The History & Culture
Of Winnsboro, Texas
© 2012, 2016, CGWillis, All Rights Reserved;
An annotated collection from public domain collections
Published June 2012, Revised 8 Jan 2016, November 2018
with the exception of previously copyrighted material held by others.
To be properly credited and cited, please contact us @
cgwillis @ TrailsCountryReporter DOT com
The historical, old-fashioned town of Winnsboro, Texas is located in the beautifully forested area of Wood, Franklin and Hopkins County, known as the “Lakes Country” of the piney woods in the upper east right corner of Texas. It’s crossroads centers at the intersection of two designated Texas Forest Trails, Texas State Highways 11 and SH 37.
The land where the Winnsboro is located was first surveyed in 1835, by Gray B. King and carved from the State of Caohuila and Texas, then a state under the Mexican government. The location is astride the boundary between the Louisiana Territory and Old Mexico and equidistant from Dallas, Shreveport, and Texarkana.
Logistically, Winnsboro is about 75 miles from the outer edge of DFW and 90 miles from downtown Big D, and halfway between Interstates 20 and 30. Most of the city canvases the upper section of Wood County, with portions of the city limit also in Franklin and Hopkins Counties. The area is also topographically the highest point area of Wood County, Texas.
Winnsboro is rich in varied historical and old-fashioned accounts from the days of the Caddo Indians to the French settlements and the wild logging era to the notorious visits of outlaws Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
The first settlers, John E. Winn and W.R. McMillan, came to area prior to 1854. They came through an area known as the "Crossroads", the original name of the town, and were attracted to the rich land on the edge of the pine woods region of East Texas. There, the men purchased 351 acres in the Gray B. King tract. They opened the first post office in 1855, along with their mercantile business. “Uncle Henry” Robinson built McMillan’s house, the first in Winnsboro. It was located near the northeast corner of the crossroads.
The United States Post Office was established 6 March 1855, and W.R. McMillan was the first postmaster, and the office ran until 7 February 1868, and later re-opened and re-established on 25 June 1874. During the time the town had no post office, citizens got their mail in either the communities of Webster or Cornersville, a short two-miles distance to the east. Some historians report that area was known to have rich deposits of clay for making pottery by the earlier Indians who inhabited the area.
In 1876, Mrs. Ophelia Cook conveyed 100 acres of land interest and 200 foot of right away near the Crossroads to the East Line and Red River Railroad Company. People in Webster and Cornersville began their move to Winnsborough with the coming of the railroad. In 1878, the name of the town was changed to Winnsboro. John R. Wright was appointed post master on 16 September 1893,
Another historical record also indicates the town was first named “Crossroads” and then later named in 1854 after the town’s founder, John E. Winn. It is also told that the original spelling of the official town name, Winnsborough, was changed because the newspaper masthead did not have the space to print the long name.
The official town historian, Bill Jones, passed away in 2022, yet for years he wrote periodic columns in the town’s historic newspaper, the Winnsboro News.
Many of the archived papers are now in the custody and preservation of the Winnsboro Historical Commission by the City of Winnsboro. Their Museum is located at 100 Broadway, at the southeast corner of Hwy 11 and Hwy 37 (Main Street). For hours operated by a group of volunteers, contact city hall at 903-342-3654.
CLICK ON PICTURE TO SEE LARGER VIEW.
[Winnsboro, TX] The Autumn Trails Association and Autumn Trail’s As hosted an annual Winnsboro History Days last Saturday in downtown Winnsboro. The event was well attended by about 200 people. The antique car club members brought fourteen Model As and several of the club members dressed in period 1928-1931 attire.
Bill Jones, city of Winnsboro official town Historian, Randy Lindsey of KWNS Radio 104.7 and Chana Gail Willis of WinnsboroTexas.org were tour guides for “Winnsboro History Days”, a three-block walking tour from the Train Depot at Main (Hwy. 37) and Broadway (Hwy 11), down Main Street to Elm and south on Market Street.
The guides covered about nine stopping points of historic interest for the city, and were assisted by living historic actors in recreating a few scenes from famous points of history of the Crossroads town built at the headwaters of Indian Creek.
Bill Jones started out the tour with an respectful announcement honoring all those fallen in the line of service duty for Memorial Day. The historic sign at the depot was read to the crowd, followed by a few sidewalk acting scenes portraying criminals Bonnie and Clyde. The gangsters made their last ride through Winnsboro in 1934 before they were gunned down by law enforcement in Louisiana a few weeks later. Nine lawmen were honored and memorialized Memorial Day weekend, who were horrendously killed by the outlaw couple.
Maddy Nittmo played Bonnie Parker, Thomas Hill played Clyde Barrow, Alex Chronister played Jack Nichols, Nate Rominger played Henry “Hank” Methvin, Randey Lindsey played the Newspaper reporter, and C. G. Willis played Mrs. Dickens. Cheryl Estes of Copperleaf Spa and David Estes of Best Barbershop provided Dicken Beauty Parlor props.
Along the walking route, a few ghost stories were mentioned and architectural building features were pointed out to the crowd. Lee Sturgeon of Beauweevils Antiques and Conrad Wolfman of Winnsboro Book and Tackle, assisted in narrating the history of Main Street and Market Streets.
Many antique pictures in the public domain, and many originally taken by the Winnsboro News in the early 1900s, were made into beautiful large prints and premiered on display at the Culture Club Art Gallery, by Vic Clark, Gallery owner, with Donnie Ditto, Gallery Manager.
The “Outlaws” re-enacted the famous last 1907 Shootout killing the town Marshal and three others at Elm & the Bowery (Market Street). City Marshal John Wofford and his brother, Constable Amos Wofford were killed in attempt to clean up the saloons running a muck in the city at that time. The “Outlaws” were played by Rick “Deadeye” Anderson, Mark Gerhardt, O.T. “Buzz” Gage, Bill O’Bryant Thomas “Doc” Dutton, Debbie Anderson and Danny Fischer. First National Bank of Winnsboro donated funds to cover part of the Outlaws insurance for the live fire of guns with blanks. The remaining balance was funded through donations made from the public during the reception.
The tourists had a chance to walk through and shop Winnsboro’s Farmer’s Market, managed by Stacey Finley, where Bill Zimmer announced the art contest winners for “Save the Bee” Box art contest. Bob Williams of the Infocus Photography Club served as the keynote photographer, along with many other contributing photographers.
The Walking Tour was capped off with a free hors d'oeuvres reception, the first annual “Taste of Winnsboro”, hosted courtesy of the Winnsboro Center for the Arts and Mrs. Willis. Judyth Entwistle and Autumn Trails A’s club members assisted with the hosting. Food was provided courtesy of area restaurants, including Ricky Perez owner of Richie’s Restaurant (and Maribel Tyndell who checked on quantities frequently), Susann Briggs and Nancy Briggs owners of The Barrel House, Jackie Strydom of Liefie Li Vine, Kasey Habecker of From Oven With Lovin’, and Dana Pham of The Rooster Café, and Vera with Bonnie’s Lunchbox.
The FREE event was geared for featuring and preserving Winnsboro’s unique history and heritage, and in celebrating Texas Historic Preservation Month.
ABOUT THE EVENT.
Preserving Winnsboro, TX History Project.
Mrs. Willis is undertaking the Bill Jones Winnsboro History Preservation Project. The project plans on filming and preserving Mr.Jones many tales of enriched history in the area. QR Codes will be manufactured and small signs placed at existing historic signs in Winnsboro. When scanning the code on a smart phone, it will lead the tourist / reader to select an audio or video of Mr. Jones talking about that particular location point of interest, and show pictures of what the site may have looked like in years gone by. The project also plans to produce online maps with the Living History Location Videos for viewing for out of town travelers and tourists. Filming of the living history project will take about twelve to eighteen months. To donate to this project in any amount donors will receive a charity receipt, please make donations payable to the Winnsboro Communities Foundation and please mark in the memo “Bill Jones / Winnsboro History Project” so the foundation will apply the funds to the correct designated charity, and mail to in care of C.G. Willis, P.O. Box 752, Winnsboro, TX 75494. Expenses include lighting, professional backdrops, terabyte drives for preservation of the filming for donation to the public libraries, printed posters and material for advertising for the event next year. Restaurants are encouraged to sign up early for the Second Annual Taste of Winnsboro and Winnsboro History Days Walking Tour. Date and venue to be announced.
At this time, Winnsboro, TX will be the first city in the state to add the component of living history through technology to static historic signs and placemarkers, and tourist locations in a geographic region.
POINT OF CONTACT
Chana Gail Willis, 903-816-3303
Event & Media Coordinator
cgwillis @ Trails Country Reporter DOT com
The History & Culture
Of Winnsboro, Texas
© 2012, 2016, CGWillis, All Rights Reserved;
An annotated collection from public domain collections
Published June 2012, Revised 8 Jan 2016, November 2018
with the exception of previously copyrighted material held by others. To be properly credited, please contact us @ woodcountytexas@gmail.com
WINNSBORO TODAY
Today’s Winnsboro has kept that small hometown feeling and is ever growing in warmth and charm. When you visit historic downtown Winnsboro, you will feel like you have stepped back in time with an edge of modern-day culture and retail. Most of the buildings were built in the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s.
In 2003, Winnsboro was designated a Texas Historical Commission’s Main Street City. Building owners continue each year with various restoration and improvements projects to the buildings, streets and sidewalks in order to preserve the historical significance, and to invigorate local and tourist commerce.
Winnsboro also has an official state designated culture district renowned for arts, both performing, live and static displays.
The renovated Union Pacific historic train depot is owned by the city, and currently houses the city’s Main Street program and Economic Development assistant’s office, and a community room available for rent for meeting and small gatherings.
Directly across from the Old Depot is Market Street, also historically known as the Bowery, canopied by a huge metal sign constructed by the local high school ag department in a joint project with Winnsboro Economic Development Corporation and local merchants.
This one-block-long street runs parallel to Main Street (Hwy 37) and contains a vivid and colorful history! While Main Street was about business, Market Street was about entertainment and leisure during the saloon era of the late 1800s.
The old Bowery Street was the entertainment destination of the workers from the 30-plus sawmills in the area at that time, plus the merchants who operated here, and travelers moving westward. Bowery Street housed saloons that had a reputation for gambling tables, loose women, baths, barbers and shoe shines.
Horse drawn taxis would often line the streets, waiting to whisk the boys out of town to the outlaying girlie houses. With this teeming atmosphere and mix of rowdiness, Texas-style shoot-outs were often common back during those days.
Today, Market Street is home to a variety of retail stores, restaurant, bookstore, the local radio station KWNS, Culture Club Art Gallery and the Winnsboro Center for the Arts (WCA). The WCA is a non-profit organization devoted to promoting, exhibiting, and professionally teaching the arts to all ages including drama, dance, writing, painting, and music. WCA has produced numerous plays on the wonderful Bowery Stage, many concerts of varied musical taste, and art exhibits. The building where the WCA calls home completed extensive renovations in early 2014, and is featured as part of nationally recognized Winnsboro’s Main Street Program.
The Andrews Building, built in 1901, has been completely renovated and houses a local restaurant, Bonnie's Lunchbox. Many of the older buildings in downtown Winnsboro still contain the walk-in safes from the late 1800s and early 1900s. The downtown area has antique and consignments shops, flower and gift shops, Christian book store, jewelry stores, a renown day spa, women’s clothing, restaurants, florists and service companies. An old movie theatre, converted to a one-time restaurant on Main Street was purchased in 2014, is currently for sale for development.
In the 1930’s, legendary bank robbers and southern terrorists Bonnie and Clyde would be known to visit Winnsboro frequently and eat at a local café on Main Street (now a CPA’s office). Is is recorded that at this café , the two renegades ate their last breakfast before heading into the history books. The Texas Rangers near Marshall and a Louisiana police posse, caught up with them two days later near Sailes, Louisiana in an ambush that killed the two outlaws in a historic gunfight.
SCENERY
Surrounded by beautiful lakes and forests, the natural scenery is there for folks year-round. Lake Winnsboro, Lake Cypress Springs, Lake Bob Sandlin and State Park, Lake Monticello, Lake Quitman, and world- famous Lake Fork are at Winnsboro’s back doorstep as an outdoor paradise venues for playing, recreation and sporting. For bird watching, photography, golf, fishing, nature walks, hiking, biking, horseback, hunting, or tour bus…the network of the excellent paved farm roads take travelers in most any direction to wonderful clean-air vistas that are picture perfect.
For many small communities, Spring often signals an active calendar for area citizens. Through-out the year, festivals and annual activities include the following features.
Autumn Trails events all month long in October
Winnsboro Center for the Arts with live performances, concerts and plays and static exhibits year around
WCA’s “Starry Starry Night” art dinner
Animal Shelter Spring & Fall Casino Night fundraiser
American Legion Memorial Day honors, VFW Post
Civic clubs, including Rotary, Lions and the Pilot Club
Independence Day, fireworks
The Fine Arts & Wine Festival Market each November
Art Classes & Clubs
Book Reading Clubs
Photography Club
Winnsboro Rodeo
Annual Livestock Show at the Jack Cross Pavillion
Fishing Tournaments
Christmas Parade
Agriculture, including Winnsboro Rodeo, FHA, Hay Show, Fishing Club, Guided Hunts and tours
Winnsboro’s famous Autumn Trails has been going strong now for over 60 years celebrating each October with a month of activities. The Pageant and Coronation of Queen Autumn Trails is always a favorite. There’s also an Antique Tractor Show, horse and wagon Trail Ride, Trade Days and Swap Meet, and one of the largest Antique/Classic Car Rally’s in Texas included.
In addition to the breathtaking beauty of the changing of the fall foliage, there are thousands of horsemen, campouts, cookouts and rodeos to keep citizens in touch with their rural heritage. Visitors come from miles around to enjoy the magnificent scenery as well as the fun and festivities. October offers something for everyone.
Winnsboro celebrates the Holiday Season during the entire month of December beginning with a Christmas parade. Floats and Santa put visions of sugarplums in the minds of all the little ones.
Part of Winnsboro growth can be attributed to local industry, which includes the largest butter-making plant in the United States, Keller’s Creamery, Inc., an international freight forwarding company, Team Worldwide, Inc., a leading wiring bundle manufacturer, USA Harness, Inc., a minimum security substance abuse TDCJ facility, The Clyde Johnston Unit, the citizen-friendly Ozarka Water Bottling Plant (only a short 20 minute drive), and The Trinity Mother Francis / CHRISTUS Hospital of Winnsboro, a 50–bed modern medical facility serving many counties and operated by Texas Health Resources.
Larger employers include the Winnsboro Independent School District, Team Worldwide, Elder care (including Whispering Pines, Trinity Mission and Autumn Wind), USA Harness, HarborFab, Winnsboro Hardware, Foxworth Galbraith, the City, local and area Utility companies, banking (4 banks), and medical-related entities (clinics, doctors, home health and hospice) and churches. For trade schools, there is a good student population at the local beauty school.
The surrounding area of Winnsboro is a state leader in agriculture featuring state-of-the-art dairy farms, beef cattle ranches, poultry-growing facilities, timber production, plant nurseries, and a variety of cash crops nourished by the fertile sandy loam topsoil. Winnsboro is geographically located in three counties, mostly in Wood, but also in parts of Hopkins and Franklin counties, Texas.
2019 Historical Event
Winnsboro History Day Walking Tour
Well Attended in Downtown on May 25, 2019
Source of some of the historic photographs in the public domain originated from the Winnsboro News newspaper, Gilbreath Memorial Library and Library of Congress. Gilbreath Memorial Library; 916 N. Main St; Winnsboro, TX 75494; Phone: 903-342-6886; email: gml@winnsborolibrary.org; . All rights to materials within this collection are held by respective holding institutions or individuals with the exception of public domain items. The materials contained within this collection are made available online for educational and/or personal research purposes only.
WOOD COUNTY, TEXAS
CITIES, TOWNS, COMMUNTIES AND UNICORPORATED AREAS
Quitman is the county seat. Located within the county are the incorporated cities of Alba, Hawkins, Mineola, Quitman, Winnsboro, and Yantis. The outlying areas of Wood County include major developments at Holly Lake Ranch in the eastern portion of the county and Lake Fork Reservoir which is home to over 42,000 Wood County residents in 723 square miles.
Actual Pop. COUNTY Census Trade Area
Census 2010 Divisions (CCD) Population Radius
Alba: 504 4,448 3,270 - 4 miles
Hawkins 1,278 8,406 8,417 - 7 miles
Mineola 4,515 9,939 15,025 - 8 miles
Quitman 1,809 11,100 9,074 - 7 miles
Winnsboro 3,434 8,071 19,614 - 12 miles
Yantis 388 tbd 2,143 - 4 miles
Holly Lake Ranch 2,774 tbd tbd
unincorporated
Trade Area Radius/Trade Area Population based on 2010 Census Data and 2010 ScanUS estimates, sourced from the Wood County Industrial Commission 2013.
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk
THE TRUE ONLINE GUIDE. BLESSED COMMUNITIES. TREASURED HERITAGE. BOUNDING IN SHOPPING , DINING & PLAYING. HOME OF AUTUMN TRAILS, AZALEAS & DOGWOODS.
WOOD COUNTY SETTLEMENT, HISTORY AND HERITAGE
In 1850, Wood County was created from Van Zandt County by an act of the Texas Legislature. The county was named for George T. Wood, a native of Georgia, who became Texas’ second Governor in 1847. Some early settlements in the county were Mineola, Webster, Perryville, and Redland.
Geographic Location and Topography
Wood County is in the central part of northeastern Texas. The total area of the county is 445,402 acres, or about 696 square miles. Of this total, 25,863 acres is areas of water more than 40 acres in size.
Elevations range from about 285 feet above mean sea level on the Sabine River flood plain in the southeastern part of the county to about 640 feet in the east-central part. Wood County is in the East Texas Timberlands, which is a part of the Western Coastal Plain Major Land Resource Area.
The topography of the county is nearly level to steep. The drainage pattern is well defined, and many streams dissect the county. Nearly all the streams flow in a southeasterly direction to the Sabine River. Most all (97%) of Wood County is in the Sabine River watershed except for a small area in the extreme northeastern part.
Lake Fork Creek and Big Sandy Creek are major drainage-ways through Wood County. The Sabine River forms the southern boundary. Wood County is joined on the west by Rains County, on the southwest by Van Zandt County, on the east by Camp and Upshur Counties, and on the north by Hopkins and Franklin Counties.
The soils of the county formed mostly under forest vegetation. Those on uplands are light colored and sandy or loamy, and in unprotected sloping areas, they are subject to water erosion. The soils on flood plains are loamy or clayey.
LAND
Soil is the most important natural resource in Wood County. The livelihood of many people in the county depends on the ability of the soil to produce timber, forage for livestock, and cultivated crops. Oil and gas also are valuable natural resources in the county. The numerous oil and gas wells are sources of income for many landowners. Exploring for oil and gas, drilling, and servicing provide many jobs in the survey area. Sand and gravel are mined in the county. Sand is mined from thick beds, mainly north of Hawkins in the southeastern part of the county. Gravel is obtained from the surface mining of gravelly soils throughout the county. T0he sand and gravel are used mainly in construction.
Water, fish, and wildlife are important natural resources in Wood County. Lake Fork Reservoir, Lake Winnsboro, Lake Quitman, Lake Hawkins, Lake Holbrook, and many smaller private lakes and ponds provide abundant water for recreational activities and for domestic, industrial, and agricultural uses.