Athens

Athens started with almost nothing. The county commissioners had Samuel Huffer survey the streets, a square and 112 lots on 160 acres Matthew Cartwright donated, and the Handbook of Texas counts 177 people in 1859. By 1855 there was a Presbyterian congregation, a hotel, a store and a Masonic lodge, yet one historian said the town never moved a peg until 1900. The Cotton Belt came in 1880, a bank in 1887, and the town reincorporated in 1901 and began building roads. It reached 4,765 people by 1940.

What the plaque says

Athens Founded 1850. Named for Athens, Greece. Supply and military training headquarters during Civil War. Sent army about 1,000 men. Center for manufacturing and agriculture. Home of annual Old Fiddlers' Contest and of Henderson County Junior College. Black-eyed peas capital of the world. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 5.5 mi
  A Texas Parks and Wildlife hatchery and visitor center in Athens where visitors can borrow tackle and fish a stocked pond, watch native species in gallery tanks and ride a tram around the hatchery.
• Purtis Creek State Park — 14 mi
  A 1,582-acre park straddling the Henderson and Van Zandt county line, built around a 355-acre lake with no-wake fishing, borrowed tackle, a 4.1-mile hike-and-bike trail and a nature path.

More markers nearby

• Henderson County — steps away
• J.B. Henry "The Pea Man" — steps away
• Henderson County Pottery Industry — steps away
• Henderson County C. S. A. — 0.3 mi