Arbor Grove, Texas facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Arbor Grove, Texas
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 Arbor Grove, Texas
Location in Texas
Arbor Grove, Texas
Location in the United States
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| Country | United States |
| State | Texas |
| County | Houston |
| Elevation | 312 ft (95 m) |
| Time zone | UTC-6 (Central (CST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-5 (CDT) |
| Area code(s) | 430 & 903 |
| GNIS feature ID | 1381333 |
Arbor Grove, also known simply as Arbor, is a ghost town in southeastern Houston County, Texas, United States. A ghost town is a place where most people have left, and very few or no one lives there anymore.
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The Story of Arbor Grove
Arbor Grove, or Arbor for short, started sometime before the year 1900. It was a small community that even had its own post office from 1901 to 1906. By the mid-1930s, it had a church and a few scattered houses. After World War II, many people moved away. Soon, only the church and a few homes remained.
Early Days and Growth
In the late 1820s and 1830s, land in this area was given to settlers by Mexico. This happened under the leadership of a person called an Empresario, Joseph Vehlein. But the community didn't really grow until after the American Civil War. People moved here from states that were badly affected by the war. They came to work in the growing cotton and cattle industries.
In the 1880s, people from nearby towns like Pleasant Grove and Shady Grove built a special brush arbor. This simple structure was used as both a church and a school. Arbor Grove also had a general store, a barber shop, a blacksmith shop, and a gristmill. There was even a cotton gin, a Woodman hall (a meeting place for a group called WoodmenLife), and a shingle mill.
Boom Times and Hardship
From 1910 to 1925, the Four C Lumber Mill and its logging work brought a lot of jobs to Arbor Grove. This made the community's economy grow a lot. However, the economy faced tough times during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
But the community recovered thanks to special projects. These projects were run by government groups like the Federal Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). These programs gave many local people jobs in the late 1930s. By 1941, the Rhodes Chapel Baptist Church, which started in 1897, had 155 members. At that time, there were 89 homes in Arbor.
Where is Arbor Grove?
Arbor is located on Farm to Market Road 232 at Chisholm Loop. It is about 10 mi (16 km) east of Crockett in southeastern Houston County.
Learning in Arbor Grove
The Arbor School was founded in 1900. Sadly, it closed down after a fire in 1940. Today, students from the Arbor Grove area attend schools in the Crockett Independent School District.
