Hainesville is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Wood County,

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, United States. According to the

Handbook of Texas The ''Handbook of Texas'' is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Texas geography, history, and historical persons published by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). History The original ''Handbook'' was the brainchild of TSHA President Wal ...

, the community had a population of 74 in 2000.

History

The area around Hainesville was settled in 1845, and Christian H. Haines built a

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 Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

there in 1870. The Dupree post office moved to the community in 1893; it was renamed Hainesville after Haines. His family owned a general store here. Another business was the office of Dr. James Marion Puckett, who may have started the community when he first practiced his doctoring. 25 people were living in the community in 1896 and were served by a

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 ...

and

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 (); a ...

. The first Baptist church was organized in 1897. Hainesville had an agricultural economy; settlers primarily grew

cotton Cotton 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 cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

but also farmed

sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fibrous stalks t ...

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...

melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit. Botanically, a melon is a kind of berry, specifically a "pepo". The ...

s and

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...

es. The town's post office closed in 1907. It had 200 residents, six businesses, and several churches in the 1930s. The population plummeted to 50 in 1949. Hainesville had a population of 74 from 1968 through 2000. Two churches, a company, and a community hall were depicted on a map of the area from 1988. Approximately 25 ancient rifles were reportedly found when ditches were dug during construction on the Haines mill, two miles south of Hainesville, in 1870. A few years later, on the adjoining Joe Moody property, the unmarked grave of a White man who was buried in a hewn-log coffin was discovered. According to local history, the body belonged to the French explorer

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (; November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687), was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, ...

, who was assassinated in East Texas in 1687. The remains may have actually belonged to a member of the Moscoso expedition, according to a 1950s idea. Both of these notions have typically been dismissed due to a lack of compelling evidence. Additionally, more investigation indicated that the rifles were not, as originally thought, from the 1500s, but rather from the 1700s. An F1 tornado struck Hainesville on April 11, 1979. Another tornado hit on April 30, 2011, uprooting several trees.

Geography

Hainesville is located at the intersection of Farm to Market Road 49 and Farm to Market Road 778, southeast of Quitman.

Climate

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Hainesville has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.Climate Summary for Hainesville, Texas
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Education

The community started out by having three music teachers in 1896. Its first school may have been hosted in a Methodist church that year and had 51 students enrolled. In 1905, it had 84 White students and 24 black students enrolled. Another school was built in the 1930s and both schools had 178 White and 26 Black students enrolled in 1932. Its schools merged with the Mineola and Quitman districts in the 1960s.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Wood County, Texas Unincorporated communities in Texas