Liberty City

Duane's take

Now here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Liberty City, out in Gregg County. Folk, before we get to the oil, before we get to the roads and the schools and the churches, you have got to appreciate just how many names one little community can wear before it finally settles on one it likes. This place was here before the Civil War.

Sit with that a moment. People put down roots, built lives, raised hogs and families, long before East Texas knew it was sitting on one of the great oil fields on the continent. And in those early years, the community went by Sabine for a while.

Then Mount Moriah. Then McCrary's Chapel. Then Goforth.

And then, well, then it picked up the name Hog Eye. That one, the marker is happy to explain, came from an early settler who had a particular eye for hogs. An eye for hogs.

I love that. I don't know exactly what that means, and apparently nobody needed to ask, because the name stuck long enough to make the record. But nothing lasts forever, and when the famous East Texas oil boom came roaring in, the community adopted the name it carries today.

Liberty City. Just like that, Hog Eye was history. Now the oil boom gets a lot of the glory around these parts, and fair enough.

But the marker wants you to know this community had something going for it well before the derricks went up. The Sabine School district was established in 1893, and the marker calls it an example of the excellent schools in the county. That is not faint praise.

And the roads. The marker takes genuine pride in those roads. A great system of improved, all-weather county roads, it says.

Finest in the state. You get the sense whoever wrote those words meant every syllable. Liberty City has long been a center of farming and livestock raising.

It has fine churches, a park, and community meeting places. It is, in other words, a place where people chose to stay. From Hog Eye to Liberty City.

From before the Civil War to the East Texas oil boom and beyond. Some communities spend their whole history just trying to figure out what they are. This one figured it out, gave it a name, and built the roads so everybody could find their way there.

What the marker says

Historic rural community in oil-rich Gregg County. Settled before Civil War. Has also been known as Sabine, Mount Moriah, McCrary's Chapel, Goforth and Hog Eye (for an early settler with an "eye" for hogs). Present name adopted in early days of famous East Texas oil boom. Area served by Sabine School district, established 1893; an example of excellent schools in county. Also crossed by great system of improved, all weather county roads-- finest in state. Center of farming, livestock raising. Has fine churches, park and community meeting places.