By the late 1850s Eli Coltharp lived beside Cochina Bayou. He opened a store and post office on the stage route west of Nacogdoches. The farm area called Coltharp Hill boasted a gin, gristmill, blacksmith and millinery shops. A school building housed Coltharp Masonic Lodge No. 419, now in Kennard. When the railroad bypassed Coltharp and a sawmill opened nearby in 1901, residents worked at the mill and farming declined. The post office closed in 1909 and Coltharp School consolidated with Kennard in 1925. Many descendants of early settlers remain in the area.