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Published: September 7th 2019
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I found only two internet sites on Gent, Texas; on Gent Mountain. The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) was my main source of historic information. TexasEscapes.com was my secondary source. My friend (and Cherokee County guide) was very important in finding this site. Both of the above internet sites agreed that Gent was also known as Ghent.
On Gent Mountain there was a well hidden (1980s) Historic Marker, that we could not find cuz of the heavy overgrown brush and thorny vines. The sun was on the other side of the overgrown brush. After a while we found a dark silhouette of a historic marker in the brush. We cleared away the brush to see this historic marker.
In the late 1840s the area was first settled by European Americans and known as Sand Springs. That settlement was not really developed until the late 1870s. In 1879 a post office opened there as Gent or Ghent. In 1890 Gent had a district school, a cotton gin, two general stores, two churches, several grist & saw mills, and a population of about 500 people.
According to Wikipedia (article on the Texas State Railroad) the Texas State Railroad was started
Gent Village band
(from TexasExcapes.com) in Rusk in 1883. The Railroad was completed to Maydelle in 1906. In 1909 the Railroad was completed to Palestine, where it connected with the International & Great Northern Railroad (IGN). The entire Texas State Railroad was built by inmates of the Rusk Penitentiary; including the trestle over the Neches River.
The businesses and population quickly started to decline cuz of the new railroad station in Maydelle, only about two miles South of Gent. Most of the residents of Gent (Java, Pine Tree, and other villages and settlements) then started moving to Maydelle. They needed to ship out their produce and timber to the East Texas markets. There were other railroads North or North-East of Gent that may have shipped their products to markets, but I am uncertain if Gent had a railroad access available. Maybe they had to ship their produce to Jacksonville by horse and wagon.
Jacksonville and Rusk, Texas were on the main Cotton Belt Railroad line to ship out the lumber and produce goods to most of East Texas. There is still an active spur line connecting the Cotton Belt RR to the Texas State RR.
The Gent post office was closed in
Gent Village Historic Marker
guide clearing brush with thorny vines from HM 1906, and the last of the Gent population (and other defunked towns) moved to Maydelle. By about 1915 Gent was abandoned. Now there are no remaining structures remaining in Gent or Ghent.
My photo of the Maydelle Station shows some of the rail (on bottom right) of the still active Texas State Railroad. The first Maydelle RR Station is long gone, but a later station is now used as a museum.
The Texas State Railroad is completely just South of US Hwy 84; nearby the highway and other places over five miles South of Hwy 84. The only other village site we could find that was Java, de-funked when the railroad was built was built to Maydelle. Now Java was directly on the Texas State Railroad and was a train stop on the railroad. Why the people of Java moved to Maydelle I do not know. All that remains of Java is a sign on the railroad where the RR stop was before the closing of that village.
To get to Gent turn West in Rusk, Texas on US Hwy 84 approx. 12 miles to Maydelle. (There is no city limits sign for Maydelle.) On the north
side of the highway turn North at the old Cherokee Trading Post. (I can't find the road # so ask anybody in Maydelle.) Gent is approx. two miles North of Maydelle.
The topographic map of Ghent is from the History Museum in Diboll, Texas USA.
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Tom
non-member comment
Former Gent resident
My dad, born in 1920, grew up on Gent mountain, as did his siblings, most of whom were born after him. His family moved from Gent Mountain to the Rusk area around 1930. It looks now like most or all of the top of the mountain is all privately owned by an ATV park and also used at some point as a gravel pit. That was as far back as the 1990's or 2000's. Dad showed me where his old homeplace was and where one of his uncles lived, but I doubt if I could find them now because of overgrowth. Dad left that area in 1938 or 1939 to live relatives in Galveston County. My great grandfather (Thomas S. Craig Sr.) was one of the early residents of Gent. He moved there from Alabama when the Cherokees were moved out of East Texas, and I believe he was the first JP in Cherokee County, but I could be mistaken about that.