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History · Appleby

Appleby’s post office opened in 1889, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

Most of Appleby was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. Its Register listing is the Mangham-McIlwain Building. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1952 on, and the census since 1970.

1889first post office
1on the National Register
5%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Kaleb Lee · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Appleby began

When was Appleby founded?

1889

The Appleby post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 280 in 19702020 census: 552137 years
Founding year: the first Appleby post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Appleby’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Appleby’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Appleby’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Appleby came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Appleby.

Read it all →

The site of present-day Appleby was originally a Caddo village, and white settlers began arriving in the surrounding area in the 1820s. The community developed in the early 1880s after the Houston, East and West Texas Railway was built through the area and platted a town named for James Appleby, a former railway auditor. By 1885, Appleby had a reported population of 100, a general store, and two cotton gins. A post office opened in 1889, and by World War I, Appleby had grown to nearly 1,000 residents. At its peak, the town boasted four churches, two gins, four sawmills, two hotels, and several drugstores. The Appleby school, founded before 1900, became the first independent school district in Nacogdoches County. By the mid-1920s, the population had fallen to 500, and by the early 1950s, it had declined to 250. The post office was discontinued in 1958, and the last store closed by 1964.

ChaptersTornadoes

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Appleby, 1889 to 1958

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1889Post officeThe Appleby post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1952On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1958Post officeThe Appleby post office closes
By decade

Appleby, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Appleby 1-24,000 1983 - PCL Map Collection - txu-pclmaps-topo-tx-appleby-1983Date?Appleby 1-24,000 1983 - PCL Map Collection - txu-pclm…Map
Today5 recent
ApplebyTX-watertower2026ApplebyTX-watertowerApplebyTX-Historicalplaque2026ApplebyTX-HistoricalplaqueApplebyTX-Geocenter2026ApplebyTX-GeocenterAppleby Texas CIMG62682006Appleby Texas CIMG6268TXMap-doton-Appleby2004TXMap-doton-Appleby
On the map

Appleby on the map, 1952 to 1983

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Appleby. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Appleby on the 1952 USGS mapAppleby on the 1983 USGS map1952Nacogdoches sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Appleby.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Appleby

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2019
Mangham-McIlwain Building
Mangham-McIlwain Building
Buildings
All 1 listings
Mangham-McIlwain BuildingBuilding · listed 2019

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Appleby, census by census

0100200300400500600198020002020Peak: 552

Between 280 and 552 people in every census since 1970.

6 censuses, 1970–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Appleby’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Appleby

Nobody well known was born in Appleby itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Clint DempseyAmerican soccer player · b. 1983
M
Mark WhiteAmerican politician · b. 1940
J
Joseph W. KennedyAmerican chemist · b. 1916
W
William Delbert GannAmerican businessman · b. 1878
Allan ShiversPolitician · b. 1907
Thomas Mitchell CampbellAmerican politician · b. 1856
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Appleby had its own post office from 1889 to 1958.

Appleby
1889–1958
18801950today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Appleby’s history

What year was Appleby founded?

The Appleby post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Appleby?

One place: the Mangham-McIlwain Building (listed 2019).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.