Rhonesboro
Gilmer, Upshur County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded 1902; Named for W. M. Rhone, only sawmill operator in area until 1901, when arrival of Marshall & East Texas Railroad created a town which grew to have 15 sawmills, 10 stores, 2 churches, a school, hotel, bank, gin, and cotton yard. Mill operators were Connally; Barton and Smith; McWhorter; Cone and Watkins; Whitter; Dacus; Waterman; Nolan; James; Swann; Beavers and Meek; P. K. Williams; M. C. and F. C. Florence; Roger and J. O. Schrum. After pine forest here was depleted (1917), the mills moved and the railroad was abandoned.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the Marshall & East Texas Railroad reached this Upshur County pine country in 1901, a sleepy sawmill site named for operator W. M. Rhone erupted into a boomtown. Within a few years Rhonesboro counted fifteen sawmills, ten stores, churches, a school, a bank, and a cotton gin, its fortunes riding entirely on East Texas timber. When the surrounding pine forest was exhausted around 1917, the mills moved on and the railroad was pulled up, leaving the town to fade.
Why it matters
Rhonesboro's rise and fall is a classic East Texas story of the timber economy — how a railroad and a forest could conjure a town almost overnight and abandon it just as fast.
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Related people
- · W. M. Rhone
Themes & tags
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