IRONTON, TEXAS. Ironton is six miles southwest of Jacksonville in northwest Cherokee County. C. H. Martin, a Jacksonville immigration agent who named the town after the nearby ruins of the Chapel Hill Iron Manufacturing Plant, began promoting it in 1904. Charley J. Pool purchased the first town lots in the same year. A post office was also established in 1904. In 1906 Louis A. Pritchett built a gristmill and cotton gin in Ironton. In addition, the town acquired a blacksmith shop and a garage that stood just south of the gin. A cattle-dipping vat was constructed to aid in the implementation of the Texas feverqv tick-eradication program. George N. Harris became the first teacher for the Ironton school district in 1910. Children in Ironton had previously attended school at Owl's Creek Chapel or nearby Earl's Chapel. Enrollment at Ironton dropped during World War II,qv and by 1954 the remaining students were being bussed to Jacksonville. U.S. Highway 43 (now 79) to Palestine was routed east of the International-Great Northern Railroad, bypassing Ironton. When the town's last remaining store was destroyed by fire in 1930, it was rebuilt on the east side of the new highway. Edgar W. Brittain purchased it along with a service station in 1931 and operated the two businesses until 1968. He also served as Ironton postmaster until mail service was transferred to Jacksonville in 1955. In 1990 Ironton had a population of 110, one church, and no businesses. The population remained the same in 2000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Cherokee County History (Jacksonville, Texas: Cherokee County Historical Commission, 1986). Hattie Joplin Roach, The Hills of Cherokee (1952; rpt., Fort Worth, 1976).
James R. Niendorff
