Winnie

In the year of 1894, the eastern section of Chambers County was opened by the State of Texas to those people who would be interested in settling the land by homestead grant of 640 acres of land. This grant could be claimed by living on the land continually for a period of three years in order to prove claim and by paying $1200 to the State of Texas, either in full or by time payment plan of $50 a year interest on the principal until such time as one could liquidate the indebtedness. A good title and abstract was available to anyone who met these requirements.

This offer brought home seekers and early settlers. Some of them proved their claims to the land, but others did not like pioneering with its hardships and diseases, which were prevalent at that time. Mosquitoes were plentiful and many people died of yellow fever and other diseases. Anthrax killed their cattle and then came the big snowstorm of 1895, which dealt a devastating blow. This snowstorm was an unusual condition in an otherwise balmy southland. Some of the early pioneers braved these hardships and prospered.