Tenaha

Tenaha is at the junction of U.S. highways 84, 59, and 96, on the tracks of the Southern Pacific some eleven miles northwest of Center in northern Shelby County. It was founded in 1885 as a shipping point on the Houston, East and West Texas Railway, when that railroad was being constructed through the county. The community was named by members of the Hicks family for Tenehaw Municipality, the original name of Shelby County. A post office was opened there in 1886 with James N. Woodfin as postmaster. By 1890 the town had 200 residents, several stores, three churches, and a school, and by 1896 it had an estimated 680 residents and a number of businesses, including a weekly newspaper, the Ledger