Off The Beaten Path -Cut And Shoot, TX & Venus, TX

[joe817]

Cut and Shoot (Cut 'n Shoot, Cut N Shoot) is six miles east of Conroe and forty miles north of Houston in eastern Montgomery County. It was apparently named after a 1912 community confrontation that almost led to violence. According to the different versions of the story, the dispute was either over the design of a new steeple for the town's only church, the issue of who should be allowed to preach there, or conflicting land claims among church members. A small boy at the scene reportedly declared, "I'm going to cut around the corner and shoot through the bushes in a minute!" The boy's phrase apparently remained in residents' minds and was eventually adopted as the town's name. Population statistics were not reported for the community until the mid-1970s, when the number of residents was fifty. By 1980 the incorporated community reported a population of 809 and had built a new city hall and supported a school and several businesses. Cut and Shoot had a post office by the mid-1980s. The community's population was reported as 903 in 1990. In 2000 the population was 1,158.

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VENUS, TEXAS. Venus, formerly known as Gossip, is on State Highway 67 some twenty miles east of Cleburne in eastern Johnson County. Though a number of families settled in the area in the late 1850s, a community did not develop there until the late 1880s. At that time J. C. Smyth purchased eighty acres in an abandoned cornfield and laid off town lots. He named the new community Venus in honor of the daughter of a local physician. In 1888 a post office branch opened, and by 1890 Venus had ten residents and was at the junction of the International-Great Northern and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe railroads. By the mid-1890s Venus was one of the most prosperous towns in Johnson County, reporting thirteen businesses, thirty-one houses, a number of churches, a grade school, and Burnetta College. During the next decade three banks opened, a weekly newspaper named the Venus Express began, and the town voted to incorporate (1903). By the late 1920s its population had surpassed 800. But the Great Depression and the growth of the nearby Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex led to its decline. By the early 1940s it consisted mostly of empty buildings, with one drugstore. When the drugstore threatened to close, Venus residents, fearing for their town, donated five dollars each to keep it open. By the late 1940s, however, the town had recovered somewhat, and reported 300 residents and nearly twenty businesses. In 1990 the population of Venus was 977, and the town had expanded into Ellis County. The population was 910 in 2000

[Jusme]

I live about ten miles from Venus, I never knew it was originally called Gossip. I bet that's an interesting story in itself.
Thanks Joe I look forward to reading these everyday.

[joe817]

I live about ten miles from Venus, I never knew it was originally called Gossip. I bet that's an interesting story in itself.
Thanks Joe I look forward to reading these everyday.

Welcome! I thought you might get a kick out of that, as you are in the general vicinity.

[gamboolman]

Thanks for your posts
I really enjoy them