Redland

Redland, just off State Highway 64 twenty-four miles southeast of Canton in southeast Van Zandt County, began when Burwell J. Hambrick built the first cotton gin in the county just west of the Neches River and established a plantation home. After the Civil War he divided his estate, later known as Roseland Plantation Home, among his ex-slaves, and this land became the foundation of the community. Red Land High School existed by 1890, reached an enrollment of thirty-five in 1905, and in 1966 was consolidated with the Van Independent School District. In 1936 state highway maps showed a church, a cemetery, a school, and several residences, and three local churches were functioning by 1965. By 1981, however, only scattered dwellings remained along the highway to mark the townsite.