DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's a story worth sittin' with for a spell. Now, if you blink driving through this stretch of Van Zandt County, you might miss what's left of Corinth. A church.
A cemetery. That's it. But don't let the quiet fool you, because once upon a time — back in the 1800s — Corinth was something.
A gin, a grist mill, a blacksmith shop, a doctor's office, a sawmill, stores, a school. This was a place where people built lives, raised families, ground grain, and shod horses. A full, breathing community.
And then, as communities sometimes do, it faded. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start with the school, because that's where Corinth's story really comes into focus.
An early Van Zandt County history puts a school on this very property in 1849 — taught by a man with a title that commands respect, Professor James J. Kuykendall. That log schoolhouse pulled double duty, serving the Baptist church congregation as well.
One building, doing the work of two. Frontier efficiency at its finest. Around 1899, that original log structure gave way to a two-story building — bigger, sturdier, and shared with the Oddfellows, who held their meetings there too.
Then in 1916, a third schoolhouse was built. That one was later sold to the church itself, to serve as Sunday School classrooms. Three schoolhouses across the years — each one a chapter in Corinth's life.
A post office opened in 1888 and kept the mail moving until 1906. Eighteen years of letters and news passing through, connecting Corinth to the wider world. Now, about the Baptist congregation — here's where the story takes on a quiet sadness.
The early church records were destroyed by fire. Just like that, a whole chapter of who these people were, who led them, what they believed, gone. So the earliest pastor we can name with any certainty is the Reverend Thomas McAdams Post, born in 1843, died in 1931.
He came to Corinth in 1884 and found a membership of twenty-five souls waiting for him. Reverend Post was a Civil War veteran, and when his days were done, he was laid to rest in the cemetery right next to the church — alongside several other Civil War veterans and many of the early settlers who'd called the Corinth area home. That cemetery is still there.
So is the church. And together, those two things carry the whole weight of everything Corinth used to be — the gin, the mill, the blacksmith's hammer, the professor's lessons, the pastor's voice, the postmaster sorting letters in 1888. Corinth may be mostly gone from the map.
But in Van Zandt County, its history isn't forgotten. It just moved — from a town, to a cemetery, to a story worth telling on a road like this one.
What the marker says
The church and cemetery at this site are all that remain of the once-thriving community of Corinth. Settled during the 1800s, Corinth boasted a gin, grist mill, blacksmith shop, doctor's office, sawmill,stores, and a school during its early years. A post office, established in 1888, operated until 1906. An early Van Zandt County history records that a school existed on this property in 1849, taught by professor James J. Kuykendall. The log schoolhouse also served the Baptist church congregation. It was replaced about 1899 with a two-story building in which the Oddfellows also held their meetings. A third schoolhouse was built in 1916 and later was sold to the church to serve as Sunday School classrooms. Little is known of the origin of the Baptist congregation, since early church records were destroyed by fire. The earliest pastor on record is the Rev. Thomas McAdams Post (1843-1931), who came in 1884 and served a membership of 25. A Civil War veteran, Post is buried in the adjacent cemetery, which is the burial site of several other Civil War veterans and many early settlers in the Corinth area. Although little is left of the Corinth community, its history remains a strong part of Van Zandt County heritage. (1984)