Hardin-Concord Road
Lumberton, Hardin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In use from 1859 to about 1900, this historic roadway is one of the oldest area landmarks. It accommodated wagon and horseback travel between early settlements and provided connection between river voyages. Concord, to the southeast on Pine Island Bayou, was the southern limit for steamboat traffic on the Neches River. Hardin, to the northwest, was the first Hardin county seat from 1858 to 1887. Much of the old road can be traced today, a reminder of 19th century overland and waterway travel. Although development has obscured it from view at this point, modern U.S. Highway 69 crosses its course here. Today the historic road is remembered for its contributions to local transportation and commerce. (1971, 2011)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In use from about 1859 to 1900, the Hardin-Concord Road was one of the oldest overland routes in the area, carrying wagon and horseback travelers between early settlements. It linked Hardin, the first Hardin County seat, with Concord, the southernmost point steamboats could reach on the Neches River by way of Pine Island Bayou—joining land and water travel into a single network. Traces of the old road can still be followed where modern U.S. Highway 69 now crosses its path.
Why it matters
Frontier roads like this stitched together the river landings and county seats of early Texas, and their routes often underlie the highways we drive today.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First United Methodist Church of Kountze
Kountze, TX
In the 1880s the Texas and New Orleans Railroad opened up the Big Thicket country of Hardin County, and the new town of Kountze grew up along the tracks, capturing the county seat from nearby Hardin in 1886. As settlers arrived, the Rev. James S. Murphy gathered a Methodist congregation that laid the cornerstone of the town's first church in 1888, a sanctuary shared by worshippers of every denomination. Served for years by circuit-riding ministers, the congregation grew into a full charge with its own pastor by 1940 and a new sanctuary in 1951.
Old Hardin
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Founded in 1859 as the first seat of newly created Hardin County, Old Hardin thrived until the Sabine & East Texas Railroad bypassed it in 1881, a fatal turn for many 19th-century towns. A suspicious fire destroyed its courthouse in 1886, and the next year voters moved the county seat to Kountze, which sat on the rail line. Old Hardin faded as the railroad town rose in its place.
Texas' First Rice Mill
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Along the Gulf prairie of Southeast Texas, early rice growers depended so entirely on rainfall that their crop earned the wry name "Providence Rice." J. E. Broussard changed that: a pioneer grower and irrigator, he founded the Beaumont Rice Mill in 1892 and helped organize the Rice Millers' Association, spurring mills across neighboring counties. The present mill building went up in 1907, and Broussard's descendants have kept the firm running ever since.
Nancy Tevis
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