Angelina & Neches River Railroad
Lufkin, Angelina County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Chartered in August 1900 and headquartered in the sawmill town of Keltys, the Angelina and Neches River (A&NR) Railroad began as a small short line railroad to move logs from the woods of East Texas to the mills of the Angelina County Lumber Company. Principal founding partners Joseph H. Kurth, Sr., S. W. Henderson, Sr., Eli Wiener and Sam Wiener, all officers in the Angelina County Lumber Company, joined the growing trend of lumber company industrialists who branched out into the railroad business about the turn of the 20th century. The A&NR began with ten miles of track and two wood-burning narrow-gauge steam locomotives. In 1906, the line added 2.54 miles of track, with its eastern terminus at Alco, a logging camp owned by the lumber company. Two new locomotives were purchased to accommodate the conversion of the track from narrow to standard gauge. By 1911, the line extended to Chireno in Nacogdoches County. With the founding of Southland Paper Mills in 1938, made possible largely due to assets of the A&NR, the railroad expanded to haul in pulpwood and ship out newsprint made from southern pine. In its first 100 years, the Angelina & Neches River's short line service played a key role in the economic development of Lufkin and other communities along the line. It continues as an important part of the history of the East Texas timber industry. (2000)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Chartered in 1900 and based in the sawmill town of Keltys, the Angelina and Neches River Railroad began as a humble short line hauling logs from the East Texas woods to the mills of the Angelina County Lumber Company. Its lumber-baron founders were part of a wider trend of timbermen turning to railroading, and the line grew from ten miles of narrow-gauge track and two wood-burning engines into a standard-gauge carrier reaching neighboring counties. With Southland Paper Mills' founding in 1938, it hauled pulpwood and shipped out newsprint.
Why it matters
The A&NR shows how logging railroads knit the timber economy together and seeded the towns and industries that shaped modern East Texas.
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Related people
- · Joseph H. Kurth, Sr.
- · Eli Wiener
- · Sam Wiener
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Equipment Typical of Early Texas Logging
Lufkin, TX
This slip-tongue, high-wheel cart, built in 1950 for the lumber firm W.T. Carter & Brother, was among the last of its kind, drawn by oxen or mules to skid logs from the forest to the railroad. Replaced by tractor-powered equipment just a year later, it stands as a relic of the labor-intensive methods that defined early East Texas logging. Preserved and marked in 1972, it recalls the industry that shaped the Piney Woods economy.
Machinery from Early East Texas Logging Railroads
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These machines powered the vast lumber operations that reshaped the East Texas Piney Woods in the early twentieth century. Steam locomotive No. 3 and a 1906 wood-burning steam loader were bought by the Carter-Kelley Lumber Company to build and supply its sawmill at Manning, hauling logs, freight, and passengers over shifting 'portable' logging railroads whose cables could drag timber hundreds of feet to the tracks. The equipment served until the 1950s, after the company had merged with W.T. Carter & Brother.
Calder (Cotton) Square
Lufkin, TX
From 1882 into the early 1900s, this square was the beating heart of Lufkin — crowded with cotton buyers, horse traders, band concerts, political rallies, and switching railroad trains. It held the fire station, the town standpipe, and a 1933 memorial library named for lumberman J. H. Kurth. In 1961 the square was renamed for Louis Calder, a New York friend of the Kurth family.
Site of Martin Wagon Company
Lufkin, TX
In 1908 Daniel Webster Martin and his two sons opened a small wagon shop in Lufkin, where Martin, an inventor and designer, developed specialized wagons for the booming lumber industry. Incorporated as the Martin Wagon Company in 1910 with partner B. L. Zeagler, the business thrived until the Depression cut demand for timber products. It was later absorbed by the Lufkin Foundry and Machine Co.—renamed Lufkin Industries—and became the seed of that company's trailer division.