Fires in 1877 and 1916, a Tornado in 1982: Paris, Texas, Keeps Rebuilding
Paris has been rebuilt after two major fires and a 1982 tornado that destroyed more than 1,500 homes. Here is the story of a stubborn Red River town.
Paris, the county seat of Lamar County in Northeast Texas, has had to rebuild itself three times. Each time, it did. Its story, drawn here from Daisy Harvill's Handbook of Texas entry on Paris, is a good one for any town facing hard times.
A merchant's gift
Settlers were in the area as early as 1824, and the first recorded settlement nearby came in 1826. The town itself was founded by merchant George W. Wright, who donated 50 acres in February 1844. That same month, voters named it the county seat. The Congress of the Republic of Texas incorporated Paris on Feb. 3, 1845. One of Wright's employees, Thomas Poteet, named it after Paris, France.
Paris sat on the Central National Road of the Republic of Texas, which ran from San Antonio north to the Red River. By the eve of the Civil War it had 700 residents and was a cattle and farming center. Lamar was one of the few Texas counties to vote against secession, though many residents later served in the Confederacy.
Fire, fire and wind
Major fires in 1877 and 1916 forced the city to rebuild. Then, on April 2, 1982, a tornado destroyed more than 1,500 homes, killed eight people and left 3,000 homeless.
The town did not give up on its center. From 1984 through the early 1990s, local businesses put nearly $7 million into renovating and reviving downtown.
Rails, a college and churches
Railroads helped Paris recover each time. The Texas and Pacific arrived in 1876, followed by the Santa Fe and the Frisco in 1887, the Texas Midland in 1893 and the Paris and Mount Pleasant in 1910. Paris Junior College opened in 1924 and, by 1990, was one of the oldest junior colleges in Texas.
In the early 1990s, the entry counts some 90 churches in Paris. Sam Bell Maxey, John S. Chisum and state Sen. A. M. Aikin Jr., who served in the Legislature for 46 years, all called it home.
The lesson
Fires and storms can take buildings, but they do not take a town unless its people leave. Paris shows what happens when they stay, open their churches, invest their own money downtown and rebuild. It is worth remembering whenever a Texas town is knocked down.
Hero photo: Renelibrary / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (license).
