The Great Flood of 2017 RoadyGoat

In late August 2017, Lumberton faced a disaster of biblical proportions. Hurricane Harvey stalled over the region, and the rain just wouldn't stop. The town is built around Village Creek, which flows into the Neches River. Both waterways became overwhelmed. The water rose with terrifying speed, pouring into thousands of homes and businesses, many in areas that had never flooded. US Highway 96, the town’s main artery, disappeared under feet of brown water, cutting Lumberton in half and isolating it from the outside world. An army of volunteers in private boats, the 'Cajun Navy,' descended on the town, performing heroic rescues and plucking stranded families from rooftops and flooded homes. It was a moment of absolute devastation, but also one of incredible community spirit. The flood reshaped the landscape and the lives of nearly everyone here, leaving a permanent mark on the town’s memory.

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The Ghost Light of Bragg Road RoadyGoat

About twenty-five miles north of Lumberton, up past Kountze and out toward Saratoga, lies one of Texas's most famous spooky legends: the Ghost Road. Officially it's Bragg Road, an eight-mile, arrow-straight, unpaved lane cutting through the dark woods of the Big Thicket. It runs that straight because it isn't really a road at all — it's an old Santa Fe branchline bed, rails laid in 1901 and pulled up in 1934. Ever since, people have driven down it at night, turned off their engines and headlights, and waited. More often than not, they see it: a mysterious, floating light that appears in the distance, sways back and forth, and then vanishes. The most popular legend says it's a railroad brakeman decapitated in a wreck on the Saratoga line. His body was recovered; his head never was. And so he walks the old rail bed forever with his lantern, looking for it. Scientists have offered swamp gas or the reflection of distant car headlights, but no explanation has ever stuck. For people around Lumberton, going to see the Ghost Light for yourself is still a rite of passage.

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Harvey's Hydrological Assault RoadyGoat

The 2017 flooding in Lumberton wasn't just a bad storm; it was a catastrophic failure of a complex water system pushed past its limits. Here's the science of what happened. Harvey stalled and dumped twenty to forty inches of rain across Hardin County, straight into the Neches River watershed. Think of a watershed as a giant funnel, and Lumberton sits right in the middle of it. All that water had to go somewhere. It poured into the creeks and bayous that feed the Neches, above all Village Creek, which runs right past town. The creek, normally a gentle stream, swelled past a record crest that had stood since August of 1915, and the U.S. 96 bridge over it near Silsbee collapsed outright. But the water also hit a bottleneck. The Neches itself was running its second-highest level in records going back to 1884, creating a backwater effect. Village Creek couldn't drain, so it backed up and spread across the flat coastal plain Lumberton is built on. Nearly ten thousand homes flooded in Hardin County. It was a perfect storm of meteorology, topography and hydrology that turned a suburban town into a temporary lake.

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David Choate Jr.

1836

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. These lands were surveyed on the north side of Pine Island Bayou, where in 1856 he founded Concord, originally part of Jefferson County. It had a well-known ferry crossing that connected Beaumont to Points North. Choate and his wife, Mary (Coon), contacted the Orange County surveyor to lay out the town in 1858. Hardin County was created in 1858, carved out of Jefferson, Liberty and Tyler counties. The town of Hardin was created as the county seat in 1859. It was located on the Concord to Woodville road. Concord became the southern shipping point for steamboat traffic on the Neches River, bringing farm products and lumber from Hardin, Tyler and Jasper Counties into Beaumont. At its peak, concord had 300 residents. Concord and the town of Hardin thrived from steamboat traffic and shipping. With the completion of the railroads from Beaumont to Rockland, the town of Concord passed into history as steamboats were no longer needed. Concord was abandoned in 1880 but had served its purpose as a steamboat stop. David Choate Jr. died in Concord in 1879 and was buried in Leatherwood Cemetery, located on the David Choate survey. His widow died in 1909 and is also buried in the cemetery.

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Former Townsite of Concord

1858

First town in Hardin County. Established in 1858 at a strategic crossing from Beaumont to points north. Original name was Benton. Rapidly became a thriving steamboat port and reached a population of about 300, but declined in the 1880s with coming of the railroad.

Historical Marker → · 4.0 mi away

Hardin-Concord Road

1859

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. Much of the old road can be traced today, a reminder of 19th century overland and waterway travel. Although development has obscured it from view at this point, modern U.S. Highway 69 crosses its course here. Today the historic road is remembered for its contributions to local transportation and commerce. 					(1971, 2011)

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Giles, Robert C.

1954

Robert C. Giles, journalist and educator, was born in Silsbee, Texas, on August 23, 1928, to Wilbert and Carrie Giles. The Giles family had relocated to Texas from their native state, Louisiana, during the Great Migration. The late 1920s ushered in the decline of sawmill work and the start of the Great Depression . For these two reasons, the family trekked across the Sabine River into Texas. A frugal Wilbert Giles saved enough funds to purchase a farmhouse in Silsbee in Hardin County, where he and his family lived. There in Silsbee, Wilbert found more reliable work at a nearby sawmill, offsetting his wages with farming. The family survived the Great Depression and the pressures of living in the segregated South. Deeply religious, the Catholic family prided themselves on their spiritual roots that went back to Louisiana. Some of the children apparently remained in Louisiana; others built lives in Silsbee. Then others moved to Texas cities and made respectable livings as barbers and dressmakers. One son served in World War II . The youngest of the six Giles children, Robert, finished high school in 1945 or 1946. A good writer, he knew he wanted to attend college, even though his parents could not afford to send him. Resilient and hardworking, young Robert found a way to enter college. Scholarship money and hard work helped him pay his way through undergraduate school. He entered St. Thomas College (today the University of St. Thomas) in St. Paul, Minnesota, and earned his bachelor's degree in 1952. He then entered graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin and earned his master's degree in journalism in 1954. Some sources suggest Robert Giles became the first African American to desegregate the university's journalism program (now the College of Communication) and was one of the first to earn a journalism degree. Like other Blacks in the 1950s and 1960s, Giles opened important doors of opportunity to other African Americans. Robert Giles then entered the United States Army after finishing his master's degree; he ultimately became a staff sergeant. After his honorable discharge, he remained in the armed serves and served his country in the Air Force Reserves. Working as a journalist at a number of newspapers, he found his niche when he secured permanent work at the Texas Catholic Herald, published by the Diocese of Galveston-Houston (today the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston), in 1966. Giles especially loved human-interest stories that captured the attention of the Catholic community and secular press. His series on the homeless in Houston attracted national attention and earned him awards. His ability to humanize his subjects, including those most despised, propelled his reputation as a first-rate journalist. Giles later told journalists in a 2001 interview that his ability to connect with the indigent and homeless had to do with his own background. Growing up poor in Louisiana and Texas gave him an edge over others, he thought. Giles knew his sensitivity and empathy would also motivate his subjects to "trust" him. He always said he felt God's presence in many of his subjects, regardless of their circumstances. Giles, who worked for the paper for thirty-five years, also authored a number of books, including Changing Times: The Story of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston in Commemoration of Its Founding (1972). Giles loved writing and teaching. For more than twenty years he taught part-time in the Department of Journalism and Telecommunications (today School of Communications) on the campus of Texas Southern University. Giles also advised the student newspaper. On the campus, the associate professor of journalism reached out to young people from all walks of life, including working-class backgrounds. In the late 1980s he often lectured to students about the dangers of embracing those cultural constructs that denigrated the Black community. Giles also reminded students of their responsibilities to future generations. Dedi

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Silsbee, TX

1894

Silsbee is at the junction of U.S. Highway 96, State Highway 327, and Farm roads 92 and 418, twenty miles north of Beaumont in eastern Hardin County. Its origins can be traced to the Gulf, Beaumont and Kansas City Railway, which reached the site in 1894. A project of John Henry Kirby , the railroad was intended to open East Texas forest lands to the timber industry. The Texas Pine Land Association, also managed by Kirby, established a logging camp and then a sawmill at the site of Silsbee after the railroad was completed. The growing community was first called Mill Town but was soon renamed Silsbee in recognition of one of Kirby's East Coast partners, Nathan D. Silsbee. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe system bought Kirby's Gulf, Beaumont and Kansas City line and built mechanical shops and a roundhouse in Silsbee in 1901. It also extended a fifty-mile line to the Trinity River, thus giving access to still more East Texas forests. In 1902 the Kirby Lumber Company took control of the Silsbee sawmill, which had been leased to the Industrial Lumber Company. By 1907 the mill, rebuilt after a 1904 fire, was producing over twelve million board feet per year. Independent of the Kirby interests, the South Silsbee Townsite Company was formed in 1906. South Silsbee was renamed Woodrow after President Woodrow Wilson and was home for many of the town's railroad workers. Woodrow had its own post office from 1913 to 1918. Another small community, Red Cut, was also laid out in the late 1900s. The separate communities gradually became part of Silsbee proper. The Silsbee Ice, Light, and Power Corporation received the right to supply electricity to patrons in Silsbee in 1921, when the town was defined to include residents of Silsbee, Old Town, South Silsbee or Woodrow, and Red Cut. In 1936 a major oilfield was discovered north of Silsbee. Another large field was found west of town in 1941. The most productive of the wells had produced a cumulative total of more than 23 million barrels of crude oil by 1984. Silsbee also became a center for the area's truck and fruit farmers. The Kirby Lumber Company's consolidation at its huge new plant in Silsbee, completed in 1955, further solidified the local economy. The oil, railroad, timber, and agricultural resources provided residents with a diversified economic base. The Silsbee Bee , a weekly newspaper, has served the area since 1919. The town's population, set at 162 in 1904, was 2,525 in 1941 and had risen to 7,684 by 1980. Roughly one-third of these residents were black. In 1990 the population was 6,368. The population was 6,393 in 2000.

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Evadale, TX

1839

Evadale is at the junction of U.S. Highway 96 and Farm roads 105, 1131, and 2246, twenty-five miles northeast of Beaumont in southwestern Jasper County. During the 1830s and 1840s the site was called Richardson (Richardson's) Bluff, for early settler Benjamin Richardson, who operated a ferry on the Neches River and who also served as postmaster in 1839. Town lots for the area were listed in county tax rolls as early as 1859. After Richardson's death in 1849, the land was sold to John A., Philip U., and Charles T. Ford. At this time the site was often referred to as Ford's Bluff. Hoping to establish a sawmill, Philip Ford went to New Orleans to buy machinery but contracted yellow fever there and died shortly after returning to Jasper County. Nonetheless, Ford's Bluff became an important collection point for logs, which were floated down the river to Beaumont mills. In 1893 John Henry Kirby chartered the Gulf, Beaumont and Kansas City Railway and rebuilt a tram line that already ran from Ford's Bluff to Buna as part of his larger common carrier project. Kirby renamed the site for Miss Eva Dale, a teacher at Jasper's Southeast Texas Male and Female College, and constructed a mill there by 1904, when the post office was established. By 1914 the Evadale plant, known as Mill U, included kilns, a circular sawmill, and a planing mill with a daily capacity of up to 70,000 board feet. Evadale had a population of 300 by 1920. The Kirby mill closed during the Great Depression , and by the late 1940s the town's population had fallen to 100. Economic revitalization began in 1948, when the Champion Paper and Fiber Company acquired riverfront acreage for a pulp mill. By the 1970s the giant Temple-Eastex pulpwood and paper mill dominated the local economy. With the new activity, the population in Evadale reached 700 by the early 1960s. In 1984 the town had twenty-two businesses and an estimated 715 residents. In 1990 its population was 1,422 and in 2000 it was 1,430.

Tsha Handbook → · 9.7 mi away

Lumberton, Texas

Music in Lumberton

Songs About Lumberton

Artists From Lumberton

Rivers & Roads in Song near Lumberton

History of Lumberton

The Great Flood of 2017 RoadyGoat

The Ghost Light of Bragg Road RoadyGoat

Harvey's Hydrological Assault RoadyGoat

David Choate Jr.

Former Townsite of Concord

Hardin-Concord Road

Giles, Robert C.

Silsbee, TX

Evadale, TX

Things to Do in Lumberton

Everything Near Lumberton