Athens was suppose to be an Cultural Center with ALL kinds of entertainment and people. The ONLY thing that Athens is right now, is a BORING SCREWED UP little town that they keep calling a "city". If Athens wants to be called a city...than it should start ACTING like it! The people of this town are SO damn bored, there is not that much to do here to entertain them and make them happy and joy life. Everything store and food places in town closes up so damn early that the people who want to go shopping or eat can't because everything closes about around 5pm or 10pm. The ONLY things that are open late at night are Wal-Mart, Whataburger, and Pitt Grill...and, sometimes people get tired of these places. This town desperately needs a nightlife for the night people that live here.
It's time for this town to grow up into the modern day with everything. This town has been in the dark ages for way to long! GROW UP, ATHENS, JUST FUCKING GROW UP!
HERE IS SOME HISTORY OF ATHENS TEXAS
ATHENS, TEXAS. Athens, the "Black-Eyed Pea Capital of the World," is located thirty-five miles west of Tyler on State highways 19 and 31 and U.S. Highway 175 at the center of Henderson County. The county seat of Henderson County was first Buffalo (1846), then Centerville by election (1848), and finally Athens (1850); neither of the first two county seats was within the new county boundaries delineated in 1850. The earliest settlers, E. J. Thompson and Joab McManus, arrived early in 1850. Matthew Cartwrightqv donated 160 acres for a county seat, and the commissioners had Samuel Huffer survey the streets, the city square, and 112 lots. The district court first met in October 1850 under an oak in the square, with Oran Milo Robertsqv presiding. The first courthouse, a sixty-five-dollar log building, was ready the next month. A jail of hewn logs was built in 1856 on the same site and cost $500. Dulcina A. Holland suggested the name Athens, hoping that the town would become a cultural center.
By 1855 a Presbyterian congregation was organized, Joab McManus ran a hotel, E. A. Carroll had a store, and the Masonic lodge had been built. Athens was first incorporated in 1856, and a mayor and city marshall were elected in 1874; but the town, in one historian's words, "never moved a peg" until 1900. There were no improved streets or sidewalks, weeds covered the square, and the few houses were unpainted. The early years witnessed a pottery (Levi S. Cogburn, 1857), a brick plant (H. M. Morrison, 1882), a cotton gin, a cottonseed oil mill, a compress, a newspaper (1873), the arrival of the Cotton Belt (1880) and Texas and New Orleans (1900) railroads, a bank (1887), and a telephone company (1901). In 1901 Athens was reincorporated, and newly elected city officials began building roads. From 177 people in 1859, Athens grew to 1,500 in 1890 and 4,765 in 1940.
Cotton was the major agricultural crop until the 1930s. During the Great Depressionqv farmers shifted to livestock and vegetable production. Oil and gas exploration in the region began in 1928, and some production occurred in the 1940s. In the 1950s Athens had a furniture plant, an electronics manufacturer, an apparel manufacturer, and a cannery. In the 1980s the town businesses included three banks, two savings and loans, oil, gas, and clay production, and manufacturers of televisions, clothing, bricks, steel buildings, mobile homes, medical supplies, boats, and bridge bearing pads. Corn, cotton, tomatoes, and black-eyed peas were once raised in the area, but agricultural revenue in the 1980s came principally from livestock, hay, and nurseries. The town had forty-two churches, a radio station (KBUD), a newspaper (the Athens Review, since 1885), and a library. Athens had grown to 10,967 people in 1990. By 2000 the population was 11,297. The Old Fiddlers Reunion in May and the Black-Eyed Pea Jamboree in July attracted crowds of visitors. In the fall 1990 semester Trinity Valley Community College, which was founded in Athens in 1946, enrolled more than 4,460 students. For recreation the town offers parks, a YMCA, swimming, golf, tennis, a theater, and Lake Athens.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: "Athens," The Southland, February 1903; rpt. in Athens Review for the Henderson County Historical Survey Committee, 1975. Athens Review, August 2, 1901. Mrs. Claude Corder, comp., 1850-1860 Census of Henderson County, Texas, Including Slave Schedule and 1846 Tax List (Chicago: Adams, 1984). J. J. Faulk, History of Henderson County (Athens, Texas: Athens Review Printing, 1926). Henderson County Historical Commission, Family Histories of Henderson County, Texas, 1846-1981 (Dallas: Taylor, 1981). Robert H. Ryan, Athens, Texas: Economy in Transition (Austin: Bureau of Business Research, University of Texas, 1961).
Athens, the County seat of Henderson County, was established by an act of the Texas Legislature in 1850 on a one square mile site of land donated by Matthew Cartwright. The city was incorporated in 1856. However, through a mischievous prank by several citizens the incorporation was abolished.
E. J. Thompson, County Clerk of Henderson County is credited with being the first citizen of Athens. Mrs. Dull Averiette named Athens in honor of Athens Greece. Mrs. Averiette felt the town would become the cultural center of the county. An interesting sequence of Mrs. Averiette's prophecy is that the new high school is now located in the exact spot on the tree shaded hill where the original Averiette home was built before the War between the states. This large rustic home burned several years ago and the Athens Public School System purchase the site, which included some 30 acres, and have built several new school buildings and playing fields there. The Averiette family lived there until the late twenties when the grandsons of Mrs. Averiette moved to California.
Henderson County was created in 1846 from Houston and Nacogdoches Counties. Named for J. Pinckey Henderson, first Governor of Texas, who was in office when the county was created.
The land here in Henderson County goes from rolling hilly and is 32% forested. There is drainage to the Neches and the Trinity Rivers. Clay, loam and sandy soils make up the county. Oil, gas, sand, gravel and clays are produced.
Beef, cattle, poultry, and dairying are chief farm enterprises. Athens is known as the “Black-Eyed Pea Capital.†Nursery stock, timber, fruits, and vegetables are sources of income with some commercial fish farming.
Athens is fast becoming a center of industry as well, with new plants of varied manufacture and process moving to our area annually. This means a profitable means of income for many families who formerly had to depend on more rural enterprises for livelihood.
The climate of Athens would be called temperate. Altitude ranges from 300 to 600 feet; annual rainfall averages 40.4 inches; January temperature averages 37 degrees and July temperature averages 97 degrees. We have many large lakes in our county, some are very near the city, and we are noted for our recreational advantages provided by these many lakes. Because of the temperate climate, location and natural beauty, Athens has become a prime location for retirement and is noted as such in a major nationwide publication.
These are the kinds of events that this town needs & should have!
HaVoK on Myspace
The Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball on Myspace
Dracula's Ball on Myspace
Gothicfest on Myspace
Fetish Fantasy on Myspace
SABRETOOTH on Myspace
Vampire Ball on Myspace
BAR SINISTER on Myspace
These are the kinds of things that this town needs & should have!
Gothic Topsites , The Goth List
After Dark Jewelry on Myspace
Gothica by Amira
Fetish Falls on Myspace
CyberTechnoMage on Myspace
CYBERESQUE on Myspace
Heavy Red on Myspace
FairyGothMother on Myspace
Yazbelle on Myspace
Queenie - Pocket Full of Posiez on Myspace
Sisoftmoon on Myspace
Velvet Moon Bathery on Myspace
VampireWear on Myspace
Coffin Case on Myspace
Art of Adornment on Myspace
I Kick Shins on Myspace
Dark Candles on Myspace
NighteShade Jewelry on Myspace
SIN HARDER. VAMPSANDTRAMPS.COM on Myspace
Arsenic Fashions on Myspace
Living Dead Dolls on Myspace
Vampire Rave
It would be cool if everybody in and from Athens would join this page. By the way: People from other towns and states can join, too.
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