Rusk County

Rusk County, Texas

Rusk County, Texas

The Rusk County Courthouse is located in the town of Henderson, Texas, the county seat. Photograph by Michael Barera.
Rusk County, Texas

Rusk County, Texas

Map of Rusk County, Texas. Map Credit: Robert Plocheck.

Rusk County is on the Sabine Uplift of the Coastal Plains between the Sabine and Angelina rivers in the Piney Woods of East Texas. It is 120 miles southeast of Dallas and seventy-five miles west-southwest of Shreveport, Louisiana. The county is bounded on the north by Gregg and Harrison counties, on the east by Shelby and Panola counties, on the south by Nacogdoches County, and on the west by Smith and Cherokee counties. Henderson, the county seat, is the near to the geographic center of the county, which is at 32°10' north latitude and 94°45' west longitude. The county's transportation needs are served by U. S. highways 59, 79, 84, and 259, State highways 42, 43, 64, 135, 149, and 322, and the Missouri Pacific and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroads. Rusk County comprises 932 square miles. The terrain is marked by sloping hills, narrow valleys, and glens. The altitude varies from 300 to 750 feet, with the highest elevations along the iron-capped ridges in the northern and northeastern and southern portions. The soil of the county is light-colored deep sandy loam with underlying clay and lignite, both of which are produced in the county. The clay is made into bricks by Boral-Henderson Clay Products, and the lignite is mined by Texas Utility Mining and Generating Company. Between 11 and 20 percent of the land in the county is considered prime farmland. The county is forested with more than twenty varieties of trees. Red and white pine, post oak, blackjack, and hickory are commonly found in the uplands, and white oak, red oak, ash, walnut, mulberry, ironwood, gum, elm, beech, and dogwood grow abundantly in the low-lying areas. Cypress trees are found along Cherokee Bayou, Tiawichi Creek, and other streams. Grasses include Bermuda, fescue, and Johnson, together with burr clover. Wildflowers abound in the spring: violets, blue daisies, cowslips, yellow jessamines, wild honeysuckle, standing cypress, wild onion, tigrida, and blackeyed susans. The climate is subtropical-humid, with mild winters and warm summers. Temperatures range in January from an average low of 35° F to an average high of 56°, and in July from 71° to 94°. The average annual rainfall is forty-five inches. The average relative humidity is 85 percent at 6:00 A.M. and 57 percent at 6:00 P.M. The average annual snowfall is two inches. The growing season averages 250 days a year, with the last freeze in mid-March and the first freeze in mid-November.

The area has been the site of human habitation for several thousand years. Archeological artifacts suggest that the earliest human inhabitants arrived during the Archaic Period, 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. Evidence of the prehistoric Caddo culture, which flourished between A.D. 1000 and 1600, has also been found in the area, and the earliest Spanish explorers encountered the remnants of that culture during their first forays into the region. Between 1761 and 1810 two Tejas villages are known to have existed in the area of the future county: Aynais, in the southwestern corner of the present county, and Nacogdoches Village, near the site of present Minden. As many as four early Spanish expeditions crossed what is now Rusk County between 1691 and 1788. Domingo Terán de los Ríos crossed the area on his way to the northeast in 1691, and Domingo Ramón led an expedition across the county around 1717. Fray José Calahorra y Saenz passed through the southwestern corner in September 1760, and in 1788 Pedro Vial traversed the northern portion of the future county. Although the area was part of the Department of Nacogdoches, the Spanish never built any permanent settlements in it, and today very little Spanish or Mexican influence can be seen in the county except for the names of a few streams. The first Anglo-American settlers came into Rusk County as early as 1829. The earliest land grant within the present-day borders of the county was issued to William Elliott on March 22, 1829; other early grantees included father and son Thomas and Leonard Williams, Joseph Durst, and Henry Stockman. By 1834 White settlers began to arrive in large numbers; between May 2 and November 23, 1834, the Mexican government issued forty-three land grants in the area, the majority of them to recent American immigrants. After the Texas Revolution, the population grew rapidly, as new settlers arrived by way of Trammel's Trace, the Nacogdoches Road, and the Green Grass Trail. Cherokee and Shawnee Indians under the leadership of Chief Bowl occupied the western part of the area during the 1820s and 1830s, but with their removal after the Cherokee War in 1839 the way was opened for White settlement. Most of the new colonists came from the Old South, particularly Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, attracted by the availability of abundant cheap land. Although most of the early settlers were of modest means, some were wealthy planters, among them James Smith, Julien Sidney Devereux, and Albert Tatum, who brought sizable numbers of slaves with them. After Texas independence the territory was originally a part of Nacogdoches County, but upon an act of the Congress of the Republic of Texas, Rusk County was formed on January 16, 1843, and was named for Thomas Jefferson Rusk, who had been secretary of war under President Sam Houston. The county seat was established as near the center of the county as possible by the five commissioners appointed to acquire land for the purpose. Gen. James Smith donated the original townsite of 65.5 acres, and he later sold 69.5 acres more to the town. Later, William B. Ochiltree donated five acres north of the town square and in the deed named the town for his friend James Pinckney Henderson.

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Virginia Knapp, Megan Biesele | © TSHA

Handbook of Texas Logo

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.

Currently Exists

Yes

Place type

Rusk County is classified as a County

Altitude Range

250 ft – 710 ft

Size

Land area does not include water surface area, whereas total area does

  • Land Area: 924.0 mi²
  • Total Area: 938.4 mi²

Temperature

January mean minimum: 34.9°F
July mean maximum: 92.7°F

Rainfall, 2019

49.4 inches

Population Count, 2019

54,406

Civilian Labor Count, 2019

21,824

Unemployment, 2019

8.1%

Property Values, 2019

$5,051,016,680 USD

Per-Capita Income, 2019

$36,485 USD

Retail Sales, 2019

$373,341,294 USD

Wages, 2019

$158,976,674 USD

Rusk County

Highlighted:
  • Rusk County
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Place Type Population (Year/Source) Currently Exists
Town
Town
Town
Town 30 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town 40 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town 15 (2009) Yes
Town 12 (2012) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town 75 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town 200 (2009) Yes
Town 20 (2009) Yes
Town 20 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town 23 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town 50 (2009) Yes
Town 763 (2021) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town 100 (2009) Yes
Town
Town 40 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town 13,502 (2021) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town 140 (2009) Yes
Town
Town 13,383 (2021) Yes
Town
Town 300 (2009) Yes
Town 3,336 (2021) Yes
Lake Yes
Town 169 (2009) Yes
Town
Town 400 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Lake Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town 150 (2009) Yes
Town 96 (2009) Yes
Town
Town 504 (2021) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town 958 (2021) Yes
Town
Town 55 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town 200 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town 2,274 (2021) Yes
Town
Town
Town 70 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town 20 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town 275 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town 333 (2021) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town 15 (2009) Yes
Lake Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town 1,340 (2021) Yes
Town
Town
Town 271 (2009) Yes
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town
Town

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