Cuney

Andy Bragg bought a farm here in 1870, and the settlement was first called Andy. Nelson Sneed and March Kissentaner bought a farm together in 1871, and accounts say the three men sold land cheaply to newly freed people. About 1914 H. L. Price, a Palestine bank cashier, and other investors platted the townsite. The post office came in 1917, with Bishop Sneed, a grandson of Nelson Sneed, as postmaster. Paved U.S. 175 bypassed the railroad town in 1929. The Texas Freedom Colonies Project records that Cuney incorporated in November 1983, the county's first incorporated Black community.

What the plaque says

Cuney The earliest area settlers were Andrew "Andy" Bragg and Nelson Sneed, black farmers who moved here in 1870. Former slaves, they were later joined by other freedmen farmers, landowners and tradesmen. The settlement that resulted was known as Andy. In 1916 former Palestine banker H. L. Price moved to the community. Encouraged by the area's potential as a commercial and agricultural center for blacks, he directed formation of the Andy Real Estate Company. He was joined in the operation by his son Cuney Price, W. D. Thomas, J. Z. Thomas, W. A. Hall, and John Bragg. The firm renamed the town Cuney for Price's son, who was named for the prominent black business and state political leader Norris Wright Cuney. Statewide promotion of the town resulted in rapid growth for Cuney, which soon included churches, stores, gins, sawmills, a railroad station, a hotel and a baseball team. Nelson Sneed donated land for the establishment of community schools. Cuney declined after World War I as agricultural prices decreased and area residents moved to other towns for work. Today it serves as a reminder of the area's pioneers and the significant contribution they made to the heritage of Texas' black community. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 22 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 22 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 23 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.
• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 24 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.

More markers nearby

• Site of the Kickapoo Battlefield — 4.2 mi
• Fry's Gap — 5.4 mi
• Frankston City Park — 5.4 mi
• Freeman Farm — 5.4 mi