TECULA, TEXAS. Tecula, formerly known as Reynolds, is a farming community on Farm Road 2064 fifteen miles north of Rusk in northern Cherokee County. The area was settled before the Civil War,^qv but a community did not develop at the site until the early 1870s, when the International and Great Northern was built through the vicinity. In 1873 a post office named Reynolds was established, and in 1875 a depot was built. The post office closed in 1875 but reopened in 1900, when Reynolds had a mill and gin and several businesses. The post office was discontinued again in 1907 but was reestablished in 1917, this time under the name Tecula. The Tecula post office was suspended in 1926, but the community kept the name. During the 1930s Tecula had a school, two churches, four businesses, and a population of twenty-five. The businesses closed after World War II,^qv and in the late 1950s the school was consolidated with that of Jacksonville. In 1990 only a church and a few scattered houses still remained in the area.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).

Christopher Long