Bissell

Glendale is on State Highway 94 eleven miles west of Groveton in western Trinity County. The region was first settled before the Civil War; the large antebellum Tullos Plantation was located nearby. During the late 1870s or early 1880s the J. I. Cameron Lumber Company built a sawmill in the area, and by 1886 a town with a population of 100 had developed there. In 1887 a post office was established and called Bissell for a local family. During the late 1890s settlers from Illinois and Missouri moved into the vicinity and renamed the town Glendale for the rolling hills of the area. The new settlers formed the Glendale Orchard Company, which purchased over 1,000 acres and planted peaches and other fruit. Spurred by the lumber and fruit businesses, Glendale boomed during the late 1890s, and the town's population is said have swelled to 1,200 by 1899. A two-story hotel, a school, and several churches were built, and a newspaper, the Glendale Star, began publication by 1898. After 1900, however, the local lumber industry began to decline, and many Glendale residents and businesses moved out of the area. The newspaper moved to Trinity in 1905, and by 1914 the town's population had dwindled to seventy-five. During the mid-1930s Glendale reported two businesses and 120 residents. Its population remained at about that level during the 1950s and 1960s, but by 1990 the town reported a population of seventy-eight. In 2000 the population was 175.