Sabinetown

Sabinetown, eight miles east of Hemphill in eastern Sabine County, was built at the place where Gaucho Creek enters the Sabine River, on land donated by Shadrach Morris. In 1839 Herman Frazier surveyed the townsite, which soon developed into a shipping point and distribution center for East Texas. Stimulated by cotton production from nearby plantations, it had a customhouse, a wholesale house, a hotel, a school, a clock factory, a relay station, a tannery, and other business enterprises, as well as a trading post for Cherokee Indians. Its most distinguished citizen was David S. Kaufman. In anticipation of federal invasion, Sabinetown was heavily fortified during the Civil War. The bulk of the Sabine River traffic cleared through its docks, but with the collapse of the Confederacy and changes in transportation its population declined. The last stern-wheeler to enter its docks may have been the Neches Belle, which made its last trip up the river in 1897. The post office, which had first been established during the period of the republic, was periodically closed and reestablished during the postbellum period before closing permanently in 1935. With the impoundment of Toledo Bend Reservoir in the late 1960s, most of the old townsite was inundated, although several newer lakeside communities are located in this general area.