Orange, Texas

Everything Orange is known for

9 songs mention this city 1 artist from here

Music in Orange

Songs About Orange

Down On The Bayou
William Clark Green
96%
"Catfish cookin' at the Pine Tree Lodge"
One Day
UGK
53%
"Down in Orange, my nigga Pots died on the corner"
Stupid Texas Song
Austin Lounge Lizards
30%
"From Texarkana to El Paso, Dalhart down to Orange"
Texas, Texas, Texas
Melissa Carper
24%
"Got one more day of travelin', I'm crossin that line"
Texas Line Boogie
Chris Rea
16%
"Texas line boogie"
the ballad of lavern and captain flint
guy clark
10%
Something You Don't See Everyday
Jason Boland & The Stragglers
7%
"The bear bait made the border and I damn near went to jail"
Texas in Louisiana
Julia Cole
6%
"Can't fit Texas, Texas in Louisiana"
Sabine River
Jess Williamson
5%
"Sabine River"

Artists From Orange

C
Clarence Brown
blues Pop: 23

Rivers & Roads in Song near Orange

Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Orange.

Sabine River 13 songs Interstate 10 32 songs US Route 90 8 songs

History of Orange

The Hurricane That Almost Erased Orange RoadyGoat

On September 13, 1865, just months after the Civil War ended, a hurricane roared up the Sabine River region and hit this town harder than anywhere else nearby. The National Weather Service's historical account is brutal: of roughly 200 houses in Orange, only four were left standing, and 25 people were killed by collapsing buildings and flying timber. The timing could hardly have been worse. Orange had served as a Confederate supply point and hospital, and the local economy was already reeling from emancipation, military occupation, and the collapse of wartime trade. The storm flattened houses, warehouses, and sawmill property, forcing the community to rebuild almost from nothing. One survivor wrote that the houses 'seemed to be nothing more than a pasteboard box in the wind.' Stand near the Sabine or in flat downtown Orange and it's easy to picture: there's almost no high ground or natural barrier here, nothing to slow wind and water once they start moving inland off the Gulf. The town came back anyway, the first of many times Orange would be knocked down and rebuilt. (Source: National Weather Service; KOGT.)

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The Longleaf-Pine Fortune That Built a Cultural Empire RoadyGoat

In 1877, two experienced Pennsylvania lumbermen, Henry Jacob Lutcher and G. Bedell Moore, arrived here and founded the Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company. The country around Orange still held enormous stands of longleaf and loblolly pine. Logs floated down the waterways or rolled in by rail, and the town's mills cut timber for shipment out through the Gulf Coast. The company became one of the region's dominant employers and ran well into the twentieth century. What makes the story stick is what the money became. Lutcher's daughter Miriam married William Henry Stark, joining timber, banking, oil, and industrial wealth into a single family that reshaped Orange. Their 1894 mansion became the W. H. Stark House, and later generations funded the Stark Museum of Art, the Lutcher Theater, and Shangri La Botanical Gardens. The Stark House, museum, and theater all stand within a few blocks of one another downtown, which makes the lumber era physically legible: trees cut far outside town ended up financing art collections, architecture, and public institutions you can still walk into. (Source: Stephen F. Austin State University; Texas Co-op Power.)

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An Italian Immigrant Built Wooden Ships for World War I RoadyGoat

Once the Sabine River channel was deepened, Orange could finally support real shipbuilding, and during World War I an Italian-born industrialist named Henry Piaggio established the Southern Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company here. The yard built roughly 17 large wooden cargo ships for the United States Shipping Board. They were strange vessels, a bridge between two eras: big ocean-going freighters made of timber at the exact moment steel ships were taking over. Orange happened to have both ingredients the project needed, abundant lumber and a navigable route to the Gulf. The boom collapsed almost as fast as it rose. When the wartime contracts ended after the armistice, workers left, unfinished hulls were abandoned, and stretches of the industrial riverfront changed hands again and again. In one of the more haunting endings, some of the half-finished ship hulls were towed out into the Sabine River and set on fire. Standing at the Orange Riverfront Boardwalk today, you're looking at the same water where those wooden giants once took shape and, in some cases, burned. (Source: Texas State Historical Association.)

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John Harmon

1828

Born in 1790 in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, John Harmon lived at Poste de Attakapas, a Spanish fortification at the present site of St. Martinville. A veteran of the state's defensive actions during the War of 1812, he wed Elizabeth Compstock Clarks in 1813. Soon after the birth of their first child in 1816, the Harmons sold their St. Martin Parish land and moved west. Although not much is known about their activities over the following decade, it is known they had settled along the eastern bank of the Sabine River by 1826. The next year, Harmon decided to relocate in this area. He built a massive raft of cypress logs which transported a house, a wagon, a pair of oxen, a horse, a cow, farm tools and supplies, and his family, which numbered five. The Harmon family arrived here on January 1, 1828, and settled along the river until 1830, when they established a permanent home on Adams Bayou (2 mi. W). Their arrival at the present site of Orange marked the beginning of permanent settlement. Later, when the town developed, John Harmon was a saddler, a civic leader, and a prominent landowner. He died in 1874, but his contributions and pioneer spirit remain vital to the area's heritage. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986

Historical Marker →

George Alexander Pattillo

1812

A veteran of the War of 1812, Georgia native George Alexander Pattillo (1796-1871) migrated to this area in the early 1830s. He served on the local Committee of Correspondence created by the Convention of 1832 and on the General Council of the provisional government established by the Consultation of 1835. During the Texas Revolution of 1836, Pattillo, who had earlier received a Mexican land grant, joined with other area settlers to aid the Texas Army. Arriving at San Jacinto the day after the decisive battle, he was commissioned by Texas President David G. Burnet to direct the formation of Jefferson County, which included this area. He also became an associate justice for the new county and was a postmaster for the settlement of Pattillo's station, later the Terry community of central Orange County. In the early 1840s Pattillo served this area as a Representative and a Senator in the Republic of Texas Congress, where he actively supported annexation to the United States. In 1852 he was elected the first judge of the newly-formed Orange County. An active Masonic leader in southeast Texas, Pattillo died in 1871 and was buried in a family plot at Bunn's Bluff on the Neches River, where he had lived since 1844.

Historical Marker →

Niblett's Bluff

1862

On high point SE, across the Sabine in Louisiana. Busiest east Texas port of entry in the Civil War. Target for enemy movements west across Louisiana repeatedly in 1862-64. Confederate defense post. Supply depot to support constant troop movements, both for fighting and for patrols and recruiting. Crossroads for land and river traffic. Ferry point on old road through swamps. Cotton concentration point. A boom town with gambling, saloons, night life. 
 Patrolled on both sides of the Sabine by Texans, to protect troop movements, commercial shipping, stagecoach travel routes, freighters’ trains, and herds of cattle and hogs going east on the hoof. 
 Passed Texas troops through by thousands, to go eastward through marshlands and sloughs toward Brashear City and New Orleans or upper Mississippi River crossings, to eastern battlefields. Many units went by rail from Houston to Beaumont, then to Sabine Pass and up the river by steamer. 
 Niblett’s Bluff welcomed steamers unloading guns, ammunition, clothing, medicines and other goods vital to the Confederacy— swapping these for Texas and Louisiana cotton, called “Money of the Confederacy” because of its purchasing value in world trade. (1964) 1983 supplemental plate (reported missing Dec. 1999): Marker moved from SH 87 and West Bluff Rd. to actual point of boat departure from Texas train and road termination to Niblett's Bluff.


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Brown, Clarence [Gatemouth]

1924

A multi-faceted musician whose eclectic tastes reflected the great diversity of musical styles found throughout the Southwest, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown was born in Vinton, Louisiana, on April 18, 1924. Brown's father, who was one of his strongest musical influences and taught young Clarence to play piano, fiddle, and guitar, was a railroad worker and a local musician who played country , Cajun, and bluegrass . Throughout his career, Gatemouth Brown performed a variety of musical styles on a broad array of instruments, including guitar, fiddle, piano, drums, mandolin, harmonica, and viola. As a youth who grew up in Southeast Texas near Orange, Brown absorbed the country , bluegrass, R&B, Czech and German polka, Cajun, and early jazz and swing that could be heard throughout the Texas-Louisiana border region. By the time he was five years old, he had learned to play fiddle, and by age ten he was performing on guitar. By the time he was a teenager, Brown played the drums in territory swing bands where he was given the nickname "Gatemouth" because of his deep voice. After returning from military service following World War II , Brown first relocated to San Antonio and then eventually to Houston where he found work at the Bronze Peacock nightclub. During a T-Bone Walker concert there in 1947, Walker became ill and could not finish his show. Brown went onstage, picked up his guitar, and proceeded to play "Gatemouth Boogie," to which the audience responded very enthusiastically. The club owner, Don Robey , also was impressed and arranged for Brown to sign a recording contract with the Los Angeles record label Aladdin. Brown's first singles for Aladdin were not as successful as he had hoped, so Robey decided to start his own label, Peacock Records , in order to market Brown's music. Brown's first single with Peacock, "Mary is Fine," hit Number 8 on the R&B charts in 1949. Soon afterwards, Robey picked Brown to be the front man for a twenty-three-piece orchestra that toured throughout the South. During his time with Peacock, Brown recorded a number of hits, including "Okie Dokie Stomp," "Ain't That Dandy," "Boogie Rambler," "Depression Blues," and "Dirty Work at the Crossroads." By the late 1950s Brown had become frustrated with the limitations of being strictly a blues and R&B musician and decided to finally part ways with Robey and Peacock Records by 1961. However, throughout the 1960s Brown had difficulty finding other work as a musician, something he blamed in part on his strained relations with the influential Robey. During this period, Brown held a variety of jobs. He worked as bandleader on the Dallas syndicated R&B television show The !!!! Beat in 1966. In the late 1960s he was a deputy sheriff in New Mexico. At one point he moved to Nashville where he appeared a few times on the popular country music television show Hee Haw. It was also in Nashville that Brown released his first series of country singles. He later recorded a well-received album, Makin' Music, with Roy Clark in 1979. In the 1970s Brown was able to restart his career, this time performing the broad range of styles for which he would become famous, including country, jazz, and Cajun, as well as the blues and R&B he had played earlier. Brown also began touring again, not only throughout the United States, but also in Europe and around the world. On several stints he toured as a music ambassador for the United States State Department. During the late 1970s Brown signed with Real Records, and by the 1980s he was enjoying success recording for both Alligator and Rounder Records. In 1982 Brown's Alright Again received a Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. He also appeared several times on the PBS television series Austin City Limits . Brown's second release through Rounder Records, One More Mile (1982), along with the rerelease of his earlier Peacock recordings, brought him more acclaim. Brown won eight W. C. Handy Awards. He received the Rhythm and Blues Founda

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Lutcher, Frances Ann Robinson

1912

Frances Ann Robinson Lutcher, philanthropist and humanitarian, daughter of David Robinson, was born on October 17, 1841, in Pennsylvania. She married Henry Jacob Lutcher on January 23, 1858. They had two children, Miriam Melissa ( see STARK, MIRIAM M. L. ), who married William H. Stark , and Carrie Launa, who married Dr. Edgar W. Brown, Sr. The Lutchers moved to Orange, Texas, in 1878. Frances Lutcher was one of Orange's greatest benefactors. She built the First Presbyterian Church in honor of the Lutcher family and dedicated it to Orange on January 28, 1912. This marble structure was reputedly the first structure west of the Mississippi River to have air-conditioning . A Texas Historical Commission marker was placed there in 1978. In 1921 she dedicated the Frances Ann Lutcher Hospital, the first modern hospital in Orange. It had the most up-to-date equipment of the time and also maintained a nurses' training program and a home for student nurses. The hospital was particularly needed for the many workmen injured at the surrounding sawmills and in other lumber-industry accidents. These men had previously been transported long distances by train for treatment. Frences Lutcher became known for having the finest orchid collection in the South. During World War I soldiers in the area called her the "Orchid Lady" because of the orchids that she gave away. She was an ardent traveler and journeyed through the United States and the world up into her eighties. She made her home, however, in Orange from 1877 until her death. She died on October 21, 1924, while on vacation in New York. She was buried in the family mausoleum in Evergreen Cemetery in Orange. Her grandson, Henry Jacob Lutcher Stark , joined the family lumber business and continued his grandmother's philanthropic tradition.

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Wingate, David Robert

1852

David Robert Wingate, early Texas planter and industrialist, son of Robert Potter and Pherobee (Kelly) Wingate, was born in Darlington County, South Carolina, on February 20, 1819. At an early age he moved with his family to Hancock County, Mississippi, where he secured only a rudimentary education. He worked in logging camps and sawmills and, on September 19, 1839, married Caroline Morgan. He and his wife had seven children. Although Wingate visited Texas in 1844, his first industrial venture came in Mississippi, where by 1849 he owned a sawmill. In 1852 he and his family moved to Newton County, Texas, where he established a large plantation on Cow Creek near Belgrade. By 1859 seventy-three slaves worked the plantation; the 350 bales of cotton produced there that year made Wingate the largest antebellum cotton planter in Southeast Texas. He had by that time purchased sawmill facilities at Sabine Pass, which he built into the largest steam sawmill in the state. He also constructed a small fleet of lumber schooners that plied the Gulf of Mexico. In 1860 Wingate, living at Sabine in Jefferson County, had an estate of $108,000, the largest in the county. On April 20, 1861, Wingate and a son enlisted in the Sabine Pass Guard. Elected colonel of the Second Regiment, First Brigade, Texas Militia, Wingate remained in Southeast Texas, having been appointed Confederate States marshal by Gen. Paul O. Hebert . Wingate also served as chairman of safety for Sabine Pass and as commissioner of defense for Jefferson County. In 1862 he and his family returned to Newton County to escape the ravages of a yellow fever epidemic. Later that year Union troops burned his Sabine Pass sawmill and home. Wingate was elected chief justice of Newton County in 1864 and appointed to the same position by Provisional Governor A. J. Hamilton the following year. Although hurt financially by the emancipation of over 100 slaves and a series of fires that destroyed his mills, Wingate recovered strongly from each of his economic setbacks, which one scholar has estimated to have totaled over $500,000. Wingate transferred his operations to Orange and helped to change that city into one of the most important sawmill centers in Texas. He also served as Orange county judge from 1879 to 1884 and was one of the earliest large-scale rice planters in the county in 1892. Wingate died at Orange on February 15, 1899, after a long bout with pneumonia. He was buried in that city's Evergreen Cemetery. A Texas historical marker was placed at his gravesite in 1979.

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Things to Do in Orange

historical 21.8 mi away
Spindletop

On January 10 1901 a well south of Beaumont blew its crown block clean off the derrick and started gushing oil a hundred and fifty feet in the air at nine…
day trip
Day Trip to Orange 🍊 (FULL EPISODE) S5 E10

Featured on The Daytripper — a full-episode local travel guide.

Sports in Orange

🏆 STATE CHAMPIONS Class 4A · Football · 2016

West Orange-Stark — 2016 UIL 4A Division 2 Football State Champions

Most recent: 24-6 over Sweetwater · 2016 4A Division 2 final

Orange, Texas, is home to West Orange-Stark High School, a formidable presence in Class 4A football. The Mustangs have a proud history on the gridiron, reflecting the competitive spirit found throughout the region. Their program consistently fields strong teams, making them a respected opponent across the state.

The community rallies behind its team, with generations of fans following the Mustangs' journey. The dedication to excellence in West Orange-Stark's football program is evident in their consistent performance and the high standards they uphold each season.

State titles
2016
Most recent
2016, 24-6
Class
4A
The moment

One notable moment in West Orange-Stark football history came in 2016 when the Mustangs secured the 4A Division 2 state championship by defeating Sweetwater 24-6.

Sources: UIL State Championship Archives · SI High School (ScoreBook Live)

Everything Near Orange

296 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.

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