This information was found in the vertical files of the genealogy department of the Longview Public Library.

THE AVINGER CITIZEN
Special Historical Edition
June 18, 1954

PRUITT'S LAKE IS HONESTLY NAMED

Pruitt's Lake community comes by its name honestly since there actually is a nice, little natural fresh water lake formed by an extended, wide place in Big Cypress Creek. Similar wide places appear farther down the stream which are called Pine Top and Barnes Lake, respectively. All three bodies of water have been favored fishing and hunting spots for local sportsmen for many years.

The other portion of the community's name derived from an early settler in the area, Ancil Pruitt, an uncle by marriage of Mr. H.J. Whitworth of Avinger. Mr. Whitworth's paternal great grandfather came to America from Edinsburgh, Scotland during the seventeenth century. He first settled at Charleston, S.C. and later moved to Georgia. His son, Mr. Henry's grandfather came to Texas by river boat to Jefferson in 1852 when Mr. Henry's father , born in 1849, was three years old. They first stayed in an old house still standing about three miles this way from Jefferson; it is now the T.J. Taylor home. They moved to Sulphur Springs in '67, where Mr. H.T. Whitworth was born Dec. 13, 1873.

FIRST SAWMILL

Mr. Whitworth's mother's people, the Caseys, came originally from Ireland, via Georgia to Texas, settling in Hopkins county, also. His grandfather, Uncle Ancil Pruitt and his father put in the first sawmill in the community on the banks of Pruitt's lake in the late seventies. They hauled their lumber by ox wagon to Monday's switch where it was loaded on flat cars on the narrow gauge railroad. This old ox road went by the Kirkland and Holloway home places. Mr. Henry moved to Cass Co. at this time when about six years old. Both of his grandfathers also had gins in the community at that time. He attended school at Hughes Springs and Campbell, Texas, subsequently returning to the Pruitt's Lake community as a young man to enter the sawmill business with his brother Jess. In 1900, he married Miss Lillie Vinson, the new school teacher and thereby broke up the school. The Vinson's had come in from Washington state a short time before, having originally journeyed to that distant place from Arkansas by covered wagon.

MOVED TO AVINGER

In 1919 the two Whitworth brothers, Henry and Jess, moved to Avinger and built the two impressive homes on first street, one still occupied by Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Whitworth and the other now the home of Mrs. C.B. Henderson. Whitworth Bros. Lbr. Co. was a large lumber manufacturing concern in the area during the twenties. There were times when they had as many as twenty-two cars loading out on the old J & N.W. spur at one time. H.J. Whitworth later became postmaster at Avinger, serving the public in that capacity from 1920 to 1933. Children of that family are: the late Son Whitworth, of Rockdale, killed in an auto accident last fall; Buddy Whitworth and family of Jefferson; Mrs. Joe Keasley and sons Johnnie and Brooks of Avinger; and Mrs. Earl Wallace of Lubbock.

Another pioneer family of the Pruitt's Lake Community, descendants of whom are still living in this area, is the Pendley family. The original ancestor to come to Texas was S.P. Pendley, who came from Georgia in the 1850's. He had a mill, a gin and a large, impressive home surrounded by considerable acreage.

A Seventh Day Adventist preacher came into the area during the nineties and converted many members of practically every family in the community to that faith. For years it was known for the most part as an Adventist settlement until the Berea Adventist Colony four miles this side of Jefferson grew to its present size and became the headquarters for members of that faith in this area.