in a Pecan Shell
The town came into
being as a crossroads community in the 1880s. The intersection of
four "lanes" furnished the town's name. The town was granted a post
office in 1888. According to the entry for Laneville in the Handbook
of Texas, nothing much happened in Laneville from it's beginning until
1950. The big "event" that year was being included on the list of
Rusk County's 14 operating post offices. Laneville's population reached
its high-water mark with 320 people.
came to Laneville
A few weeks ago, we reported of the
resurgence of outhouses as historical landmarks in East Texas.
Shortly after the column appeared, we learned of what may be the only
existing East Texas outhouse ever built by the old Work
Projects Administration, a Depression-era federal program which
put the jobless to work building public projects.
In 1935, the WPA came to Laneville, a crossroads community in southern
Rusk County, and began building rock fences, bridges and other needed
J.M. (Murph) Bryan was the county's Precinct 4 commissioner at the
time, and convinced the WPA's local foreman to build an outhouse for
his family on a small farm east of Laneville. Bryan paid fifteen dollars
for the one-holer.
Today, Bryan's daughter, Mary Lou Bryan, still lives on the family
farm -- and has kept Murph's outhouse in tip-top condition....
Photo courtesy Gerald
Massey, April 2011
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