Youree Chapel & The Oldest General Store in Texas

Continued from (roadtrip post 2)

Highway 2198 through the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge is a pretty road, lots of Pine trees and it took us just long enough for my road trip buddy and I to get into a lively discussion about why there is no underbrush among all the trees we passed by. One of the reasons I love having Chip accompany me on these road trips is because, every now and then, with a totally straight face and full of absoluteness, he makes some "statement of fact" that I find outlandish BS. We can "discuss" these statements for hours, coming to no resolution before dropping the subject and then we'll pick it back up where we left off 6 months later during the next road trip. I have yet to positively determine if he is convinced of the truthfulness of his statements or if he is just having fun at my exasperation. It's one of the benefits of being best friends for going on 50 years!

Youree Memorial Chapel

Connecting onto Highway 43 toward Marshal and then taking several little backroads, we came to our next destination, the Youree Memorial Chapel. Built in 1904 and fashioned after a chapel in England, it has a hand-carved interior with windows by Tiffany. The chapel was built by the parents of Will Youree after he died at age 31 of yellow fever. It is still used today for funerals and the occasional wedding. The historical Scottsville Cemetery joins the chapel property.

The beautiful grounds of the cemetery contain some of the largest and most elaborate, and no doubt, most expensive, gravestones to be found anywhere. One of the first things you'll see is a 25-foot statue of a Confederate soldier, commemorating those who died in the Civil War. Just beyond the statue is a pond a number of ducks call home and a really nice gazebo. The graves are shaded by many pines and shady elm trees giving the whole cemetery an aura of quiet and peacefulness.

Scottsville Cemetery

Unfortunately, the chapel is not open for public viewing. When we arrived, there was still snow on the ground, the temperature was in the 20's and that oh-so-cold wind was still blowing. After just a few minutes outside the warmth of my truck, we decided to forego our usual routine of respectively walking around the grounds and viewing the headstones. Just too darn cold.

Next stop - the tiny crossroads community of Jonesville. Located at the confluence of Hwy 134, County Road 2729 and County Road 2727, it's called a community because calling it a town would be ridiculous. It's one of those communities so small that the "Entering" and "Leaving" signs are on the same post. So why was this little hamlet on my "must stop" list? Because that's where the oldest general store in Texas can be found. The TC Lindsey store first opened in 1847 and it hasn't really changed since. Part store, part museum, the moment you walk in you are transported back in time. Only open Tuesday thru Thursday 10:00 - 2:00, Friday and Saturday 10:00 - 4:00, we had to beat feet to get there before closing time.

The ceilings are tall and the old time-worn wooden floors creak as you walk. The shelves are stocked with lots of old cans, bottles, and boxes, some just old empty relics, some you can buy and actually use. Many items used by the homemaker of years past are still in stock. It's amazing how much "stuff" there is - from clothing to history books to iron skillets. There is also a large selection of locally hand-made jams, jellies, salsas, and honey. In the middle of the store, just past the books and knick-knack shelves is a seating area with a couple of tables. At the counter is a cheese cutting block, the type you see only in museums or movies. Ask for a chunk of cheddar cheese and some crackers, get a soda and have a snack while you have some interesting conversations with the very friendly folks who work there and any other customers. 

On the left side of the store is the hardware section filled to the brim with farm implements, hand tools, empty old soda bottles, oil cans, and leather goods of all ages. There is even the last bale of cotton that was baled at the gin many years ago. In the back corner is the old Jonesville post office (now closed). Look close and you will also find some amusing, odd items for sale - like cans of dehydrated water - something in all my travels I haven't found anywhere else.

There have been 10 movies which made this store a part of their movie productions and you can find a list of them on a wall. The store has also been featured on several TV shows like 60 Minutes and CBS Morning News.

I bought a few items I just couldn't turn down, including a can of dehydrated water, along with some road food - a couple of peanut patties, several other candy bars, a bag of chips and a book. Chip bought a few items himself and it felt good to support a small business like this one even in a small way.

The TC Lindsey store is a throwback to how Texas used to be, a time many of us remember fondly. It was definitely a good, interesting stop on this road trip. If you are ever in the area, make a special effort to stop, browse and remember. 

After an interesting, if cold, day, we headed to Huntsville where a Best Western hotel was holding a room for us. Time to find a place for a bite to eat and rest up for the next day's adventure.

Postcard from Uncertain

Continued from (roadtrip post 1)

Leaving the town of Jefferson and the very cold, haunted Excelsior hotel in our rearview mirror (see that post here), we headed to nearby Caddo Lake. Unknown to my good friend and traveling companion Chip, I had made reservations for us to take a personal guided boat tour through the bayous, channels, waterways and sloughs of the beautiful, but mysterious lake. Home to a forest of cypress trees, waterfowl, over 240 species of birds plus an abundance of wildlife, it was sure to be an interesting excursion and a nice surprise for my buddy. It was not to be, however. The day had dawned with a cloudless sky and a bright sun, but the temperature had only risen to 30 degrees and there was a consistent cold wind blowing. Spending the morning on a lake in an open boat in weather like that was not my idea of a good time. While Chip was on a potty break, I took the opportunity to call our boat guy to cancel the tour. He said he was just about to call me and ask if we could cancel. Seems he didn't want to be out on the lake in that cold either. Nice guy, he waved the late cancellation fee. I'll surprise Chip with it later on one of our road trips in warmer months!

Taking Texas Highway 134 east about 18 miles brought us to the little town of Uncertain, Texas. Being the inquisitive kind, I wondered how in the world a town came by the name "Uncertain." Seems back in the early days when Texas was a country, the town existed right on the boundary line between America and Texas and everyone was uncertain whether it was in America or Texas. Many of the 250 or so citizens of the town were owners of fishing, hunting, and boating businesses. Like most people, they were not excited about paying taxes so when the tax collector from Texas showed up, they claimed to be on the American side and when the American tax collector showed up, they claimed they were on the Texas side. Since the boundary wasn't formally set yet, the tax collectors had to walk away empty-handed.

In the 1940s, the boundary had been set with the town being declared in Texas. Trying to promote tourism, city officials decided to incorporate in order to provide places of legal alcohol consumption. The vote to incorporate was a close one, city officials were uncertain whether the measure would pass or not. When the vote to incorporate was won, the town's history of uncertainty was used for the town name.

At one time, there were almost 250 residents of Uncertain, but that number has dropped since the 1980s. The population from the last census shows only 97 now call Uncertain home. The day we slowly drove through, you couldn't prove anybody lived there. We drove around for almost an hour, finding several Uncertain places of business, the Uncertain storage, the Uncertain antique store, and even the Uncertain church. None of them appeared to be open. It wasn't really a surprise when we found the Church of Uncertain to be non-denominational. And we never saw a single person out and about. Maybe they were all being smart and staying inside out of the cold.

We left the quiet little town behind us to its uncertain future, drove through the Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge and the town of Karnack and jumped on Hwy 43 headed to the historic and beautiful Scott Plantation Cemetery in Scottsville. Stay tuned.