Wood County History
By LOU MALLORY - Chairperson, Wood County Historical Commission
Leslie Gould Hall, the fourth child of eleven children, was born to the union of Buster and Carrie Chism Hall on April 25th, 1897, in Hawkins.
He received his education from the Fouke Public Schools under the principals Ida V. Hawkins, H.M. Johnson, K.S.E. Henry, and Byron Freeman. He then chose carpentry as his vocation. He used his skills in building his own houses and those of many others in his community.
In 1937, Hall joined Center Point Lodge #208 and was responsible for remodeling the original building. During the 1940s, the L.G. Hall Chapter #19 of Royal Arch was organized.
In March of 1951, during the consolidation of Crow-Fouke Common School District with the Hawkins ISD, the Hawkins school board granted the building and top surface of land to be used for a community center. L.G. Hall led, with the committee's help, in the rebuilding of the Fouke Community Center.
Hall had the idea of forming a family reunion. The first Hall Reunion was held the second Sunday in September 1965 on the B.H. Hall estate near the banks of the newly created Lake Hawkins.
In 1966, Gould and his nephew M.C. McCalla were the first to build boat houses for owners of lake front lots on Lake Hawkins. With the development of the new lake, many people from the Dallas Metroplex area were seeking locations to build and establish permanent homes.
The first question that buyers would ask was where they would get water for their homes. Some asked if a deep well would be their only source of water supply. It was at this point that Leslie Hall became interested in forming a corporation that would solve the water problem.
In March of 1969, Hall began taking donations of $50 per family to make a down payment to take care of legal procedures.
House-to-house meetings were held. From these meeting came a list of persons to serve as initial directors of the corporations. They were L.G. Hall, L.D. Gage, Mrs. Leon Wells, R.S. Ray, Mrs. Helouise Wilson, and J.W. Clanton, all of Hawkins. Others on the list were W.E. Morris, of Mineola, plus V.G. Gore and J.M. Whittaker, both of Winnsboro.
The Fouke Water Supply Corporation was born on July 8th, 1971. The corporation started with approximately 125 members.
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