Freestone County, Texas
Communities


Old Ghost Towns - with former Post office:



Durham

By 1848 a few settlers, including Charles Kilgore, had moved to the area. In 
1852 more families from Alabama, including the Comptons, Highs, and Blains, 
settled there. The community was first called Durham.

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Avant/Avant Prairie 

Avant Church was located a quarter mile to the south east of Ivory.  Avant was
about three miles east of Teague.  Avant was located about a mile northwest of 
Dew. Avant Prairie is off State Highway 179 four miles southeast of Teague in 
southwestern Freestone County.  The name was changed from Durham to Avant or 
Avant Prairie. It was probably named after Durham Avant, who owned the grant 
for the land in the area. Major J. A. Blain was there in 1850.  His place was 
on a hill west of Dew.  A post office was established for the community in 
January 1853, with James W. Brewer as postmaster, but it closed by November of 
that year. However, Avant appears in the list of post offices in Texas furnished
by the postmaster of Galveston in December 1, 1856 to Dr. Braham that was published
in "Braman's Information About Texas" printed in Philadelphia in 1857.
The Sunshine Church was organized in 1854, and a general store was 
established by D. K. Compton in 1870. The post office was reestablished in 1884 
but closed again in 1885, when mail was sent to Luna. In 1903 Avant Prairie's 
white school had an enrollment of eight pupils, and the black school had fifty-
seven. In the 1930s the community had a school, two churches, two cemeteries, 
and a large number of scattered dwellings. By 1965 it had a church, a school, 
a cemetery, and three dwellings.  In the late 1980s the church and cemetery 
remained at the site. 

Buildings:
Avant Church
School
Cemetery 
Houses

Known people in Avant Prairie were: 
Barnett, Professor 
Blain, Major W. G. 
Chandler, R. F.
Compton, Mr.
Cotton, Ellen
Folk, Professor J. B. A.
Groves, Rev. J. S.
Ham, Mr.
Holder, Andrew
Johnson, Bettie
Peyton, Dr. W. F.
Peyton, W. W. (preacher)
Philpott, Mr. (his two-room dog trot house is at the Burlington-Rock Island
    Railroad Museum in Teague)