28- TEXAS STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Methodist Church, and both were in a "flourishing condition" prior to 

 1858. Sam .Houston, and Yoakum, the historian, lived in Hr.nt.-vil'e, 

 that being their last abiding place on earth. The first State Jsoniui! 

 School was established there, and is now one of the best equipped in- 

 stitutions of its kind in the Southwest. This section of Texas is, in 

 many ways, peculiarly situated. The winters are very mild, the north- 

 ers being less severe than they are in the counties to the northwest, 

 owing to the protection of the timber and the nearness of the warm 

 Gulf stream. The summers are made pleasant by the almost constant 

 Gulf breeze. 



THE LONG LEAF PINE BELT. 



The Gulf Coastal Plain, extending from the Gulf of Mexico from 

 thirty to forty miles north, reaches the Long Leaf Pine Belt, which is 

 one of the most remarkable forests of the world. This belt extends 

 from the Trinity river east, far into the State of Louisiana. Governor 

 Roberts says this belt consists of an area equal to eighty or a hundred 

 miles equare. Dr. Frederic William Simonds, in his Geography of 

 Texas, says this area is equal to about 2,890,000 acres. 



It must be remembered that this area is not one dense, solid forest 

 of long leaf pine. The country is almost level, with what are termed 

 swells occurring throughout the area, and upon these swells, which are 

 slight elevations, the long leaf pine is found. Between these swells are 

 wide flats, often covered with dense thickets, intermixed with evergreens, 

 such as holly, magnolia, privet, and many varieties of the hawthorn. 

 The Angelina river runs almost through the center of this belt, and 

 since the Sabine is the line on the east and the Trinity on the west, 

 with their numerous tributaries, it can readily be understood that an 

 abundance of water exists for all purposes. The bottom lands of these 

 streams, which are very little lower than the pine lands, abound in 

 various kinds of hardwood, such as white-oak, pin-oak, beech, elm, ash 

 and hickory. Originally, there were dense forests of cypress on the 

 swamp lands near these streams. As a rule, the bottom lands are very 

 fertile, though requiring considerable labor to prepare them for culti- 

 vation. 



The Long Leaf Pine Belt includes Hardin, Jasper, Newton, Polk, 

 Trinity, Tyler, the northern part of Orange, and Jefferson and the 

 southern portions of Sabine, San Augustine and Angelina counties. 

 The oldest settled portion of this belt dates as far back as 1830, in 

 Jasper county, which at that time was a veritable wilrlernoes. a? wild 

 as the jungles of Africa, yet free from the ravages of Indians or the 

 forages of Mexicans. The early settlers of that section had nothing 

 to fear from wild life except the bear and panther. They together 

 with other wild animals roamed the forests by day and by night, un- 

 molested and in numbers so vast that no one could estimate them. 

 Originally Jasper and Newton were one county and were divided when 

 the coWties were reorganized under the State Constitution of 1845. 

 At first, however, it was a municipality of Nacogdoehes. and in 1834 it 

 was created into a separate municipality by the name of the Municipal- 

 ity of Bevil, with the town of Jasper as the seat of the Municipality, 

 located under the authority of George Antonio Nixon, Commissioner of 

 Zavala's colony. 



