Woods, TX

Woods, on U.S. Highway 59 eleven miles southeast of Carthage in southeastern Panola County, was first called Hull's Store for C. F. Hull, who settled at the site in the early 1850s. When a post office was granted in 1854, the settlement's name was changed to Woods after Theodorick B. Wood, who served as first postmaster. A combination school and Methodist church was built before 1858. By 1885 Woods had a district school, three churches, a steam sawmill, three general stores, two blacksmiths, and an estimated population of 200. The post office closed in 1906, and by 1910 the population had fallen to 100. In the mid-1930s Woods had a church, a school, and two stores; the reported population in 1936 was thirty. The school was consolidated with the Carthage school in the 1940s, but in the mid-1960s the settlement still had two churches, a community center, and an estimated forty residents. In 1990 Woods was a dispersed community with a population of sixty-five. The population remained the same in 2000.