On December 17, 1891 in the Commissioners Court Minutes there was “ordered by the Court that a suitable clock be placed in the Court House Building’.
In 1882 commercial railroads stretched across Texas and privately owned steam locomotives rolled through piney woods in Tyler County on “portable” logging tram roads.
Text LinkSteel gangs performed the hardest work at logging sites. Workers knew as they laid the cross ties and rails at one location that it was just a matter of time before they would undo their work and relocate the whole scene to a new site.
Text LinkThrough the years East Texas paper mills have generated a continual demand for pulpwood chips. At the same time, timber growers needed to manage their forests by thinning out the smaller trees so that larger trees would grow faster.
Text LinkIn 1866 Robert Tolar built this log home which was later converted to a "cook house." Here family meals were prepared over an open fireplace with a "mud cat" chimney until 1960. In 1964 the Heritage Society accepted the Tolar Kitchen as an exhibit for Heritage Village.
Text LinkIn Book ‘E’ of the Tyler County Commissioner’s Court for the year 1892 (in February), J. Dallas Collier is instructed by the court to purchase a ‘Seth Thomas Clock No. 16 Town Clock’.
Text LinkLike so many artifacts that increase in importance and value over time, the Tyler County Courthouse Bell lacks a well maintained and documented history.
Text LinkM.L. McAlister and Harold Goolsby were the first two janitors of the Tyler County Courthouse in 1892 and 1893, at a wage of $50 per year.
Text LinkS. H. Reid offered a complete stock of household and farming supplies on West Bluff Street in Woodville. Ready-made clothing items hung in the display windows, while rolls of wire rested on the sidewalk.
Text LinkBuilt for $5,000 in 1903 to specifications of a first-class public building, Tyler County High School belonged to the corporation formed by its subscribers.
Text LinkThompson Bros. rolled logs from rail cars into the mill pond to remove debris that might damage saw blades.
Text LinkAs an attorney, oil baron and capitalist, he owned thousands of acres and dozens of sawmill camps in Texas and Louisiana. His enterprises provided jobs for over 16,000 men and women.
Text Link, Issac James Gilder focused on student achievement from the time he began as principal of Colmesneil’s black school in 1909.
Text LinkRev. Sam Mann baptized John T. Kirby whose son, John Henry Kirby, commissioned Russian artist, Boris Bernhard Gordon to record the event with a painting to be hung in Peach Tree Village Hall when it was built in 1912.
Text LinkAlabama Indian Chief Sun-Kee joined John Henry Kirby in celebration at the dedication of Peach Tree Hall.
Text LinkFormer Governor Allan Shivers purchased the chapel and Kirby home property and presented it as a gift to Tyler County. Today, a Christian encampment, Camp Ta-Ku-La surrounds the chapel and the Kirby home and provides maintenance for those structures. The camp’s name is taken for the Indian phrase meaning peach tree – ta-ku-la.
Text LinkOscar Branch Colquitt – 25th governor of Texas, Mrs. Bessie Kirby Stewart (JHK’s daughter) and Mrs. Douglas Burnett of Houston at the dedication of Peach Tree Hall
Text LinkTurpentine Jim” McFarley Brown migrated from Florida to Alabama, and finally, in 1914, to Spurger, Texas. The area’s long leaf pine provided the pine sap Brown distilled into marketable turpentine.
Text LinkZachariah Cowart Collier built a general merchandise store as part of the Town Bluff complex in 1863. He and his family served the needs of overland and river travelers until the late 1920’s.
Text LinkThe original Tyler County Highschool burned in 1924 causing students to hold classes in churches and the courthouse, until taxpayers provided the second building.
Text LinkThe “Rainey Hotel”, earlier known as the “Stewart Hotel”, was located in Woodville at the corner of Bluff and Beaver Streets.
Text LinkJohn Henry Kirby, local attorney, oil baron, and capitalist, endeared himself to his friends with his annual Christmas letters and frequent gifts of Bibles, which he personally inscribed.
Text LinkDr. John Gardner, Dr. D.A. Mann, and two nurses, traveled 80 miles by any convenience available to make a house call when the Neches was 14 feet above normal, in order to save a patient.
Text LinkIn the Spring of 1929, the Neches River flooded out of its banks... isolating several small communities such as Woodville and Colmesneil. Residents in those towns began calling for bread but there was no means of transportation.
Text LinkBeginning in 1920, Scott worked with P. I. Hunter to plan for a real school building. He solicited financial support from community members and his own earnings, which resulted in the Henry T. Scott School being built in the early 1930’s
Text LinkIn 1932 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) brought together two of America's most wasted resources, land and unemployed young men.
Text LinkA few days before his ninetieth birthday in 1932, “Uncle Tom Seamans” told a Beaumont reporter about his Confederate soldier experiences at Sabine Pass
Text LinkWade Best served as a cook for the Civilian Conservation Corps unit stationed in Woodville, until he went to work at Levingston Shipbuilding Company in Orange and finally joined the U.S. Navy to serve in Japan during World War II.
Text LinkIn 1936 Harold David hauled 300-year-old logs in an open-cab truck called a "muley." Twenty-first century logs go to the mills at twenty-two to twenty-eight inches in diameter.
Text LinkIn the late 1930’s when Tyler County Courthouse remodeling took place, Mount Zion acquired the ornate iron fence and used it to enclose their cemetery.
Text LinkJulius Britton Best travelled throughout Tyler County offering Watkins products for sale and sharing news among the communities.
Text LinkThe Lake Tejas complex contains a 14-acre lake and 13 acres of parks and beaches on land donated to Colmesneil School by Lee Feagin, J. P. Mann and D. P. Mann.
Text LinkBefore the age of aerial surveillance and satellite GPS maps, fire towers gave a vantage point for protecting the county's greatest natural resource - pine and hardwood forests.
Text LinkIn 1942, the Chester Echo (school yearbook) featured advertisements from businesses in Chester, Lufkin, and Woodville
Text LinkFollowing World War II students at Spurger High School expressed their patriotism by dedicating their yearbook to local veterans of the war.
Text LinkHenry T. Scott High School in Woodville celebrated its 1947 Homecoming with a parade on Saturday and a spirited football game played on the shared Kirby High School field.
Text LinkAs a reward for the hard work, Thomas Motor Company Company presented the Warren FFA Chapter with a truck for use in their school projects.
Text LinkOriginally called by some (including Judge James E. Wheat who described the project in a 1952 Dogwood Festival publication) the Town Bluff Dam, the working name for the project caught on with locals.
Text LinkA few miles south of the confluence of Angelina and Neches Rivers, near the original site of Town Bluff, Dam B regulates the flow of water to the Lower Neches Valley.
Text LinkCarl Goolsbee, together with his wife the former Ella Pedigo and his brother Tom, operated the Goolsbee Store in Warren from the time he bought Warren Lumber Company until he sold the stock to Archie Spurlock in 1954.
Text LinkClyde E. Gray pioneered the art of recording Texas history on ceramic tile and established The Heritage Garden Museum to attract tourists to Tyler County.
Text LinkShivers and his wife, Marialice, acquired the historic R. A. Cruse home which was slated for demolition. They arranged for it to be moved, restored, and furnished as a museum holding papers and artifacts from his years of public service.
Text LinkShivers’ collection of books and papers reflects his wide-ranging interests and activities.
Text LinkIn 1966 the Honorable Allan Shivers held the distinction of being the longest serving Former Governor of Texas.
Text LinkPomp had offered a full line of general merchandise plus an inviting atmosphere for visiting around the wood stove
Text LinkTyler County Historical Commission created a non-profit corporation, Tyler County Heritage Society, so that charitable contributions might be received and acknowledged.
Text LinkSeptember 24, 2005, changed the face of Tyler County forever. Hurricane Rita took a ferocious swipe through forests and towns of Southeast Texas.
Text LinkBrian Shivers, the Governor's son, followed the family tradition of providing visionary leadership. He broke ground on February 20, 2010, for an expansion to the Allan Shivers Library-Museum.
Text LinkEstablished in 1846, Tyler County resides among the Big Thicket National Preserve in southeastern Texas and has been the home of several diverse cultures and history. Tyler County Historical Commission is responsible for the identification and preservation of Tyler County’s historical and cultural resources and is dedicated to creating awareness and appreciation of historic preservation, its’ benefits, and uses. Explore the history that has been catalogued and become part of the story of our county by telling us your story so that it may also be preserved and be part of the legacy of Tyler County.
John Henry Kirby, local attorney, oil baron, and capitalist, endeared himself to his friends with his annual Christmas letters and frequent gifts of Bibles, which he personally inscribed.
In 1936 Harold David hauled 300-year-old logs in an open-cab truck called a "muley." Twenty-first century logs go to the mills at twenty-two to twenty-eight inches in diameter.
Henry T. Scott High School in Woodville celebrated its 1947 Homecoming with a parade on Saturday and a spirited football game played on the shared Kirby High School field.
Through the years East Texas paper mills have generated a continual demand for pulpwood chips. At the same time, timber growers needed to manage their forests by thinning out the smaller trees so that larger trees would grow faster.
Following World War II students at Spurger High School expressed their patriotism by dedicating their yearbook to local veterans of the war.
The original Tyler County Highschool burned in 1924 causing students to hold classes in churches and the courthouse, until taxpayers provided the second building.
Thompson Bros. rolled logs from rail cars into the mill pond to remove debris that might damage saw blades.
The “Rainey Hotel”, earlier known as the “Stewart Hotel”, was located in Woodville at the corner of Bluff and Beaver Streets.
September 24, 2005, changed the face of Tyler County forever. Hurricane Rita took a ferocious swipe through forests and towns of Southeast Texas.
Beginning in 1920, Scott worked with P. I. Hunter to plan for a real school building. He solicited financial support from community members and his own earnings, which resulted in the Henry T. Scott School being built in the early 1930’s
Snow River Lodge takes its name from the Native American name for the nearby river now called the Neches.
S. H. Reid offered a complete stock of household and farming supplies on West Bluff Street in Woodville. Ready-made clothing items hung in the display windows, while rolls of wire rested on the sidewalk.
Former Governor Allan Shivers purchased the chapel and Kirby home property and presented it as a gift to Tyler County. Today, a Christian encampment, Camp Ta-Ku-La surrounds the chapel and the Kirby home and provides maintenance for those structures. The camp’s name is taken for the Indian phrase meaning peach tree – ta-ku-la.
In 1866 Robert Tolar built this log home which was later converted to a "cook house." Here family meals were prepared over an open fireplace with a "mud cat" chimney until 1960. In 1964 the Heritage Society accepted the Tolar Kitchen as an exhibit for Heritage Village.
Mrs. Leggett ran the Commercial Hotel originally named the Collier Hotel.
The Lake Tejas complex contains a 14-acre lake and 13 acres of parks and beaches on land donated to Colmesneil School by Lee Feagin, J. P. Mann and D. P. Mann.
Built for $5,000 in 1903 to specifications of a first-class public building, Tyler County High School belonged to the corporation formed by its subscribers.
M.L. McAlister and Harold Goolsby were the first two janitors of the Tyler County Courthouse in 1892 and 1893, at a wage of $50 per year.
Brian Shivers, the Governor's son, followed the family tradition of providing visionary leadership. He broke ground on February 20, 2010, for an expansion to the Allan Shivers Library-Museum.
Alabama Indian Chief Sun-Kee joined John Henry Kirby in celebration at the dedication of Peach Tree Hall.
Clyde E. Gray pioneered the art of recording Texas history on ceramic tile and established The Heritage Garden Museum to attract tourists to Tyler County.
Steel gangs performed the hardest work at logging sites. Workers knew as they laid the cross ties and rails at one location that it was just a matter of time before they would undo their work and relocate the whole scene to a new site.
Zachariah Cowart Collier built a general merchandise store as part of the Town Bluff complex in 1863. He and his family served the needs of overland and river travelers until the late 1920’s.
Like so many artifacts that increase in importance and value over time, the Tyler County Courthouse Bell lacks a well maintained and documented history.
In 1882 commercial railroads stretched across Texas and privately owned steam locomotives rolled through piney woods in Tyler County on “portable” logging tram roads.
Rev. Sam Mann baptized John T. Kirby whose son, John Henry Kirby, commissioned Russian artist, Boris Bernhard Gordon to record the event with a painting to be hung in Peach Tree Village Hall when it was built in 1912.
Promoters of the Peachtree Village School in 1879;
In 1932 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) brought together two of America's most wasted resources, land and unemployed young men.
As a reward for the hard work, Thomas Motor Company Company presented the Warren FFA Chapter with a truck for use in their school projects.
Pomp had offered a full line of general merchandise plus an inviting atmosphere for visiting around the wood stove
In Book ‘E’ of the Tyler County Commissioner’s Court for the year 1892 (in February), J. Dallas Collier is instructed by the court to purchase a ‘Seth Thomas Clock No. 16 Town Clock’.
Carl Goolsbee, together with his wife the former Ella Pedigo and his brother Tom, operated the Goolsbee Store in Warren from the time he bought Warren Lumber Company until he sold the stock to Archie Spurlock in 1954.
Turpentine Jim” McFarley Brown migrated from Florida to Alabama, and finally, in 1914, to Spurger, Texas. The area’s long leaf pine provided the pine sap Brown distilled into marketable turpentine.
A few miles south of the confluence of Angelina and Neches Rivers, near the original site of Town Bluff, Dam B regulates the flow of water to the Lower Neches Valley.
Oscar Branch Colquitt – 25th governor of Texas, Mrs. Bessie Kirby Stewart (JHK’s daughter) and Mrs. Douglas Burnett of Houston at the dedication of Peach Tree Hall
Before the age of aerial surveillance and satellite GPS maps, fire towers gave a vantage point for protecting the county's greatest natural resource - pine and hardwood forests.
Tyler County Historical Commission created a non-profit corporation, Tyler County Heritage Society, so that charitable contributions might be received and acknowledged.
In the Spring of 1929, the Neches River flooded out of its banks... isolating several small communities such as Woodville and Colmesneil. Residents in those towns began calling for bread but there was no means of transportation.
Pioneers organized Mount Zion Baptist Church in the 1830’s at a location behind “the old Jim Powell house” between Mount Hope and Chester.
An English minister held a brush arbor meeting which led to the formation of the first United Methodist Church in Tyler County.
Created at the death of Lucinda Barnes Rotan, occupies part of the front yard of James Barnes’ original home site
, Issac James Gilder focused on student achievement from the time he began as principal of Colmesneil’s black school in 1909.
In 1966 the Honorable Allan Shivers held the distinction of being the longest serving Former Governor of Texas.
In 1942, the Chester Echo (school yearbook) featured advertisements from businesses in Chester, Lufkin, and Woodville
Julius Britton Best travelled throughout Tyler County offering Watkins products for sale and sharing news among the communities.
Shivers and his wife, Marialice, acquired the historic R. A. Cruse home which was slated for demolition. They arranged for it to be moved, restored, and furnished as a museum holding papers and artifacts from his years of public service.
Originally called by some (including Judge James E. Wheat who described the project in a 1952 Dogwood Festival publication) the Town Bluff Dam, the working name for the project caught on with locals.
In the late 1930’s when Tyler County Courthouse remodeling took place, Mount Zion acquired the ornate iron fence and used it to enclose their cemetery.
Wade Best served as a cook for the Civilian Conservation Corps unit stationed in Woodville, until he went to work at Levingston Shipbuilding Company in Orange and finally joined the U.S. Navy to serve in Japan during World War II.
Shivers’ collection of books and papers reflects his wide-ranging interests and activities.
Captain James G. Collier conducted the survey laying out the new road between Town Bluff and the chosen location. That road became the main east-west thoroughfare in the new town, Woodville, and was called “Bluff” Street.
The Loop continues past Abram and Julia Pedigo’s home place, passes another Pedigo home and a former Hicks home once used as a store and post office.
Dr. John Gardner, Dr. D.A. Mann, and two nurses, traveled 80 miles by any convenience available to make a house call when the Neches was 14 feet above normal, in order to save a patient.
A few days before his ninetieth birthday in 1932, “Uncle Tom Seamans” told a Beaumont reporter about his Confederate soldier experiences at Sabine Pass
As an attorney, oil baron and capitalist, he owned thousands of acres and dozens of sawmill camps in Texas and Louisiana. His enterprises provided jobs for over 16,000 men and women.
For centuries Caddoan, Alabama, and Coushatta Indians called the Tyler County area home and then settlers, predominantly from the southern United States, arrived before even the Texas Revolution. The people of Tyler County have endured through much, and their stories and the stories about places of historical importance have been catalogued in our online museum.
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Educational resources and opportunities are available to expand the knowledge of the history and cultures or Tyler County. In the past fieldtrips have been organized, demonstrations provided, and lesson plans created to assist anyone who may be interested. If you are a county educator, please reach out to us and request more information about the educational experiences the Tyler County Historical Commission has available.
The Texas Historical Commission’s historical marker program commemorates the historical importance of individuals and sites that impacted local and state history. Among the historical landmarks found in Tyler County are markers for former governor Allan Shivers, the W.T. Colmesneil House, Doucette Union Church, and many more honoring the places and people that have resided here. If you would like to explore the areas landmarks we have a gallery and a map of the areas historical markers.
Tyler County has over 100 hundred cemeteries ranging from small private plots to larger public hollowed grounds. Many of the members of the Tyler County Historical Commission have researched, excavated, and catalogued these sites. If you would like to explore the locations of the recorded cemeteries, we have a map available and are looking for volunteers to help maintain and preserve these sites.
Chester is located in the northwestern part of Tyler County, 13 miles northwest of Woodville on US Highway 287 at the intersection of Farm Road 1745 (N & S). The townsite is part of a five league grant made to Gavino Aranjo on the old Spanish Trail road from Nacogdoches to Liberty by the Mexican government in 1828. The town was named after the 21st president of the United States, Chester A. Arthur, about 1883 at the time when the Trinity and Sabine Railway routed its western line from Colmesneil through the area.
Colmesneil is located in north-central Tyler County, about 9 miles north of Woodville, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 69 and Farm Road 256. Colmesneil began in about 1882 with the crossing of two railroad lines: the Texas & New Orleans (T&NO) that ran between Rockland in northern Tyler County to Beaumont, and the Trinity & Sabine that ran west from Colmesneil to Trinity, and became the railroad center for Tyler County. The town was named after one of the first conductors on the T&NO, William T. Colmesneil, who bought a town lot there in 1883.
Doucette is located in central Tyler County, 3 miles north of Woodville on U.S. Highway 69. A community began to form there in about 1890 around a sawmill and was first known as Carrolls' Switch. After the first year of operation, Carrolls sold to William McCready and P. A. "Pete" Doucette, for whom the community was renamed. At other times Pete Doucette owned sawmills in Woodville and Sour Lake, and he was a contract logger along Village Creek as well as the Neches River. McCready established the first post office in 1893 and became the first postmaster. This was the beginning of a succession of owners of the sawmill, elevating Doucette to one of the leading towns in Southeast Texas between about 1900-1930. During the 1920s Doucette had its largest population—about 1,800—along with a drugstore, bank, railroad station, commissary, and post office. Active organizations included the Masons, Woodmen of the World, and the Boy Scouts. The last sawmill operation ceased in 1944. Following the sawmill days, Doucette's population in 2000 had dropped to about 130.
Located in extreme southeast Tyler County on Farm to Market Road 92, about a 30-mile drive from Woodville. Details of Fred's earliest beginnings may be lost to time but we do know that a post office was established in 1881, and Wiley Cunningham was the postmaster. In 1883 the community was composed of a general store, a school, and two churches, and Fred's population was about 30 but by 1913 it had risen to 75. Cotton and hides were the principal commodities shipped from Fred back then. By the late 1960s Fred's population had grown to 349 residents, but had declined to about 240 in 2000.
Located in south central Tyler County, eight miles south of Woodville along U.S. Routes 69/287. The Hillister post office as well as several businesses and churches are located near the junction of these highways with FM 1013. Hillister was one of the numerous towns that sprang up in Tyler County with the advent of the lumber industry and the railroads. The origin of the town’s name is a puzzle. It could be that the town was originally deemed ‘Hollister’, after a Texas and New Orleans Railroad Company official or the name may have been two sawmill operators named Hallister. Hillister may be a misspelling or a compromise.
Located among the tall pine and hardwood forest of East Texas on U.S. Highway 69/287, seven miles south of Woodville. Development of Ivanhoe began in the early 1960s as a family recreational community for camping, horseback riding, hunting and fishing. Situated on 2,500 acres of gently rolling hills, Ivanhoe has five private lakes and twelve parks.
Located in southeastern Tyler County, at the intersection of Farm to Market Roads 1013 and 92, about a 20-mile drive from Woodville. Spurger is about 3 miles west of the Neches River, which was called "Snow River" by the Hasinai Indians. The town's name was said to have originated from a mispronunciation of the surname "Spurgeon".
Located in south-central Tyler County, off U.S. Highway 69/287 and County Road 1550 about 13 miles south of Woodville. The town was born when Alexander Young of Warren, Pennsylvania, arrived in 1882 to establish a sawmill on the Texas & New Orleans' newly built railway that ran between Rockland on the northern edge of Tyler County southward to Beaumont.
Located near the geographical center of the county, encompassing approximately 3 square miles and crossed by U.S. Highways 69, 190, and 287. Formation of Tyler County was attributed to the efforts of then-Senator George T. Wood, who became the second governor of Texas in 1847, and N. B. Charlton, a member of the lower House who represented the county in the legislature.
The Tyler County Historical Commission hopes that you will join us in preserving and building upon the legacy of those who have come before us so those who come after can be inspired and grow to leave their own legacy.