Bethany, Louisiana and Texas

Bethany, Texas, and Louisiana is a community on the Louisiana and Texas state lines on U.S. Highway 79.

History

The site was first settled around 1840. The community, which grew up as a stopping point for settlers moving to Texas from the Old South, was originally known as Vernon, but the name was changed to Bethany around 1849 when a post office was established. In the 1840s the town had a log store, a tavern, a water-powered grain mill, and a tannery.

In 1860, the post office was relocated to Caddo Parish, Louisiana.

After the American Civil War, Bethany began to decline, and by the late 1890s the local school had only nine students. The development of the Bethany gas field, which opened in the 1920s, brought a resurgence of the economy, and by the mid-1930s the community had two churches, five stores, an elementary school, and a number of houses. After World War II, Bethany began to decline again.

In the mid-1960s it supported a church, a community center, and several businesses.

In the early 1990s, Bethany was a dispersed rural community with a church and a few stores. One of the general stores, the Lickskillet, bisected by the state line. It was built in 1889 by a barkeeper who wanted to take advantage of the differences in state laws; in half of the store drinking was legal, in the other, gambling was legal. Although Bethany's decline lasted until the early 21st century, a second resurgence has taken place since early 2008, when the Haynesville Shale was discovered, and Bethany like many other area villages was found to be in the heart of the shale. The oil and gas exploration has brought a vital resurgence to Bethany's stores and restaurant.

While Bethany is home to nearly a thousand residents, several families have made their mark over the past century via entrepreneurship, agriculture, and oil and gas exploration. Several members of the Trosper, Broome, Hines, and Darby families still reside in the area. In 2010, Bethany was included in the documentary "Haynesville" which portrayed the affects of the Haynesville shale on residents and the communities of North Louisiana.

Geography

The northern part of Bethany is located in Caddo Parish. The southern portion is in northeastern Panola County some twenty-two miles northeast of Carthage, Texas.

Bethany is an unincorporated village.