 A hundred years ago, there must have some pretty confused postmen in East Texas. Most of these 13 Concords had a post office, but at some time during the last century, the US Postal Service created a rule that there could only be one post office per state with the official postal name of "Concord." One by one, the Concords of East Texas lost their post offices, but one remained, the Concord Post Office in Leon County.  My visit to Leon County had to be planned for an arrival between the opening hours of 1-3. For while Concord had a Post Office, according to Google Maps it had no other businesses or churches. Vina Broxton was handling the duties in the temporary post office postmaster While the mail transfer truck had to hang out for the two hours the post office was open, only Shirley Grisset came by to pick up her post during the hour I waited to talk to folks. So the three of us just sat there chatting: Vina, myself and the truck driver with a name I didn't catch. As she prepared to close up, Vina said "You have to go talk to Mary Ainsworth - she know everything about Concord."   Since Mary was the person who was the repository of knowledge about the town, so I drove up to see her. After a short visit at BUSTER's BARGAIN BARN, I eventually found Ms. Ainsworth's driveway. A large sedan was slowly coming down the driveway so I pulled over. The driver gave a bit of a scowl, but once I described my journey, she smiled and said "follow me," and we returned to the Post Office and she opened up an adjoining room which served as a community center and polling station. "When I was a child, we only used to have one political party and that kept things simple."  It turned out that Phyllis Foley was not only Mary Ainsworth's sister, she was the local reporter, so she had all the news I needed about Concord. She interviewed me for her weekly article on the happenings in Concord, and I did the same for whatever this project will turn out to be.  She gave me a rundown about the school that had once adjoined the post office in the bustling town of Concord. Gradually the schools districts consolidated, but because Concord had strong tax revenue and because her father was on the school district board, the Concord school remained until 1960.  After the church burnt down in 2011, the post office was really all that remained of a town that once had had two train lines and two dozen stores. The post office was family affair. Mary, Phyllis, and their brother Jeff made everyone they knew send and receive their mail through the Concord Post Office. Their mother, Ruby Lee, had run this post office for 46 years, and their father, Tootsie, volunteered as Ruby Lee's assistant. Between the post office, the school system, and the water board, the Speers family managed to keep Concord on the map. Mary has continued the battle as she has fought off plans by the USPS to close the Concord office. She manages to keep the doors open by having a network of friends and acquaintances who purchase sheets of stamps through the Concord Post Office. Phyllis gave me the more recent history of Concord, but she added, "You really need to talk to Mr. Billy Pipes. Let me give him a call.... He'll give you the real history of Concord; he's been here forever."  My visit to Concord made the local news!
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