OLD CAROLINA, TEXAS. Old Carolina was an early settlement at the mouth of Carolina Creek on the west bank of the Trinity River, in the John H. Cummings land grant in northeastern Walker County. The community was originally called Bath. It must be distinguished from the Bath in the southwestern part of the county, as well as from the Carolina located on Carolina Creek in San Jacinto County and the Carolina Switch on the Missouri Pacific line. Old Carolina had several iron and sulfur springs and served as a health spa. The town was founded in the 1830s and probably changed its name to Carolina, possibly in honor of early settler Carolina Shores, around 1838. In 1843 the settlement had a population of twelve. A year later it comprised twenty people, a defunct store, and a post office. Old Carolina served as a refueling and rest station for vessels plying the Trinity River. With the passing of the steamboat era, it disappeared, and in 1990 the site was within the limits of Waterwood on Lake Livingston, on the Walker-San Jacinto county line.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: D'Anne McAdams Crews, ed., Huntsville and Walker County, Texas: A Bicentennial History (Huntsville, Texas: Sam Houston State University, 1976). Walker County Genealogical Society and Walker County Historical Commission, Walker County (Dallas, 1986).

James L. Hailey