Arbor Community

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Arbor Community, Houston County. Now settle in, because this story starts way back before Texas was Texas. Colonists led by empresario Joseph Vehlein received Mexican land grants in this area in the late 1820s and 1830s.

That's the seed. But the seed just sat there for a while, because real growth didn't begin in earnest until after the Civil War, when immigrants from the war-torn states came looking for something new. What they found was cattle and cotton, two industries that were stretching out and hungry for hands.

So they came. And they stayed. Neighbors from Pleasant Grove and Shady Grove got together in the 1880s and erected a brush arbor nearby, and that humble structure served double duty as both church and school.

You make do with what you've got. From that modest beginning, a whole little world started filling in. A general store.

A barber shop. A blacksmith shop. A grist mill.

A cotton gin. A woodman hall. Even a shingle mill.

That's not a settlement anymore, that's a community. And in 1901, the community got something that made it official in the eyes of the United States government: a post office, named Arbor. That post office kept the mail moving until 1906.

Then came the Four C Lumber Mill and its logging operation, and from 1910 to 1925 Arbor rode a genuine economic boom. Jobs, money, motion. But the 1930s came for Arbor the way they came for everywhere else.

The Depression hit, and the economy suffered. What pulled it back were the Federal Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration, government programs that put residents to work in the late 1930s when work was otherwise hard to come by. The Arbor School, established in 1900, burned in 1940 and was discontinued.

That's a quiet kind of ending for a building that had taught generations. Then 1941 gave us a snapshot, a moment in time. Arbor had 89 residences.

The Rhodes Chapel Baptist Church, established in 1897, counted 155 members. There was life here. Then World War II reached in and pulled people toward the nearby cities, and Arbor began losing residents.

It never quite got them back. Later, the folks who remained turned their attention to ranch and farm activities, the kind of quiet, patient work the land has always asked for. Arbor never roared back to those lumber-boom days.

But it grew from a brush arbor and a land grant, outlasted a depression, buried a school, and kept going. That's a kind of stubborn that deserves to be remembered.

What the marker says

Colonists led by Empressario Joseph Vehlein received Mexican land grants in this area in the late 1820s and 1830s. Growth, however, did not begin in earnest until after the Civil War when immigrants from the war torn states moved here to take advantage of the expanding cattle and cotton industries. Residents of nearby Pleasant Grove and Shady Grove erected a brush arbor nearby in the 1880s which served as a church and school. A general store, barber shop, blacksmith shop, grist mill, cotton gin, woodman hall, and shingle mill were established, and in 1901 the rural community was granted a post office named "Arbor" which continued until 1906. Jobs created by the Four C Lumber Mill and logging operation spurred a local economic boom from 1910 to 1925. The economy suffered during the 1930s depression, but rebounded as projects of the Federal Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA) provided jobs for many residents in the late 1930s. The Arbor School (est. 1900) burned in 1940 and was discontinued. In 1941 Arbor had 89 residences and the 155-member Rhodes Chapel Baptist Church (est. 1897). Arbor began losing residents to nearby cities during World War II. Later residents were engaged primarily in ranch and farm activities.