Berryville, TX

Berryville is off State Highway 155 twenty-two miles southeast of Athens in the southeastern corner of Henderson County. The settlement, on Lake Palestine (the Neches River), grew up after the Civil War. A post office opened in 1871, and by 1885 the community had Methodist, Baptist, and Christian churches, a district school, two general stores, two grocers, a gristmill-gin, and a reported population of 500. During the late 1890s, however, the town began to decline. The post office closed in 1905, and by the mid-1930s only a church and a number of houses remained in the area. In the early 1960s Lake Palestine was constructed nearby. In 1980 the population reached 362. The community incorporated during the 1980s, and in 1990 the largely residential area had 749 inhabitants.