Newark, TX
N 33° 01.089 W 097° 30.198
14S E 639794 N 3654294
Newark, TX has been a small town with a big name twice: It began life as Odessa, but was ultimately overshadowed by another Odessa in West Texas, taking on the name of Newark, probably as a nod to the hometown of the engineer who surveyed this town.
Waymark Code: WMNE78
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/26/2015
Views: 2
The Handbook of Texas Online provides some background: (
visit link)
Newark is on Farm Road 718 two miles east of Eagle Mountain Lake and one mile north of the Tarrant county line in extreme southeast Wise County. Settlement began in the mid-1850s, when Benjamin B. Haney built a home near the waters of Burrett Creek. The first settlers referred to the community as Caddo Village because of numerous remnants of the Caddo Indian culture found along the banks of the West Fork of the Trinity River. Later it was called Odessa, and a post office branch, the first in what was to become Wise County, was established under that name and operated until 1866. Early in its history, however, the town was referred to informally by many names, including Huff Valley, because of the number of Huff family members in the area; Sueville, after Sue Gary, an early settler; and Ragtown, a derogatory reference to the tents of Rock Island Railroad construction crews. After the railroad reached the town in 1893, Rock Island officials proceeded to survey and lay out town lots and reapply for postal service. The community was renamed after Newark, New Jersey, perhaps the hometown of G. K. Foster, the civil engineer who helped survey the town. Newark was a prosperous farming community until the 1920s. It regained its status as a retail market for area farmers by the end of the 1940s. In 1951 Newark incorporated and reported an estimated population of just under 300. In 1986 it had 466 residents and eight businesses. In 1990 the population was 651. The population grew to 887 in 2000.
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According to Wikipedia, Newark is the largest city (by population) in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and the county seat of Essex County. One of the nation's major air, shipping, and rail hubs, the city had a population of 277,140 in 2010, making it the nation's 67th most-populous municipality, after being ranked 63rd in the nation in 2000." Additionally, "Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small portion of the city extends into Midland County. Odessa's population was 99,940 at the 2010 census making it the 31st-most populous city in Texas. It is the principal city of the Odessa, Texas Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Ector County. The metropolitan area is also a component of the larger Midland–Odessa combined statistical area, which had a population of 266,941 as of a July 1, 2009 estimate."
By all rights, today's Odessa, TX should have a different name, while Newark should have remained Odessa, given that it was there first!