History
200 Feet North to Site of Hardin County Discovery Well
At this site in 1901 the first oil well in Hardin County was brought in at a depth of 995 feet by J. B. (Ben) Hooks and brothers H. A. (Bud), J. L. (Sam), and George. The ensuing boom town was first called "New Sour Lake" but later named "Saratoga" after the famous New York resort. (1971)
History
Batson Prairie School & Church and Guedry Cemetery
Batson Prairie and the present day town of Batson were named for the pioneer Batson family who settled in this area by the 1840s. Matilda Guedry and her family were among the early settlers on Batson Prairie. Matilda purchased a large tract of land in 1873, and in 1896 her oldest son, Jerisan Guedry, donated one acre of land for a community school.
History
Courthouses of Hardin County
Hardin County was created in 1858. The first official Hardin County building was probably a two-story log building that burned about 1886. Early county records were destroyed in the conflagration. In 1887, architect Frank Smith of Beaumont designed a two-story frame structure built in Kountze by local contractor W. B. Pedigo.
History
David Choate Jr.
David Choate Jr. was born in Louisiana in 1811. He moved with his family to Texas and later joined a group of Beaumont volunteers and fought in the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. Choate received bounty for 320 acres of land for serving in the army and 640 acres of donation land for fighting in the Battle of San Jacinto.
Military
General Braxton Bragg, C. S. A.
(1817-1876) American military leader honored in this county in name of an early town (12 mi. W). Born in North Carolina, Bragg was in Texas in 1840s with army of General Zachary Taylor, to fight in Mexican War. Made a brigadier general of the Confederacy, 1861, he won renown by capturing many guns and prisoners at Shiloh (1862), and for Southern victory in Battle of Chickamauga (1863).
Quirky
Ghost Road: The Big Thicket Light
Ghost Road runs arrow straight through territory that was once thicket, cypress brake, baygalls and lobolly pines. It began as the bed of a branch rail line of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe that ran between the towns of Bragg and Saratoga to provide access to the timberlands of the area. At the southern end of the line was the McShane Lumber Company operation at Dearborn.
History
Hardin County
Created January 22, 1858. Organized August 9, 1858. Named in honor of the Hardins of Liberty County. Five brothers-- Benjamin Watson, Augustine Blackburn, William, Frank and Milton A. who came to Texas in 1825. County seat, Hardin, 1858-1887. Kountze, since.
Transport
Hardin-Concord Road
In use from 1859 to about 1900, this historic roadway is one of the oldest area landmarks. It accommodated wagon and horseback travel between early settlements and provided connection between river voyages. Concord, to the southeast on Pine Island Bayou, was the southern limit for steamboat traffic on the Neches River. Hardin, to the northwest, was the first Hardin county seat from 1858 to 1887.
History
Harvey Houses of Silsbee
Laid out in 1894 as a sawmill town, Silsbee became a stop on the Santa Fe Railroad in 1902. By the end of that year a depot was built, and three years later a Harvey House Hotel opened. Named for entrepreneur Fred harvey, Harvey House Hotels and restaurants were located along the Santa Fe lines from Chicago to California.
Industry & Science
Hooks Abstract Company
Established in 1902, the Hooks Abstract Company is thought to be the oldest continuously operating business in Hardin County. Named for its major investor J. B. Hooks, the company initially provided land ownership research for oil and timber companies. Co-founder Amos Rich operated the company until 1906 when J. A. McKim, Sr., assumed management of the firm.
History
Jackson Family Cemetery
Stephen Jackson (1803-1860), a settler in the Lorenzo de Zavala colony, was granted one league (4,428 acres) of land in this area in 1835. Jackson built his home near this site and cleared pastures for cattle and horses on most of the land. The grant also included palmetto thickets shielding numerous mineral springs and lakes of sulphurous water.
Architecture
Kirby-Hill House
Designed by Frank T. Smith of Beaumont and built in 1902, this was the home of James L. (1844-1922) and Martha Slater (1840-1907) Kirby. James Kirby was superintendent of the Kirby Lumber Company, founded by his brother John Henry Kirby. Most of the home's materials came from the Kirby Mills.
History
Knupple Cemetery
August Knupple, a Prussian who came to Texas in 1846 to farm, established this cemetery on his property around 1870. The earliest marked grave, dating to 1871, is for Henry Robinson, although the burial ground may have begun earlier as a family graveyard. Knupple Cemetery contains at least 16 graves dating to the 19th century, and features grave slabs and Woodmen of the World gravestones.
History
Kountze Baptist College
Kountze Baptist College (also known as Jermany College) served African American students in the area for nearly two decades. In 1910, the Trinity Valley Baptist Association opened the primary and secondary grade level school. Such institutions were often known as colleges at the time. Professor W.H.
History
Lance Rosier
The Big Thicket National Preserve exists today in large part due to the efforts of a few dedicated individuals who took up the causes of conservation and wildlife preservation against great odds, both political and social. Lance Rosier was one of those early advocates. Rosier was born in what is now the Preserve unit that bears his name.
History
Old Hardin
Founded 1859 as first county seat of Hardin County, created in 1858. Prospered until bypassed by Sabine & East Texas Railroad in 1881. A fire of suspicious origin razed the Courthouse here on Aug. 8, 1886. In an 1887 election, Kountze, on the railroad, was named the county seat.
History
Pine Lodge # 642, A. F. & A. M.
Organized in September 1886, and chartered in December of that year, the Pine Lodge drew its original thirteen members from all over Hardin County. William B. Pedigo served as the first master of the lodge and would continue his association with it for many years.
History
Pine Ridge Baptist Church
The founders of the Pine Ridge community came here to settle during the 1840s, soon after Texas was admitted to statehood. The Rev. David M. Jordan and his family moved to Pine Ridge probably during the late 1860s. A Baptist minister ordained in Alabama in 1852, Jordan had first come to Hardin County in 1858 and organized the Providence Baptist Church near the present town of Kountze. Rev.
History
Richard E. Jackson
Richard E. Jackson Conservationist Richard E. Jackson was born August 12, 1880, in Leary, Georgia. In 1886, he came with his parents to Jasper, Texas, where they opened a general mercantile store. As a teenager, he worked for the family store and carried mail from Jasper to Woodville. In 1896, he was the first ticket agent for the GB & CK Railroad at Silsbee "Junction.
Industry & Science
Silsbee Ice Plant
The Silsbee Ice, Light, and Power Co., bought by Gulf States Utility Co. in 1926, grew rapidly after relocating to this structure in 1930. With a new spur track of the Gulf, Colorado, & Santa Fe Railway in place, the company became a major regional ice distributor. The plant was sold to local businessmen in 1943 and functioned until 1981. Designed by D. H.
History
Sour Lake, C.S.A.
Early-day health resort, with baths that attracted such Texans as Gen. Sam Houston. The healing waters had been used for years by the Indians. One spring's water, with high sulphuric acid content, primed telegraph batteries during the Civil War. This was of vital importance, for at best telegraph service was limited.
History
Stephen Jackson
(1803-1860) Born in South Carolina, Stephen Jackson moved to Lorenzo de Zavala's colony in Texas in 1831. He received a labor of land (177 acres) to establish a farm. In 1835 Jackson was granted a league of land (4,428 acres), which included the later community of Sour Lake. In 1836 Jackson served in Captain Logan's company of the Texas army and awarded 320 acres of land in Milam County as bounty.
History
Teel Cemetery
Alabama native Richard Teel (1833-1918) came to East Texas in the 1850s. He married Nancy A. Hart (1842-1900) in 1858 and they settled here. When the Teels' son, D. J., died in 1893, he was buried here beside the family home. In 1908, after other burials had taken place, Teel legally designated the site a cemetery.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
