Fincastle

Fincastle's wartime weight rested on slavery as well as supply. The Handbook of Texas says it had the largest slave population in Henderson County, and that as the war went on planters from Louisiana and Arkansas moved enslaved people to the Fincastle area to keep them out of Union reach. The Confederate flag went up in 1861, the county's first Confederate company was organized there that May, and a quartermaster storage depot was built on Lot 1. The railroad passed south of town in 1900-01, and the post office closed in 1907.

What the plaque says

Fincastle One of the earliest settlements in Henderson County, Fincastle developed during the early 1850s. At that time, this part of the state was a center of economic activity with a growing number of plantations and farms. In 1851 John Tindel (1796-1864) purchased 1091 acres in the Juan Jose Martinez survey and later platted the community townsite. He laid out fourteen lots, measuring 60 feet long and 70 yards deep. The community attracted farmers, tradesmen, professional people, and other settlers who came to Texas. Fincastle was the scene of much activity during the Civil War, as Capt. William H. ("Howdy") Martin came in 1861 to raise troops. In addition, a quartermaster and commissary department was established here. By 1880 Fincastle had several stores, a blacksmith shop, cotton gins, saloons, a combination drugstore and doctor's office, several churches, and a school. Farmers from surrounding areas came here to sell their cotton and produce and to buy supplies for their homes and farms. About 1900, most of the members of the settlement moved to the county seat of Athens, and Fincastle declined. A church, the Pioneer Cemetery, and the nearby home of John Tindel are all that remain of this early trade center. (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 13 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.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 21 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 — 22 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.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 25 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.

More markers nearby

• Fincastle Cemetery and Church — steps away
• Frankston City Park — 6.5 mi
• Davis Reynolds — 6.5 mi
• First Gravesite of Cynthia Ann Parker — 6.5 mi