Hoshall

J. V. Lankford and Sons of Redland built and ran the mill, according to the Texas Forestry Museum's sawmill database, and sold it before Luke Wright bought it in 1917. Under Wright, daily cutting rose from 10,000 to 25,000 feet and a planing mill was added. The mill employed about 65 Black and white workers. The company town had several rows of houses, a commissary, two boarding houses, a Masonic lodge, and segregated churches and schools. Several fires struck before the timber was cut out, and the mill closed before the end of World War II.

What the plaque says

Hoshall The Houston East and West Texas (HE&WT) Railroad came through Angelina County in 1882 and a community named Bitterweed Flat developed here. In 1913 W. E. Hoshall purchased land and timber rights in the area and began shipping logs from Hoshall Switch on the HE&WT in Bitterweed Flat. In 1917 Luke E. Wright established a sawmill and town with churches, schools, and a commissary at the switch site. The company town was named Hoshall and consisted of Anglo and African American citizens. The sawmills closed and by 1940 all that remained was the cemetery and the mill pond. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 32 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.

More markers nearby

• Burke School — 2.8 mi
• Burke Methodist Church — 2.9 mi
• City of Lufkin — 4.1 mi
• Ryan Chapel — 4.2 mi