Saron

Saron, a farming community just off State Highway 94 and eight miles west of Groveton in western Trinity County, grew up around a sawmill established by William Cameron and Company in 1883. Several sources speculate that the town name was a corruption of the biblical name Sharon. Several small sawmills had operated in the region before the Cameron company mill was opened. When the Trinity and Sabine Railway built through the area in 1882, however, the lumbering business grew rapidly and became the most important industry in the region. Saron became a shipping point on the new railroad and developed into a leading area commercial center. A post office was established there in 1894, and by 1896 the community included an estimated 200 residents, served by the lumberyard, a general store, a hotel, a school, a church, a barbershop, and an oil, paint, and chemical factory. The community began to decline just after World War I, when most of the timber had been cut. The sawmill and the processing plant were dismantled between 1918 and 1920; many residents moved on to other sawmill towns. By 1925 the population had declined to 100, and in 1929 the post office closed. During the mid-1930s the town still reported two businesses and 100 residents, but by the early 1940s only scattered dwellings remained. In the early 1990s Saron was a dispersed rural community. The population was five in 2000.