Redwater
Redwater, Bowie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The first community in this area was Mooresville (2 mi. E), settled in 1840 by the Charles Moores (1776-1852) family. It had disappeared before this town grew up near the Daniels and Spence sawmill in 1875. Because of mill workers' disregard for religion, the village was first named Ingersoll for the famous agnostic of that day, Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-99). A branch of the St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) Railway arrived here in the late 1870s, attracting more upstanding citizens. William Thomas Fagan built two more sawmills in the early 1880s. English-born Earnest Thomas Page (1860-1937) opened a general store, which also housed the town's first post office (1881) Church-going townspeople objected to the name Ingersoll and suggested changing it to Redwater, for the color of spring and well water in the area. A town vote in 1894 made Redwater the official name. In 1914 a tornado destroyed many businesses here, but Redwater quickly rebuilt. The economy was based on farming and lumbering until 1941, when the Red River Army Ammunition Depot and Lone Star Ordnance plant were built just north of town. The opening of the International Paper Mill in the 1970s has created new interest in lumbering and tree farming. (1975)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After the nearby settlement of Mooresville faded, this town grew up around the Daniels and Spence sawmill in 1875 and was first named Ingersoll for a famous agnostic of the day, reflecting the mill workers' irreverence. The arrival of a Cotton Belt railway branch and more sawmills drew churchgoing families who objected to the name, and an 1894 vote made it Redwater, after the reddish local water. Farming and lumber sustained the town, and it rebuilt quickly after a 1914 tornado; wartime ordnance plants in 1941 and a later paper mill kept its timber economy alive.
Why it matters
Redwater's story — sawmill camp to railroad town to wartime industrial hub — distills how timber, rails, and even a name fight shaped the small towns of the piney-woods South.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Northeast Texas, near the Arkansas line, is piney-woods country, and in the decades after the Civil War those forests became a resource the nation wanted badly. Growing cities and expanding farms needed lumber, and sawmills spread across the East Texas timberlands. A mill could pull a town into existence almost overnight, filling it with workers who came for wages rather than for church or community.
Railroads made that economy possible. Once rail lines reached the forests, lumber could be shipped to distant markets, and railroad towns grew up along the tracks. The late 1870s and 1880s saw lines stitched across this corner of Texas. Each new station offered a chance at permanence for settlements that might otherwise have vanished when the timber ran out.
The story runs into the twentieth century too. When the United States geared up for the Second World War, the federal government built large munitions and supply facilities across the country, often in rural places with open land and rail access. Northeast Texas got some of the biggest, and they transformed towns that had lived on farming and lumber.
People & events
This area's first community was actually Mooresville, about two miles east, settled in 1840 by the family of Charles Moores. Mooresville faded away, and in 1875 a new village grew up around the Daniels and Spence sawmill. The mill hands apparently had little use for religion, and the town took the name Ingersoll, after Robert Green Ingersoll. He was the most famous agnostic in America at the time, a spellbinding orator who drew huge crowds to lectures challenging religious belief. Naming a town after him was a pointed joke.
Things began to change when a branch of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, known as the Cotton Belt, arrived in the late 1870s. The railroad brought steadier, more settled residents, whom the marker calls "more upstanding citizens." William Thomas Fagan built two more sawmills in the early 1880s. An English-born merchant, Earnest Thomas Page, opened a general store that also held the town's first post office in 1881, making it a center of daily life.
The churchgoing newcomers were not pleased to live in a town named for a famous skeptic. They proposed Redwater instead, after the reddish tint of the area's spring and well water, and in 1894 a town vote made it official. Redwater survived a destructive tornado in 1914 that wrecked many businesses and quickly rebuilt. In 1941 the Red River Army Ammunition Depot and the Lone Star Ordnance plant were built just north of town, and in the 1970s a nearby International Paper mill gave lumbering and tree farming a new lease on life.
Its place in the American story
Redwater is a small-scale version of a pattern found all over the American South and West: a town born from one industry, secured by the railroad, and reshaped by national events far beyond its control. Thousands of American towns began as mill camps or rail stops, and the ones that lasted usually did so by adapting.
The name fight is a rare, lively window into the culture wars of the Gilded Age. Robert Ingersoll was a national celebrity whose attacks on religion made him admired and reviled in equal measure. That a Texas sawmill camp would take his name, and that its churchgoing residents would later vote it away, shows how the era's arguments over faith reached even tiny frontier communities.
The wartime plants built next to Redwater in 1941 connect this quiet town directly to the American war effort. The country mobilized on a massive scale for the Second World War, and places like this supplied the ammunition and material that armies overseas relied on. Their arrival changed the local economy for generations.
If you visit
Before you leave, notice the water. The marker says the town's name came from the reddish color of local spring and well water, a small natural detail that won a vote and outlasted a famous skeptic's name. It is a reminder of how place names so often come from what early residents saw every day.
The forests are the other thing to notice. Driving through the surrounding countryside, you are in the timber country that gave Redwater its start and that tree farming still shapes today. Watch for the rail line too, since it was the Cotton Belt's arrival that turned a rough mill camp into a lasting town.
Redwater fits naturally into a drive through Bowie County and the Texarkana area. Combine it with other markers in the region to follow the threads of timber, railroads and wartime industry across Northeast Texas. The marker itself dates from 1975, so remember that the town has kept changing since it was written.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Earnest Thomas Page
Themes & tags
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