Hello Everyone,
Have been doing some digging into family history the last few days. I then went back into a box of items we had from my husbands grandmothers, she saved all her cards. Each year, bundled them with rubber bands, some with a piece of paper marking “Christmas 1987” and things like that. She saved all of her birthdays, Easter, Christmas, Mothers Day.
These were items that would have gone into the trash, but I dug them out from being cleaned out of her place. I went through them all one by one. I threw away a large pile, there were just so many, just vague cards with not much noted.
I kept ones from relatives with writing or pictures tucked inside. I picked the vintage cards with neat pictures on them that can be used for crafts.
So I was googling Neinda, Texas, its pretty much a ghost town now. But its where much of my husbands Mothers side of the family is buried. We need to take a trip and visit. My husbands Grandfather, Great Grandfather and other relatives are buried there.
There is very little when you google Neinda to find. I found a mention of population 21 in 2000. I wonder if there is anyone else left there today? I am quoting a website “]
“NEINDA, TEXAS. Neinda, on Farm Road 126 seven miles southeast of Hamlin in northwest Jones County, was settled in the 1880s by Joe Cox and others. It was called Banner until the post office was established in 1900. The railroads bypassed Neinda, and the town’s first postmaster, John O’Brien, was also its last. In 1940 Neinda had a gin, several businesses, and seventy-five residents. In 1978 a store, a gin, and the Baptist church survived. The population was thirty-one in 1980 and 1990. The old cemetery is maintained by the Cemetery Association and the Pioneers Reunion, which meets annually. In 2000 the population was twenty-one .”
I tried looking up a Cemetery Association and Pioneers Reunion online and could not find anything, do they still get together? Would love to find out where one gets this type of info.
There are some pictures on Flickr of someone going through and the Old Neinda Baptist Church. You can see the sign and church at the following links. I was reading it and see the name J. S. Hubbard was the first preacher. I believe this to be a relation, my husbands Grandmother was a Hubbard, and she spoke of her Uncle the preacher and how she loved going to his house. It could be another preacher she spoke of, but her story is in my head, she passed away 2 yrs ago at age 94, and told us about going to the preachers house while her mom was away in a “hospital” how she loved it there and didnt want to go home and cried when she had to leave. She always spoke fondly of the preacher. I wonder did Grandma Faye sit in this little church? Did she worship here? Was this the same preacher she spoke of listed on the sign? Im guessing this is where some family funeral services also took place.
A picture of the church
So what brought me to doing this post, was a photo found tucked inside a card in Faye’s Christmas Card collection, 1977.
And then seeing a man named Barclay Gibson photographed this same spot on Oct. 2004. I wonder how this looks today, another 10 yrs has almost passed! Here is his photo and a link to his web page.
So here is what this lovely Christmas Card had tucked inside.
Dear Friends,
Proud to hear from you again and that you and yours are well. We are still doing pretty good for kids our age. We have had the hottest summer I think we have ever had. Fay Im trying to help Lena with the cards and I hope you can read this. We plan to spend Xmas with Sonny’s 2 girls and 4 boys who live in Odessa. Just think we have 4 great grand Sons. Time flys. We see Hershell and his Faye occasionally. Sure feel sorry for Hershell, his eyesight is almost gone. We are sending you a picture of the store. Rod and Dell still operate it. Sept 27 was 50 Anniversary. Lena joins me in wishing all of you health and happiness and a very Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year. With Love (JuoR?) and Lena Brown.
Hard to make out his name, so Im posting a photo as maybe someone else can transcribe what it says.
The sign says “Brown’s Cash Store” Opened Sept 27, 1927 is written on the back of the photograph and I can make out the 1927 on the store sign to the right side. Here is that photo tucked inside the card.
I wonder when it closed? I wonder what happened to the couple running it? Would love to see more photos or hear stories of life in Neinda before it became a ghost town. Would love to chat with others from the Hubbard or Westmoreland families that once were around these parts and hear old stories.
UPDATE 4/23/2020
I made 2 trips, one solo and one with my husband and visited Neinda. The store has been long gone, the church was still standing and I was able to go inside and snap photos but its in sorry condition and tore my heart out. It has a beautiful wood floor sanctuary that was still beautiful and could be salvaged. But the roof is bad and it looked like people or homeless had slept inside and clothing was strewn all over and there was lots of wasps nests and wasps flying around.
I ended up talking to a man who was walking down the road and lived in the spot right next to the church and he told me where the store once stood and pointed it out but it had long since been torn down.
We were also able to visit the cemetery where there are about 3 generations of my husbands family buried with a family plot, its a beautiful cemetery and taken care of well and has a sign in guest book in a structure to sign.
savethephotos 