Danville: Ghost Town with Few Reminders

The town, established in 1846, has been dead
for almost 100 years.
by Charles Segers

There is a sign on a fence where the town used to be: Posted, No Trespassing. Beyond is an empty lot with one tumbledown shack and two ancient-looking wells. Horses, now the only inhabitants of the old town, graze where the general store once stood.

The place is the site of Danville, one of the ghost towns of Montgomery County. It is located about three miles north of Willis, off the Shepherd Hill Road. The second road to the right after crossing the Highway 45 overpass was the community's main street.

At the height of its development it supported 14 business establishments, and had a population of about 300. Now there are just open fields all around, and grass covers the scattered brick which remain from the old buildings. No one would ever guess that the now quiet country road was once the main street of a bustling community.

Jess McIntyre of Willis is one of the few who can remember having seen any of the original buildings. He can walk over the fields and point to the places where the stores and plantation houses stood.

"Some of the buildings disappeared when I was just a small boy," he said. "Of course the town–what there was of it–had died before I was born. My dad owned a farm here, and that is the only reason I remember as much as I do."

The community's only industry was farming---and farming on a large scale. Many plantation owners from the Old South brought their slaves and set up elaborate headquarters there. One of them, a Judge Goldthwait from Alabama, brought 200 slaves. Apparently the land was well suited for his purposes, because after one year a local citizen wrote to his wife, “I saw some fine cotton when I went over to Danville on the 3^rd at Goldthwait’s plantation.

Another of the plantation owners a General A.J. Lewis from Virginia, imported brick from Holland and built a large three-story house." Its most interesting feature was a ballroom, which, historians note, was on the third floor. The house stood until 1940, when it was torn down and its lumber used to construct a modern house.

The Texas Almanac of 1857 described Danville as "...a small village some fifteen miles north of Montgomery, its trade being from the surrounding country, which is rich and productive." The exceptional productivity of the land is noted again in a letter from one of the Danville citizens (who, luckily, were prolific letter writers): I went out to Danville last Saturday in company with Colonel Abbot and saw a beautiful field of corn." This too was a letter to a wife. One hopes the wives were as interested in hearing about "fine cotton" and "beautiful fields of corn" as were their husbands in writing about them.

The community also supported a school and several churches. In a letter dated 1860 the schoolmaster, Jay C. Barron, wrote to his brother: "I am teaching a little school in the neighborhood of Danville. I have got about 14 or 15 scholars and will have 25 or 30 in a few weeks." He signed the letter "Doctor Jay C. Barron," which was a private joke between him and his brother whom he addressed as "Parson". The family, which now resides in Willis, admits that ancestors came into the community on false pretenses, one claiming to be a doctor, and the other a preacher–neither of which they were.

The Baptist Church which was founded at Danville moved away soon after the I&G.N. Railroad put its line through Willis. It is now known as the First Baptist Church of Willis.

The Catholic Church moved to New Waverly, where the Polish-Catholic population was centered.

There are only four visible reminders of Danville's existence: The wells, a cemetery, a church bell, and a small pond which was used for baptisms.

The cemetery is only a short distance from the townsite, on a pleasant, flower-covered hill. One could never guess its age from its appearance, however. Many of the old families who own plots there still live nearby, and they take pride in the intense care which they give the place. Only a few of the original vaults and markers remain, and they are- crumbling and covered with vines. The others are comparatively new, having been placed there when the original ones showed signs of decay. The names on the markers are those of some of the best-known families in the county: McIntyre, Spillers, Tadlock, Snapp, Dean, Smith.

A brass bell marks the spot where the Catholic Church was located. It is mounted on a cement foundation beneath a circular grove of cedars. The site is still used on special occasions by the church at New Waverly.

The pond is not visible from the road, and only an old-timer like Jess McIntyre would be able to point it out so quickly. He has a special reason to remember it, since his mother was baptized there when she was very young.

Local historians calculate Danville's existence from 1846, since that was the first year in which election returns were listed for the town. During the 1850's it experienced a building boom, and continued to grow for several more years. Then, with the coming of the Civil War and the railroads, it began to disappear. After thirty years the town was deserted except by a few farmers who did not need to be near the railroad. The churches, the post office, the school, and the businesses distributed themselves between the new towns of Willis and New Waverly, which were on the railroad.

Reprint from The Spectator, December 23, 1969, p. 8 & 9