Calloway Hill Texas - A Ghost Town

WHY WAS IT NAMED CALLOWAY?
Calloway, one of the earliest settlements in Upshur County, was on Calloway Hill, near Farm Road 49 some ten miles west of Gilmer. The settlement was established around 1853 as a way station on the road from Jefferson. In antebellum Texas, Calloway served as a shipping and trading center for farms and plantations in the western part of the county. A post office opened there in 1855, and by the eve of the Civil War the town had a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, and several stores and saloons. After the war, Calloway continued to prosper. In 1885 it had an estimated population of 250, three steam gristmill-cotton gins, three churches, two blacksmith shops, a general store, and a district school.

Among the town's prominent citizens was James B. Cranfill, an influential Baptist leader. By the mid-1890s the population of Calloway reached 300. After 1900, however, the community began to decline. Its post office was closed, and many residents moved away. By the mid-1930s the town was no longer shown on the county highway maps.

Few people who now live on or near old Calloway Hill, know anything of the history and the tragedies of that little elevation. Calloway was one of the very earliest settled communities in Upshur county. Before the Civil War, it was a place of considerable note. The post office located there was one of only two or three post offices found in the whole county. A store or two and a saloon did a thriving business. In those days, there was no law against making whiskey, and anybody had the right to get drunk, if they wanted to. The first settlers of Calloway believed it was every man's natural right to get drunk and engage in fist fights just for recreation and amusement.

Calloway was the voting place for a considerable area in the western part of the county. An election was a great social occasion, celebrated by horse races, swapping horses, and drinking home-made whiskey. An old man, who was then a little boy, tells of going to an election at Calloway with his father, who was to help hold the election. He said a keg of whiskey was arranged at a convenient place, with a little tin cup for the accommodation of the voters. Undoubtedly, the whiskey was supplied by the candidates. This boy said he remembered that his father and the other men holding the election, had to close up the polls now and then and get out to help settle a drunken row.

The early citizens of Calloway could be identified by their manner of dress. The men wore high-top boots, with spurs, broad brim white hats, and a red bandana handkerchief around their necks. While some of these men were rough and rowdy, they possessed high ideals of honor, and believed in treating everybody fairly.

Tom Cranfill lived at Calloway and served as justice of the peace and a kind of lawyer. He had three sons, Luther, Albert, and Tom. The boys all left the county when they became grown and became leaders in the affairs of other parts of the state. Dr. J. B. Cranfill, an influential leader in the Baptist church, is a cousin to Tom Cranfill, and lived at Calloway for awhile when he was a boy.

Dave Barton lived at Calloway and served as justice of the peace and county commissioner. Mr. Barton lived near a large spring, which became a popular resort, and was known as Barton's Springs. Jim Barton, a druggist at Big Sandy, is a grandson of Dave Barton. Jack and Hans Finnie lived in the Calloway neighborhood and were noted horse traders. Dr. McClennon lived on top of Calloway Hill and practiced medicine as long as he lived.

There are no traces of the old Calloway Hill left there at the present time, for the place is dotted with nice, modern homes, whose inhabitants are happy, law-abiding citizens. Johnson's Chapel church is located near by, and the community is a prosperous one.

The above article is from:
"A Brief History of Upshur County", Gilmer Mirror, G. H. Baird, Gilmer, Texas, 1946.
"History of Upshur County", Texian Press, Doyal T. Loyd, Waco, Texas, 1987.

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