LUFKIN,
TEXAS. Lufkin, the county seat of Angelina County, is at the
intersection of U.S. highways 59 and 69, a few miles northwest of
the geographic center of the county in the heart of the Forest
Country
of East Texas. It was founded in 1882 as a stop on the Houston, East
and West Texas Railway, when the line built from Houston to
Shreveport, Louisiana, and named for Capt. Abraham P. Lufkin, a
Galveston cotton merchant and city councilman, who was a close
friend of HE&WT president Paul Bremond. Lufkin grew both because of
its proximity to the railroad and because of the extensive lumber
industry in the surrounding area. The history of Lufkin may
be divided into three principal eras. The first, which centered on
the arrival of the railroad and the progress it precipitated,
occurred between 1882 and 1890. The second, marked by a timber boom
that produced hundreds of sawmills in the Piney Woods, took place
between 1890 and 1920. The third, often called the town's "golden
era of expansion," occurred between 1938 and 1945, when industrial
expansion produced thousands of new jobs and widespread community
growth.
The settlement was little more than a clearing, a place called
Denman Springs, when a railroad surveying crew crossed Angelina
County in 1881 planning a
route
for the line. The crew reputedly began its work by surveying a route
through Homer, which was then the county seat. According to an old
story, the crew spent a Saturday night carousing at Homer, where the
men became rowdy in a saloon, and Constable W. B. (Buck) Green put
them in jail. The next morning they paid their fines and were
released. The arrest, however, infuriated the chief of the survey
crew, who reportedly ordered them to find a route for the railroad
that would bypass Homer and go by Denman Springs. The new route
conveniently crossed the property of Lafayette Denman and his son,
Dr. A. M. Denman, who supposedly hosted members of the survey crew a
few days earlier. This story of Lufkin's origins may be only a
colorful legend, however. The railway's 1879 prospectus already
indicated that the line would bypass
Homer and go through what would be the future site of Lufkin.
Soon after the railroad arrived in 1882, the company began to
advertise the public sale of town lots in Lufkin. At the same time,
many of the business firms and professionals from Homer began to
move to Lufkin to be nearer the railroad. Among the first stores in
town were S. Abram's general store, Joseph Kerr's grocery and saddle
shop, and W. H. Bonner's general store, all located on Cotton
Square, which soon became the center of activity for the town. In
the square, just behind the depot, cotton was stored before shipment
on the railroad. Lufkin acquired a post office in 1882 with William
A. Abney as postmaster. In 1883 a telegraph line was strung to
Lufkin from Nacogdoches. The town was incorporated on October 15,
1890. On November 15, J. M. Smith, owner of the Smith Hotel, was
elected the first mayor. Even before its incorporation, Lufkin had
sought to move the county courthouse, still situated at Homer, to
the railroad settlement, but by an election in 1885 it stayed at
Homer. In November 1891, however, a mysterious fire destroyed the
courthouse,
and one day later the county commissioners received a petition from
Lufkin citizens asking for a new election to decide if the
courthouse should be in Lufkin. When the election was held on
January 2, 1892, Lufkin won, 1,076-436.
Much of the economic prosperity of early Lufkin was tied to three
lumbering families: the Kurths, Hendersons, and Wieners. Joseph H.
Kurth, Sr., a German immigrant, moved to Keltys, a small settlement
north of Lufkin, in 1887 and acquired a sawmill from Charles L.
Kelty. Kurth, who had previously operated a mill in Polk County, was
soon joined by two friends, S. W. Henderson, Sr., and Sam Wiener,
both of Corrigan. In 1890 they organized the Angelina County Lumber
Company, which became the forerunner of many innovations in lumber
manufacturing and forest management in East Texas. The influence of
the three families and their business partners on the growth of
Lufkin during the next century was enormous. At the height of their
activity, the three families
were involved in nearly a dozen Texas sawmills, a paper mill,
foundries, hotels, movie theaters, railroads, investment companies,
newspapers, radio and television stations, insurance firms, banks,
hospitals, and many other enterprises. Two of the city's principal
industries, Southland Paper Mills (now Abitibi) and Texas Foundries,
were begun as hometown companies in the late 1930s and were
responsible for much of the city's industrial growth. The largest
industrial employer, Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company (now Lufkin
Industries), was also founded as a hometown company in 1902 and
achieved worldwide fame for its oilfield pumping units.
The city's early social and community life revolved around its
churches, schools, and sports activities. But between 1965 and 1983
Lufkin began to expand culturally. This era resulted in a new
library, two new museums, a civic center, a new federal building, a
junior college, widespread improvements in the Lufkin Independent
School District, a
new
country club, extensive municipal and park improvements, and two
major shopping malls. In 1982 Lufkin celebrated its centennial. The
celebration resulted in widespread community improvements, including
an extensive beautification effort and the largest exposition center
between Dallas and Houston. Though the economy was still linked
significantly to the harvesting of timber and the manufacture of
lumber, paper, plywood, and other forest products, by 1990 the city
had also developed a diversified economic base, including the
manufacture of oilfield pumping units, machinery and gears, truck
trailers and flooring, foundry products, candy, dairy products, and
recreational goods. Lufkin also emerged in the 1970s as a regional
trade center and developed a significant tourism and convention
economy, largely because
of its proximity to Sam Rayburn Reservoir and the Angelina and
Davy Crockett National Forests. In 1984 Lufkin had a population
estimated at 31,500, of which 25.9 percent were black and 6.3
percent Hispanic, and covered 20.5 square miles. In 1990 the
population was 30,206.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Angelina County Historical Survey Committee, Land of
the Little Angel: A History of Angelina County, Texas, ed. Bob
Bowman (Lufkin, Texas, 1976). Bob Bowman, ed., The Lufkin That Was:
A Centennial Album (Lufkin, Texas: Lufkin Printing, 1981). Robert S.
Maxwell, Whistle in the Piney Woods (Texas Gulf Coast Historical
Association Publications Series 7.2, November 1963).
Bob Bowman |