Reynard Community

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way out in Houston County, there's a place called Reynard, and if you know your French, that name might already be giving you a clue about where this story is headed. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Pioneer settlers started finding their way into this stretch of country in the late 1830s, putting down roots in land that didn't ask easy questions but expected hard answers. By the late 1850s, enough folks had gathered that a real community had taken shape, and they called it Trinity Chapel. A church, some neighbors, a sense of place.

That was enough for a while. Then, in the late 1880s, a man named Thomas Jefferson Fox arrived with his family and established a farm right here. Now, hold that name in your mind, because it matters.

Come 1901, the community finally got itself a post office, and with a post office comes a name on a map. They called it Reynard. Reynard is the French word for fox.

That's the marker talking, not me editorializing. At its peak, Reynard was no sleepy crossroads. Two general stores.

A church. A school. A cotton gin.

A sawmill. And farms scattered out in every direction like seeds thrown on a good wind. It was a living, working community with everything a family could need.

But communities have their seasons, and by the 1940s Reynard had gone quiet, the way so many small Texas towns do. What didn't go quiet, though, are the people. Descendants of those pioneer Reynard families are still living in Houston County today, still carrying those names, still connected to this ground.

The post office gave the place a name, the Fox family helped shape it, and the land held onto both.

What the marker says

Pioneer settlers began arriving in this area in the late 1830s. By the late 1850s a rural community known as Trinity Chapel had built up. Thomas Jefferson Fox and his family established a farm here in the late 1880s. When a post office was opened in 1901 the community was named Reynard (French for fox). At its peak Reynard boasted two general stores, a church, school, cotton gin, sawmill, and numerous scattered farms. Although the community declined by the 1940s, descendants of pioneer Reynard families still live in Houston County. (1989)