Trickham

Trickham, the oldest community in Coleman County, is located on Mukewater Creek and Ranch Road 1176 in the southeastern part of the county, twelve miles southeast of Santa Anna. The settlement acquired a post office in 1879. An apocryphal story relates that Bill Franks, who operated a store in the area, petitioned for a post office at the store under the name of "Trick'em" because of his habit of selling creek water instead of whiskey to cowboys who stopped by. Several residents of the Trickham area, including Charlie McCain, Dave Upton, and Jake Dofflemyer, were killed by Indians in the turbulent 1860s and 1870s. However, with Indian troubles waning and a post office established, Trickham grew by 1884 to include a population of seventy-five, several stores, a hotel, two cotton gins, two churches, a blacksmith shop, steam-planing mills, and a school. The population reached 150 by 1892, then declined to 100 in 1914, when the community had three general stores, a cotton gin, a blacksmith, a doctor, a druggist, and a telephone company. The Trickham school closed in 1936, but the population rose from seventy-nine in 1930 to 125 in 1940 and did not decline until the mid-1960s. The last general store and gasoline station closed in 1976, and the post office closed in 1979. A population of twelve was reported both in 1970 and 1980. In the mid-1980s the Trickham Union Church, founded by pioneer Baptist preacher Noah T. Byars in 1878 and converted to a union church in 1903, was serving Methodists, Baptists, and Cumberland Presbyterians. The former school building was a community center used by a weekly quilting club and other groups. The only local industry was the Howell Martin Dairy. In 1990 Trickham had a population of twelve. The population remained the same in 2000.