Powderly, TX

Powderly is a Lamar County CDP north of Paris, a place whose name changed when the railroad arrived. It began around the Civil War as Lenoir; in the 1880s the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway came through, and the community was renamed for Terence V. Powderly, a labor leader. A post office opened in 1888, and by 1890 the place had a general store, cotton gins, a gristmill, a sawmill, and a blacksmith. U.S. 271 points south to Paris, Pat Mayse Lake spreads nearby, and the Red River is just north. The local shorthand is old rail town, labor leader's name, and lake country.