A SHORT HISTORV OF DANVILLE - Gregg County, TX ***************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net Director of the Computer Interest Group, ETGS 23 April 2002 ***************************************************************** Originally published in the East Texas Family Records, Volume 5, Number 1, Spring 1981, by East Texas Genealogical Society. A SHORT HISTORV OF DANVILLE - Gregg County, TX Contributed by Virginia Selman, Centennial Edition of the Longview Morning Journal, dated Sunday, May 3, 1970. Mrs. Annie Holt of Danville recalled the early history of the community her grandfather helped settle in the following article written in 1956. Her recollections give a vivid picture of the Longview area from 1850 through the reconstruction era. When my grandfather, William Henry Harrison Rosson, arrived in Texas from Tennessee in the late 1840's, he acquired some 400 acres of land in Danville, a small settlement west of the present airport road. The community had originally been settled by a handful of Virginians, who named Danville after their home town. The Texas community was sometimes referred to as New Danville. Young Rossen soon found himself named justice of the peace at Danville and he acquired the title, "Squire," often given to early officials. He sat at court, officiated as a minister and earned a living by farming. Rossen often officiated at weddings where the only light came from strips of cloth laid in shallow bowls of beeswax and tallow. None of the early settlers dreamed they were on top of a seal of oil big enough to light all the lamps of the world for countless years. Business was slow during the daytime at Danville's three or four stores because everybody was working in the fields or forest. When nightfall came, however, the to~~n would be filled with families. Women and children went shopping while the men gathered for conversations at the blacksmith shop or one of the five saloons. These men worked hard if they ever amounted to anything. Some played too hard, and Squire Rosson would be called to restore the peace his office was charged with maintaining. Social activity was mainly confined to the immediate family, or the family of a neighbor. There was plenty of time for women to visit while nursing a sick mother or for the men to swap experiences while engaged in a "log rolling" to clear a friend's land. For most families, the visiting that went with attending church on Sunday; made it a big event of the week. Early settlers also enjoyed box suppers, quilt­ing bees and horseshoe pitching. The original Danville church was Presbyterian, but it was a place of worship for pioneers of all creeds. Families also worshipped at home with Dad reading from the old Bible where family lineage was faithfully recorded on fly leaves. Verses selected for reading often dealt with a specific family shortcoming. The Bible was used then to point out that "backsliding" activities such as dancing, wearlng makeup or giggling in church could lead to bigger sins. Squire Rosson had two sons, Jeff and James, who was my father. In the late 1850's Jeff Rosson built the cotton gin, which was Danville's first industry. Two mules powered the hand-fed machine. Mill work was put together by hand, without nails, from rought, hand- planed lumber. Rosson soon found himself unable to keep up with the processing of cotton brought to the gin, so he built stalls to hold the crop until the gin could process it. Most food was either homegrown or obtained by barter. Honey bees, domestic and wild, supplied the "sweetnin11 to supplement occasional purchases of sugar and other staples hauled in from Jefferson. Goats and dairy cows were possessions prIzed for the fresh supply of milk they gave. The War Between the States caught Jeff and James Rosson at just the right age for service, and the squire watched his sons ride away to fight for the South. The elder Rosson later served as a guard at the prisoner-of-war camp near present-day Tyler. The shelves in Danville stores were sometimes empty during the war. There was no rationing, but the blockade of the Texas coast greatly restricted the flow of goods into the area. Women and children did the work of absent fathers, brothers, and sons as best they could, hoping to save something for the future. The two brothers suffered many hardships in the four years they were in bat­tIes claiming the lives of friends and neighbors. When they started home to Danville after Lee's surrender, Jeff Rosson carried a bullet hole in his right arm and leg. Their homecoming was warm, but marred by the sight of run down farms. It was heartbreaking to see their families loaded with worthless mone that read "The Confederate States of America Will Pay to the Bearer on Demand..." The mess called "reconstruction" was also the lot of the Confederate veterans. RIfles hung over the farmer's back, instead of over the fireplace, as they worked fields. Sundown was bedtime and doors were locked as Carpetbagger "patty-rollers, Klu Klux Klan and others rode the night wind. Some of these riders had honorable motives, others were dishonorable and self-seeking, and most were confused and dangerous if challenged. But life went on, and the situation gradually improved. James Rosson had a family and built the house in which I live today. Second-growth pine forest cov­ers much of the old Rosson property now, but portions of the fmaily home are over LOC vears old. The original church built by the Presbyterians burned in 1857 and was replaced by a structure still standing as one of the few memorials to the Danville I knew as a child. This building was called the Danville Three major oil companies, Magnolia, Atlantic and Shell Pipeline, have installations and camps within the boundaries of the Danville Common School District. There are many fine homes in the Danville area served by modern roads. There may be a rew full-time farmers, but there are more of the weekend variety, who play a vital role in industries around Kilgore and Longview.