Arbor Grove, also known as Arbor, is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

in southeastern Houston County,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, United States.

History

Arbor Grove was established sometime before 1900. The community had a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

from 1901 to 1906. It had a church and several scattered houses in the mid-1930s. Many residents moved elsewhere after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and the church and scattered houses from the mid-1930s were the only things that remained in the settlement. Mexican land grants were given to colonists under the leadership of

Empresario An empresario () was a person who had been granted the right to settle on land in exchange for recruiting and taking responsibility for settling the eastern areas of Coahuila y Tejas in the early nineteenth century. Since ''empresarios'' attract ...

Joseph Vehlein in this region in the late 1820s and 1830s, but the real growth didn't start until after the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

when people relocated here from states torn apart by conflict to profit from the burgeoning

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

and

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

industries. In the 1880s, residents of the nearby communities of Pleasant Grove and Shady Grove built a brush arbor that doubled as a church and school. It also had a general store,

barber A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a barbershop or the barber's. Barbershops have been noted places of social interaction and public discourse ...

shop,

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

shop,

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

, Woodman hall, and shingle mill. From 1910 through 1925, the Four C Lumber Mill's and the logging operation's jobs generated a boom in the community's economy. The economy suffered during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

of the 1930s, but it recovered as a result of projects carried out by the Federal Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and Works Progress Administration (WPA), which in the late 1930s gave many locals jobs. Rhodes Chapel Baptist Church, founded in 1897, had 155 members and 89 homes in Arbor in 1941.

Geography

Arbor is located on Farm to Market Road 232 at Chisholm Loop, east of Crockett in southeastern Houston County.

Education

The Arbor School, founded in 1900, was shut down after a fire in 1940. Today, Arbor Grove is served by the Crockett Independent School District.

References

{{Authority control Ghost towns in Houston County, Texas Ghost towns in Texas