Hallsville

Duane's take

The official marker for Hallsville, Harrison County, tells it this way, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little extra sauce on the side. Now, before there was a Hallsville, there were pioneer settlements out here in the 1840s. Fort Crawford.

Ash Springs. Names that carried the weight of early Texas on their shoulders. And before it was Hallsville, it went by Hallville.

So this place has been reinventing itself for a good long while. What changed everything, as it so often did across Texas, was the railroad. When the Texas and Pacific Railway was built through this country, a new town took shape right along with it.

The first train rolled in on August 17, 1869, and you can imagine what that meant to folks out here. That locomotive was not just a machine. It was a declaration.

For a time, Hallsville sat at the very western end of the line, the terminus, and from 1870 to 1873 the T. and P. shops operated right here in town. Now, when you are the end of the line, you are the jumping-off point for everything coming and going. Ox wagons came rolling in loaded heavy with wool, cotton, and buffalo hides hauled in from the West.

This was a trading town, a working town, a place where the frontier economy came to do business. The town received its charter on August 13, 1870, and it was named for two Kentuckians, Elijah and Volney Hall. Volney Hall was no small figure.

He served as a vice president of the old Southern Pacific Railway, the very railroad that was rechartered and became the T. and P. itself. So the name on the town was connected to the iron that ran through it in ways that ran deeper than a simple honor. The years turned, the terminus moved on, but Hallsville stayed.

In 1965, the town acquired a Sub-Courthouse. Fort Crawford and Ash Springs are long gone to memory, but the town they gave way to is still right here on the map. The first train arrived August 17, 1869, and Hallsville has been holding its ground ever since.

What the marker says

Formerly Hallville. Successor to Fort Crawford and Ash Springs, pioneer settlements of 1840s. Hallsville was founded when Texas & Pacific Railway was built. First train arrived Aug. 17, 1869. Western terminus for a time, and site (1870-73) of T. & P. shops, town attracted ox-wagon freighting in wool, cotton and buffalo hides from the West. Hallsville, named for Kentuckians Elijah and Volney Hall, received charter Aug. 13, 1870. Volney Hall was a vice president of the old Southern Pacific Railway, which was rechartered as the T. & P. Acquired Sub-Courthouse, 1965.