Diboll
Diboll, Angelina County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A sawmill established here in 1894 by T. L. L. Temple gave rise to a town that by 1900 contained a commissary, post office, churches, homes, and schools run by the Southern Pine Lumber Company. The town was named for the Diboll family of New Orleans from whom Temple initially purchased timber rights. Diboll remained a company town until Southern Pine Lumber Company began promoting private ownership of homes and businesses in the 1950s. Diboll was incorporated in 1962 and today boasts a multiethnic citizenry which supports numerous community activities. (1994)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Diboll grew up around a sawmill that T. L. L. Temple established in the East Texas pinelands in 1894, and by 1900 the Southern Pine Lumber Company ran its commissary, post office, churches, homes, and schools. The town took its name from the New Orleans family from whom Temple first bought timber rights. It stayed a company town until the 1950s, when residents were finally offered the chance to own their homes and shops, incorporating in 1962.
Why it matters
Diboll is a textbook East Texas lumber company town, illustrating both the industry that felled the piney woods and the slow transition from corporate paternalism to self-governing community.
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Related people
- · T. L. L. Temple
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Thomas Lewis Latane Temple
Diboll, TX
A Virginia native, Thomas Lewis Latane Temple moved to Texarkana in 1877 and in 1893 organized the Southern Pine Lumber Company, buying up timberland in Angelina County. In 1894 he founded the town of Diboll around his main sawmill, building an East Texas lumber empire. He became known for early conservation and reforestation practices and for his philanthropy toward his workers and their town.
First Baptist Church Diboll
Diboll, TX
In 1897 the Southern Pine Lumber Company built a shared Union Church for the Baptists and Methodists of its mill town of Diboll. The Baptists secured their own land in 1915, raised a frame church in the 1920s, and called their first full-time pastor in 1935. Incorporating in 1952, the congregation moved to a site near White Oak Creek that it still occupies today.
Old Diboll Library
Diboll, TX
Around 1908, lumber magnate T. L. L. Temple built this hall for the workers of his Southern Pine Lumber Company, pairing a downstairs reading room and recreation space with upstairs living quarters for family, single men, and schoolteachers. Over the decades it doubled as a Red Cross sewing room during World War I and a food distribution point for struggling families during the Depression. It is a rare survivor of the company-town institutions that once organized life in East Texas.
Southern Pine Lumber Company Commissary
Diboll, TX
The Southern Pine Lumber Company opened its first sawmill at Diboll around 1894 under T. L. L. Temple, and this commissary served the company town that grew up around it. Moved into its 1923 building, the store sold everything from groceries and medicine to furniture and coffins, with purchases made in company scrip—metal or waxed-paper tokens. It anchored daily life in Diboll until it closed in 1953.