Providence

Providence is at the intersection of Farm roads 1258 and 857, six miles north of Garden Valley in extreme northwestern Smith County. Bearfield Branch flows through the area. The vicinity was originally part of the William Daniel survey. Educational facilities existed as early as 1903, when records listed forty-nine White students and one teacher. A school community just across the Van Zandt county line was also called Providence. A large two-story white frame building served as the school in 1909 when there were forty pupils. Maps for 1936 showed a few farms and an elementary school, which had three teachers and fifty students. By 1952 the school had been consolidated into the Van district, a Van Zandt County independent school district, yet maps for 1959 still identified the building. The community had a few dwellings and Providence Cemetery in 1973. Providence Church had been built by 1981, but the number of inhabitants remained small.