LANELY, TEXAS. Lanely is on Farm Road 489 four miles southeast of Dew in south central Freestone County. It was established about 1880 and named for a Methodist preacher. The community had a general store, cotton gin, church, and school. A post office was established there in 1899 with James K. Lane as postmaster. Between 1903 and 1910 the boll weevil damaged area cotton crops so badly that local farmers were forced to start raising stock. The Lanely post office was closed in 1907, and mail was delivered from Buffalo. By the 1930s Lanely comprised a church, a business, and a few scattered dwellings. In 1966 its population was estimated at eighty, but from 1970 to 1990 it was reported as twenty-seven.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Freestone County Historical Commission, History of Freestone County, Texas (Fairfield, Texas, 1978).
