Greenwood

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Greenwood, out there in Wise County. Now settle in, because this one starts the way all good Texas stories do: with somebody showing up where there wasn't much of anything yet. Pioneer settlers came to this area as early as the 1850s, pushing into land that hadn't been named, hadn't been mapped to anyone's satisfaction, and certainly hadn't been incorporated into anything resembling a town.

Local tradition holds that the Greenwood and Hart families were among the very first to put down roots here. And here's where it gets interesting; the community took the name of the Greenwood family, and the creek running through took the name of the Hart family. Two families, two names, one little corner of Wise County that was fixin' to become something.

Now, communities don't spring up all at once. They grow the way a fire catches: slow at first, then all of a sudden you can't stop it. Businesses came.

Churches came. A cemetery, a school, a Masonic Lodge (the whole architecture of a civilization assembled itself piece by piece out here on the Texas prairie). A post office opened in 1877, which meant the outside world now had an address to write to.

And then in the early 1890s, a man named John Karr Berry dug the town well, which, if you've ever been truly thirsty in a Texas summer, you understand is not a small thing. At its peak, Greenwood was no sleepy little crossroads. The town boasted two saloons and four grocery stores.

Two drug stores. A hotel, a bank, a hardware store, a barber shop, a blacksmith shop, a cotton gin, and (because a town worth living in ought to have a voice) the Greenwood Gazette newspaper. That's a town with an opinion of itself, and it had earned the right to one.

There was even the Greenwood Male and Female College, which operated for less than twenty years but managed in that time to provide what the marker calls quality education for the young people of the community. Less than twenty years. Some things don't last long and still matter.

Now, through all of it (the boom, the businesses, the buzz of a community finding its feet), three churches held steady. The Greenwood Baptist Church, founded as Hart's Creek Missionary Baptist Church about 1872, was the oldest of them. The Greenwood Methodist Church followed, founded about 1880.

And the Greenwood Church of Christ came along in 1896. Three congregations, each with their own founding story, all of them still serving the area. For over one hundred years, this small settlement has been a supply center for the farming communities all around it, and a center of social and religious life besides.

The saloons may be gone, the Gazette may have gone quiet, the college may have closed its doors; but Greenwood is still here. And sometimes, that's the whole story right there.

What the marker says

Pioneer settlers came to this area as early as the 1850s. Local tradition states that the Greenwood and Hart families were among the first settlers in the area, and that the community was named for the Greenwood family and the creek was named for the Hart family. As the town of Greenwood began to grow, businesses, churches, a cemetery, school, and Masonic Lodge were established. A post office was opened in 1877, and a town well was dug by John Karr Berry in the early 1890s. At its peak, the town boasted two saloons, four grocery stores, two drug stores, a hotel, bank, hardware store, barber shop, blacksmith shop, cotton gin, and the Greenwood Gazette newspaper. The Greenwood Male and Female College, although in operation for less than twenty years, provided quality education for young people of the community. This small settlement has served as a supply center for surrounding farming communities for over one hundred years. It has also been a center of social and religious activities. Three churches serve the Greenwood area: Greenwood Baptist Church, founded as Hart's Creek Missionary Baptist Church about 1872; Greenwood Methodist Church, founded about 1880; and Greenwood Church of Christ, founded in 1896.