History of Van Sickle, Texas: A Rural Community Overview
Published: April 27, 2005
Van Sickle is a small rural community located south of Farm Road 1903 about eight miles south-southwest of Greenville in south central Hunt County. Settlement began in the area as early as the 1860s, and in the 1870s a community was named after Benjamin A. Van Sickle, a lawyer and farmer and the first postmaster. The post office opened under the name of Van Sickle's in 1877. By 1884 the town had a population of thirty, steam gristmills, a church, and a district school. The town's name changed to Vansickle in 1894. In 1896 a population of fifty supported Baptist, Methodist, and Christian churches. Vansickle also had teachers, a blacksmith, a carpenter, and a physician. The post office was discontinued in 1903. During the 1930s the community still had its own county school district, and highway maps, which spelled the town's name as Van Sickle after the original family name, showed a cemetery and numerous farms in the area. After the school closed, the building became a community center sometime in the 1960s. No population figures were available through the 2000 census.
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Laurie E. Jasinski, “Van Sickle, TX,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/van-sickle-tx.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
HRV36
- April 27, 2005
