Freestone County, Texas Communities Old Ghost Towns - Post Office: Nip and Tuck/Liberty Hill/Shanks This community is located south of Kirvin along the Trinity and Brazos Railroad line and north east of Cotton Gin. Area was first settled in 1859. "Nip and Tuck" was the first name for the place. Local legends have "Nip and Tuck"'s name came about due to two different families building log houses in a extremely close contest to see who could finish first. The two contestants were "Nip and Tuck" *4*. As it grew, "Nip and Tuck" became called Liberty Hill after the school built in 1870 that was built for the area. The Liberty Hill school had 58 kids in 1887. Between 1890 and 1900, the Liberty Hill community is slowly becoming known as Shanks after Ben Shanks and his extended family who had arrived in the 1870s. The school is listed as Shanks school in 1891. Then when the community gained a post office in 1899, the community is offically Shanks. However, obituaries from 1900 and earlier listed the cemetery as Liberty Hill Cemetery. Shanks had a small thriving community in the 1890s to the late 1910s. Between May 27, 1899 *1* and Nov. 15, 1906 *3*, Shanks had a post office despite being close to Cotton Gin. The Shanks community lay adjacent to the Trinity and Brazos Valley railroad on the western side, just south of Kirvin which also is on the same railroad. The land of the Shanks community fields are drained by the Campbell Branch of Little Tehuacana Creek. A historical marker for the community's cemetery writes: "Shanks Cemetery- Matthews and Robert Shanks of Alabama settled here with their families in 1859. A small farming community developed, and in 1870 a school was built on a one- acre site donated by R. C. Murray. Land beside the schoolyard became a public burial ground, known as Shanks Cemetery after Shanks Post Office opened in 1896. The earliest recorded burial was Burgess A. Whatley (1854-1892). In 1893 G. W. Bell deeded another half acre east of the graveyard. The school building was torn down in 1917. Shanks Cemetery Association has maintained the site since 1935." Shanks was hit by a cyclone in April of 1904 destroying a number of houses and cabins. Shanks slowly became a ghost town after Kirven was selected for the railroad depot stop in 1906 and 1907. Post Office: Shanks Post Office 27 May 1899 to 15 Nov 1906 (afterwards mail to Wortham) School: 1870 school built on one acre site donated by R. C. Murray Liberty Hill school 58 kids in 1887 Shanks School 49 students in 1891 78 kids enrolled in 1893-94 41 pupils in 1908 school building was torn down in 1917 A 1936 listing shows a 53 foot well at the "Shanks school" that was located "2 3/4 miles south" of Kirvin at location #80 on the map drilled in 1915. *5* consolidated in 1941 with Kirvin Churches: [The 1918 soil map of Freestone County Texas shows two buildings (churches and/or schools) in Shanks west and one building (church or school) east of the railroad line. The buildings east is located on the road that crosses the railroad, while the two western buildings are just south of there. A person's personal account only talks about a single church west of the railroad in 1940 and a school next to the cemetery in the east. A 1961 map only shows a single church west of the railroad.] [NOTE - There were two New Hope Baptist churches in Freestone County. The other was located at St. Elmo.] New Hope Primitive Baptist Church (moved from the old New Hope community) Churches in the Area: Campbell Branch Church (to the southwest) Friendship and Rocky Branch Church (to the west towards Wortham) Woods Chapel (to the northeast, near Kirvin) Cemeteries: Shanks Cemetery (east of the railroad) (1892-current) Liberty Hill Cemetery (old name to the Shanks Cemetery) New Hope Cemetery (for older burials) Businesses: Martin Irvin's grocery Nearby Communities: Kirven/Kirvin New Hope Woodland/Bonner Known Past Residents: Aaron, Mrs. Alice Aaron, Bill Ausley, L. C. & Eunice King Baker, R. M. Baldree, Arkansas Baldree, George Robert Baldree, Ina Baldree, John W. Baldree, Loyle Baldree, Oletha Baldree, Rex Baker, R. M. Batchelor, Dr. Claude Batchelor, Juanita Batchelor, Thelma Bell, George Washington Bell, Joseph Bell, Walter Jarome Bell, Whit Brand, Walter Brown, Etta Burns, Mary Lucille Capp, Helen Casey, Annie Casey, Mildred Cooper, Jud Draper, Francis Draper, W. P. Fagan, William James Freeman, Thomas Charles (Jake) Sr. Golden, J. H. Goulding, Charles Thomas & Ella Aurelia Goulding, J.C. Hardie, J. E. Hays, Richard Hudson, Emma Irwin, Annie May Irwin, Estell Irwin, Martin A. Kilgore, Willie Killgor, W. T. King, Oyis King, Permelia Littlejohn, Minnie Madden, Mrs. McGaw, Bea McGaw, Worth McKinney, Audrey (Moore) Meadows, Catherine Merriot, James Cammock Merriot, James and Blanche Merriot, Lillian (school teacher) Moore, Berry Franklin Moore, Cora D. Moore, Edith Moore, Ella Jane Moore, Howard Moore, Hugh Moore, Ivy Beulah Moore, James Alexander Moore, Jessie Grady Moore, Jewel Moore, Jimmie (school teacher) Moore, Joe Moore, Lenard Moore, Lillie Moore, Lola Moore, Marguaritte Moore, Martha Faye Moore, Sammie Moore, Brother Thomas Jefferson (Primitive Baptist) Moore, William Edward Mulkey, Felix Gilbert Murray, R. C. Newman, John A. Newman, Hulaia A. (McGee) Prowell, Andrew Claude Prowell, Andrew Thomas Prowell, Annie Bell Prowell, Calvin H. Prowell, John Mitchell Quarles, Bessie Quarles, May Roach, Ed Rose, Rubie Scarborough, Evelyn Scarborough, Joe James Scarborough, Marvin Richmond Jr. Sealey, Matthew Shanks, George Wesley Shanks, Harvey Shanks, Katie Shanks, Lee Shanks, Matthew Shanks, Oda Shanks, Robert Sharp, A. E. Sharp, Benjamin Franklin Sharp, Emmett Sharp, Jesse Ezell Sharp, Laula Sharp, Minerva Sharp, Myrtle Simmons, A. Henry Simmons, Carrie Smith, James A. Smith, James Thomas "Tom" Smith, John P. Smith, Lula May Smith, Olin Summers, Corine Summers, Louise Summers, Lula Mae Tisdale, Martha Eleanor Vickers, Joe and Ruth Walls, Mrs. Ida Walls, Ola Ward, Edward Webb, Harry F. Webb, Henry Webb, Johnnie Webb, Luke Whatley, Arthur Whatley, Burgess A. Williamson, George Wilson, Blanche Evelyn Wolfe, Charles Russell Wolfe, George Wolfe, William Larkin Womack, J. A. ================================================ SOURCES: *1* = Dallas Morning News (of Dallas, Texas) - July 25, 1899 National Capital News Rural Free Mail Delivery Special to The News Washington, July 24 - A post office has been established at Shanks, Freestone county, Tex., with Harvey Shanks as postmaster. The post office of County Line, Cooke county, Tex., will be discontinued after ... ------------------------------------------- *2* = Dallas Morning News (of Dallas, Texas) - April 26, 1904 - Page: 3 WRECKED BY WIND -------- Several Residences and Negro Cabins Demolished by the Wind on Sunday -------- CALL FOR PHYSICIAN -------- Family of A.C. Shanks at Yeldell Injured in the Falling House -------- NIP AND TUCK SETTLEMENT -------- Havoc Wrought in that Community, Second Cyclone Within a Few Weeks in the Same Locality -------- Mexia, Tex., April 25 - About a dozen residences and negro cabins were demolished by a cyclone in Freestone County Sunday afternoon at 6 o'clock. The cloud was seen forming about 5:30 and moving in a north-easterly direction. About one hour later a boy rode into town in the rain after a physician to attend the family of A. C. Shanks, whose house was demolished at Yeldell, six miles northeast of Mexia. This was the first place the cyclone struck. It moved on down through the same community to Nip and Tuck settlement, and there wrought havoc with the residences of Dr. Batchler, George Wolf, R. M. Baker and several others whose names have not yet been learned. It was in this settlement so many negro cabins were destroyed. W. E. Bonner of Mexia and his daughter, Miss Lillian, were driving to Mr. Bonner's farm in Freestone County, saw the storm coming and drove to an old barn for safety. The barn was blown away and Mr. Bonner's buggy was blown through a wire fence, but neither Mr. Bonner nor his daughter was hurt. The cyclone was accompanied by a heavy rain. This is the second cyclone in Limestone and Freestone Counties within a few weeks' time, both of which did considerable damage to growing crops, as well as destroying lives and property, and will be much harder on the people on account of last year's crop failure and the rigid economy being practiced by those whose property is a clear loss. ------------------------------------------- *3* = Dallas Morning News (of Dallas, Texas) – Nov. 8, 1906 – Page: 9 Orders of Postal Department Effective Nov. 15, postoffices at … Shanks, Freestone county, … will be discontinued and superseded by rural free delivery. ------------------------------------------- *4* = Source - B. J. Nicholson's recollections published in the June 4, 1992 issue of The Teague Chronicle. ------------------------------------------- *5* = 1936 U.S. Geological Survey of Wells and Springs by Samuel F. Turner.