Antioch

Savage, also known as Antioch and Evans, was located at the crossroads five miles east of Leonard, six miles west of Wolfe City, five miles north of Celeste, and twelve miles south of Bonham in south central Fannin County. William Hamilton Savage and his family settled on a small farm at the crossroads in 1869 and built a store. The Savage community developed in the early 1870s. It grew rapidly until World War I. Belle Smalley Lackey, in her history of Savage, listed seventy-four families in the community during this period. A post office was established in 1891 and discontinued in 1903. The post office and store occupied the ground floor and the Woodmen of the World lodge hall the upper floor. Businesses included a blacksmith shop, a cotton gin, a hardware store, a dry-goods store, and a millinery shop. By 1937 the lodge was gone and the last store was closed. The Antioch Baptist Church was organized in the area in 1890 and was active until 1957, when it united with the Leonard Baptist Church. A one-room school, established by William Savage, became the Evans school in 1901. It was consolidated with the Leonard school in 1916. The Savage local of the Fannin County Farm Labor Union was chartered in 1921 with a membership of sixty farmers. It was inoperative in 1930. The decline of Savage began with World War I. Farms began to get smaller. The young people migrated to the cities. When the highways were built, they missed Savage. Nothing is left of the community except a Texas historical marker placed in 1980 on State Highway 78, three miles northeast of Leonard.