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| Town of
Tamina, Montgomery County Texas
TAMINA, TEXAS. Tamina is on the Missouri Pacific line a mile east of
Interstate Highway 45 and 8½ miles south of Conroe in southern Montgomery
County. In 1871 the Houston and Great Northern Railroad built through the
area. A post office opened at the community in 1897, closed in 1905, and
reopened that same year, only to close again sometime after 1935. James H.
Berry, who promoted the town, named it after Tammany Hall, New York.
Apparently, the letter writer submitting the name to the postal department
had his own ideas about the spelling. Even today, the name is still
pronounced "Tammany." By 1904 Tamina had a population of 128, which declined
to 100 by 1915, when the town had a telephone connection, two general
stores, and a grocery. By 1925 the population had declined again, to fifty.
In 1948 Tamina had a station on the International and Great Northern, a
church, two schools, two businesses, and some twelve scattered dwellings.
Also in the 1940s, Tamina had a black school with one teacher for grades one
through seven. In 1949 the school was dissolved, and the students were
transferred to the Booker T. Washington school in Conroe. In the early 1980s
Tamina consisted of numerous scattered dwellings, several businesses, the
Tamina cemetery and Falvey Memorial Church (located a quarter mile east of
town), and two other churches. Several other small towns and the subdivision
of Shady Meadow were nearby.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Montgomery County Genealogical Society, Montgomery County History
(Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Hunter, 1981). Fred Tarpley, 1001 Texas
Place Names (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1980).
Will Branch
Tamina
Remembers Origins In Juneteenth Celebration |
| By Erika E.
Durham,
Courier staff |
| 06/19/2002 |
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| Slaves were
still toiling in Texas fields on June 19, 1865 when they finally learned
they were free – nearly two-and-a-half years after the Emancipation
Proclamation was passed. |
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The news set
them to celebrating and eventually settling their own communities, including
one in south Montgomery County known as Tamina.
Six years after that historic day when General Gordon Granger landed on
Galveston Island to read the Emancipation Proclamation, a particular group
of new freedmen chose to move north and make Montgomery County their home.
They named their newfound land Tamina after Tammany Hall in New York. Tamina
is a small community in southern Montgomery County, neighbor to the affluent
communities of Shenandoah,
Oak Ridge North and
The Woodlands.
Its founders originally wished to name the town Little Egypt, until they
were told that an Egypt Texas, not too far away, already existed.
Pioneer John Elmore decided on Tammany; but somewhere in the naming process,
the spelling of the town's name was changed – and hence, Tamina, Texas, was
born.
These citizens wasted no time naming their town, building homes and
establishing a full-scale post office.
Later, restaurants, schools and a community park would also be established.
Today, descendants of the people who chose the wooded area still reside in
Tamina and hold on to pride of the past, progress and potential for their
community.
"Our history is very important to us – we are reminded of it every day and
never want to forget where we have come from and still how far we have to
go," said Rita
Yates-Wiltz, Tamina community activist, native and descendant of
some of the original settlers.
Yates-Wiltz is the great-great-granddaughter of Louise Williams, who was a
midwife for Tamina and surrounding communities in the late 1800s and early
1900s.
"She even delivered some of (General) Sam Houston's children," she said.
Willie Pierson and Alma Jones are two residents of Tamina who are in their
90s and remember Tamina before the roads had names and the only water
available came from wells.
Pierson and his wife operated Pierson's grocery, a small, frame building
that still stands, but shows no trace of its purpose.
Still, Pierson looks fondly on the store's memories.
"My wife was really the one who ran it, and I would supervise," he laughed.
Jones, who is the widow of the Rev. Will Jones, the late pastor of Lone Star
Baptist Church, Tamina's second established church, said she believes slaves
chose this area because of its peaceful surroundings and prospect for
growth.
"We moved to Tamina after Dr. (Herbert) Hayes offered me and my husband $25
a month to work here," she said. "Now you know times were hard if that kind
of money would make us move," she said.
But Jones said she never regretted the move and has enjoyed living in Tamina
ever since.
Jones, first lady to the second church, also remembers the founding of the
first church in Tamina, Falvey Memorial Baptist Church.
Doctor Thomas Falvey built the church after Louise Williams, his midwife,
explained her need to have at least one day off during the week – Sunday –
and her enjoyment for going to church, Yates-Wiltz said.
Yates-Wiltz said Falvey built the church for Williams and other residents to
attend. In appreciation, they named the church after him.
With all the history and steps that have been made in the community, Tamina
residents believe there is still a long way to go.
The Montgomery County Genealogical Society and The Friends of Tamina are
organizations are working to record history and restore the
Sweetrest Cemetery
in Tamina.
And Matt Lloyd, press secretary for U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands,
said during the last congressional session, $250,000 was approved for
running water to be installed in certain places in Tamina.
"The funds which are offered through the community block grant have not been
distributed yet," Lloyd said.
This grant has been awarded after three years of efforts by civic
organizations and community leaders, and residents are pushing for more.
Pierson, who said he has seen several areas of change in the community,
looks forward to Juneteenth.
This year, like every year, the Juneteenth celebration will bring family
celebrations, reunions and barbecues with Taminians celebrating as much as
they always have. |
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©Houston Community
Newspapers Online 2008
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