Harleton

The Handbook of Texas says the town began about 1890 as Fontana and was renamed Harleton in 1892, when it had an estimated 175 residents, for the sawmill operator J. W. Harle. In 1904 the district had one school with one teacher for 48 Black pupils, and two schools with four teachers for 199 white pupils. A bank and telephone service arrived by 1914, and the railroad was abandoned in 1937. A nearby gas field opened in 1946, partly reviving an economy that had fallen to 275 people in 1945.

What the plaque says

Harleton Although settlement in this area between the forks of Big and Little Cypress creeks began in the 1830s, notable growth did not occur until the arrival of a railroad here in 1891. The railroad was a vital part of a venture financed by John H. Inman, organized by Edwin J. Fry, and executed by brothers Robert H. and James W. Harle, to exploit the area's virgin forests. Organized as the Hope Lumber Company, they constructed a depot and large commissary, installed a band sawmill, and extended a tram road into the Eagle Creek area. The nearby village of Grady was unable to compete against the Harles' well-stocked store and dance hall and soon faded. Its post office, renamed Harleton after the Harle brothers, was relocated to the Harle store. Harleton's economy boomed as timber production led to increased farm activity, and local merchants such as D. C. Webb and Son, Dreyfus-Little Mercantile Co., J. P. Craver and Son, and R. W. Taylor General Merchandise increased stocks to meet a growing demand for wares. By the late 1890s, however, Hope Lumber Company had processed the area's available timber and closed its mill. The railroad later joined with the Marshall & East Texas Railroad. Harleton continued, supported by agriculture and other timber operations in the area. (1993)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Jefferson Historical Museum — 14 mi
  A four-floor museum in Jefferson's 1888-90 federal post office and courthouse, with rooms for African-American history, Jewish heritage, the Caddo and Diamond Bessie, bought by the historical society in 1965 for $8,100.
• Excelsior House Hotel — 14 mi
  A brick-and-timber hotel at 211 West Austin that began as a river captain's boarding house in 1858 and was revived by a garden club in 1959, and still takes guests with rosewood furniture.
• Texas and Pacific Railway Depot and Museum — 15 mi
  The only surviving building of the Texas and Pacific shops at Marshall, a 1912 Mission Revival depot saved from demolition in the 1990s, still an Amtrak stop, with a railway museum and a Mikado locomotive.
• Starr Family Home State Historic Site — 15 mi
  Maplecroft, the 1871 Greek Revival house Frank Starr built in Marshall, with Ruth Starr Blake's glass and china, an 1880s kitchen restored in 2019 and a retirement home built for a formerly enslaved person.

More markers nearby

• Simmons Hill Baptist Church — 7.8 mi
• Noonday Holiness Camp Interdenominational — 8.3 mi
• Walnut Creek Baptist Church — 11 mi
• Nash Iron Works — 11 mi