ghost gin

The Farmer community was named after W.W. Farmer, a pioneer cotton farmer.  The growth of a town could probably be marked by the construction of a school,, a general store, a church, a cotton gin and then a post office-- maybe in that order.    The decline is also marked by the closing of these structures and it seems the church may be the last to go.  Farmer built its first one-room school in 1893, the general store in 1925 and the cotton gin was erected in 1929.  Today little remains of the community.  I counted two houses and the defunct gin with a parked GMC truck.  The latest construction in Farmer was the erection of a historical marker in 1970 dedicated to former First Lady of Texas Ima Mae Smith, wife of Preston Smith.  Farmer was her childhood home and she returned to teach there after receiving her teaching certificate from Texas Tech.

Farmer, Crosby County, Texas
FM 193
9.21.2013