Saline

Sabine County, TX

Status: Located

Year Established: Unknown

Council of Governments: DETCOG

Public History: There are no current descriptions related to Saline in the public record. If you are aware of any sources that we may have missed please share them with us.

Community History: It is unclear exactly when the founders of this community came together, but historical records indicate that they were in that location by 1872.
In the early 20th century, black residents affectionately referred to the area as “Babsoline, ” meaning the Baptist of Saline. This community consisted of 30-40 farming families and was almost exclusively comprised of African Americans whose surnames included Belton, Loran, Canada, Jacobs, Woods, Brown, and Cotton. Virtually self-sufficient, these farmers grew their own vegetables, had fruit orchards, and raised various livestock. Babsoline residents maintained some of their independence by having their own community cotton gin, grits mill, syrup mill, and canning center. The farmers rarely left their immediate surroundings.

Yet, it was not just agricultural knowledge that helped this community to grow; Babsoline also owed some of its early successes to members such as Edmund Belton, who is acknowledged as the father of the community. Edmund arrived in Louisiana from North Carolina around the early 1870s. One of Edmund’s sons, Riley, raised bees and sold honey in addition to operating a small store called “The Shack.” At the store, residents could buy items they could not provide for themselves.
The community’s religious needs were fulfilled one Sunday in May of 1872 when residents met on George Belton’s farm and decided to build a place of worship. George, Edmund’s cousin, first built a brush arbor, then later a more suitable structure- a log house. At that time, Edmund’s daughter Ellen named the log house Saline Baptist Church.
The group’s educational needs were met after Edmund’s grandson, Robert Edward Jacobs, graduated from Coleman College in Gibsland, Louisiana, in 1901. Robert gained needed experience working as a field agent for Coleman for two years before returning to Babsoline and founding the Sabine Normal and Industrial Institute.
With a creation date for the school of 1904, just 40 years after the end of slavery, Babsoline residents built an educational institution in Sabine Parish. By 1912, there were 203 students enrolled at Sabine Normal, several of whom had come from Texas. To accommodate out-of-state children, dormitories were constructed. Sank Belton, a first cousin of Robert Jacobs, oversaw the construction of male and female two-story dormitories, each with their own outhouses. There was also a dining hall, carpentry shop, laundry room, two-story school building, barn, and concrete pond.
Robert Jacobs’s death in February of 1917 marked the beginning of the end for Sabine Normal as it had existed under his leadership. To ensure the school’s continuance, community elders relinquished control of the institution to the Sabine Parish School Board. At that time in 1918, the school’s name was changed to Sabine Industrial Institute. A little more than a decade later, it held its last graduation exercise with only five students.
Few people are living who remember Babsoline as it once existed. Currently, there are only four African-American families still left in the community. Yet, through the elders’ memories, there is much to learn about the lives of Sabine Parish residents and their contributions to Louisiana history.

Cemetery: Saline Cemetary

Church: Saline Baptist Church

School: Sabine Normal