Gary Grew from Zuber into a Railroad and Sawmill Community

Gary sits south of Carthage on Farm Road 10, but its older business story started under another name. The area began as a farming community, and the business place called Zuber had a post office, stores, and a cotton gin before Gary took shape. Cotton led the story early; timber and rail soon pulled the place in a new direction.

In 1898 the Marshall, Timpson and Sabine Pass Railroad reached the Thomas J. Hull farm between Timpson and Carthage. Hull and S. Smith Garrison laid out a 20-acre townsite, a depot opened, and the settlement was named for Garrison's grandson, Gary Sanford. The post office moved from Mount Bethel and took the Gary name in 1899.

By the early 1900s Gary was a busy sawmill community as East Texas forests were being cut. It had a cotton gin, sawmills, stores, a hotel, and a business square. Later the area leaned on pulpwood hauling, cattle ranching, and gas work. The cultural footnote is bigger than the map dot: historian Walter Prescott Webb and singer Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter were both born in Gary.