One only has to travel a few steps west of the city of DeKalb, Texas to find yourself in a community so steeped in history that volumes and volumes could not record it all.
There is no post office, no general store. In fact, if you don’t know it’s there, you would drive right through it without knowing. Yet buried in the rich farming soil and rooted in those descended from the storied ancestors of the Garland Community is a saga of determination, will, and heritage that rival any tome ever put down on paper.
This is their story.
The descendants of the Garland Community and its founders hold their history as priceless. It is a history born of some of the darkest days of American history, as they are each the direct descendants of slaves, with their bloodline traced back to slaves owned by Colonel John C. Garland. Garland is recorded as being a kind plantation owner who freed his slaves in 1862, long before news of the Emancipation Proclamation reached the region.
