Ponta

Ponta is north of Mud Creek and just east of State Highway 110 nine miles north of Rusk in Cherokee County. A village called Donaho was begun in 1901 on the H. Donaho survey but failed when the Texas and New Orleans Railroad bypassed it. L. D. and W. T. Guinn and W. T. Norman promoted another town near the railroad. It was surveyed by Hubbard Guinn and first called Hubb in his honor. Robert Montgomery, who moved his store from Donaho, became postmaster in 1903. He changed the name to Ponta (from the Latin word for "bridge") for the bridges over Mud Creek. Soon a bank was established. Later businesses were the B. Everett Gin and Crate factory, the Joe Bailey General Store, Redden's Drug Store, and the Brazier Garage. The town had a physician, P. E. Jones, and a Masonic lodge. A Baptist church and Church of Christ were organized, and a school was built. Timber shipping by rail was the major industry until 1925, when plant farming began. Plants were shipped through Ponta to other states. Mail was routed through Ponta from Lone Star and Summerfield. The post office closed in 1972, and mail was then routed through Jacksonville. The decline of Ponta was marked by the loss of industry. The bank failed, the gin shut down, the druggist and doctor died, the Dalby store closed, the Masonic lodge was moved to New Summerfield, and the school was consolidated with the Rusk schools. Jim Bailey took over his father's store, and when his health failed the business was sold to Terry Perkins and Willard Wysick. In the 1980s all that was left of the original town was the Church of Christ, the Baptist church, and some residences. In 1988 there was a store at the junction of State highways 110 and 204, near the old school campus, and a beauty shop had been opened. The population was fifty in 1970 through 2000.