasn't even supposed to get out of bed. "I'll be damned if I stay in bed. Supposed to stay laying down for a week, but I'm too fidgety." Mr. Billy Pipes was born in 1926. His earliest memories of the Concord was that it was one of the most progressive towns in Leon County. In the period between 1920- 1940, tax revenue flowed in because as the midway point between the oil fields to the north and the refineries on the Gulf Coast, Concord had two transfer pumping stations for the oil pipelines. It also had a drug store, cotton gin, grist mill, barber shops, rooming house and a post office among its 26 stores. The school had a population of 500. The train stopped regularly and the saloon was busy. It was reputed to be the bootleg capital of Texas at one time.Concord was mostly a farming community with small holdings of cotton, sugar cane, peas and watermelon. After WWII, Concord fell on hard times. Many of the young servicemen did not return to rural Texas, while other migrated to the city. The increased profitability of cattle on pasture lands also led to the demise of many family farms.
After graduating in 1943, Mr. Pipes was a 6th grade teacher, but fittingly for such a gentle, soft-spoken gentleman, he later taught became a kindergarten, and many of his former students still greet him enthusiastically. Why did he stay in Concord? "It's home. It's peaceful, and my roots are here." A hundred years ago, there must have some pretty confused postmen in East Texas. Most of these 13 Concords had a post office, but at some time during the last century, the US Postal Service created a rule that there could only be one post office per state with the official postal name of "Concord." One by one, the Concords of East Texas lost their post offices, but one remained, the Concord Post Office in Leon County. My visit to Leon County had to be planned for an arrival between the opening hours of 1-3. For while Concord had a Post Office, according to Google Maps it had no other businesses or churches. Vina Broxton was handling the duties in the temporary post office postmaster While the mail transfer truck had to hang out for the two hours the post office was open, only Shirley Grisset came by to pick up her post during the hour I waited to talk to folks. So the three of us just sat there chatting: Vina, myself and the truck driver with a name I didn't catch. As she prepared to close up, Vina said "You have to go talk to Mary Ainsworth - she know everything about Concord." Since Mary was the person who was the repository of knowledge about the town, so I drove up to see her. After a short visit at BUSTER's BARGAIN BARN, I eventually found Ms. Ainsworth's driveway. A large sedan was slowly coming down the driveway so I pulled over. The driver gave a bit of a scowl, but once I described my journey, she smiled and said "follow me," and we returned to the Post Office and she opened up an adjoining room which served as a community center and polling station. "When I was a child, we only used to have one political party and that kept things simple." It turned out that Phyllis Foley was not only Mary Ainsworth's sister, she was the local reporter, so she had all the news I needed about Concord. She interviewed me for her weekly article on the happenings in Concord, and I did the same for whatever this project will turn out to be. She gave me a rundown about the school that had once adjoined the post office in the bustling town of Concord. Gradually the schools districts consolidated, but because Concord had strong tax revenue and because her father was on the school district board, the Concord school remained until 1960. After the church burnt down in 2011, the post office was really all that remained of a town that once had had two train lines and two dozen stores. The post office was family affair. Mary, Phyllis, and their brother Jeff made everyone they knew send and receive their mail through the Concord Post Office. Their mother, Ruby Lee, had run this post office for 46 years, and their father, Tootsie, volunteered as Ruby Lee's assistant. Between the post office, the school system, and the water board, the Speers family managed to keep Concord on the map. Mary has continued the battle as she has fought off plans by the USPS to close the Concord office. She manages to keep the doors open by having a network of friends and acquaintances who purchase sheets of stamps through the Concord Post Office. Phyllis gave me the more recent history of Concord, but she added, "You really need to talk to Mr. Billy Pipes. Let me give him a call.... He'll give you the real history of Concord; he's been here forever."
Pastor Duane couldn't have been more accommodating to Liz and me when we stopped in on him unannounced during our first journey in search of Concords during the summer of 2015. Pastor Duane was leader of the Concord, Cumberland Presbyterian Church outside Troup, Texas. While this was our first stop in a Concord, Texas, this was our fourth day on the road and I couldn't blame Liz for getting a bit fed up. She wanted to see Heather in Arizona, and instead we had stopped in Concord New York (lunch on Staten Island), Concord Pennsylvanian (at the end of day 1), Concord Virginia (home of donkey sanctuary), Concord Tennessee (Airbnb at the end of day 2), Concords Alabama and Louisiana on Day 3, and we had driven most of the night in an unsuccessful search of a decent hotel
Sorry if this post is a little wordy, but I think it ends in a classic Texas story! So after the fireworks celebration in Concord Arkansas, I drove 9 hours straight to arrive at 7 AM in Concord Texas in Anderson County. Pastor Rogers was at Concord Baptist Church airing out the parish hall and turning on the air conditioning in his tee shirt. He invited me to attend Sunday School and the following service. After I washed up and changed for church, I tried to take a nap, but the sound of the electric pump from the adjacent oil wells made it too loud to sleep, so I wandered around taking some pictures. Concord had once been a vibrant little community, but all that was left in the immediate area was the Concord Baptist Church, the Concord Cemetery, and The Concord Dome Oil Field. The picturesque cemetery was laid out in the 1870’s and featured the largest holly tree in the state. I tried to capture juxtaposition of the oil wells adjacent to the church with pictures of the oil slick in the mud pit created by the spillage. Cars started arriving for the adult Sunday School. I had a chance to meet Anita, Charles, Roy, Tommy, Debby and so many other friendly Concordians. When I explained to them what I was doing inevitably they frowned for a second and then burst into a smile. The Sunday School lesson was an elaborate PowerPoint about the story of King David and Bathsheba, but that’s another story. Pastor Rogers, now in a fine blue suit, led the Baptist worship service. While it featured a few more psalms than I was used to, the structure of the service was familiar. What was most impressive was when Pastor Rogers asked the 23 people in the congregation "Who should we pray for?" This was the time for sharing news, good and bad about the local community. "Annie has had another c-section and she not healing too good." "David has moved into hospice care." "John has bad bone spurs." "Debby has had a prosthetic eardrum inserted. It's made her too dizzy to go shopping, which is saving me lots of money." It was clear that everyone looked out for each other with more than just prayers. Afterwards, I had a chance to meet a few more of the locals and I was invited out to lunch in nearby Palestine by Charles and Debi Grasty. Charles works at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Joe F. Gurney Unit. As prison chaplain, Charles ministers to over 2000 souls, and had baptized 27 men the Friday before I arrived. Anderson County is home to four massive Texas prisons and Charles worked hard to redeem lives and souls. As we were talking about redeemed souls, he told me the story of “The Miracle of the Mud Pit.” Back in 2009, Charles Collins was the supervisor of the Concord Dome Oilfield. While he wasn't a believer, he started attending church since there wasn't much else to do in the area. He noticed that there was an abandoned oil rig on the Church property and since the church was in need of additional revenue, he took it on as a personal project to fix up the old rig and see if he could get it pumping again. He replaced gaskets and found replacement parts and labored away in his free time. Charles also liked enjoyed to partake in a drink and one Saturday night he stumbled home past the church, and beheld in the moonlit oil slick a vision of Christ in flowing robes accompanied by a cherub. There was no one else living in the vicinity of the church, so he headed home, assuming that he alone was privy to this miracle. The next morning, Charles was stunned find that the image was still clear in the daylight. he gathered the congregation to witness the vision. The image of Christ flying across the sky accompanied by a cherub remained in the oil slick for two days. Charles Collins converted before moving away from Concord.
The storm clouds became increasingly more dramatic as I drove toward the town of Zavalla. It had already been a long day - 400 miles and two Concords already visited, and when the skies open up in sheets of rain, I had to pull off the side of the road. The torrent seem appropriate since the town of Concord in Angelina County lay under 30 or so feet of water. The Concord Missionary Baptist Church established in 1860, but there had been a fishing town and trading post for a long time situated on the edge of the Angelina River. In the 1930's they had a handsome school and good farm lands. In 1928, that handsome school became $15 dollars richer! With the develop of better roads the steamboat stop in Concord became less important and the town dwindled down to a single store and a church with a scattering of houses. In the late 1950's and early 1960's, the Army Corp of Engineers dammed up the river, the church and cemetery were relocated to Zavalla, but the resident were despondent about leaving. "We're not going till the government pays us for our land, even if we have to take to an ark like Noah." The government did not compensate them properly for their property, but it was the relocation of the graves that bothered some Concord families the most. One former resident complained: "When they move the graves, the souls of our pioneers won't have any place to rest. They'll just roam around, never leaving Concord." Just beyond the church a dirt road winded through think forests. Suicidal critters kept leaping out of the underbrush (Texas has to be the roadkill capital of America - possums, raccoons, deer, and the "Texas speedbump" the armadillo. ) The road once continued down to a little bridge, but now it stopped at the edge of the largest lake wholly in Texas. |
ArchivesCategories |