Samuel H. Levingston
Orange, Orange County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A native of northern Ireland, Samuel H. Levingston was born in 1832, the son of George and Margaret Levingston. At the age of fourteen he left Ireland with his brothers, David and John, and his sister, Margaret. They settled in Apalachicola, Florida, where Samuel Levingston worked as a ship carpenter. There in 1852 he married Asenatha Moore. Shortly before the Civil War began, the Levingstons moved to the area near what is now the city of Orange and established a shipyard on the Sabine River. Samuel Levingston served the Confederate forces during the Civil War as a ship carpenter and a blockade runner. After the war, he returned to Orange and began another shipyard, building paddle wheel boats for hauling cotton and farm products on the Sabine River between Orange and Logansport, LA. Upon his retirement his son George took over the business and developed it into the Levingston Shipbuilding Company. An active civic leader in Orange, Samuel Levingston was involved in the Madison Masonic Lodge and helped found the first Presbyterian church. From 1871 until 1891 he and his family lived on an 11-acre tract of land that later became this city park. Levingston died in 1911 and is buried in Orange's Evergreen Cemetery.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in northern Ireland in 1832, Samuel H. Levingston left home at fourteen and learned ship carpentry in Apalachicola, Florida, before moving near present-day Orange just before the Civil War. He served the Confederacy as a ship carpenter and blockade runner, then returned to build paddle-wheel boats hauling cotton down the Sabine. His son George later grew the family trade into the Levingston Shipbuilding Company, and the land the family once farmed became a city park.
Why it matters
An Irish immigrant's journey to a Gulf Coast shipyard shows how newcomers seeded the industries—and family dynasties—that defined towns like Orange for generations.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Samuel H. Levingston
- · Asenatha Moore
- · George M. Levingston
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Alexander Gilmer
Orange, TX
An Irish immigrant who reached America in 1846, Alexander "Sandy" Gilmer built ships in Orange with his cousin and ran a mercantile before the Civil War, when he served the Confederacy as a blockade runner trading local cotton and lumber for scarce supplies and took part in the 1863 Battle of Sabine Pass. After the war he turned to sawmilling, and though fires destroyed four of his mills, he became one of the region's leading lumbermen, with holdings that included the town of Remlig—his name spelled backward. He died in 1906 while on business in New York.
Putnam B. Curry
Orange, TX
A New York native, Putnam B. Curry moved to Galveston in 1860 and enlisted in the Confederate army, seeing action along the Texas Gulf Coast during the Civil War. After the war he married Eliza Ann Ochiltree and settled in Orange, where he opened a mercantile firm and later ran a hotel and published a newspaper. A leader in the local business community, he remained active until his death in 1910.
David Robert Wingate
Orange, TX
David Robert Wingate moved his family from Mississippi to a large East Texas cotton plantation in 1852, having built his fortune in sawmilling. During the Civil War he supplied lumber from his Sabine Pass mill to build Fort Sabine and other Confederate posts, and Federal troops burned his home and business in retaliation. Undeterred, he rebuilt in Orange after the war, invested in a sawmill, took up rice farming, and served as county judge.
Jerome Swinford
Orange, TX
A Missouri native, Jerome Swinford came to Sabine Pass in 1859 to enter the steamboat trade and, after Civil War service, settled in Orange, where he worked in a sawmill and became a popular merchant. An active Mason, he served as mayor, alderman, and school board member, helped plan a ship channel at Sabine Pass, and won election to the Texas Legislature in 1888.