CULLEOKA
(south of Princeton on Lake Lavon)
ON THE WING
Daily Courier Gazette, June 20, 1912
Culleoka.
Calling
at the new home of our old time friend, J. w. Davidson, he was absent but Mrs.
Davidson said the Democrat-Gazette was their favorite paper.
Ulyssus
Grant Litten is a Hoosier, but he didn't say that he was from Posey county. Owns
a farm of about one hundred acres one and half miles south of town, scalping
knife ready for business he was forced to part company with his favorite dollar
in order that he might keep posted on matters pertaining to the world, nation,
state county and neighborhood by reading the Democrat-Gazette.
Mrs. J.
T. Turnbow in the absence of her husband subscribes for the Democrat-Gazette.
From Kentucky when only twelve years of age, in August 1897 she was married to
J. T. Turnbow and three children are in the home. They own a farm near the
suburbs and money can not buy it. She was Miss Sarah Rutledge before marriage.
We are
also pleased to enroll G. J. Hornbuckle on our list at Copeville and hope he
will like it well enough to keep it going.
With
harvest practically over, and threshing ready to begin, business will pick up
with its old time energy and money will soon begin to flow through the channels
of trade like water down the mountain's side. We need more room in our wigwam to
hand the scalps while drying. Keep the pot boiling for a cup of hot, strong
coffee will cover a multitude of sins.
D. W.
Leigh
PRINCETON WOMAN ANSWERS QUESTION FOR CAPT. HALL
by
Mrs. Bon Davis
I read
in Capt. Hall's column where you wanted to know where Culleoka, Tickey Creek,
and Rat Road got their names.
I have
lived around Culleoka all my life; I was born in 1898. The land was all timber
when my father, Robert A. Highway, moved one mile below Culleoka in 1896. The
road is now called Farm Road No. 892. he would work all day clearing the land
and burn off the brush at night.
The
first man to come to Culleoka was John Branch. He moved there from Culleoka,
Tennessee and gave Culleoka its name. He later moved to a location about three
or three and one-half miles south-west of Culleoka (where the Branch Store is
now and there has been a store there ever since) and built a store and named it
after himself.
Rat
Road is about one-half mile West of Culleoka. The road was about two and
one-half miles long and it was so narrow that two wagons could hardly pass. When
a family would move in, they would clear a place for a house and then set out to
clearing enough land to farm. I can remember when the rats were so bad on Rat
Road that the farmers did not gather their corn. The rats ate it in the fields.
The farmers would meet and take their dogs and clubs and have rat killings. I
have seen a wagon bed full of dead rats after each hunt. The people in the
community normally began to refer to the road as Rat Road and over the years was
not changed.
Tickey
Creek got its name because at one time there were so many ticks. I have seen the
ticks crawling up and down the trees like ants, and I have seen my father mix
linseed oil and creosote and put on the stock. The road ended just below our
house at Tickey Creek.
Will
Moore moved there on the West side of Tickey Creek in 1897 and cleared out the
road from Tickey Creek to his house, about one mile or more.
West of
Culleoka, there was a one room school house at Pleasant Hill. There was also a
one room school house at Back Bone, and it was located one and one-half miles
East of Culleoka. In 1904 a one room school was built at Culleoka, and there
were two teachers in this one large room. People kept moving in and later the
school had another room or two built on. By 1912 to 1916 most land had been
cleared.
About
1900, Dr. Morrow and his father John Morrow moved to Culleoka. John Morrow put
in a store and Dr. Morrow began to practice medicine in the Culleoka and Branch
communities. He later moved to Lucas. We had other doctors, and the town began
to build. AT one time, there were three churches, a good school, a cotton gin,
black smith shop, barber shop, two grocery stores, dry goods store, post office
and drug store.
Other
early day doctors in Culleoka were Dr. T. G.Gorman in 1896; Dr. Frank McElroy
from 1900 to 1915; Dr. G. P. Maynard, there for several years; Dr. R. P. Ray,
from 1911 to 1919, when he died. Since 1919 Culleoka has had no resident doctor.
OVER COLLIN CO. ON
THE WING
1952
by Capt. Roy F. Hall
Culleoka, called by local inhabitants, Culleokee, lies three miles south of
Princeton on Farm Road 982. One two stores in the little town now, used to be
several fifty years ago. Both the stores there now are groceries. One of them is
owned and operated by Mrs. Lydia Rutledge, who purchased it recently from Mr.
and Mrs. A. M. Andrews, who, themselves had owned it the last four years.
The
other store is run by Mr. Homer Judd, who came to Culleoka from Copeville 52
years ago and has operated the store for twelve years. There, of course, is no
school at Culleoka, the children going by bus to Princeton. It might be on
interest to know that the first rural high school in the county was started at
Culleoka by Professor J. L. Highsaw. It has long been torn down, and the high
school pupils go to Princeton.
The
place once had several stores and a post office, but good roads drained most of
the business away, and the government closed the post office. Culleoka is now
served by Rural Route five out of McKinney. It has a population of around 125,
good sized for a rural town in Collin these days.
Following are the names of those now living there who, with their families,
constitute Culleoka's population: Chuck Lorance, Frank Hankey, Homer Judd,
Hattie and Susie Preston, Jim McGrow, Ab Boyers, Bud Phennell, Mrs. Ola Harvell,
Mrs. Susie Akin, Mrs. Ann Heniger, Rufus and Gus Rose, Tom Phennell, Haskell
Rutledge, Odie Parr, Sab Odil, Mrs. Lester Phennell, Dick Young, Floyd Tunbough,
Mark Chandler, Mrs. Belle Jones, whose husband was the last postmaster; Mark
Wadlington, Melvin Akin, Carter Davis, Shorty Cobb, Jeff Wilborn, Bill Tucker,
John E. Smith, Mrs. Lillie Langley, Mrs. Virgie Wall, Mrs. Maggie Leonard, Mrs.
Minnie McLeroy, Mrs. Ada Jenkins, Miss Ethel Allen and Mrs. Eller Allen.
Forty
years ago Culleoka had a population of about 300 most of whom were, in one way
or another, connected with the business then operated there. Practically all the
people there now either work in McKinney or elsewhere, or own and run farms
nearby. The locality has always been primarily a farming district, mostly corn
and cotton, but dairying is now coming to the fore around Culloeka and about
every farmer in the vicinity keeps at least a few cows.
Almost
all the farm land around Culleoka is rolling, and from continuous clean cropping
has been greatly reduced in productivity. Now, most of this rolling land is
being turned back into pastures of Johnson grass, native grasses and sowed
clover. The Collin County Model Farm situated a mile to the north, has had its
influence on the Culleoka community, set the pace, if you will, for a come-back
in farming methods. As on the Model Farm, dairying and stock raising is being
stressed for the first time over row crops.
Culleoka had three churches; the Baptist, with Bro. Raymond Fincher, as pastor,
on Farm Road 982 in the north part of the town, has a pretty church building,
and a good-sized membership roll. The Pentecostal, with Bro. Wade Thomas, of
McKinney, as pastor, is in the east section of Culleoka, and the Church of
Christ holds occasional meetings in the old Thomas Townsend store on the
highway.
At
present there is no way to go from Culleoka southward and get out toward
Copeville, Nevada or the Lavon dam. Those going to any of the three places will
have to come back to Princeton and go via Farmersville, or else go down the west
bank of East Fork to Wylie and then eastward. Clearing for the Lavon dam has cut
all roads south of Culleoka, and the little town sits down there on a sort of
peninsula, accessible only from the north.
Culleoka, with Clear Lake and Wylie, is located on the oldest land in Collin
County, so far as heardright are concerned. People who own property in any of
these places will find their abstracts reading back beyond the Texas Republic,
back to the time when the present state of Texas belonged to Spain. There are
only a few of those old Spanish grants in the county, that of Francisco de la
Pina at Culleoka and Wylie, and Maria Ignacia Gimenes of Clear Lake. Some
abstracts may not show this, reading back only to the 1840s to the Peter's
Colony, but if they do they are not complete. It might be well to add here that
only that part of Wylie east of the main north and south street lies on this old
Spanish grant, the western part is on land originally granted Jones Truett and
S. B. Shelby.
Communities Index
- Recommended
citation:
"Culleoka - Collin County Communities,"
Collin County, Texas History and Genealogy Webpage by Genealogy Friends of
Plano Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13 13:37:28 US/Central 2004 ].
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