Birthplace of Allan Shivers
Lufkin, Angelina County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born here, in now-razed house, Oct. 5, 1907, to Robert A. and Easter C. Shivers, pioneer East Texas family. As youth, worked at odd jobs to earn own pocket money. Was State Senator 12 years; Lieutenant Governor for two. A strong, progressive Governor, his term (longest in state history) was marked by reforms in state hospitals and special schools, prison and highway improvement, protection of natural resources and historic sites, and creation of agencies on alcoholism and for higher education. In private life, one of Texas' outstanding business leaders. (1971)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Allan Shivers was born in Lufkin in 1907 into a pioneer East Texas family, and rose through the state Senate and the lieutenant governorship to become one of the most powerful governors in Texas history. Serving the longest gubernatorial term the state had known, he pressed reforms in state hospitals, special schools, prisons, and highways, and expanded protections for natural resources and historic sites. In private life he became one of Texas's leading businessmen.
Why it matters
Shivers's long, activist tenure reshaped mid-century Texas government and marks the state's transition into the modern administrative era.
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Related people
- · Allan Shivers
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Baptist Church of Lufkin
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When the railroad reached the raw townsite of Lufkin in the early 1880s, a Baptist congregation of just nine members organized to serve the new East Texas community. The railroad itself donated the land, and the first sanctuary rose in 1893. From its earliest days the church anchored the growing town and championed missions and Christian education.
Mantooth Farm
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The Mantooth family put down roots in Angelina County in 1858, and in 1909 Eddie Mantooth bought an eleven-acre farm on the edge of Lufkin that fed both his household and the local market. Eddie also served as county tax assessor and collector, and the daughters and sons-in-law who followed became educators, bankers, and businessmen woven into Lufkin's growth. One son-in-law even helped lay the East Texas gas pipeline that fueled the nation during World War II.
Masonic Hall of Lufkin
Lufkin, TX
Completed in 1900 by self-taught Black architect Will Engram—who arrived in Lufkin with a third-grade education and went on to build some hundred homes—this wood-frame hall became the meeting place for North Lufkin's Black fraternal orders, from the Free Masons to the Eastern Stars and Heroines of Jericho. Slated for demolition in the 1970s, it was saved through the efforts of Engram's daughter and now houses a Black History room. It stands among the last turn-of-the-century buildings in the community.
Redland School
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After a county surveyor and fellow pioneers settled this part of Angelina County in the 1850s, families held private lessons until a one-room log schoolhouse rose on a settler's land after the Civil War, open only three months each fall. Renamed Redland in 1924 in a new brick building, the school grew into a state-recognized leader in teaching methods and won championships in athletics before consolidating into Lufkin's district in 1970.