Name: Colmesneil, Texas
Address: Colmesneil, TX

Colmesneil, TX RoadyGoat

Colmesneil, nestled up a little higher than the rest of the East Texas pines, might seem like just another blink-and-you'll-miss-it spot on Highway 69. But it's a place with stories. You can almost feel them whispering around the old cemetery, where some folks still believe a treasure is hidden away, waiting to be found. Back when the Beaumont and Great Northern Railroad was running through, Colmesneil was a bustling shipping point, a vital connection for the whole region. Incorporated in 1904, it had already been a community for decades, built on the dreams of settlers like Peter Colmesneil, the town's namesake. And while fire nearly took the whole downtown in 1908, the town rebuilt, the spirit of its people proving stronger than any blaze.

Colmesneil, TX RoadyGoat

Colmesneil has always been a place where change comes slow, like sap rising in a loblolly. But the closing of the old sawmill a few years back, that was a different kind of change, a sharp crack in the timber. For generations, that mill had been the heartbeat of the town. You could set your watch by the whistle. My granddad, and his granddad before him, worked there. It wasn’t just jobs that vanished; it was a way of life. The smell of pine sawdust, the rumble of the machinery, the shared stories at the lunch bell – all gone quiet. Folks worried, of course. Highway 69 still runs right through town, connecting us to Woodville and Jasper, but without the mill, Colmesneil felt…smaller. Some even half-joked about finally finding that buried treasure near the old cemetery, putting Colmesneil back on the map. It’s too soon to know what the future holds, but there’s a stubbornness here, a resilience you find in small towns like ours. Colmesneil has weathered storms before, even a fire that nearly wiped it out in 1908. We’ll find our way.

Colmesneil, TX RoadyGoat

Colmesneil became Colmesneil because of the railroad, plain and simple. Before the Beaumont and Great Northern laid tracks through here, there were just scattered homesteads in the pines. Peter Colmesneil's name stuck to the place, but it was the iron horse that truly put it on the map. Suddenly, being slightly higher ground in the Piney Woods mattered – it made building a depot easier. That depot turned into a shipping point for all those loblolly pines, and a place for farmers to send their goods to market. Highway 69 follows a similar path now, keeping Colmesneil connected, but it was the railroad that started it all. Others come looking for that buried treasure near the old cemetery, a story that's been passed down for generations. But the real reason people end up staying in Colmesneil, the reason it's still Colmesneil, is that slow pace. It's a place where neighbors still know each other, where the fire of 1908 might have burned the town down, but it didn't burn out the community. It's a quiet corner of East Texas, a place to breathe deep and remember what matters.

Enloe Mill

1840

Site of One of Earliest Tyler County Landmarks Enloe Mill (1 mi. south) A major contributor to county and state history. Built about 1840 on Billums Creek, where the swift current made by inflow of Belts Creek would turn a water-wheel, to generate power. Mill took name from owner Benjamin Enloe, an 1837 settler who bought this property in 1849. Enloe, his son David and grandson George were known to several generations as mill operators. From this mill came lumber for the first frame courthouse in Woodville, built in 1852 while David Enloe was county sheriff. As people came from wide region to this mill, there grew up one of area's main roads (later known as Boone's Ferry Road), connecting Fort Teran with the Old Spanish Trail from Liberty to Nacogdoches and crossing present road at this point. Enloe Mill, one of 27 in Tyler County by 1857, produced essentials of life for settlers: Cornmeal for their bread and lumber for erecting homes and other buildings. This mill also ginned cotton, their "money" product. Although long known for its raw materials rather than manufactured goods, Texas gained self-reliance from early landmarks such as Enloe Mill. (1968)

Historical Marker → · 3.7 mi away

Colmesneil-Mount Zion Cemetery

1859

According to local oral tradition, African American residents of Colmesneil began using this land for burial purposes as early as the 1850s. The property remained in the hands of absentee landlords until the 1930s, when the new owner allowed burials to continue at the site. The oldest legible tombstone in the graveyard is that of Henry Mitchell, who died September 11, 1859. There are a number of unmarked graves, however, and some possibly predate Mitchell's burial. Among the more than two hundred interments here are those of prominent members of Colmesneil's black community, including ministers, doctors, teachers, railroad employees, and veterans of World War I and World War II. Known as the Colmesneil Cemetery until 1972, the graveyard was renamed Mount Zion Cemetery to avoid confusion with another Colmesneil Cemetery in the city. The new name was taken from a combination of the names of two local churches with which the cemetery historically has been associated -Mount Hope Baptist Church and Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church. The cemetery serves as a visible reminder of the area's African American Heritage.

Historical Marker →

Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church

1881

Zion Hill Missionary Baptist church is one of the earliest churches to serve this area's African American community. In the early 1880s, a Freedmen's colony grew here in response to the availability of jobs at a newly opened sawmill. The Rev. George Durden and his congregation, with the assistance of the Rev. A. Venerable, moderator of the Trinity Valley Baptist Association, officially organized Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church in 1881. It was the first black church congregation in Colmesneil. Worship services were held in a log cabin built by the congregation until the early 1900s. The church has occupied several locations and has served not only as a place of worship, but also as a school for black children. In the early 1990s Zion Hill Missionary Baptist church was moved to a site east of the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks adjacent to the Odd Fellows Hall. In 1933, the church was rebuilt at this site six blocks southwest of its original location. For over one hundred years Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church has served the community witht a variety of worship and educational programs and maintained a leadership role in civic activities.

Historical Marker →

Gardner, Jabez Alvin

1903

J. Alvin Gardner, promoter of professional baseball, was born in Colmesneil, Texas, on April 8, 1890, the son of Jabez and Lou (Mullens) Gardner. He moved to Beaumont six years later with his parents and was educated in the public schools there. He received his first taste of baseball when he served as bat boy for the Beaumont club of the South Texas League ( see TEXAS LEAGUE ) in 1903–04. He went to work in 1907 for Gulf Production Company and remained with that company for seventeen years, including service in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico, where he organized a city baseball league. Gardner lived in Shreveport from 1914 to 1918 and opened a Fort Worth office for Gulf in 1918. The following year he was transferred to Wichita Falls in charge of the company's North Texas division. He resigned in 1924 to go into business as a drilling contractor and producer with his brother, Craig T. Gardner. He was one of the first stockholders in the Wichita Falls Texas League club in 1920 and became a director in 1925. He purchased majority control of the team that year and owned and operated it until 1929, when he sold his interest. At the October meeting of the Texas League in 1929 he was elected acting vice president to conduct league affairs during president Doak Roberts's illness. When Roberts died, Gardner was elected to the presidency for a five-year term ending in 1934. He moved the league office to Dallas in November 1931. Gardner died in Dallas on June 3, 1968, survived by his wife and one daughter; he was buried in Dallas.

Tsha Handbook →

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.

Tsha Handbook → · 9.2 mi away

Colmesneil, Texas

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Colmesneil, TX RoadyGoat

Colmesneil, TX RoadyGoat

Colmesneil, TX RoadyGoat

Enloe Mill

Colmesneil-Mount Zion Cemetery

Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church

Gardner, Jabez Alvin

Woods, Zadock

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