Perryville is an unincorporated community in Wood County, located in the U.S. state of Texas. 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 ...

, Perryville had a population of 52 in 2000.

History

Perryville was supposed to have incorporated an early sawmill community known as Wallingville or Wallington and was named after a local landowner and sawmill owner. The first public road in Wood County, known as Jefferson Road, was built close to Perryville in 1853 so that local farmers could transport their cotton to Jefferson. An adjacent sawmill and store both opened around 1856. A Parryville-named post office was founded there in 1860; it was briefly closed in 1866 and then reopened from 1867 to 1869. From 1894 through 1906, Perryville had a second post office. At one point, Perryville had up to five

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 ...

s. In 1900, there were 98 residents, two churches, and a store. Twenty people were said to live there in the late 1930s, and by the 1940s the area had grown to include several dispersed homes, two churches, and three enterprises, including a sawmill. It had 40 residents in 1949. In 1960, just two churches were still standing, and many of the homes had been abandoned in addition to the businesses. From the early 1970s through 2000, 52 people were living in Perryville. In the middle of the 1980s, the Texas Historical Commission unveiled a memorial for the Perryville Baptist Church, which was founded in 1884 as the County Line Missionary Baptist Church. The church's original structure, constructed in 1908 next to what is now Farm to Market Road 852, was still in use at the time. The Perryville Methodist Church was still in operation and had been awarded a Texas Historical Marker in 1997. After 2000, no population statistics were available.

Geography

Perryville is located at the intersection of Farm to Market Roads

2088 In contemporary history, the third millennium of the anno Domini or Common Era in the Gregorian calendar is the current millennium spanning the years 2001 to 3000 ( 21st to 30th centuries). Ongoing futures studies seek to understand what is l ...

and 852, southeast of Winnsboro and northeast of Quitman in northeastern Wood County.

Education

Perryville had a school in 1900 and had another one in the 1940s. Today, the community is served by the

Union Hill Independent School District Union Hill Independent School District is a public school district that serves northwestern Upshur County, Texas (USA), and a small portion of northeastern Wood County. In 2009, the school district was rated "academically acceptable" by the Texa ...

Notable person

* Ray Price, musician, was born on a farm near Perryville.

References

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