Hooks

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Hooks, Texas. Now settle in, because this one's got roots that run deep and a boom that came out of nowhere. The town of Hooks, up in Bowie County, traces its beginnings to around 1848, when it took shape as a supply center for the five-thousand-acre plantation of a man named Warren Hooks.

Five thousand acres. That's not a farm, folks, that's a kingdom with a fence around it. For years the surrounding area didn't even go by the name Hooks.

The post office serving these parts, from 1841 all the way to 1860, was called Myrtle Springs, and that was the home of Warren's son, Colonel Robert W. Hooks, who rode with the 11th Texas Cavalry of the Confederate Army. So the family name was all over this corner of Texas, just not yet on the post office.

That changed in 1884, when a post office was placed right here and named for Warren Hooks himself. Farming carried the community forward from there, steady and unspectacular, the way most good things are. Cotton in the fields, seasons turning, population holding around four hundred souls.

Four hundred. Remember that number. Because 1942 changed everything.

That year, Hooks boomed. That's the word the marker uses, and it earns the quotation marks. The Lone Star and Red River Ordnance plants opened up, and people came pouring in like a spring flood.

Four hundred residents became three thousand, practically overnight. The town that had been quietly farming for nearly a century suddenly found itself a different place entirely. After the boom settled, Hooks kept going, diversifying its economy with cotton and soybean production.

And here's the detail I find quietly remarkable: in a town of that size, Hooks has sixteen churches. Sixteen. Whatever else came and went, the faith held.

Warren Hooks planted something in this ground back around 1848, and it's still growing.

What the marker says

Established about 1848 as a supply center for 5,000-acre plantation of Warren Hooks; 1841-1860 post office for area was Myrtle Springs, home of Hooks' son, Col. Robert W. Hooks, 11th Texas Cavalry, Confederate Army. Post office placed here 1884 was named for Warren Hooks. Farming continued until 1942, when Hooks "boomed" suddenly. Population soared from 400 to 3,000 with opening of Lone Star and Red River Ordnance plants. Economy is diversified, with cotton and soybean production. A religious town, Hooks has sixteen churches. (1969)