Edom

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Edom, Van Zandt County. Now, most towns pick a spot and stay put. Edom didn't see it that way.

According to available records, the town that eventually became Edom has occupied three different locations, making it the third oldest town in Van Zandt County. Three locations. One town.

That's a restless kind of history, and it starts six miles east of where Edom sits today. Back in 1849, two men, James Coltharp and A. C.

Beall, settled in that spot, built a sawmill, and named the place Hamburg. A sawmill, a stagecoach station, a post office. Things were taking shape.

Hamburg had the look of a town that planned to stick around. It did not stick around. The town shifted six miles west to a crossroads, and somewhere in that move it shed the name Hamburg and picked up a new one: Newburg.

You can almost feel the logic of it, a new place, a new name. But Newburg wasn't the final word either. In the 1850s, the town moved again, this time to its present location, and it became Edom.

Third location, third name, and this time it held. A church was organized in 1857. A new post office opened in 1858.

Roots were going down at last. It would take a little longer for the paperwork to catch up. Edom wasn't incorporated until 1966, more than a century after Coltharp and Beall first swung an axe at a sawmill six miles to the east.

Three names, three locations, one town that finally decided it had found its crossroads. Edom, Van Zandt County, Texas.

What the marker says

According to available records the town of Edom has occupied three different locations and is the third oldest town in Van Zandt County. James Coltharp and A. C. Beall settled six miles east of here in 1849, built a sawmill, and named the town Hamburg. A stagecoach station and post office were established. The town shifted 6 miles west to a crossroads and was called Newburg. In the 1850s the town moved to its present location and became Edom. A church was organized in 1857, and a new post office opened in 1858. Edom was incorporated in 1966. (1997)