Oletha 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 ...

Limestone County, Texas Limestone County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 22,146. Its county seat is Groesbeck. The county was created in 1846. History Native Americans Indians friendly to the settlers resided in Ea ...

, originally settled in the 1850s under the name Pottersville.

Texas State Highway 14 State Highway 14 (SH 14) is a state highway in the east central region of the U.S. state of Texas. The highway runs from SH 6 south of Bremond to Interstate 45 in Richland. Route description State Highway 14 begins at an intersection ...

extends to Oletha via Farm to Market Road 1246. Oletha was once described by a reporter for the ''

Fort Worth Star-Telegram The ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' is an American daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. It is owned by The McClatchy Company. History In May 1905, Amon G. Carter acc ...

'' as "an eye-blinker of a town in East Central Texas". Patrick L. Cox, Michael Phillips, ''The House Will Come To Order: How the Texas Speaker Became a Power in State and National Politics''(2010), p. 136. One notable person from Oletha is

Gib Lewis Gibson Donald Lewis, known as Gib Lewis (born August 22, 1936), is an American politician and political consultant from Fort Worth, Texas. He was the first person to be elected five times as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, but he ...

, the first person to be elected five times as

Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives The Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the Texas House of Representatives. The Speaker's main duties are to conduct meetings of the House, appoint committees, and enforce the Rules of the House. The current s ...

. Another colorful native of the town was Forrest Gibson, a convicted murderer known as "Goodeye" because he "had lost an eye in a fight in which Gibson had bitten his opponent's ear off".''Texas Department of Criminal Justice'' (2004), p. 33.

References

Populated places in Limestone County, Texas Populated places established in the 1850s {{Texas-stub