CRETE, TEXAS. Crete, also known as East Prairie and as Possum Walk, is off Farm Road 358 some eleven miles north of Groveton in north central Trinity County. It was established in the 1870s by settlers from De Ridder, Louisiana, and was originally known as East Prairie. The East Prairie school was in operation by 1884. In 1902 a post office was established there, and the name of the community was changed to Crete for the Biblical reference to the Mediterranean island. This name was still in use in the 1980s, though some residents also referred to the area as Possum Walk. By 1914 Crete had a general store, Baptist and Christian churches, two cotton gin and gristmill combinations, and a reported population of 250. Its post office closed in 1928, but in the mid-1930s the community still had one business and a population of seventy-five. After World War II many residents moved away from the area. In the early 1990s Crete was a dispersed rural community.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Patricia B. and Joseph W. Hensley, eds., Trinity County Beginnings (Groveton, Texas: Trinity County Book Committee, 1986).
