Corinth

Corinth, originally known as Hatton, was on Farm Road 1255 some eight miles northeast of Canton in central Van Zandt County. Though Whites had settled in the area earlier, the townsite was part of the Cherokee Nation from 1836 to 1840. The site was a stage stop between Marshall and Dallas from 1848 to 1873, when the Texas and Pacific Railway began operations in the area. In 1886 James Richardson, whose headright included the future townsite, donated the land for a church, a school, and a cemetery. When a post office was established there in 1888, the town was called Hatton, for James Thomas Hatton, the first postmaster and the father-in-law of James Kuykendall, who taught the first area school in 1849. The Corinth Missionary Baptist Church cemetery dates to 1874. The town was renamed Corinth by a member of the James J. Kuykendall family when the local post office was discontinued in 1906. A school building built at the community by 1890 also served the Baptist congregation. The building was replaced in 1899. The school had an enrollment of forty-two in 1906, and was replaced in 1916 by a third schoolhouse that was later sold to the church. By the 1890s the town had a population of fifty, three stores, three school buildings, a gristmill and gin, a blacksmith shop, a sawmill, and a broom manufacturer. In 1936 the church, cemetery, school, a single business, and scattered dwellings remained, but no population figures were available for the community. In 1940 its school was consolidated with the Grand Saline Independent School District. By 1981 only the church, the cemetery, and scattered dwellings along the road survived. Corinth is chiefly known as the birth place of aviator Wiley Post.