KANAWHA, TEXAS. Kanawha, in a bend of the Red River in northwestern Red River County, was settled in the early 1850s. Dr. Charles P. Brown, who became postmaster when the post office was established in 1886, named the settlement for the Kanawha River of his native West Virginia, and it became a local trading post for a farming community. Kanawha reported a population of fifteen in 1920 and fifty-seven in 1930. The 1936 county highway map showed a cemetery and two churches at the site. The community's population was estimated at 200 from 1940 to 1968, and at 149 from 1968 to 2000, when no rated businesses were reported.
