History of New Colony, Texas: A Rural Community


By: Laurie E. Jasinski

Published: August 9, 2004

New Colony is a rural community located on U.S. Highway 59 about four miles northeast of Linden in east central Cass County. Pioneers arrived in the area from South Carolina in the late 1880s, and one of the settlers, Mrs. J. T. Latham, suggested the name of New Colony to honor their new home. The colonists established the New Colony Baptist Church in 1889, and charter members included the Carwile, Elgins, Washington, Crowson, and Martin families. By 1891 services were held in a log schoolhouse. Zachariah H. Carwile donated land for a church in 1904. The building was destroyed in a 1908 cyclone, but members rebuilt the structure within a year. New Colony Cemetery sat behind the church. In the 1930s the farming community had numerous homes, several businesses, and its own school district. The settlement remained a dispersed farming area throughout the twentieth century. In 2000 New Colony had sixty-five residents and at least one business, a woodworking shop. The oldest marked grave in New Colony Cemetery was that of Z. H. Carwile, who died in 1917.

TSHA is a proud affiliate of University of Texas at Austin
Cass County Cemeteries: Texas Records (Atlanta, Texas: Cass County Genealogical Society, 1976). Charles Steger, "The History of New Colony Baptist Church," The Cass County TXGenWeb site (http://www.rootsweb.com/~txcass/resources/bios/churches/new_colony.htm), accessed August 3, 2004.

Places:

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Laurie E. Jasinski, “New Colony, TX (Cass County),” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/new-colony-tx-cass-county.

Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

TID: HNN46

August 9, 2004

Find out more about this place from our Texas Almanac.

Place
New Colony
Currently Exists
Yes
Place Type
Town
USGS ID
1378738
Town Fields
  • Has post office: No
  • Is Incorporated: No
Belongs to
  • Cass County
Coordinates
  • Latitude: 33.04790900°
  • Longitude: -94.29907950°
Population Counts
People Year
65 2009

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