Anderson County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. Located within East Texas, its county seat is Palestine. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 57,922. Anderson County comprises the Palestine micropolitan statistical area. Anderson County was organized in 1846 and was named after Kenneth Lewis Anderson (1805–1845), the last vice president of the Republic of Texas.
History Native Americans Native Americans friendly to the settlers resided in East Texas R. E. Moore and Texarch Associates before the Kiowa, Kickapoo, Kichai, Apache, and Comanche relocated to the territory. Texas Beyond History These tribes hunted, farmed the land, and were adept traders. By 1772, they had settled on the Brazos at Waco and on the Trinity upstream from present Palestine. The Tawakoni branch of Wichita Indians originated north of Texas, Texas State Historical Association but migrated south into East Texas. From 1843 onward, the Tawakoni were part of treaties made by both the Republic of Texas and the United States.
On May 19, 1836, an alliance of Comanche, Kiowa, Caddo, and Wichita attacked Fort Parker (Limestone County), killing and taking settlers captive. The survivors escaped to Fort Houston, which had been erected in Anderson County in 1835 as protection against Indians. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. Texas State Historical Association Some early residents of Anderson County were related to Cynthia Ann Parker, who was among the captives.
In October 1838, Gen. Thomas Jefferson Rusk conducted a raid against hostile Indians at Kickapoo, near Frankston. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. This ended the engagements with the Indians in East Texas for that year.
Anglo settlement In 1826, empresario David G. Burnet received a grant from the Coahuila y Tejas legislature to settle 300 families in what is now Anderson County. Wallace L. McKeehan, Most of the settlers came from the southern states and Missouri.
Baptist leader Daniel Parker Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. and eight other men organized the Pilgrim Predestinarian Regular Baptist Church in Lamotte, Illinois in 1833. This entire group migrated to the Texas frontier, arriving in Austins Colony in November 1833, and establishing Fort Parker (Limestone County) in 1834. In October 1834, in consequence of "their members were becoming scattered in a wilderness," the Church agreed to adjourn until the majority of their members settled.
After the Texas Revolution and the attack on Fort Parker, Daniel Parker and some of the survivors moved to Fort Houston (Anderson County). They established a new community south of the fort.
Incorporation The First Legislature of the State of Texas formed Anderson County from Houston County on March 24, 1846. The county was named for Kenneth Lewis Anderson. Palestine was named the county seat. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC.
Anderson County voted for secession from the Union. When the American Civil War began, former Palestine district judge Judge John H. Reagan Texas State Historical Association served in the cabinet of the Confederate government as postmaster general, being captured at the end of the war and spending 22 months in solitary confinement. During Reconstruction, District Nine Court Judge Reuben A. Reeves, Texas State Historical Association a resident of Palestine, was removed from office as "an obstruction to Reconstruction" in part because of his refusal to allow blacks to participate as jurors in the judicial process.
In 1875, the International – Great Northern Railroad Texas State Historical Association placed its machine and repair shops and general offices in Palestine, causing the community to double in size over the next 5 years. For a time, it was a rough railroad town, dominated by male workers.
White violence against blacks occurred in the county, most frequently by lynchings of black men. But in July 1910, at least 22 blacks were killed in white rioting near Slocum, a majority-black community, in what is called the Slocum massacre. Racial and economic tensions had been high in the post-Reconstruction era and southern states had disenfranchised blacks and imposed Jim Crow in furtherance of white supremacy.Lynching in America, Third Edition: Supplement by County , p. 9, Equal Justice Initiative, Mobile AL (2017) Anderson County tied for 13th place in a list of the 25 American counties with the highest number of lynchings between 1877 and 1950 (all were located in the South).Josh Marshall, "The History of Lynching and Racial Terror", Talking Points Memo, February 10, 2015; accessed May 15, 2018
Oral tradition in the African-American community holds that as many as 200 blacks may have been killed in the massacre. An estimated 200 whites rioted and attacked blacks on the roads, in the fields, and in Slocum on July 29–30, 1910. Many black homes were burned, and black families fled for their lives, having to abandon their property and assets. This town is about 20 miles east of the county seat at Palestine.
At the time, as was usual, white newspapers described such events as a "race riot" by blacks. Texas newspapers had contributed to problems by reporting false rumors that 200 blacks were arming. Afterward, 11 men were arrested and seven were indicted, including James Spurger, said by many to be the instigator, but no prosecution resulted. The massacre had been preceded by racial tensions, rumors, and, for 6 months, at least one lynching per month of Blacks in East Texas.David Martin Davies, "Should Texas Remember Or Forget The Slocum Massacre?" , Texas Public Radio, January 16, 2015; accessed May 15, 2018
In January 2016, the state installed a highway historical marker in Slocum to recognize this unprovoked white attack on the black community. It was part of a history of white violence against blacks.
In 1926, the Humble Oil and Refining Company, in partnership with the Rio Bravo Company, started an exploration drilling program along Boggy Creek, in what turned our to be the Boggy Creek salt dome. On March 19, 1927, the Elliott and Clark No. 1 encountered the Woodbine Formation at a depth of and produced 62 barrels of oil per hour, but showed salt water after producing only 15,000 barrels. On November 10, 1927, the Elliott and Clark No. 2, 150 feet to the west, was completed as a gas well. On February 4, 1928, the first oil-producing well in Anderson County, the Humble-Lizzie Smith No. 1, was completed, producing 80 BOPD. By May 1931, 80 wells had been drilled in the Boggy Creek Oil Field, 6 of which produced gas, 33 oil, and 41 were dry holes. Texas State Historical Association
The Fairway Oil Field was discovered in 1960, and straddles the border of Anderson and Henderson Counties. Oil is produced from the Lower Cretaceous James Limestone member of the Pearsall formation.
The Gus Engeling Wildlife Management Area was purchased by the state between 1950 and 1960, much of it formerly owned by Milze L. Derden. The area was renamed in 1952 for Gus A. Engeling, the first state biologist assigned to the area who was killed by a poacher on December 13, 1951.
Geography
Anderson County is situated at the threshold of two ecoregions, the piney woods to the east, and the East Central Texas forests, also referred to as post oak savanna to the west. The terrain of Anderson County consists of hills carved by drainages and gullies, with numerous lakes and ponds. The Trinity River flows southward along the west boundary line of the county; the Neches River flows southward along its east boundary line, and Brushy Creek flows southeastward through the central portion of the county.Anderson County TX Google Maps (accessed 12 February 2019) The terrain slopes to the south and east, with its highest points along the midpoint of its northern boundary line at ASL. The county has a total area of , of which are land and (1.4%) are covered by water.
The county is wholly located within area codes 430 and 903.Texas Area Codes - Cities & Prefixes - Area Code 430 , Public Utility Commission of Texas website, retrieved July 30, 2015.Texas Area Codes - Cities & Prefixes - Area Code 903 , Public Utility Commission of Texas website, retrieved July 30, 2015.
Major highways
U.S. Highway 79 U.S. Highway 84 U.S. Highway 175 U.S. Highway 287 State Highway 19 State Highway 155 State Highway 294 Loop 127 Loop 256 Spur 324
Adjacent counties
Henderson County (north) Cherokee County (east) Houston County (south) Leon County (southwest) Freestone County (west)
Protected areas
Big Lake Bottom Wildlife Management Area (part) Gus Engeling Wildlife Management Area Neches River National Wildlife Refuge (part) Richland Creek Wildlife Management Area (part)
Lakes
Big Twin Lake Cox Lake Crystal Lake Hudson Lake Lake Dogwood Lake Frankston Lost Prairie Lake Pineywoods Lake Spring Lake Williams Lake
Communities City Palestine (county seat)
Towns Elkhart Frankston
Census designated places Neches
Unincorporated areas
Alderbranch Bethel Blackfoot Bois d'Arc Bradford Brushy Creek Cayuga Cronin Crystal Lake Elmtown Elmwood Fosterville Greens Bluff Long Lake Massey Lake Montalba Mound City (partly in Houston County) Pert Salmon Slocum Springfield Swanson Hill Church Tennessee Colony Todd City Tucker Wells Creek Yard
Ghost towns
Jarvis Wild Cat Bluff
Population ranking
The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2020 census of Anderson County.
† county seat
RankCity/Town/etc.Municipal typePopulation (2010 Census) 1† Palestine City 57,496 2'Elkhart Town 1,299 3Frankston 1,170
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition +Anderson County, Texas – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1970 Pop 1980 Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010 Pop 2020% 1970% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)20,759 28,28332,66534,76235,79233,09874.70%73.69%68.02%63.08%61.23%57.14%Black or African American alone (NH)6,9488,11511,09112,89712,22211,43025.00%21.14%23.09%23.40%20.91%19.73%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)15871171351921930.05%0.23%0.24%0.24%0.33%0.33%Asian alone (NH)7 Only includes those who listed Chinese, Japanese, or Filipino identity. All other Asian groups included in other race category841072432833810.03%0.22%0.22%0.44%0.48%0.66%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)xincluded in the Other category in the 1970 Censusx included in the Asian category in the 1980 Censusx included in the Asian category in the 1990 Census71613xxx0.01%0.03%0.02%Other race alone (NH)60169111371130.22%0.04%0.19%0.02%0.06%0.20%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)x not an option in the 1970 Censusx not an option in the 1980 Censusx not an option in the 1990 Census3496291,583xxx0.63%1.08%2.73%Hispanic or Latino (any race)x Not an option in the 1970 Census. Persons who did not identify a race and instead listed Mexican, Puerto Rican, or any other grouped deemed to be of Indo European origin were classified as white.1,7963,9536,7059,28711,111x4.68%8.23%12.17%15.89%19.18%Total27,78938,38148,02455,10958,45857,922 100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 57,922, which represented a 0.9% decline from the 58,458 residents recorded at the 2010 census. The median age was 40.7 years; 18.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 16.3% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 152.5 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 165.3 males age 18 and over.
The racial makeup of the county was 60.3% White, 20.0% Black or African American, 0.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% Asian, <0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 12.2% from some other race, and 6.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 19.2% of the population.
About 32.1% of residents lived in urban areas, while 67.9% lived in rural areas.