Calloway

Calloway, one of the earliest settlements in Upshur County, was on Calloway Hill, near Farm Road 49 some ten miles west of Gilmer. The settlement was established around 1853 as a way station on the road from Jefferson. In antebellum Texas Calloway served as a shipping and trading center for farms and plantations in the western part of the county. A post office opened there in 1855, and by the eve of the Civil War the town had a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, and several stores and saloons. After the war, Calloway continued to prosper. In 1885 it had an estimated population of 250, three steam gristmill-cotton gins, three churches, two blacksmith shops, a general store, and a district school. Among the town's prominent citizens was James B. Cranfill, an influential Baptist leader. By the mid-1890s the population of Calloway reached 300. After 1900, however, the community began to decline. Its post office was closed, and many residents moved away. By the mid-1930s the town was no longer shown on county highway maps.