Eutaw

Eutaw, two miles east of Kosse, was the most important town in southern Limestone County until the coming of the railroads after the Civil War. The town formed in the early 1840s during the Republic of Texas era and was said to have been named in honor of Eutaw, Alabama, birthplace of one of the new community's original settlers. The settlement's first church was the Salem Baptist Church, organized in 1855. Around the same time, L. E. Trevzant opened a local school. The town grew rapidly. By the eve of the Civil War it had four general stores, two churches, a tavern, a blacksmith shop, a stage depot, and a school. Adolph Harris, who later became famous as the owner of the A. Harris and Company department store in Dallas, opened his first store in Eutaw shortly after arriving there in the 1850s. A post office was opened at the community in 1856, and Nathan Gilbert was appointed its first postmaster. Eutaw's decline began shortly after the Civil War. In 1869 the Houston and Texas Central Railway established nearby Kosse as a terminus, and many residents of Eutaw, along with their businesses, moved to the new town. The Eutaw post office was closed in 1870, but the town itself continued to serve as the center for surrounding farms until after World War II. The Eutaw school survived until 1949, when it was annexed by the Kosse Independent School District. The Salem Baptist Church had disbanded by the early 1980s, and in 1988 only the church building marked the site of the town. The old cemetery was nearby.