This article is reprinted as first published in the Beaumont Enterprise, Beaumont, Texas  Sunday, October 2, 1932

THE SUNDAY ENTERPRISE

Here's Peach Tree Village Story
As Written by John Henry Kirby

This is The Story of Peach Tree Village,
Written by John Henry Kirby, Which
You Read On a Great Signboard
in the Center of the Community

"In the early Nineteenth century, the Alabama Indians, then a numerous tribe, made their headquarters at this point and called their village by a name which meant 'Peach Tree.' At this point two trails blazed by the early pioneers crossed each other. A north and south trail leads from the Gulf at Sabine Pass, through what is now Beaumont, Kountze, and Woodville, on the south, and passing north through Moscow, Sumpter, and Crockett and onward across the Trinity and into the heart of central Texas. The other trail ran east and west, beginning at Alexandria, Louisiana, passing through Jasper on the east, and what is now Livingston, Huntsville, and Brenham, to San Antonio on the west. From this trail, other trails diverged into South Texas and notably to the Galveston Bay district.

"The crossing of these trails here made this point an early trading center of considerable interest.

"With the coming of white settlers, the Alabama Indians withdrew and what remains of that tribe is now located in Polk County. While this locality has always been known as Peach Tree Village, there has never been anything of the nature of a village since the Indians withdrew."

Note: This articles appears just as it did when first published as a Sunday Enterprise feature in 1932