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.
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Related people
- · Earnest Thomas Page
Themes & tags
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