Settlers Used Mainly Wagon, Horses

 
Surfaced roads and luxurious automobiles, along with public travel facilities of this modern day are a far cry different from those enjoyed by the early settlers of Palestine and Anderson County.

During the 1850s saddle horses carried most men from one part of the county to the other while wagons and hacks transported families. For longer journeys, H. M. Black made available stagecoach travel from Palestine to Houston, where a traveler could arrange to sail from Galveston on or another Gulf Coast port. Black drove a two- horse hack as far as Crockett. A four horse stagecoach made the rest of the trip to Houston.

Travelers had a choice of lodging houses here, with three hotels in operation: Allen Henley Smith's Hotel, the Osceola Hotel, operated by Thomas D. Hudgins, and the Hotel Palestine.

One of the - earliest manufacturing concerns in pre-Civil War Anderson County was a boot and shoe manufacturing plant owned by Ira Prewitt. The plant was located seven miles south of Palestine on the road to Crockett.

Prewitt tanned his own leather, thus operating a from-the-ground-up manufacturing plant.

Palestine's leading architect and builder at the time was Charles A. Hutson.

 

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