Shankleville
Newton County, TX
Status: Located
Year Established: 1867
Council of Governments: DETCOG
Public History: Shankleville is near Clear Creek two miles southwest of Burkeville between State highways 63 and 87, sixty-five miles north of Beaumont in north central Newton County. The community was named for former slaves Jim and Winnie Shankle. Jim was born in Kentucky in 1811, Winnie in Tennessee three years later. They were separated when Winnie’s owners moved from Mississippi to Texas, taking Winnie and her three children. Jim later stole away and followed them to the Lone Star State. According to legend, Winnie’s owner discovered Jim in hiding and arranged to buy him from his former master. The Shankles had six children in Texas, born between 1846 and 1859.
Jim became a farmer after emancipation and accumulated $200 in real and $125 in personal property by 1870. Although Winnie died in 1883 and Jim in 1888, Shankleville continued to be a center for Blacks living in the Newton-Burkeville area. Over the years the community has been the site of a sawmill, a gristmill, and a cotton gin. One of Winnie’s daughters, Mary, married Stephen McBride, who established McBride College in Shankleville, which operated from 1883 to 1909. The community in 1976 had three churches, two cemeteries, and about fifty families. The community was still listed as a populated place in 2004, but no population figures were available.
Community History: Shankleville Community, Texas is a “freedmen’s community” founded by Jim and Winnie Shankle in Deep East Texas.
Named for Jim and Winnie Shankle, known as the first Blacks in Newton County, Texas to buy land and become local leaders after gaining freedom by emancipation. Both were born in slavery: Jim in 1811, Winnie in 1814. After Winnie and her three children were moved from Mississippi to Texas, Jim ran away from his Mississippi enslaver. He traveled by night, foraged for food, swam streams (including the Mississippi River), walking out of sight the 400 miles to East Texas. At dusk one day he found Winnie beside a spring. After slipping out food for several days, Winnie told her master, who arranged to buy Jim. The couple worked side by side, bringing up Winnie’s children and six of their own: George Washington (Wash) Rollins, Tobe Perkins, Mary Rollins (McBride), George, Henry, Houston, John, Harriet (Odom), B. M. (Lewis). In 1867, they began buying land, and with their associate, Steve McBride, eventually owned over 4,000 acres.
In their neighborhood were prosperous farms, churches, a cotton gin, grist mills, sawmills, schools– including McBride College (1883-1909), built by Steve McBride. Jim and Winnie Shankle are buried in Jim Shankle Cemetery. Annual homecomings have been held since 1941.
Cemetery: Shankleville Community Cemetery & Jim Shankle Cemetery
Church: Mt. Hope Baptist Church
School: McBride College