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History in a Pecan
shell
The town was named for one of the original Spanish settlers
- Jose Antonio Chireno. Perhaps Chireno's most famous resident was dancer/ movie
star Ann Miller who used to spend summers on her grandparent's farm.
A
timeline of significant historic events in Chireno
1790: The Spanish government granted land to settlers
1837: John Newton Fall,
of Georgia (the first Anglo settler) bought land from José Chirino.
That
same year Samuel Flournoy, built a large two-story house that served as the town's
first post office.
1839: Chireno got it's first public school.
1846:
the Flournoy house became a stagecoarch stop. |
The Civil War:
The men of fighting age in Chireno left the area to serve defending the Texas
coast. Others operated a tannery supplying boots, saddles, harnesses and reins
for the Southern cause. |
Reconstruction
The Freedmen's Bureau opened an office nearby in Nacogdoches,
and black soldiers were sent to Chireno as election monitors. The Ku Klux Klan
organized locally to prevent black voting. Eventually tensions eased. |
Two
views of a closed church in Chireno
Photos Courtesy
Barclay Gibson, April 2006 |
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