DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the one doing the talking here, and I'm just the voice carrying it down the road. Now settle in, because this is the story of Small — a little community out in Van Zandt County that had a whole lot more to it than its name lets on. By the 1870s, folks had already started putting down roots there.
Didn't make a big fuss about it. Just settled in, the way Texans do. The first school came along about 1889, sitting about a half mile east of what would become the heart of things.
Then in 1895, a Baptist church got organized — and once a community has a school and a church, it starts to feel like something real. Three years after that, a man named Willis R. Henson donated land right on this very site for a cemetery.
The first recorded burial there was Mrs. Mary Allen. That's the kind of detail that roots a place in time.
Now come January of 1900, Small got itself a post office — set up right inside the mercantile store of one William Henry Luster. You want to know the pulse of a small Texas town? It's the general store, and Small had one.
And that post office ran until 1907, when it closed. You might think that'd be the beginning of the end. But you'd be wrong.
Small kept right on going. By then it was boasting a Church of Christ and a Methodist church, a drug store, a doctor's office, a barber shop, a photographer, a gin, a grist mill, a blacksmith, and a woodworking shop. A photographer, friends.
This was not a place just scraping by — this was a community with ambition and a record of itself. But time has a way of pulling at the threads. In the 1930s and 1940s, two of those churches merged with congregations over in nearby Edgewood.
And in 1949, the school followed, merging with the Edgewood school too. By 1999, what remained of Small was the cemetery and the Baptist church. Not nothing — but a long way from a photographer and a grist mill.
Small, it turns out, was a bigger story than the name ever promised.
What the marker says
Small community was settled by the 1870s; the first school was opened one-half mile east of this site about 1889. A Baptist church was organized in 1895. Three years later Willis R. Henson donated land for a cemetery on this site; its first recorded burial was that of Mrs. Mary Allen. A post office was established in the mercantile store of William Henry Luster in January 1900. Despite closure of the post office in 1907, the town continued to thrive, boasting a Church of Christ and a Methodist church, a drug store, doctor's office, barber shop, photographer, gin, grist mill, blacksmith and woodworking shop. Two churches merged with congregations in nearby Edgewood in the 1930s and 1940s and the school merged with the Edgewood school in 1949. The cemetery and Baptist church were all that remained of Small in 1999. (1999)