TOWNS:  TENNYSON - Coke County, TX

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TENNYSON

From Historical & Progress Edition of the Bronte Enterprise - (75th
Anniversary of Coke Co.) - Sept. 3, 1964. Found in the Vertical Files
of the West Texas Collection - Angelo State University, San Angelo,
TX. 

Tennyson has been a town with post office facilities since Aug. 20,
1902. The town was first located about a mile southwest of the present
location and was known as Juniper. In 1909 it was moved to its present
location on the railroad.

School facilities were there as early as 1904. The school was first
called County Line and in 1912, the name of the school was changed to
Tennyson and school district No. 18 was created, bonds voted and the
first school built. This school was destroyed by fire on Thanksgiving
Day, 1937 and a new three-room modern brick building erected. The
building was dedicated in March, 1938. P. R. Jones, principal,
presided at the dedication ceremonies. Members of the school board at
that time were J. P. Arrett, C. N. Webb, R. B. Caldwell, Will Palmer,
Clarence Derrick and W. T. Brooks.

Board members, asisted by Ben Brooks, former board member, directed
the work of building the new school. School had gone on in the
interim, using a church and a wooden structure on the school ground as
classrooms. This school later consolidated with the Bronte district.

The (Bronte) Enterprise, in April 1924, edited by D. M. West, said
that the Tennyson name was given to the community either by Mr. Sam
Sayner or Mr. John Sayner, He said that "because of its
picturesqueness, it seemed to close akin to the beautiful poetic
sentiment of Lord Tennyson that it was given the name it bears after
him."

Editor West went on to say in 1924: "Industrially and commercially,
the town has four stores, one garage, one blacksmith shop and a cotton
gin. J. L. Howell is postmaster and is also engaged in the grocery
business, auto accessories and lubricating oil and gasoline. J. A.
Ellison is also a merchant, selling drugs, jewelry, dry goods and
hardware.

"M. M. Dunn is another merchant. He carries a full line of fresh,
clean groceries and also a full line of garden seeds. Mr. Dunn is also
establishing hotel facilities at Tennyson.

"Another business man is S. J. Townsend. He is selling dry goods and
grocerieAs and is buying the peoples' produce. In December of 1923,
the Masonic Lodge of Tennyson was organized in the second story of the
building owned by Mr. Townsend.

"D E Little is the blacksmith and garage man for Tennyson."

Tradition has it that in the earliest times, a little girl by the name
of Margaret died and her father buried her body away up on the top of
the mountain which towers over Tennyson, and from this incident the
mountain took its name. It is a fact that in 1942 Sgt. Silver Froman
of Chicago, a soldier at Camp Barkley, was killed on the mountain. He
and some companions climbed to the summit and sat down on a ledge of
rock. The ledge crumbled and fell, crushing him beneath its weight.

The Tennyson post office was established in 1902, with Mrs. W. P. Byrd
as postmaster. She served until 1906. The next two postmasters were J.
T. Daniels and Joew Howell and the dates of their tenure are not
exact; but it is thought Daniels served from 1906 until about 1924,
when Mr. Howell took over and was postmaster until October, 1937, when
Mrs. Gladys VanZandt was commissioned. She served until March 31,
1943, when Mrs. Tom (Betty) Green took over and is still the
postmaster there (as of 1964).

the post office used to be west of the present site, across the
railroad but was moved across the highway in the early 30's.

Early Tennyson Residents

The C. Bakers are pioneers of the Tennyson area. The D. E. Sayner
family were also early residents in this area. They were married in
Nov. 1897 in the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Ainsworth, in
the present Tennyson community. She came to what is now Coke County in
the late 1870s with her parents and helped to settle the Tennyson
community.


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