John Henry Kirby and Education in Woodville

The school gift is one side of Kirby. The other was his fight against sawmill unions. At its peak his Kirby Lumber Company held more than 300,000 acres and thirteen mills, and the Handbook of Texas calls him a paternalistic, often generous employer who opposed unions. It records him leading antiunion rallies and barbecues in Kirbyville and De Ridder, Louisiana, against the Brotherhood of Timber Workers, which enrolled Black and white mill hands together and was spent as a force by spring 1913. Kirby lost control of his companies in the 1933 bankruptcy and died in 1940.

What the plaque says

John Henry Kirby and Education in Woodville John Henry Kirby, son of John T. and Sarah Payne Kirby, was born in the village of Peachtree in North Tyler County, Texas, in 1860. A promising young student, he was encouraged to move to Woodville where he could attend schools with a more challenging curriculum. Kirby married Lelia Stewart in 1883 and afterward joined the staff of Texas State Senator and Attorney Samuel Cooper. He gained admittance to the Texas Bar in 1885 and became Cooper's law partner. After helping Boston investors form the Texas and Louisiana Land and Timber Company he formed his own Kirby Lumber Company in 1901. The company evolved into a regional economic powerhouse responsible for the creation of numerous lumbermill towns in southeast Texas with more than 16,000 employees and covering more than a million acres of timberland. Kirby amassed a lumber empire and became known as the "Prince of the Pines." Though immensely wealthy and a figure of national and state prominence, Kirby never forgot his Tyler County roots. Kirby's many philanthropic acts and gifts to churches, schools, parks, and organizations in East Texas included his donation of land and the funds to build "Kirby High School" at this site in 1928. The last Kirby High School class graduated in 1979. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Martin Dies, Jr. State Park — 13 mi
  A 705-acre state park on Steinhagen Reservoir at the meeting of the Neches and Angelina rivers, with about 14 miles of paddling trails through sloughs and more than 200 campsites.
• Big Thicket National Preserve — 22 mi
  Start at the Kountze visitor center, where rangers sort the preserve's scattered units for you, and learn why Congress made this 1974 string of pearls the country's first national preserve.

More markers nearby

• Texas Statesman Allan Shivers — steps away
• Lt. Col. Philip A. Work — 0.3 mi
• Tyler County — 0.3 mi
• Home of James Edward Wheat — 0.3 mi