PANOLA, TEXAS. Panola was an early lumbering community on Farm Road 2517 sixteen miles east of Carthage in east central Panola County. A post office was established at the site in 1894. Residents originally requested the name Odesco for the post office, but postal officials substituted the name Panola instead. By 1896 the settlement had Baptist, Missionary, and Methodist Episcopal (South) churches, two general stores, two blacksmiths, a shoemaker, and a reported population of 150. With the decline of the lumber industry in the area after 1900, the town dwindled. The post office closed in 1913, and by 1914 only a general store remained. In the early 1990s a few scattered houses dotted the area. In 2000 the population was 296.
