to Van Zandt County "Post Offices, Cities, Towns and People" by Kitty Wheeler of Grand Saline, TX Kitty Wheeler of Grand Saline spent several years researching the post offices, cities, towns and people of Van Zandt County. A portion of her work was published by the Van Zandt County Genealogical Society in "Histories and Biographies of Van Zandt County, Vol. II," which is still in print and available for purchase by sending a check or money order for $60 to the Van Zandt County Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 1388, Canton, TX 75103. This volume contains a portion of her post office research plus over 500 biographies of Van Zandt County citizens. Kitty Wheeler has generously given us exclusive permission to use all or part of her 500 page original manuscript. We are beginning with only part of her entire amazing work but we will complete this site as quickly as possible.
Acme Post Office Acme Post Office was established 24 Apr 1891. The following were the postmasters and the dates of their appointments: Andrew J. Brown, 24 Apr 1891; William T. Youngman, 15 Jul 1893; Thomas M. Hobbs, 2 Oct 1893. On 18 Mar 1896, the Acme post office was moved to Henderson County. William L. Hill, 18 Mar 1896. On 16 Dec 1896, the Acme post office was moved back to Van Zandt County. Thernetus O. Wells, 16 Dec 1896, and Robert M. Graham, 21 Jul 1897. The name of the Acme post office was changed to Mars on 28 Feb 1898.
Things moved rather slowly for this post office for the application was completed 30 Jun 1890, signed by the proposed postmaster Andrew Jefferson Brown and the postmaster from Palace, Sarah J. Goddard. The proposed office was to be called Pleasant Ridge; however, this was crossed through and above it was written Acme. It would be near postal route #31515, being the route from Canton to Ben Wheeler. The mail was being carried at that time two times a week. Acme would not be directly on the route, but 6-1/2 miles south. The name of the nearest office to the proposed one would be Murchison, 6-1/2 miles due south. The name of the nearest office on the other side was Palace, 6-1/2 miles due north. Looking at a current Van Zandt County map, the site of this post office was close to the intersection of Farm Rd. 773 and VZC Rd. 2339, also the Tyler-Porters Bluff Road. One of the descendants of a citizen of this community remembers a relative telling her the post office was on the south side of VZC Rd. 2339, just west of Fm. Rd. 773. Perhaps during the period between 18 Mar 1896, and 6 Dec 1896, when the post office was in Henderson County, it could have been in a store or house belonging to William L. Hill, the postmaster, south of this intersection. This intersection is less than half a mile from the Henderson County line.
The first postmaster at Acme, Andrew J. Brown, was the father of Mrs. Maud Barfoot, the wife of Edd Barfoot of Murchison. Mr. Brown was also the grandfather of Mrs. Miles B. Smith, Mrs. Elvia Coker and Clayton Barfoot.
The third postmaster Thomas M. Hobbs, born 25 Oct 1869, in Van Zandt County, was the son of Rev. John Rite and Amanda Mayfield Hobbs. Rev. J.R. Hobbs was born 4 Dec 1842, son of Lewis Harrison and Wincy Hobbs. Lewis H. Hobbs, born 23 Dec 1813, in South Carolina, son of William and Francis McWilliams Hobbs. On 10 Jan 1838, Lewis Harrison Hobbs married Wincy Sides in Talladega County, Alabama. They lived there until 1852, when he decided to move his family to Texas and settled in the southern part of Van Zandt County, not far from the area that would later be served by the Acme post office.
The postmaster, Thomas M. Hobbs, married Miss Ellen Brown, daughter of H.W. Brown, 26 Feb 1891. He died 1 Apr 1895. Sever years later on 29 Dec 1901, Thomas married Miss Mamie Bridges. As a child, Thomas was mostly in the common schools, attending school at Pleasant Ridge.
He chose the vocation of farmer and began active operation in 1891. He owned 444 acres of land and was a partner of the firm Wells & Hobbs. This was a general merchandising store and Mr. Wells was the next to the last postmaster of Acme.
Thomas was a successful farmer with yields of sometimes as much as 50 bushels of corn per acre, 400 gallons of syrup an acre and a bale of cotton to the acre.
He was an active church worker, and member of the Woodmen of the World.
Thomas Hobb's father-in-law, Henry Washington Brown was considered a highly respected, public spirited and useful citizen in the east of the county. Henry was born 20 Jan 1835, in Fayette County, Tennessee, son of James Jenkins and Miss Sarah Ammons Brown. Henry Brown was educated in the common schools of Tennessee and Mississippi. On 17 May 1860, Henry W. Brown married Miss Martha Ammons in Newton County, Mississippi. In 1862, he joined the Confederate Army. During this service his wife died and on his return home, he soon married her sister, Lucinda Ammons 20 Sep 1865. They came to Van Zandt County in December 1865. As his father and grandfather before him, he chose to work as a farmer, and considered Van Zandt County as good a place to farm as could be found.
In 1886, Henry embarked in the mill and gin business at Acme, continuing for many years in this business, maintaining a reputation for integrity and fair dealing.
In 1865, when Henry came to Van Zandt, he settled near the Porters Bluff and Tyler Road which was the public thoroughfare for all that area. It was to this country what the old San Antonio Road was to the country further south. Goods were hauled in wagons pulled by teams of oxen from Shreveport, LA., and it was quite common to see herds of cattle or horses being driven on the old road. Mostly they were going east to market. Another common sight on the old road were the stagecoaches. This was the means of conveyance then for the mail, light freight, and the mode of travel for the hardy individual. In those days the perils of the roads were many. They were subject to capture and looting at the hands of robber bands who infested many parts of the country, having their headquarters usually at some town where roads converged. The absence of bridges and the extremely rough roads were just two of the reasons that sometimes caused another danger of the journey as occasionally a stagecoach would overturn.
The stagecoach was looked upon with awe by reason of its haste, and the driver who sat upon its box and hit the grit at the rate of nine miles an hour was a regular dare-devil. With all this speed, it wasn't uncommon to wait a month or two for a reply to an important business letter or two months to get the returns from a Presidential election. This has been most evident in noticing the period of time lapsed between the filing of the postal applications and the actual appointment dates.
On April 16, 1890, Mrs. Lucinda Brown died and as of 1904, Henry Brown had not remarried. Through the years Henry was always an active church member and was looked up to as a successful farmer and business man.
Another early settler of this area having arrived in Van Zandt County at the age of five in 1850, was Lewis Henry Townley. Lewis was born 14 Jan 1845, in Alabama, the son of Timothy Townley. Lewis grew up a stout boy in a frontier life and his school days were limited. At the age of 19 Lewis married a Miss Margaret Brakefield, who lived until 27 Jul 1877. Being a successful farmer, he enjoyed a well arranged and well equipped home. Mr. Townley was an exemplary church member and enjoyed the highest respect of all who knew him.
The Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church had early beginnings. The Fourteenth annual Session of the Saline Baptist Association met at the Cana Church, Van Zandt County, Texas, Saturday, 23 Sep 1872, and the statistical table noted that Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church was one of the participating members. On a list of the school communities in Van Zandt County telling also the amount of money to the credit of each for the scholastic year commencing 1 Sep 1887, the Pleasant Ridge School was listed as number 88 having $113.30 to its credit. On a list of schools and teachers for 1888-90, Pleasant Ridge is again number 88 and named Julie Cowles and A.V. Cowles as teachers.
Many years prior to the Acme post office being established, this community was touched by a family's tragedy. Cynthia Ann Parker was brought to this area early in 1861, to live with her brother, Silas M. Parker. Born in 1832, in Illinois, Silas was four years older than Cynthia Ann, born in 1836. At the age of nine, Cynthia Ann was kidnaped during a raid near the present town of Groesbeck. The Comanche Indians, as was their custom with captive children, took her to raise as an Indian. Her son, Quanah Parker, once stated that by the time his mother was eighteen years old, she was not a white woman, that she was a Comanche. Cynthia Ann became the wife of a Comanche Indian Chief, Noconne. To this union were born three children, two sons and a daughter.
When the daughter, "Boo-Hoo-wah-tah Toh-tsee-ah" or Prairie Flower was but a very young child, Cynthia Ann's Indian family life ended. A few years after her "rescue" by the Rangers, her husband, Noconne, died and was buried in the Gray Mountains. Her younger son, Pecos, followed his father in death soon afterward.
The oldest son, Quanah, led a hard life as a child. He was taken in by another Indian family, but always felt challenged to prove himself over and over again. Disliked by his Indian family because of his half-white blood, he constantly had to prove himself worthy to be called Indian. Largely because of this ever present need in him to excel, through the years he gained the respect of his fellow Comanches. After Cynthia Ann and Prairie Flower were returned to her white family. She continued to worry and grieve for she had no way of knowing what had happened to her husband and two sons she loved so dearly.
Her loss was to be greater, for her beloved baby girl became ill and died. Cynthia Ann, feeling a captive in her own white family, wept and wailed as a wounded animal - incessantly. She would cut her breast and place ashes on the cuts and stand toward the northwest and weep. She had lost her only connection with her Indian family.
Life for her and the family became more unbearable. It was thought that perhaps she would be more satisfied with her sister, so she was taken to live her sister, Orlena Parker O'Quinn, in Anderson County, near Frankston, Texas. Constant watch had to be placed on Cynthia Ann. She repeatedly tried to escape. The family was exhausted with worry as to what to do. How? Where do you take your sister back to the Indians? Where? Life was not kind to the grief-stricken woman who quietly passed away in early 1870. Her suffering over, Cynthia Ann Parker was laid to rest among cedar trees in the Old Fosterville Cemetery some few miles west and south of Frankston, Texas.
Many years after peace had come to the White Man and the Indians, led by the last Comanche Indian Chief Quanah Parker, an effort that took many years to bring to completion was made by Quanah, to get his mother's remains moved to Oklahoma to rest among her Indian family.
During this time, Chief Quanah was once asked if he remembered his mother. He answered that he did remember her - Naduah (her Indian name). He related that his father loved her very much and grieved much before he died. Noconne, her husband, never took another wife.
Finally on 3 Dec 1910, Cynthia Ann Parker did return to her "Home" in Oklahoma with her beloved son, Quanah. The following 23 Feb Chief Quanah Parker joined his mother in death.
Many years later, Prairie Flower's remains were moved from Old Asbury Cemetery in Van Zandt County, Texas, some few miles south of Edom, to Oklahoma to join her family.
The post office at Acme, Texas, unlike so many others that were discontinued and moved to another town, underwent a name change, becoming Mars, Texas. More on this community later in this chapter.Back to Post Offices Index Page Back to the Genealogical Research Group's Home Page You are the person to visit this page since June 7, 2006
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