Texla, Texas

Texla is a ghost town in northern Orange County, Texas, United States, in the southeastern part of the state. It is located northwest of Orange, just west of Mauriceville. The site was originally called "Bruce", after the postmaster Charles G. Bruce when the office opened in 1905. [ Schmidt, Walter G. (1993) "An Encyclopaedia of Texas Post Offices", p. 56, Chicago, Illinois: The Collectors' Club of Chicago.] The first sawmill to operate there was known as the "Harrell-Votaw Lumber Company" with a close proximity to the Orange and Northwestern Railway. The following year, the "R. W. Wier Lumber Company" out of Houston took over operations. The site (and the post office) was renamed "Texla", due to its proximity to Louisiana. [ [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/TT/hvt24.html TSHA Online - Texas State Historical Association ] ] The owner Wier sold out to the "Miller-Link Lumber Company" in 1917. The peak population of the town reached an estimated 600 residents. In 1918 the mill was destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt in 1919 with a double-circular mill of the same size. [ [http://www.rootsweb.com/~txorange/history/sawmills13.html TXGenWeb - Orange County History - Sawmills ] ] Within a year, the "Peavy-Moore Lumber Company" of Deweyville took ownership, and operated the site until the nearby timber became exhausted. In 1929, the mill was dismantled and the site was abandoned. [ibid]
From 1945 until 1977, a sawmill operated under the name "Texla Lumber Company" in nearby Mauriceville, according to the Texas Forestry Museum. [ [http://www.treetexas.com/sawmilldb/display.asp?alpha=OR&num=50 TFM - sawmill database detail ] ]

See also

* Ghost town, and List of ghost towns

References

External links

*
* [http://www.ttarchive.com/library/maps/TEXLA_1926_USGS.html Texas Transportation Archive] , 1926 USGS Map of Texla