Ham (Pauline)

The Handbook of Texas gives the community a short paper trail. It says the place became a switch on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad in 1900 and was first called Ham, with a post office under that name from 1901 to 1912. The post office became Pauline in 1912 and closed in 1921. In 1910 two businesses and ten people were reported; in 1914, four general stores, five fruit growers and two potato shippers. By 1940 Pauline had two businesses and fifty people, and the 1983 county highway map no longer marked it.

What the plaque says

Ham (Pauline) By 1900, a community had developed here on property owned by the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, which laid tracks through the area to create a more direct path to Dallas. The company purchased land in 1898 from attorney Marshal Hamlet "Ham" Gossett. The new town was named Ham in his honor.The settlement grew as many residents moved here to take advantage of the area's land, which was well suited for ranching and farming. By the early years of the 20th century, Ham had three general merchandise stores, a cotton gin, a school and a church building which was used for worship servies, town meetings and social events. The local school was housed in a one-room structure before residents added a second room to accommodate a growing population. In the 1930s, the school consolidated with Eustace School District. Also during that decade, a cannery opened in the community.From its early years, Ham also had a post office; one of the earliest postmasters in the settlement was Henry M. Faulk. Town lore indicates that Faulk made a request to rename the town to Pauline in an attempt to win the admiration of Pauline Riddle, a schoolteacher. The community officially changed its name to Pauline in 1912. By the 1930s, a number of factors, including poor economic conditions and several typhoid fever outbreaks, led to the slow decline of the Pauline community. In 1976, the railroad removed its area tracks and rerouted. Today, few vestiges remain of Pauline, which is remembered as a once-thriving community whose pioneering residents endured trying circumstances. (2008)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Purtis Creek State Park — 3.8 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.
• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 19 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.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 29 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.

More markers nearby

• Site of Centerville — 1.9 mi
• Goshen Cemetery — 2.9 mi
• Cockerell Hospital — 3.1 mi
• Payne Springs Methodist Church and Cemetery — 3.6 mi