In 1855, brothers Thomas Jefferson “Jeff” (1832-1915) and Jasper (1830-1891) Landrum and others left Fayette County, Georgia, and settled in Cherokee County, Texas, five miles west of Alto. They obtained 640 acres and grew a self-sufficient farm with cotton, corn, chicken, pigs and cows. Around 1884, Jeff Landrum built a successful cotton gin, and a community formed around his business. Jasper had a general store in 1890 with a post office in 1895. After the post office closed in 1905, mail was sent through the Alto post office. Landrum family members ran many of the businesses in town. Landrum was a typical small town of the time. A baseball team provided the local residents with sport and welcome relief from the rigors of farm life. By 1915, there was a lumber company, two churches: Lynches Chapel Methodist Church and Camp Ground Baptist Church and two schools: Jones School and Hendrick’s Chapel. In 1917, the two schools were combined into a new, two-story school building named Jones Chapel, consisting of four classrooms and a large auditorium on the upper level. In March 1924, Jones Chapel burned and a new school was built. The school ultimately consolidated into Alto Schools in 1944. The population began to dwindle by the 1940s as the younger generation left to earn money elsewhere. The Landrum tracts had been pared down to 272 acres which remained in family hands. The town of Landrum all but disappeared. However, some descendants of the Landrum and other families have in recent years began efforts to remember the intrepid settlers who left what they knew to make a life for themselves in this area. (2022)