Coke

COKE, TEXAS . Coke is on Farm roads 515 and 69, ten miles north of Quitman in northern Wood County. Though the area was settled as early as the 1850s, a community did not develop until the discovery of coal southwest of the area. By 1885 the community had received a post office called Coke, probably after that byproduct of coal production. By 1892 Coke had a population of 200, twelve businesses, a lawyer, a constable, a justice of the peace, and a teacher. By 1896 the population had fallen to twenty-five; ten years later the post office closed. By the 1930s Coke had a population of twenty-five, a number of dwellings, a business, a church, and a school. In 1942 the Amerada Petroleum Company made the second major oil discovery in the county, the Coke oilfield, just north of the community. It apparently had no lasting effect, as the population in Coke continued to be reported at twenty-five until the mid-1960s. Though the oilfield was still in operated in 1960, all that remained at Coke was a school and a number of dwellings. The population climbed to fifty-one in 1968 and to 130 in 1970. In 1972 it was 105, where it remained through 2000. In 1988 Coke had one business, a school, and two churches. No businesses were reported in 2000.