Woodville, Texas

Name: Woodville, Texas
Address: Woodville, TX

Everything Woodville is known for

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Rivers & Roads in Song near Woodville

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Woodville.

Neches River 2 songs Angelina River 4 songs U.S. Route 59 9 songs Trinity River 11 songs Kickapoo Creek 4 songs Sabine River 13 songs

History of Woodville

Named for a Man, Standing in the Pines RoadyGoat

You are surrounded by some of the heaviest timber in Texas, and the town is not named for a single tree of it. Woodville honors George T. Wood, who introduced the bill creating Tyler County in 1846 and later served as the second governor of the state. The county seat went up on two hundred acres donated by Doctor Josiah Wheat, in the forks of Turkey Creek. The county itself carries the name of President John Tyler. So the two names on the map here are both men from the 1840s, sitting in the middle of the Big Thicket, and the forest that actually defines the place had nothing to do with either of them.

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A Forest Was a Legal Term Before It Was Trees RoadyGoat

In medieval England a forest was not primarily a description of vegetation. It was a jurisdiction. Land declared royal forest fell under forest law, a separate legal system from the common law, set aside chiefly for the king's hunting, and the penalties inside it were severe. Crucially, a royal forest could take in heath, farmland and whole villages along with the woods. At its height in the 1200s something like a quarter of England sat under that special jurisdiction. So the oldest sense of the word matches the Roman lucus more than it matches a stand of pines: what made ground a forest was its legal status, not what was growing on it.

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Woodville, TX RoadyGoat

Woodville's a small town, but it's got stories. You might not expect a place nestled deep in the East Texas Piney Woods to have much connection to the wider world, but it does.

Work, Lt. Col. Philip A.

1838

Came to Texas, 1838, represented Tyler County, Texas secession convention, 1861. Raised and was Captain, Co. F. 1st Regt., Hood's Texas brigade. As Lieutenant Colonel, commanded Hood's Texans June 1862-Jan. 1864, in battles such as Sharpsburg, where brigade had over 82% casualties. Greatest loss for any unit in any Civil War action. Col. work led Texas brigade second day, Gettysburg; And in Chickamauga victory, 1863. After coming home to regain health, was in David S. Terry's Texas cavalry. After war practiced law. Is buried in old Hardin Cemetery.

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Shivers, Allan - Texas Statesman

1935

One of Texas' strongest governors, a progressive, colorful, dynamic leader. Administration (1949-1957) -- longest in state's history -- was marked by winning fight for restoration of the tidelands to Texas. In state Senate, 1935, where he was youngest man ever seated up to that time, he was author of Texas old-age pension and unemployment compensation laws. In 1947-1949 he served as lieutenant governor. As governor he made reforms in state hospitals, prisons, schools for deaf and exceptional children; created agencies for higher education, historical preservation, water resources, studies of alcoholism. In his administration highway mileage doubled. He had a moderate tax policy and a balanced budget. He was chairman, national and southern governors conferences, and Interstate Oil Compact Commission; president of the Council of State Governments. Born Oct. 5, 1907, in Lufkin, of pioneer east Texas family. Son of Robert A. and Easter Creasy Shivers. Attended Woodville schools; graduate of Port Arthur High School; University of Texas, B. A., 1931, LL.B., 1933. Married Marialice Shary, 1937. Has four children. Served in Europe in Work War II. Is a Baptist and a Mason; lawyer, rancher, farmer, investor, civic leader.

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Kirby, John Henry-and Education in Woodville

1860

John Henry Kirby, son of John T. and Sarah Payne Kirby, was born in the village of Peachtree in North Tyler County, Texas, in 1860. A promising young student, he was encouraged to move to Woodville where he could attend schools with a more challenging curriculum. Kirby married Lelia Stewart in 1883 and afterward joined the staff of Texas State Senator and Attorney Samuel Cooper. He gained admittance to the Texas Bar in 1885 and became Cooper's law partner. After helping Boston investors form the Texas and Louisiana Land and Timber Company he formed his own Kirby Lumber Company in 1901. The company evolved into a regional economic powerhouse responsible for the creation of numerous lumbermill towns in southeast Texas with more than 16,000 employees and covering more than a million acres of timberland. Kirby amassed a lumber empire and became known as the "Prince of the Pines." Though immensely wealthy and a figure of national and state prominence, Kirby never forgot his Tyler County roots. Kirby's many philanthropic acts and gifts to churches, schools, parks, and organizations in East Texas included his donation of land and the funds to build "Kirby High School" at this site in 1928. The last Kirby High School class graduated in 1979. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995

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Woods, Zadock

1828

Zadock Woods, one of Stephen F. Austin 's Old Three Hundred , was born Zaduck Wood on September 18, 1773, in Brookfield Township, Massachusetts, the son of Jonathan and Keziah (Keith) Wood. By 1796 he had moved to South Woodstock, Vermont, where he married Minerva Cottle in 1797. They had six children. Woods and his family moved to the St. Charles District of Missouri Territory around 1801 and were the first White settlers granted land in that area. The town of Woodville (or Woods' Fort) was established at Troy, Missouri, and Woods's inn and tavern was its first stagecoach stopover. Woods' Fort, commanded by Lt. Zachary Taylor , was a principal defense post during the War of 1812. Woods fought with Andrew Jackson in Alabama and New Orleans. After a lead-mining venture with Moses Austin ruined him financially, Woods and his family joined Stephen F. Austin's Texas colony in 1824. His original land grant was in Matagorda County, but the family settled farther up the Colorado River in Fayette County. His fortified home in the vicinity of present West Point was called Woods' Fort (or Woods' Prairie) and was used by the colonists as a place of refuge from Indian attacks from 1828 to 1842. Woods's son Leander was killed in the battle of Velasco in 1832. Zadock mustered under Capt. Michael Goheen and Col. John H. Moore to fight in the battle of Gonzales, the battle of Concepción, and the Grass Fight near San Antonio, all in 1835. He returned home on December 3 of that year but was again involved in the Texas Revolution the next spring, when he housed a ten-member company of Tennessee volunteers under Daniel William Cloud on February 10, 1836, on their way to the Alamo . The family took part in the Runaway Scrape , fleeing before the advancing Mexican army. Minerva Woods died on March 28, 1839, and was buried in the Woods' Prairie Cemetery. In 1842 Woods and his sons Norman and Henry G. were recruited by Capt. Nicholas M. Dawson to fight with Mathew Caldwell 's forces against Mexican general Adrián Woll at Salado Creek. On September 18, 1842, Woods was killed in the Dawson Massacre . His son Henry escaped, but Norman was captured and taken to Perote Prison . Zadock Woods was buried in a mass grave by Salado Creek but was reinterred six years later at the Kreische Brewery-Monument Hill State Historic Sites in La Grange. Historical markers in Troy, Missouri, and West Point, Texas, note Woods as a significant early pioneer.

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Work, Philip Alexander

1861

Philip Alexander Work, lawyer and Confederate soldier, was born in Cloverport, Breckinridge County, Kentucky, on February 17, 1832, the son of John and Frances (Alexander) Work. The family moved to Velasco, Texas, in 1838 and several years later settled in Town Bluff, Tyler County; John Work established a plantation a few miles below Town Bluff. After receiving a good education, Philip Work was admitted to the bar in Woodville in 1853. He enlisted and served with the rank of first sergeant for four months in Capt. John George Walker 's Company B, Mounted Battalion of Texas Volunteers, when Governor Elisha Marshall Pease in the fall of 1854 issued a call for volunteers to protect the Texas frontier from Indian depredations; the volunteers were then mustered into the regular United States Army, and Work later received a federal pension for this service. He was one of the two delegates from Tyler County to the Secession Convention in 1861, but before the convention reconvened on March 2 he resigned to raise a company of Texas militia, known locally as the Woodville Rifles. When it was mustered into the Confederate Army at New Orleans in May 1861 it became Company F of the First Texas Infantry Regiment, Hood's Texas Brigade . Upon reorganization of the regiment in May 1862 in Virginia, Work, who had already been promoted to major, was elected lieutenant colonel. He became the regimental commander on June 27 during the battle of Gaines' Mill, after Col. Alexis T. Rainey was wounded. Thereafter, Work commanded the First Texas Infantry in the battles of Malvern Hill, Freeman's Ford, Thoroughfare Gap, Second Manassas, Boonesboro Gap, Sharpsburg or Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Gettysburg. At Sharpsburg his regiment suffered 82.3 percent casualties, the greatest percentage of losses sustained by any regiment, Union or Confederate, in a single day of fighting during the war. His father, Dr. John Work, was assistant surgeon of the First Texas Infantry from October 1862 to July 1864. Philip Work succeeded to the command of Hood's Brigade on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg. He became ill on September 18, 1863, before the battle of Chickamauga, and had no further field service with his regiment; his resignation as lieutenant colonel of the First Texas Infantry on November 12, 1863, was accepted by the War Department in January 1864. He returned to Texas and, after recovering his health, raised and commanded a company in Col. David Smith Terry 's Texas Cavalry regiment from the fall of 1864 to the end of the war. Work resumed his law practice in Woodville, but in October 1865 he moved to New Orleans, where he practiced law and was in the steamboat business. After 1874 he resided in Hardin County, Texas, where he attained eminence as a land lawyer. He also was the owner of the steamboat Tom Parker, which navigated the Neches River. In his later years Work wrote several accounts of his wartime experiences, but only fragments of these manuscripts have been preserved. At Woodville on May 8, 1855, he was married to Adeline F. Lea, and they were the parents of four children. Work died on March 17, 1911, and was buried in the old Hardin Cemetery near Kountze.

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Peach Tree Village

1700

Peach Tree Village, near the Neches River on a site now crossed by Farm Road 2097 two miles north of the present Chester in Tyler County, was the largest and most prominent of the villages established by the Alabama Indians. It was on a hill in the Kisatchie Wold , the ridge running through northern Tyler County. Members of the Alabama and Coushatta Indians had begun entering Texas in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and the Spanish Indian agent Samuel Davenport reported that the Alabamas established their principal village on the west bank of the Neches River eight leagues above its confluence with the Angelina. The Alabama Trace and the Coushatta Trace passed through this village. Also, it was the northern terminal of Long King's Trace , and the important north-south trail, the Liberty-Nacogdoches Road , was five miles east. Surveyors' field notes for fifteen original land grants in the counties of Polk and Tyler refer to this village. The Alabamas' claim to lands in Peach Tree Village and vicinity was contested for the first time when, in 1834 Col. Peter Ellis Bean , an American serving in a Mexican army detachment stationed at Nacogdoches, applied for and received a grant of eleven leagues of land from the Mexican government. Colonel Bean, who promoted this grant through Gavino Aranjo, one of his subordinates in the Mexican army, located part of his grant on land occupied by the Alabamas at Peach Tree Village. This land was later conveyed to Frost Thorne and his successors. The Alabamas were on good terms with White settlers in the area, who included Peter Cauble and Valentine Ignatius Burch . Cauble settled at Peach Tree Village sometime around 1831, and Burch, who married Cauble's daughter, settled there about 1845. Peter Cauble's house was mentioned in the 1846 description of the boundaries of Polk County. At Gen. Sam Houston 's request, the Alabamas remained neutral during the Texas Revolution . But they fed and cared for White settlers who passed through Peach Tree Village in the Runaway Scrape . To show that they were neutral the Alabamas displayed a large piece of white cloth every time a group of fleeing Texas approached Peach Tree Village. After Texas gained independence from Mexico, increasing numbers of settlers located in and near Peach Tree Village, and this village began a gradual transition from an Indian community to a prosperous frontier town with a store, a cotton gin, a saloon, a church, a school, and a post office that opened in 1853. During the years of the Republic of Texas the Alabamas began leaving Peach Tree Village and moving five miles southeastward to the Fenced-in Village . In the 1850s Peach Tree Village was served by one of two mail routes across Tyler County, which connected with a route from Jasper to Swartout on the Trinity River in Polk County. Valentine Burch and other citizens of the community established a private academy, which served the area for a number of years. Dr. Stephen Pelham Willson, one of five doctors listed in the 1850 Tyler County census, located his store and office there and remained until his death. His son, Hiram A. Willson, a member of the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1876, also bought a farm and resided in this area. Peach Tree Village was the birthplace and boyhood home of one of East Texas's most outstanding industrialists- John Henry Kirby , who was born here on November 16, 1860. Known and remembered chiefly as a lumberman, Kirby was an able lawyer, a business executive, a banker, and an oil operator. He was also president of the Southwestern Oil Company of Houston and organized the Kirby Petroleum Company in 1920. In 1883 the Trinity and Sabine Railway was constructed into Tyler County, and Chester was built on the railroad two miles from Peach Tree Village. Soon the schools, commercial establishments, and postal service were moved to Chester, causing Peach Tree Village to die as a community. In 1912 Kirby erected a red brick chapel at Peach Tr

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Things to Do in Woodville

nature 22.6 mi away

Big Thicket National Preserve

The Big Thicket is the place where four different ecosystems collide on a single patch of ground. Southern swamp from the Louisiana lowlands, eastern hardwood…

Everything Near Woodville

126 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

Named for a Man, Standing in the Pines
You are surrounded by some of the heaviest timber in Texas, and the town is not named for a single tree of it. Woodville honors George T. Wood, who introduced the bill creating Tyler County in 1846 and later served as…
A Forest Was a Legal Term Before It Was Trees
In medieval England a forest was not primarily a description of vegetation. It was a jurisdiction. Land declared royal forest fell under forest law, a separate legal system from the common law, set aside chiefly for the…
Woodville, TX
Woodville's a small town, but it's got stories. You might not expect a place nestled deep in the East Texas Piney Woods to have much connection to the wider world, but it does.
The Surname Gets You Back to the Trees Anyway
The name loops back to the forest, just by a longer road. Wood as an English surname is a locative one, meaning roughly the person who lives by the wood, handed to a family because of where their house sat rather than…
The Thicket Got the Honest Name
There is a nice contrast sitting right here. The town carries a legislator's surname, which tells you nothing about the ground. The woods around it carry the name people actually gave them for what they were, the Big…
How Woodville Won the County Seat
Tyler County was created by the Texas legislature on April 3, 1846, carved from the older Menard District and named for President John Tyler. The new county needed a seat of government, and three sites competed: Town…
The Dogwood Festival's First Spring
Every spring the Pineywoods around Woodville fill with the white blooms of wild dogwood trees, and in 1938 Judge James E. Wheat proposed celebrating them with a festival. The first Tyler County Dogwood Festival was…
Why So Many Places End in Wood
Wood is one of the workhorse endings in English place names, and it has company. A hurst is a wooded hill. A holt is a small wood, often of one kind of tree. A shaw is a thicket or a strip of woodland at a field's edge,…
Work, Lt. Col. Philip A. · 0.1 mi
You're driving through Woodville, and right here we're passing the site associated with Lieutenant Colonel Philip A. Work. He arrived in Texas in 1838 and later represented Tyler County at the 1861 secession convention.…
Wheat, James Edward, Home of · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the home of James Edward Wheat, a man whose life spanned nearly 81 years and touched many corners of Texas history. This land was first granted to his great-great-grandfather in 1838. The house…
A Governor's Hometown Museum · 0.1 mi
Allan Shivers, who would serve as the 37th governor of Texas, was born in Lufkin on October 5, 1907, but he spent his boyhood tied to Woodville, where his family kept a home before he moved on to Port Arthur, graduating…
Woodville Academy and Woodville College · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Woodville, and right around here, education was booming way back in 1849. That's when the Woodville Academy opened its doors in the old county courthouse, offering advanced subjects like…

Show all 126 nearby places

Tyler County · 0.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Tyler County, a land once home to native tribes and later a strategic point for Spanish explorers trying to block French traders. In 1831, this area saw Fort Teran, commanded by the adventurer…
Shivers, Allan - Texas Statesman · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
One of Texas' strongest governors, a progressive, colorful, dynamic leader. Administration (1949-1957) -- longest in state's history -- was marked by winning fight for restoration of the tidelands to Texas. In state…
Squire Cruse · 0.3 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Woodville, Texas, the site where Squire Cruse once stood. He was a soldier who fought in the Texas War for Independence, serving specifically in the Bexar Campaign back in 1835. Remember his…
Kirby, John Henry-and Education in Woodville · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
John Henry Kirby, son of John T. and Sarah Payne Kirby, was born in the village of Peachtree in North Tyler County, Texas, in 1860. A promising young student, he was encouraged to move to Woodville where he could attend…
Woods, Zadock · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Zadock Woods, one of Stephen F. Austin 's Old Three Hundred , was born Zaduck Wood on September 18, 1773, in Brookfield Township, Massachusetts, the son of Jonathan and Keziah (Keith) Wood. By 1796 he had moved to South…
Work, Philip Alexander · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Philip Alexander Work, lawyer and Confederate soldier, was born in Cloverport, Breckinridge County, Kentucky, on February 17, 1832, the son of John and Frances (Alexander) Work. The family moved to Velasco, Texas, in…
Barclay, William Anderson · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Central Texas, and right here, William Anderson Barclay was building an empire. Born in Woodville in 1849, Barclay didn't stick to just one thing. He started as a store clerk, then deputy sheriff,…
Bethel Baptist Church · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Woodville, and you're passing the site of the Bethel Baptist Church. This isn't just any church; it's the very first church organized in Tyler County! <break time="400ms"/> It all started around…
Jones, Charles Hill · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through East Texas, not far from Woodville. Right here, Charles Hill Jones served as a Confederate officer during the Civil War. He organized a cavalry company, rising to the rank of major and seeing…
Shivers Library and Museum · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Woodville, Texas, and right here you can see the Shivers Library and Museum. This Victorian house, built way back in 1881, was moved to this spot in 1963 by former governor Robert Allan Shivers…
Tyler County · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Tyler County, a place whose very name honors a US President, John Tyler. But the story of its county seat, Woodville, starts with a donation of land from Dr. Josiah Wheat in the mid-1840s. He gave…
Woodville, TX (Tyler County) · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Woodville, the county seat of Tyler County. This town was established in 1846, the same year Tyler County itself was formed. Woodville won the election for county seat against two other locations,…
Wheat, James E. · 0.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through East Texas, and right here in Woodville, you're passing through a town that owes a lot to one man: James E. Wheat. He wasn't just an attorney and civic leader; he was a driving force. Wheat helped…
Cooper-Reid Home · 0.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Cooper-Reid Home. Built 1850. Home of Congressman Samuel B. Cooper (1850-1918). Bought 1903 by S.
Site of Henry T. Scott School · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Woodville, and right here is the site of the Henry T. Scott School. For years, African American children in Woodville were educated in churches and Masonic halls. That all began to change thanks…
Tyler County Courthouse · 0.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Woodville, the heart of Tyler County. Look around for the courthouse – it's been standing on this very block since 1849, though the current building dates to 1892. It’s a Victorian gem, designed…
The First People of the Pines · 0.6 mi
Head west out of Woodville on U.S. 190 and you'll come to the oldest community in this region: the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, whose reservation lies in Polk County, seventeen miles east of Livingston. Their…
The Biological Crossroads · 0.6 mi
The land around Woodville is special, and scientists have a name for it: a biological crossroads. You're on the edge of the Big Thicket National Preserve, one of the most ecologically diverse places in North America.…
The Governor's Hometown · 0.6 mi
As you pass through Woodville, you are in the hometown of one of Texas's most powerful and most controversial governors. Allan Shivers was born over in Lufkin, but he spent his early years at Magnolia Hills, the family…
Young, Rev. Acton · 0.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Woodville, and you're passing the final resting place of Reverend Acton Young. Born in Tennessee in 1823, Young settled in East Texas and married into a prominent local family – his father-in-law…
Woodville Magnolia Cemetery · 0.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Woodville, and right here is the Magnolia Cemetery, a final resting place for many of this region's pioneers. It started in 1855 when M. Priest deeded an acre for public burial, with Jane Bean…
When the Sawmills Ran the County · 1.1 mi
The tall pines that gave Woodville its name also built its economy. In 1899 the East Texas lumber baron John Henry Kirby erected a major sawmill in Woodville, a mill soon folded into the sprawling Kirby Lumber Company…
James Barclay Place_1842 · 1.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the James Barclay Place, built in 1842. This hand-hewn pine home is the oldest still standing in Tyler County. It was constructed by the area's first Indian agent, appointed by President Sam Houston…
Tolar Kitchen · 1.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Woodville, and just south of here is a piece of Texas history still standing. This is the Tolar Kitchen, built in 1866 by Robert Tolar. Imagine logs cut, squared, and notched right on site, topped…
Peach Tree Village · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Peach Tree Village, near the Neches River on a site now crossed by Farm Road 2097 two miles north of the present Chester in Tyler County, was the largest and most prominent of the villages established by the Alabama…
Barclay, James · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Tyler County, Texas, a place James Barclay called home. He was one of the earliest settlers here, even buying land in 1852 that included a village of the Alabama Indians. They called…
Burch, Valentine Ignatius · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through East Texas, and right here, in what is now Tyler County, is the site of Peach Tree Village. This was home to Valentine Ignatius Burch, a soldier who fought in the pivotal Battle of San Jacinto.…
Cauble, Peter · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once old Liberty County, near the border of what is now Tyler County. Right here, Peter Cauble settled in 1831, carving out a life at Peach Tree Village. He built a large log house in…
Wheat, John · 2.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the land once owned by John Wheat, a man who arrived in Texas in 1835. He fought in the Texas War for Independence, and after the Battle of San Jacinto, he actually guarded a captured Mexican…
Spurger, TX · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Spurger is two miles from the Neches River and twelve miles from Woodville in southeastern Tyler County. The first area settler was Ephraim Thompson, who in 1834 applied for land in Lorenzo de Zavala 's colony and…
Town Bluff, TX · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Town Bluff is on Farm-to-Market Road 92 at the crossing of the Neches River, between Woodville and Jasper in Tyler County. It was one of the earliest settlements in the county. The settlement, also known for some of its…
Fenced-In Village · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Tyler County, Texas, near County Road 135. Right here, in the 1840s, was the Fenced-In Village, a significant settlement of the Alabama Indian tribe. They chose this hilltop for good…
Fort Teran · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through East Texas, likely near the Neches River, and right here is the site of Fort Teran. Established in 1831 by Mexican forces, this wasn't just any outpost. It was a strategic military encampment…
Doucette, TX · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Doucette is on U.S. Highway 69 and the Southern Pacific Railroad three miles north of Woodville in central Tyler County. In 1834 Elijah Hanks received a land grant in the area. A community coalesced around a sawmill…
Hyatt, TX · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Hyatt was three miles south of Warren in far southern Tyler County. Jonas S. Rice and William M. Rice, nephews of William Marsh Rice , in 1882 built a sawmill on the Sabine and East Texas Railroad at the site that…
Mount Hope, TX (Tyler County) · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Mount Hope was near Russell's Creek two miles north of the site of present Chester in northern Tyler County. At Mount Hope the route from Orcoquisac to Nacogdoches intersected the Old Beef Trail to the Trinity River.…
Charlton, Napoleon Bonaparte · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what is now Tyler County, Texas, and right here is the area where Napoleon Bonaparte Charlton made his mark. He wasn't just any farmer; Charlton was a Texas legislator for a decade, serving in the…
Fulgham, Robert Cummins · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through what was once Tyler County, Texas, where Robert Cummins Fulgham served as chief justice during the turbulent years of the Civil War. Born in Georgia in 1817, Fulgham moved to Texas around 1840,…
Harmony, TX (Tyler County) · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through East Texas, not far from Woodville, in what's now Tyler County. Right here, around 1890, a community called Harmony began to form, centered on the Harmony Baptist Church. This church wasn't just…
Hicksbaugh, TX · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Hicksbaugh, four miles southeast of Warren in south central Tyler County, was probably established in 1917 by the Loderick (or Lodwick) Lumber Company at the same time that the East Texas and Gulf Railway was chartered.…
Hillister, TX · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Hillister, eight miles south of Woodville in south central Tyler County, began as a sawmill town. It was probably originally called Hollister, after a Texas and New Orleans Railroad Company official, although another…
Mobile, TX · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Mobile was four miles northwest of Colmesneil and one mile west of Billiams Creek in northwest Tyler County. There a sawmill was operated by Sam Allen during the 1880s and 1890s. John Donovan became a one-fourth owner…
Rockland, TX · 2.4 mi · Tsha Handbook
Rockland is in the extreme northeast corner of Tyler County close to the Jasper county line and near the Neches River, which forms the boundary between Tyler and Angelina counties. Rockland was named for the exposed…
The Yale Summer Forestry Camp and Gifford Pinchot, The · 2.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through East Texas, near Woodville, where a pivotal moment in American conservation history unfolded. Back in 1909, senior forestry students from Yale University gathered for their annual camp at Mooney's…
Doucette Union Church · 3.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving near Woodville, in Tyler County. In 1902, William McCready set aside land for a church. By 1908, Baptist and Methodist residents shared a sanctuary, with Presbyterians joining by 1910. This union church…
Moss Hill Community Cemetery · 3.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Moss Hill Community Cemetery, a testament to African American heritage in Tyler County. In 1906, John Cruse donated two acres for church and cemetery use. Local tradition says it was established…
Monuments Are for Dead Things: The Big Thicket Fight · 4.1 mi
U.S. Highway Sixty Nine between Beaumont and Lufkin is designated the Big Thicket National Preserve Parkway, named for a patch of Southeast Texas forest so dense that the word thicket stuck. People fought for decades to…
Hart Mill Cemetery · 5.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Hart Mill Cemetery, a final resting place named for a mill that once operated on nearby Sutton Lake. Richard Jefferson Hart, who ran that mill, is buried here, along with several of his children. But…
Pine Grove Missionary Baptist Church and School · 5.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Dies, a community with deep roots in African American history. Look for Pine Grove Missionary Baptist Church, a testament to resilience. Formed in the late 1800s, this congregation faced storms…
Colmesneil-Mount Zion Cemetery · 9.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Colmesneil, and right here is the Mount Zion Cemetery, a vital piece of this area's African American heritage. Local stories say burials began here as early as the 1850s, though the oldest marked…
The Conductor Who Named the Town · 9.1 mi
Colmesneil carries the name of a railroad man. William Taylor Colmesneil was one of the first conductors on the Texas and New Orleans line, a passenger run between Beaumont and Rockland. In 1883 he bought a lot here and…
The Mill That Ran on Steam and Steel · 9.2 mi
In the pine country around Colmesneil, the Yellow Pine Lumber Company built one of the region's most advanced sawmills, founded in 1883. Its machinery is a lesson in early industrial engineering. A large circular saw…
Colmesneil, TX · 9.2 mi
Colmesneil's history is deeply intertwined with the Texas and New Orleans Railroad. The town was named after W. T. Colmesneil, one of the first conductors on the railroad, which ran through the county. In 1881, the…
Two Towns, One Railroad Crossing · 9.2 mi
This spot became Tyler County's rail hub because two lines met here. The Texas and New Orleans ran north to south between Rockland and Beaumont, and the Trinity and Sabine, chartered in 1881 and tied to the Jay Gould…
Colmesneil, W.T., House · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the home of William Taylor Colmesneil, the man who gave this town its name. He built this house in 1883, right after becoming one of the first conductors on the local railroad. Legend says he built…
Ferrell Cemetery · 9.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving near the rural community of Holly Fork, close to the Neches River. This area, also known as Holly Fork Cemetery, has seen burials since before 1866, with land officially deeded for the cemetery in 1914.…
The Narrow-Gauge Railroad That Built a Town · 9.3 mi
As you cross the railroad tracks in Colmesneil, take a good look. That line is the reason this town exists. The Trinity and Sabine was chartered in September of 1881, planned by local lumber interests to run east out of…
The Engine That Harvested a Forest · 9.3 mi
The boom of Colmesneil was driven by a powerful combination of ecology and industrial technology. The ecology was the vast, dense longleaf pine forest. The technology was the steam-powered sawmill. Imagine a massive…
Colmesneil, TX · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through East Texas, and right here is Colmesneil. This town owes its existence to a fierce rivalry! It started as two separate communities: Colmesneil and Ogden. Jay Gould himself chartered the railroad…
Gardner, Jabez Alvin · 9.3 mi · Tsha Handbook
Right here in Colmesneil, Texas, was born J. Alvin Gardner, a man who would become a big name in professional baseball promotion. Gardner got his start as a bat boy for the Beaumont club in 1903. He spent years working…
Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church · 9.4 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church, a true cornerstone for Colmesneil's African American community. In the early 1880s, a Freedmen's colony sprang up here, drawn by jobs at a new…
The Railroad That Gave, and Took Away · 10.9 mi
The road you're driving on, U.S. 287, follows the ghost of what created Chester: the railroad. The Trinity and Sabine was chartered in 1881 as a logging tram, and when its track came through in 1883 the town was born…
Engineering an Iron Path Through the Pines · 10.9 mi
The creation of Chester was a feat of 19th-century engineering. The challenge was immense: build a railroad, the Trinity and Sabine, through the dense, swampy, and hilly terrain of the Big Thicket. This wasn't a simple…
Chester, TX · 10.9 mi
Chester, a town in Tyler County, Texas, has a history deeply intertwined with the railway. It was formed in 1883 when the Trinity and Sabine Railway decided to route its new line near the community of Peach Tree…
5507019973 19973 Fellowship Cemetery Warren Tyler From Hwy 69/287 in Warren, tra · 11.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Fellowship Cemetery, the final resting place for many early settlers of Warren. Preacher John Dryden founded the church here in 1869, and his own burial site after a horse accident in 1878 became…
Duff, Arleigh Elton [Arlie Duff] · 11.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through East Texas, near where Arlie Duff was born. He was a "Singin' Schoolteacher" who wrote "Y'All Come," a huge hit in 1953. It climbed to number 7 on the country charts and was later covered by…
Hart, John · 11.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Fannin County, and right here is a place where land disputes turned deadly. John Hart, a pioneer and early sheriff, came to Texas in the 1830s, serving in the Texas army and eventually settling…
Warren, TX (Fannin County) · 11.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Fannin County, and right here, in 1836, stood Fort Warren. Built by an Indian trader named Abel Warren, this bois d'arc structure was a vital frontier outpost. Imagine those two-story towers…
Warren, Abel · 11.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Fannin County, and right here, in <<1836>>, Abel Warren set up shop. He was a trader from Massachusetts, looking for opportunity in the wild Texas frontier. He built his post on the Red River,…
Warren, TX (Tyler County) · 11.2 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Warren, Texas, a town that owes its existence to the roar of a sawmill. Back in 1883, the Texas and New Orleans Railroad pushed into Tyler County, and Alexander Young, from Beaumont, built the…
The Mill Town the Railroad Built · 11.3 mi
Warren was born of pine and steel. It began in 1883, when the Texas and New Orleans Railroad pushed into central Tyler County. That same year Alexander Young, of the Globe Planing Mills at Beaumont, raised the first…
Lindsey Cemetery · 11.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Warren, and just off the road is Lindsey Cemetery. It started in 1898 when W. C. Lindsey, dying of tuberculosis, asked to be buried on his family's land. His parents, David S. and Caroline E.…
Enloe Mill · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of the old Enloe Mill, a powerhouse in early Tyler County history. Built around 1840 on Billums Creek, its swift current powered a water-wheel, grinding cornmeal for settlers' bread and…
David Curlee Enloe House · 11.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the David Curlee Enloe House, built in 1852. Enloe himself brought his bride to this spot on April 4th, 1853. He was more than just a homeowner; he was a teacher and trustee for Woodville College. In…
Pedigo Family Cemetery · 11.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Pedigo Family Cemetery, the final resting place for a family who arrived in Texas in 1857. They built a plantation and operated mills, but tragedy struck in 1883 when daughter Cordelia and one of…
Sunny Dell Missionary Baptist Church · 12.0 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Sunny Dell Missionary Baptist Church, organized in 1882 by pioneer settlers. Led by Rev. Arnold Rhodes, the congregation had 14 charter members and James Sturrock donated the land.…
Beech Creek Baptist Church · 12.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Beech Creek, a community that owes a lot to Georgia native James G. Collier. He arrived in 1852, setting up the area's very first sawmill. But Collier also helped establish the roots of faith…
Cima, TX · 13.1 mi · Local history
Cima, Texas, nestled in the rolling hills of Tyler County, saw a dramatic shift in recent years. The thick pine forests, characteristic of the East Texas region, had long been the economic backbone of the area,…
Midway Cemetery · 13.2 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Midway Cemetery, a place born from a mother's final wish. Mary Barnes McKee, who died in childbirth in 1857, is said to be the first buried here. Legend has it, just before she passed, Mary marked…
Turner, Captain Isaac Newton Moreland, C. S. A. · 13.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the final resting place of Captain Isaac Newton Moreland Turner, a Confederate officer who died young. Born in Georgia in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1839</say-as>, Ike Turner moved his…
Mount Hope Methodist Church · 13.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Mount Hope Methodist Church. Mount Hope was near Russell’s Creek, two miles north of present-day Chester. At Mount Hope, the road from El Orcoquisac to Nacogdoches intersected the old beef…
Tyler County, TX · 14.0 mi · Local history
Tyler County, nestled in the South Central Plains of East Texas, carries echoes of its diverse past. The landscape, a mix of rolling hills and dense woodlands, reflects the environment that greeted early settlers.…
Plants That Eat Meat · 14.1 mi
North of Kountze, the Big Thicket hides one of the strangest food chains in Texas: plants that eat animals. Four of North America's six carnivorous plant types grow in its wet, sunlit pine savannas. The pale pitcher…
Dam B: The Little Dam That Catches Sam Rayburn's Power Surges · 14.6 mi
Just north of Spurger, the Neches River is pinched by a modest structure with an outsized job. Authorized by the River and Harbor Act of 1945, built starting in 1947, and finished in 1953, it was long known simply as…
Dam B: The River's Second Valve · 14.6 mi
Midway between Woodville and Jasper, on the Neches River, sits an unassuming earthfill dam that solves a tricky engineering problem. Authorized in 1945 and originally called simply Dam B, the Town Bluff Dam was built…
Collins, Carr P. · 14.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through East Texas, maybe near Chester, where Carr P. Collins got his start. He became an insurance magnate, but you might know him for his most famous, or perhaps infamous, business venture in the 1930s:…
Chester, TX · 14.9 mi · Tsha Handbook
You're driving through Chester, Texas, a town born from a railroad line in 1883. It started as Peach Tree Village, but when the Trinity and Sabine Railway laid tracks a mile south, the community packed up and moved. The…
Mount Hope Lodge No. 121, A. F. & A. M. · 15.1 mi · Historical Marker
You're cruising through Chester, the oldest town in Tyler County with a Masonic Lodge still going strong. Mount Hope Lodge No. 121 received its charter way back in 1853, but its roots go even deeper. The land it first…
Spurger: The Town That May Be a Misheard Name · 15.2 mi
Nobody fully agrees on where Spurger got its name. One account says it was named for a family of early landowners. Another holds that it came from a mispronunciation of the surname Spurgeon. What is firm is that…
Alabama and Coushatti Indians, Village of · 15.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Polk County, near Livingston, and you're passing the historic home of the Alabama and Coushatta tribes. These Native Americans migrated into Texas sometime in the early 1800s, and notably, they…
Whitehead Home · 15.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the Whitehead Home, built way back in 1856 for John S. Whitehead, who was a teacher. This house is made of native, hand-hewn pine, and it's been in the Whitehead family ever since. It was recorded as…
Scott, Chief John · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the resting place of Chief John Scott, a significant leader of the Alabama-Ishi Indian tribe here in Texas. Born in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1805</say-as>, he came to Texas in the…
Confederate Service of Alabama and Courshatta Indians · 15.9 mi · Historical Marker
As you drive through Polk County, look for the marker telling the story of the Alabama and Coushatta Indians' service in the Civil War. In 1861, Agent Robert R. Neyland trained them as Confederate cavalrymen. By April…
How Tiny Spurger Became the Knife Capital of Texas · 16.3 mi
In 2017 the Texas Legislature made this timber town of a few hundred people the official Knife Capital of Texas. House Concurrent Resolution 27 credits one business by name: Texas Knives and Collectibles, better known…
Burch-Cauble House · 16.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Chester, and look to your right. You're passing the Burch-Cauble House, built way back in 1835 by Peter Cauble, one of the earliest settlers in this area. Later, it was enlarged by his son-in-law,…
Valentine Burch · 16.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Chester, in Tyler County, where Valentine Burch once stood guard. Born in Kentucky in 1814, Burch was just 22 years old on April 21, 1836. That day, he was detailed to guard the camp near Harrisburg,…
Peach Tree Village · 16.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Chester, where a place called Peach Tree Village once stood. In the early 1800s, this was the headquarters for the Alabama Indians, who called it 'Ta-Ku-La' – meaning Peach Tree. This spot was a…
Sturrock Cemetery · 16.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Sturrock Cemetery. This family cemetery, characteristic of southern folk burial customs, is the final resting place for members of the extended Sturrock family and their neighbors. Brothers John and…
Wildwood, TX · 17.4 mi
The engineering behind Lake Kimball involves the damming of Kimball Creek to create a reservoir. This process increases the water's surface area, which slows down the water flow, allowing sediment to settle and…
Feagin Cemetery · 17.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past Feagin Cemetery, a final resting place established in 1905. The Feagin family settled here in 1857, and their land was deeded for this public burial ground. It was expanded in 1926 and still serves…
Fort Teran, Site of · 17.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Tyler County, where you can see the site of Fort Teran. Established by the Mexican government in 1830, this was the first white settlement in the county, built to stop Anglo-American expansion.…
Site of the Town of Bevilport · 18.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through East Texas, near Jasper, and you're passing the site of Bevilport. This wasn't just any little town; from 1830 to 1860, it was a major hub for river navigation. John Bevil founded it in 1834, and…
Beech Grove Baptist Church · 18.5 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving past the site of Beech Grove Baptist Church. Baptist services started here as early as the 1850s, and the church was formally organized in 1875. The congregation has built several structures on this land…
Lilly Island Cemetery · 18.6 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Barnes, Texas, passing the Lilly Island Cemetery. This isn't just a graveyard; it's a testament to a community's resilience. Many buried here were formerly enslaved people, some arriving from…
Homer Methodist Church · 18.6 mi · Historical Marker
This congregation started in 1860, with worship services first held in a tent. By Christmas 1896, a sanctuary was completed on this site, built by community members. The building also served many years as a schoolhouse.
Homer Community Cemetery · 18.7 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through what was once the Homer community in Jasper County. This cemetery, established around 1865, is one of the few remaining physical reminders of that pioneer settlement. It's the final resting place…
The World-Record Sawmill · 19.5 mi
A dozen miles north of Kountze sits Village Mills, once the largest town in Hardin County and a giant of the East Texas timber boom. The Village Mill Company began cutting lumber in 1883, shipping it out on the new…
The Saw That Set a World Record · 19.5 mi
In 1895 the mill at Village Mills did something the whole lumber world noticed: in a single eleven-hour shift, one circular saw cut 255,403 board feet of lumber, a world record. Here is why that is engineering, not just…
Village Mills, TX · 19.5 mi
Village Mills, a small community in Hardin County, has a rich history tied to the lumber industry. In 1881, the Sabine and East Texas Railroad arrived, spurring the lumber trade. The Long Manufacturing Company built a…
Long Station: The Mill Town on Village Creek · 19.5 mi
Before it had a name of its own, this spot was just Long Station, a stop on the new railroad through the pine forty-two miles north of Beaumont. The first town lots showed up on Hardin County tax rolls in 1882, and by…
Boom, Cut-Out, and a Second Life · 19.5 mi
In 1902 the Village Mills Lumber Company and its 10,000 acres sold to the Kirby Lumber Company, the empire of John Henry Kirby, for around $60,000. Under Kirby the plant roared: in 1907 it turned out 16,992,000 board…
The Town Named Fred, And Nobody Wrote Down Why · 19.7 mi
Most Texas towns carry a founder's surname or a railroad man's whim. Fred just carries a first name, and the reason is genuinely lost. The Fred post office opened in 1881 with Wiley Cunningham as first postmaster, and…
Cotton, Hides, And A School That Refused To Close · 19.7 mi
For a hamlet this deep in the Piney Woods, Fred's early ledger reads plainly: the principal shipments out of town were cotton and hides. Pine and hardwood forests fed the timber trade, and the Neches River, which forms…
Here Lived Dr. Stephen H. Everitt · 19.8 mi · Historical Marker
You're driving through Jasper, and right here is where Dr. Stephen H. Everitt lived. Born in New York in 1807, he came to Texas in 1835, just in time to be a delegate to the Consultation and a signer of the Texas…

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Peach Tree Village

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