DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture a drowsy little country village sitting in Freestone County in 1905. They called it Brewer — named for Green Berry Brewer, who received a land grant way back in 1835.
Folks had been settling in around there since the 1870s, and by 1905, well, Brewer was just… Brewer. Quiet. Unhurried.
The kind of place where the loudest thing happening on a Tuesday was probably a screen door. But something was coming down the tracks — literally. In 1906, the Trinity and Brazos Valley Railroad picked Brewer as the site for its railroad shops and as the main division point between Houston and Fort Worth.
You don't get to stay drowsy after news like that. Prosperity had a ticket, and it was punched for Brewer. The town was speedily renamed for the Teague family — relatives of noted railroad builder B.
F. Yoakum — and just like that, Brewer was gone and Teague was born. Now, the promoters wanted to make sure everybody knew it, so in August of 1906 they held a town lot sale.
Customers arrived on a special train. A band was there to meet them, playing Dixie. And before that day was done, those folks had consumed five thousand pounds of barbecue.
Five thousand pounds. That's not a meal, friend. That's a declaration of intent.
By 1907, Teague was transformed — and that word transformed is doing real work here. Dozens of brick buildings were going up. Population soared.
An outfit called the Ten Thousand Club was out there advertising ten thousand residents by 1910. Citizens once stood and watched two merchants struggle happily to the bank, carrying large baskets of greenbacks. Happily struggling to the bank.
Let that image settle. Teague's first opera house was projected. The place had heat, momentum, and ambition to spare.
During the first decade of the nineteen hundreds, population hovered around five thousand. But then — and there's always a but then — momentum decreased. Passenger train service declined, and as it went, so went Teague's roar.
The town began to dwindle. Today it's a quiet town again, and the old railroad depot-office building stands as a museum — holding the memory of a place that once ate five thousand pounds of barbecue in a single afternoon and thought ten thousand souls was just the beginning.
What the marker says
In 1905 this town was a drowsy country village called Brewer-- named for 1835 land grantee Green Berry Brewer. It had been settled in the 1870s. Prosperity rolled into Brewer in 1906, however, when the Trinity & Brazos Valley Railroad selected it as site for the railroad shops and as the main division point between Houston and Fort Worth. The town was speedily renamed for the Teague family, relatives of noted railroad builder B. F. Yoakum. In August, 1906, promoters held a town lot sale. Customers arriving on a special train were met by a band playing "Dixie" and before the day was over, they had consumed 5,000 pounds of barbecue. By 1907 Teague was transformed. Dozens of brick buildings were under construction, population soared, and the Ten Thousand Club advertised "10,000 by 1910". Teague's first opera house was soon projected, and citizens once watched 2 merchants struggle happily to the bank carrying large baskets of "greenbacks". During the first decade of the 1900s, population hovered at 5,000 but then momentum decreased. With the decline of passenger train service, Teague began to dwindle. Today it is again a quiet town and the railroad depot-office building houses a museum. (1969)