|
A community in Newton County that was once termed a "ghost
town" is adding a sequel to that story and it could very well be
called "The Ghost Walks Again." That "ghost" is the
place called Fawil. The place has become the site of a large Kirby Lumber
Company Plywood Plant.
As in almost all cases of "rebirth" the nature
and purpose will change and the place will take on a new look and new
life quite different from the previous years and the former history is
likely to be forgotten unless it is carefully preserved.
The origin of the name "Fawil" is quite unusual.
Most places seem to be named from geographic features, historical events,
or from the name of people who founded them. "Fawil" comes from
a person's name but in an unusual way. Stories have it that Fonzo A. Wilson
operated a sawmill in this area and that in posting the name of the mill
on a board to mark the site of the mill the space was too small to accommodate
the full name so it was written F A Wil. In time the place was called
the combined sound of the letters and it became Fawil. The name became
permanent when the place became a railroad stop and was required to have
a name. Before this time the community was known as the Davis Community.
Some of the family names of the community have been and are today Hughes,
Davis, Wilson, Simmons. Gray, Ramsey, DuBose, and Herrin. There have been
several sawmills in Fawil. One rundown on the mills relates that "Tom
Hughes had a lumbering operation there around 1903. This time was pre-railroad
and Mr. Hughes hauled logs to Belgrade and floated them down the Sabine
River to Orange, Texas. In 1907-1908, F.A. Wilson built the first sawmill.
Wilson sold the mill to W. E. Gray. Afterwards the mill got into the hands
of John Ramsey, a Mr. Rayhill, and Joe Kinnear. Through its time the business
was a logging business, a sawmill, a pole mill, and a shingle mill.
People lived in this area long before it was called by
any name. The people were farmers who raised cotton, corn, livestock,
and engaged in the logging business. The deeds to the land of the Davis
farm (present time) date back as far as 1836 and were in a land grant
from the King of Spain and later a grant from the Republic of Texas.
Fawil Community has a new "face" because of
the big Kirby Lumber Company's new plywood plant there.
Mr. Ramsey Davis has lived in this community all his life
and has given some information about the place.
Davis was born in 1897. His home was one of the early
log structures which has been updated by adding siding and other fixtures.
Fawil is located between Bon Wier and Kirbyville on Farm
Road 363. A school was built around 1900. a one-room house which grew
to a three-room structure with three teachers. The Davis family donated
the land and it was called the Davis School. It consolidated with Newton
Independent School District in 1949. It was a Common School District.
First churches were Baptist and Methodist who held services on alternating
Sundays. It now has a Pentecostal Church.
Santa Fe J and E. Railroad built in 1905 pass through
Fawil from Kirbyville to Oakdale, Louisiana. It stopped in Fawil twice
a day, noon and 4 p.m. The railroad rate was three cents a mile.
Landscape - hilly, rocky, red clay soil. Trees - oak,
pine, dogwood, berries. Rainfall - heavy. Temperature - mild. Wildflowers
- honeysuckle, dogwood, violets, buttercups.
Typical pioneer houses at first were made of logs. Present
day are modernized frame houses.
|
