Ratcliff

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. Around 1875, a wagon train rolled into what would become Houston County, Texas. Not just any wagon train.

Thirty-two wagons. A whole procession of settlers, making their way west out of Georgia, looking for somewhere to put down roots. And they found it.

Right here. Now, before all that, a man named Jess H. Ratcliff had already been at work.

Born in 1844, Ratcliff built a sawmill here about 1855, and that mill started doing what a good sawmill in good timber country will do. It drew people in. More and more of them, coming to where the work was.

By 1889, there was enough of a town here to warrant a post office, and Jess Ratcliff himself served as postmaster. The place was filling out. Several stores had opened up.

Doctors had hung their shingles, H.L. McCall and Jake Jackson among the professional men serving the community. This was a real town taking shape.

Then came 1901, and the sawmill changed hands. Sold to the Louisiana and Texas Lumber Company, and then again to the Central Coal and Coke Company. What had started as one man's mill became something considerably larger.

A vast complex, the marker calls it, and you get the feeling they mean it. That operation ran and ran, cutting timber, driving commerce, keeping the town alive and busy. Until 1917.

That's when it closed. Now, a lot of towns in Texas, when the big mill closes, that's the last chapter. People scatter, buildings go quiet, and the place just fades.

But Ratcliff didn't do that. The community turned. Some folks moved into logging, some into other enterprises entirely.

Many residents did move away, the marker is honest about that. But the town survived. And the schools kept on, serving the children of those who stayed, right up until 1955, when the Ratcliff schools consolidated with Kennard.

Jess H. Ratcliff, who started all this with a sawmill, lived until 1920. The town that carries his name outlasted the mill, outlasted the lumber company, outlasted the coal and coke operation.

Thirty-two wagons out of Georgia, one sawmill, and a community that simply refused to fold. That's Ratcliff.

What the marker says

About 1875, a 32-wagon train of settlers came here from Georgia. Jess H. Ratcliff (1844-1920) built a sawmill about 1855, drawing more people. Post office opened 1889, with Ratcliff as postmaster, and town soon had several stores. Professional men included Drs. H.L. McCall and Jake Jackson. Sold 1901 to Louisiana and Texas Lumber Co., then to Central Coal and Coke Co., sawmill became a vast complex, running until 1917, when it closed. Turning to logging or other enterprises, the community survived, although many residents moved away. The Ratcliff schools consolidated (1955) with Kennard.