How It All Began – Eros and Its Founders By Terry Perritt

    Today’s motorist traveling through the small village of Eros would be unaware of the booming past this little community once enjoyed. Located in the northeastern corner of Jackson Parish along Highway 34, Eros is situated near the Ouachita Parish line.
 
    The genesis of Eros can be traced back to another small village located three miles to the west named Nash. One of its founders, Samuel Walton Collins, owned a general store there. In 1886, a post office was established inside his store and his wife, Mary Jane Nash Collins, was the first postmistress. The village had been named in honor of Mrs. Collin’s family. Mary was a graduate of Mt. Lebanon University just south of Sparta and taught school in Jackson Parish because she was concerned about the lack of educational opportunities for the community children.

    In 1898, the Tremont Lumber Company began construction on a sawmill at the present site of Eros. This activity brought in a great influx of workers and their families. It wasn’t long before they began to object to the three-mile distance that had to be traveled to reach the Nash store and post office. Samuel W. Collins soon realized he needed to relocate his business closer to the rapidly growing sawmill community. He built a general store there and wrote to the postal department requesting permission to establish a post office in his store. A couple of names were submitted for the new post office and because Mary Collins was fascinated with the discovery of the 433rd asteroid that year by a Garman astronomer, Dr. G. Witt, she suggesting naming the town Eros in honor of the asteroid. This was later approved by the postal authorities and Samuel W. Collins was granted the commission as the first postmaster on October 23, 1899. When this occurred, the village of Nash began to fade with its postal service eventually transferred to Eros. Today, few people even know this now extinct settlement ever existed.

    From this development, Eros began its era as a boomtown. A great pride of its citizens was the opening of the first accredited public high school in Jackson Parish in 1905, Eros High School. During its prosperous days Eros had three hotels, a bank, at least two drug stores, a printing company that published their newspaper, “The Eros Plaindealer,” and the Eros Telephone Exchange, founded in 1909 by George W. Erskines and his brother. The town also had three resident doctors and a dentist. It appeared that Eros was on its way to becoming a major town; however, because of several disasterous events, this was not to be.

    The first of the tragic events to strike the town was a fire in 1911. An issue of “The Eros Plaindealer” dated 16 Feb 1911 writes “Car shops, roundhouse, three locomotives, and a steam log loader belonging to the Tremont and Gulf Railways were destroyed by fire here last week and the loss will exceed $50,000. Hard work by the lumber company’s fire department prevented further destruction.”

    Another fire took place about 1919 that began in a small shop, T. M. Works Pressing Club, which ironed and sold suits. The fire spread from one building to another and must have consumed many business establishments.
     
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