Nogalus Prairie is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Trinity 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. In 2000, the estimated population was 109 residents. It is located within the

Huntsville, Texas Huntsville is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Texas, United States. Its population was 45,941 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the center of the Huntsville United States micropolitan area, micropolitan area ...

micropolitan area.

Historical development

The area was first settled by farmers migrating from

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, under which the area was called ''Prairie View''. A post office opened there under the name ''Nogallis Prairie'' in 1858. From local traditional stories, it is believed that two horse thieves were hanged there under a large tree and that the community was then called "Nogallows" by some. In the early 1860s, it was named Nogallis, then the spelling of the post office was changed eventually to its present form. The post office closed in 1868 but would re-open again in 1894 under the name ''Nogalus''. Between 1900 and 1918, the community had a Methodist church, several stores, a

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

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

, 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 grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

, and a Woodmen of the World lodge. It declined after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The post office witnessed its final closure in 1920. From the mid-1930s, only a few families would remain there and were served by a church and a store. The remaining 20 residents as of the 1960s were farmers and ranchers, with some involved in the

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

industry. The population went up to 41 in 1990, then to 109 in 2000.Handbook of Texas Online - NOGALUS PRAIRIE, TX
/ref> The

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an i ...

and

pecan The pecan ( , , ; ''Carya illinoinensis'') is a species of hickory native to the Southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. The tree is cultivated for its seed primarily in the U.S. states of Georgia ( ...

trees that thrived there when Texas was still a province of Mexico and Spanish families lived in the area gave the community its original name, Nogales Prairie. It was sometimes known as Logallis Prairie in the late 1800s.

Geography

Nogalus Prairie is located on

Farm to Market Road 357 A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used fo ...

, just west of Centralia, and 13 miles northeast of Groveton in northeastern Trinity County.

Education

Nogalus Prairie is served by the

Apple Springs Independent School District Apple Springs Independent School District is a public school district based in Apple Springs, Texas ( USA). Finances As of the 2010–11 school year, the appraised valuation of property in the district was $29,249,000. The maintenance tax ra ...

Notable person

John Wesley Hardin John Wesley Hardin (May 26, 1853 – August 19, 1895) was an American Old West outlaw, gunfighter, and controversial folk icon. Hardin often got into trouble with the law from an early age. He killed his first man at the age of 15, claiming he ...

committed murders in this county.Bob Bowman article
/ref>

References

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