Java, Texas

We recently rode a steam train from Palestine to Rusk on the Texas State Railroad. I enjoyed it almost as much as my 3 year old son.

When we got close to Rusk, we passed through Java, Texas. The railroad sign is too small in this pic, but click on the image & you'll get the original image.



The following is from TexasEscapes.com.

The settlement is said to have been named for a petticoat lost (and evidently found) at a local dance. The garment had been recycled from an old coffee sack and had retained the stenciled name: Java

The area was first settled in the late 1840s and early 1850s by settlers from Alabama and Tennessee, but as a community, Java did’t expand until the 1890s, when prison crews from the Texas State Penitentiary in Rusk came to mine coal to fuel the state-owned iron furnace. A small trading post consisting of a general store and sawmill grew up at the site, and a post office was opened there in 1895.

In 1906, after the Texas State Railroad was constructed from Rusk to Palestine, the Java post office was closed. Within a short time most of the merchants and residents had moved to the newly founded town of Maydelle, on the railroad.

In 2010, Java will celebrate it’s centennial as a ghost town.

I've lived in Texas all my life & have never heard of Java, Texas.

If you like trains, the complete set is on flickr.