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Thursday, April 07, 2005
Old Dacus 1872 The desire and need for regular mail delivery to the growing settlement known as Bethel and the rapidly growing Goodin Store enterprise was the first prompting for George Daniel to take action to ask for a permit to establish a post office in the Goodin Store. I feel sure that the death of the regular mail carrier from Montgomery to Bethel in an accident caused by a run-away team, while making a delivery helped to make up Daniel’s mind to act on the application. Mr. Thomas a member of one of the first settlers was killed while trying to cross Town Creek, just north of Montgomery is believed to be the true account of his death. George Daniel made the application to the Postmaster General in Washington, D.C. Although Daniel does not show on this application. The exact location where the Postoffice would be housed, we know it was planned to be in James Goodin’s store. Also in the Daniel’s application he boldly states that E.E.A. Goodin is the proposed postmaster, who we now know was Mrs. E.E. Ann Moore Goodin, or Mrs. James Goodin. It is obvious in further records that the Postmaster General always thought he was hiring a man! Also in the application he proposed the name Dacus for the new post office. I have not been able to prove why Daniels chose this name, but many records exist that show J.B. Dacus, a member of a very prominent Montgomery family had many and varied business interests in and around Montgomery. Mr. Dacus took a great deal of interest in the social, economic and political activities in the town and county of Montgomery. Daniel’s application suggesting the name Dacus may have been a dent of a common business relationship, prompting Daniel to name the growing community center after a friend. There is a record of a business agreement between J.B. Dacus and L.E. Dunn, these two men were related and the partnership applied to a tract of land in the newly named Dacus area, where Dacus is to cultivate a crop growing on Dacus owned land in a manner for the best interest in both parties. Dunn is to pay half of the hire of three hands for five months beginning Jan. 1st, 1875. When the hands are idle, Dacus may use them to clear land. Thus, by this record we can deduce that Dacus was involved in the Goodin store area several years before Daniel obtained the Postoffice permit and there was in all probability both a business and social connection between J.B. Dacus and George Daniel, hence the honor of the name for the important addition to the new community. The value of the proposal for a postoffice in the Goodin Store could not be estimated. All roads of that period were a problem. Each land owner that had a road or part of a road crossing his property by common agreement was expected to keep that section of road repaired. Spring branches and water run-off, creeks that overflowed their banks made high water a problem both winter and summer. Black land made bogging down mud for the horse or the team of oxen and dry deep sand also created problems for the ox, mule or horse used to pull the wagons or buggies. There is no record where the mail was delivered by Mr. Thomas before the postoffice was established in Old Dacus, 1888, but we know there was a designated mail drop a few miles north of the Bethel Church named "Guyler". I was told of this mail drop along F.M. 149 by a wonderful lady, Mrs. Reed, who was raised a few miles north of the Bethel Church-Schoolhouse, although Guyler was perhaps four or five miles north of Old Dacus, about the same distance away as Montgomery, the route to Guyler may have had less bad weather hazards. Mrs. Reed said the mail route was called the "Star Route" and included the Longstreet postoffice which lay along the roads that eventually ended at Anderson, Texas. Since the Dacus postoffice was not a reality until 1888, story of the progress of the Goodin empire and the people who made it so, should be told first since the James Goodin, his family and the first settlers who came before him and those who followed created and made the Old Dacus community a "self-made man" community long before Daniel added to its comfort and convenience. Not withstanding the bankruptcy at the end of the Civil War, James Goodin and fellow citizens starting with the Goodin’s arrival in the area circa 1873, built an unbelievable empire by 1888. |
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©Montgomery
County News, 2004 |
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