Mechanicsville

Mechanicsville was a small lumber town in extreme western Smith County on a dirt road 1½ miles west of Mount Sylvan. The settlement was established in 1862 by Francis Lang. Early in the 1870s a furniture factory was constructed in the area; Lang was manager. The factory may have employed as many as twenty workers, making chairs and other wooden furnishings. In 1871 there was a sawmill in the area, and the next year the community was organized. It included the factory and mill, as well as some twelve houses. The Mechanicsville Road, a local trade and travel route, extended from Tyler to Garden Valley and had a southern branch that reached the small community. Mechanicsville disappeared from county records after only a short while. According to area residents, a forest fire destroyed the town and the local economy. The 1936 county highway map showed only an unidentified cemetery and a few scattered dwellings at the site. In 1965 two houses and the Robbs (formerly Mechanicsville) Cemetery were in the vicinity. A 1973 map showed four dwellings and the cemetery just east of the Boynton oilfield. The cemetery was still shown on a 1981 map.