LOVELADY, TEXAS

Lovelady, on State Highway 19 some fifteen miles south of Crockett in Houston County, was officially founded on the Houston and Great Northern Railroad in 1872 on land acquired from the survey of early settler Cyrus Lovelady, for whom it was named. Postal service for early settlers in the area was obtained from nearby Pennington from 1858 until 1872, when the Lovelady post office was established.

In 1900 the community was an agricultural shipping point with a school, a newspaper, four churches, and numerous businesses and hotels. Early industries included oil and timber production; local agricultural products included cotton, corn, potatoes, and cattle. Fires in 1892, 1903, 1944, and 1966 destroyed a number of local businesses, and the community's school burned in 1901.

Lovelady was incorporated in 1927. Its population reached 300 by 1885 and was over 500 by 1930, when it had forty-five businesses. In 1990 it reported a population of 587. Lovelady contained forty businesses and 608 inhabitants in 2000.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Armistead Albert Aldrich, The History of Houston County, Texas (San Antonio: Naylor, 1943). Houston County Historical Commission, History of Houston County, Texas, 1687-1979 (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Heritage, 1979). Houston County Cemeteries (Crockett, Texas: Houston County Historical Commission, 1977; 3d ed. 1987).

Eliza H. Bishop

Houston County, Tex - TXGenWeb Project Site

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