Oletha, Texas

Oletha is an unincorporated community in Limestone County, Texas,[1] originally settled in the 1850s under the name Pottersville.[2][3][4] Texas State Highway 14 extends to Oletha via Farm to Market Road 1246.

Oletha was once described by a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as "an eye-blinker of a town in East Central Texas".[5] One notable person from Oletha is Gib Lewis, the first person to be elected five times as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.[5]

Another colorful native of the town was Forrest Gibson, a convicted murderer known as "Goodeye" because he "had lost an eye in a fight in which Gibson had bitten his opponent's ear off".[6]

References
  1. "Oletha". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved December 3, 2019.
  2. PANUS, STEPHANIE A. (June 15, 2010). "OLETHA, TX". tshaonline.org.
  3. "Oletha, Texas - Updated November, 2019".
  4. Betty Dooley Awbrey, Claude Dooley, Why Stop?: A Guide to Texas Historical Roadside Markers (2005), p. 510.
  5. Patrick L. Cox, Michael Phillips, The House Will Come To Order: How the Texas Speaker Became a Power in State and National Politics(2010), p. 136.
  6. Texas Department of Criminal Justice (2004), p. 33.

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