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Blackjack is an unincorporated community in Cherokee County, located in the U.S. state of Texas.[1] According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 47 in 2000. It is located within the Tyler-Jacksonville combined statistical area.

History

Robert Graves Stadler settled here in the 1840s from South Carolina and was also a Texas Revolution veteran. His nieces and nephews followed alongside other relatives and named the community Blackjack for the blackjack trees in the area. Blackjack Baptist Church was organized in 1875. The community grew when John W. Gray and Tom Upchurch opened a store here in 1916. Blackjack had two stores, a cotton gin, a garage, a church, and 100 residents at its zenith. The last store in the community closed in 1961 and the population declined to 75 by 1966. It had a church and several scattered houses in 1990 and had a population of 47 in 2000.[2]

Geography

Blackjack is located at the intersection of Farm to Market Road 2750[2] and Texas State Highway 110, 18 mi (29 km) northeast of Rusk, 5 mi (8.0 km) north of New Summerfield, 13 mi (21 km) northeast of Jacksonville, 19 mi (31 km) southwest of Henderson, and 7 mi (11 km) south of Troup in northeastern Cherokee County.[3]

Education

Blackjack had a log schoolhouse built around the time of the American Civil War and was still standing after World War I. After the second World War, it joined the Troup Independent School District.[2]

Notable person

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Blackjack, Texas". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. ^ a b c Niendorff, James R. "Black Jack, TX (Cherokee County)". tshaonline.org. Retrieved December 25, 2022.
  3. ^ "Black Jack, Texas". Texas Escapes Online Magazine. Retrieved December 25, 2022.
  4. ^ Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (First ed.). Guinness Publishing. p. 1533. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.