Freestone County, Texas Communities Old Ghost Towns - with former Post office: Overall: Avant was about six miles southeast of Teague. Avant was located about a mile northwest of Dew. Go down I-45 from Fairfield, turn right onto State Highway 179. Go about a mile. Turn right on County Road 661. The name was changed from Durham to Avant or Avant Prairie. Durham By 1848 a few settlers, including Charles Kilgore, had moved to the area. In 1852 more families from Alabama, including the Comptons, Highs, and Blains, settled there. The community was first called Durham. Durham and later Avant was named after Durham Avant who was the land patent owner of a league of land where this was located on Oct 26, 1835. ========================================================= Avant / Sunshine Durham Avant was granted a league (4,455 acres) of land on October 26th, 1835, after whom the community was eventually named. It is not known whether Durham Avant ever resided in the community. Major J. A. Blain was in the area in 1850. His place was on a hill west of Dew. William Scott Compton and his wife, Angelina Louisa Gunn Ward purchased over 3000 acres here in the settlement of Avant Prairie (later Dew) in 1852. Avant first appears on a 1855 map by Colton. Avant continues to appear on major maps from 1858, 1860, 1862, 1867. A 1858 and a 1865 map show Avant on a road from Fairfield that goes down into Leon County. A 1860 map shows Avant on a road from Navarro in Leron County to Springfield in Limestone. A map of 1872 no longer shows Avant but the closest is the newly shown Blacks Store. The Sunshine Church was organized in 1854. A post office was established as Avant in January of 1853 with James W. Brewer as its postmaster, but the post office closes in November. However, Avant appears in the list of post offices in Texas furnished by the postmaster of Galveston in December 1, 1856 to Dr. Braham that was published in "Braman's Information About Texas" printed in Philadelphia in 1857. Post Office: 22 Jan 1855 to 21 Nov 1855 Post Masters: Brewer, Jas. W., 22 Jan 1853 School: Sun Shine school Churches: Sunshine Methodist Church (starts 1854) Cemeteries: Compton Cemetery (began 1855) Businesses: Colonel B. A. Philpott's steam mill and gin Social Organizations: Known people in Avant were: Blain, Major J. A. Brewer, James W. Compton, Angelina Louisa Gunn Ward Compton, William Scott Self, D. A. ========================================================= CIVIL WAR ========================================================= Avant / Avant Prairie After the civil war, Avant Prairie seems to be the official name for the community of emancipated African Americans. The references to community name of Sunshine diminish, while the references to Dew begin. A general store was established by D. K. Compton in 1870. A 1877 letter mentions Avant Prairie. Avant Church was located a quarter mile to the south east of Ivory. The Avant post office was reestablished in 1884 but closed again in 1885, when mail was sent to Dew or Luna. In 1903 Avant Prairie's white school had an enrollment of eight pupils, and the black school had fifty-seven. In the 1930s the community had a school, two churches, two cemeteries, and a large number of scattered dwellings. By 1965 it had a church, a school, a cemetery, and three dwellings. In the late 1980s the church and cemetery remained at the site. Post Office: 7 Jan 1884 to 16 Jan 1885 (with mailed being primarily sent to Luna) Post Masters: Ham, W. G. - 25 Sep 1882 White, George W. - 7 Jan 1884 Schools: Sunshine (Anglo) Avant (Africian-American) Churches: Sunshine Methodist Church (starts 1854) (moves location in 1870) Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church (starts about 1872) Avant Prairie A.M.E. Church (started in 1884) Cemeteries: Avant/Brewer Prairie Cemetery (starts about 1873) School: 84 pupils in 1887 54 Anglo pupils at Sun Shine school in 1891 107 African-American pupils at Avant Prairie school in 1891 8 white pupils in 1903 57 African-American pupils in 1903 Businesses: general store Social Organizations: Avant Farmers Alliance #1382 (existed in 1888) Other Communities in the Area: Sunshine Ivory Dew Spring Seat Nearby Cemeteries: Salem Cemetery (2.3 miles south) Compton Cemetery (began 1855) Dew Cemetery (started 1871) (2.6 miles southeast) Kilgore Family Cemetery (starts 1872) Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery (started 1873) (Africian-American) Philpott Cemetery (2.9 miles south) Known people in Avant Prairie were: Baggett, Rev. J. Barnett, Professor Brown, Mrs. Callie Chandler, R. F. Childs, Marcus Jackson Clark, Major W. W. Cochran, J. V. Coleman, Fannie Jo Compton, Angelina Louisa Gunn Ward Compton, William Scott Cotton, Ellen Folk, Professor J. B. A. Groves, Rev. J. S. Ham, W. G. Henderson-Glasco, Eva Marie High, Raymond Holder, Andrew Huckaby, Odessa Johnson, Bettie Johnson, Miss Corin (school teacher) Kilgore, Charles Kilgore, Tom McDonald, Melissie Tatum McDonald, Will Peyton, Dr. W. F. Peyton, W. W. (preacher) Philpott, Mr. (his two-room dog trot house is at the Burlington-Rock Island Railroad Museum in Teague) Reynolds, M. F. Self, D. A. White, George W.