Site of Town of Spivey, 1870s-1900

The Handbook of Texas puts Spivey's post office at 1890, with Isaac W. Spivey as postmaster, and says it closed in 1903 with the mail going to Paxton. Paxton, on the Southern Pacific line built through the county in 1885, opened its own post office in 1892 and shipped lumber, cotton and truck crops. In 1896 Spivey had a sawmill, Friendship Baptist Church, Friendship Cemetery and an estimated fifty residents. By 1946 it no longer existed as a named community, and the Texas Almanac links the old name to Paxton, Eagle Mills and Sholar.

What the plaque says

Site of Town of Spivey, 1870s-1900 Founded by Civil War veteran James Jackson Spivey; brothers Elisha P. and George W. Spivey lived nearby. In early days mail arrived by wagon. Houston East & West Texas Railroad crossed the founder's land, building Spivey Station, 1886. During late 1880s Hicks Lumber Mill and workers' houses were erected. U. S. Post Office was established in 1891, with Isaac W. Spivey, postmaster. Friendship Baptist Church was organized in 1890s with James M. Spivey, pastor. After 1900, town gradually moved over to Paxton Switch. Friendship Cemetery, with 33 graves, marks the old site. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tex Ritter Museum and Texas Country Music Hall of Fame — 18 mi
  Carthage's country music museum, with Tex Ritter's boots, guitars and saddles in a room styled like a movie theater, and exhibits on other Texas stars, Jim Reeves among them.

More markers nearby

• James Rowe — 4.0 mi
• Old Center Cemetery — 4.0 mi
• Truitt Cemetery — 4.9 mi
• B. F. Morris and the Town of Joaquin — 5.4 mi