Panola County Historical & Genealogical Association is now housed in the Old Panola County Jail Museum and Genealogy Library

213 North Shelby • Carthage, Texas 75633
(903) 693-3388       http://oldjaillibrary.org/

Panola County, adapted from the Cherokee word for cotton, ponolo, is located in northeastern Texas. Carthage is the county seat. In 1846, the Texas Legislature incorporated Panola County from pieces of Shelby and Harrison counties. Two years later (1848), Panola County chose Carthage as its seat. Various tribes of the Caddo Indians inhabited the area until European advancement in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

During the fifteen years before the Civil War, the county expanded in size and diversified its economic infrastructure through the sale of cotton, sweet potatoes, and livestock. After the war and through the 1920s, Panola County began to stabilize and recover, primarily through the cotton and logging industries. Railroads created additional jobs and helped to build the county's infrastructure. Throughout the 1920s, the county's population decreased slightly, but cotton helped stabilize the uncertain market.

After the Great Depression, the population declined because of a sharp nosedive in property values and available land. The only industry that remained strong through the depression, cotton, took a permanent hit and never recovered. After World War II, Panola County's population decreased over the next several decades because of a combination of permanent decreased land values and decline of the cotton industry. However, by the 1960s and 1970s, the county government worked hard to reinvigorate the depleted soil, but the oil and gas industry became the prominent economy force in the 1970s.

Panola County Historical and Genealogical Association and The Leila Belle LaGrone  Family History Center

213 North Shelby

Carthage, Texas 75633

(903) 693-3388

info@oldjaillibrary.org

Our History

The Panola County Historical and Genealogical Association (PCHGA) was founded by ordinary people in the community  who had an interest in family and local history and who  wanted to preserve our heritage. So, they met and formed  PCHGA to serve those ends. The charter members were all volunteers, so they asked  Panola County to give them a long-term lease on the old  1891 Panola County jail which was no longer in use. The  jail use was discontinued in 1954 and the old jail had fallen  into a state of disrepair.  These charter members not only raised money from others,  but also donated their own time and money, and ultimately  rebuilt a structure  that would house history, family books  and artifacts in a stable, controlled environment. The upstairs of the Old Jail is now used as a museum.  The old cells and locks are still intact. The bottom floor of  the jail is where the jailer's family lived and where meals  were prepared for the prisoners by the jailer's wife. The  bottom floor now has three book rooms with a good  representation of states, counties and family history ; a computer room with four computers for public use;  and an office with one computer for keeping up with  the daily affairs of PCHGA. The PCHGA Old Jail Library is open three days per  week: Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday afternoon.  There is no user fee or membership  cost. Normal hours  are from 10:00 AM until 3:00 PM on Tuesday and  Wednesday, and from 1:00 PM until 5:00 PM on Sunday.  We invite the public to visit us during any of these times. We have three to four volunteer staff members to assist  you with researching your family tree  or maybe the history  of your home county, town or state. You can also use our  computers to research on the internet. We also welcome  any and all tour groups.

March 6, 1836 Tapley Holland died at The Alamo

The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a

pivotal event in the Texas Revolution.

Dr. V.M. Holland never found a link in his Holland family research to Tapley Holland who died at The Alamo on March 6, 1836. What seems to be true is that Colonel William B. Travis, who commanded the Alamo never drew a line in the sand and asked for volunteers to defend The Alamo to their death; therefore, Tapley Holland never stepped across it saying, "I regret having but one life to give for Texas!"

HOLLAND, TAPLEY (1810–1836). Tapley Holland, Alamo defender, one of six children of Margaret (Buck) and Francis Holland, was born in Ohio in 1810. His father had migrated from Canada to Louisiana and moved to Texas in 1822 as one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred settlers. Tapley Holland, a resident of the Washington Municipality (present-day Grimes County), took part in the siege of Bexar. Later he served in the Alamo garrison as a member of Capt. William R. Carey's artillery company. Tapley Holland died in the battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Daughters of the American Revolution, The Alamo Heroes and Their Revolutionary Ancestors (San Antonio, 1976). Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Muster Rolls of the Texas Revolution (Austin, 1986). Bill Groneman, Alamo Defenders (Austin: Eakin, 1990).

NEIGHBORS
FAIRPLAY 1920 – 1930
In growing up in a rural East Texas community in the 1920’s, early in life you realize the importance of neighbors. There is a dependency for assistance, physical and otherwise, and a dependency for fellowship as our contact with the outside world was pretty limited.
Before I was six, I had probably been out of the immediate community less than ten times. I thought it would be of some interest to write about all the people who lived in the community of Fairplay, Texas between 1920 and 1930 in so far as I can remember and determine with a little research. I am sure this will be of more interest to me than anyone else.