Calloway, TX

Calloway, one of the earliest settlements in Upshur County, was on Calloway Hill, near Farm Road 49 some ten miles west of Gilmer. The settlement was established around 1853 as a way station on the road from Jefferson. In antebellum Texas Calloway served as a shipping and trading center for farms and plantations in the western part of the county. A post office opened there in 1855, and by the eve of the Civil War the town had a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, and several stores and saloons. After the war, Calloway continued to prosper. In 1885 it had an estimated population of 250, three steam gristmill-cotton gins, three churches, two blacksmith shops, a general store, and a district school. Among the town's prominent citizens was James B. Cranfill, an influential Baptist leader. By the mid-1890s the population of Calloway reached 300. After 1900, however, the community began to decline. Its post office was closed, and many residents moved away. By the mid-1930s the town was no longer shown on county highway maps.