Longview
Longview, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for "long view" from Rock Hill when surveyors laid off townsite in 1870. Incorporated June 24, 1871. Became county seat of Gregg County; also railroad, agricultural and lumber center. Its history includes an 1894 bank robbery-- the last raid of the notorious "Dalton Gang". Early home of Governors Thomas M. Campbell and James S. Hogg. Since nearby 1931 Lathrop Well extended East Texas oil field into world's largest, it has been a petroleum, financial, industrial, medical, cultural, religious hub. Home of LeTourneau College. Historic sites marked.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When surveyors laid out this East Texas townsite in 1870, they named it for the long view from Rock Hill, and the settlement incorporated the following year as the seat of Gregg County. Railroads, lumber, and cotton built the early town, which saw the notorious Dalton Gang stage its final raid on a local bank in 1894 and raised two future Texas governors. The 1931 Lathrop well nearby pushed the East Texas oil field into the largest in the world, transforming Longview into a petroleum and financial hub.
Why it matters
Longview's arc from a surveyor's vantage point to an oil-boom city captures how railroads and the East Texas oil field remade the region's economy within a single lifetime.
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Related people
- · Thomas M. Campbell
- · James S. Hogg
Related events
- · 1894 Dalton Gang bank robbery
- · 1931 Lathrop Well oil discovery
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rembert-Harrison House
Longview, TX
Frank Taylor Rembert came to Texas from Mississippi in 1872, working for the railroad before marrying Kate Womack and settling in Longview. He became a leading merchant and investor—running a mercantile firm, a cotton oil mill, and a bank—and served as mayor from 1896 to 1898. Around 1895, inspired by the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, he remodeled the couple's 1870s cottage with Classical Revival columns, and around 1912 added a garage for one of Longview's first automobiles.
Longview Junction
Longview, TX
Longview Junction sprang up in the 1870s where the Texas & Pacific and International & Great Northern railroad lines met, drawing churches, hotels, boardinghouses, and businesses to serve workers and travelers. A mule-powered street railway ran from 1883 to 1912, linking the junction to downtown Longview. Annexed by the city in 1904, the community kept its own identity until automobiles gave people the mobility to move beyond it.
Longview Train Depot
Longview, TX
Longview owes its existence to the railroad: in 1870 O. H. Methvin deeded 150 acres to the Southern Pacific, and by 1871 the town had become the line's western terminus, soon a junction where the International & Great Northern crossed. The Texas and Pacific replaced an 1874 station with the Colonial Revival depot completed in 1940, whose passengers reached the platform through a tunnel and whose walls bore stylized quoins, keystones, and grey stone trim. Once boasting three depots, Longview retains only this one — the last survivor of the railway network that created the town.
Bumpus House
Gladewater, TX
Built around the turn of the twentieth century, this Gladewater house blends Colonial Revival dormers and gable ends with Craftsman touches like tapered box supports on brick piers. Sawmill owner and road builder William E. Bumpus and his wife Catherine bought the property in 1927, and it stayed in the family until 1987. It survives as a well-preserved local landmark of early East Texas domestic architecture.