Robert B. Russell

Russell's last business was shingles. W. T. Block's biography says he bought the R. A. Jordan sawmill in 1866 and made it a cypress shingle mill, Russell and Sons, which employed 50 hands and reached 125,000 shingles a day by 1875. The Orange Leader adds that he patented a shingle-bundling process in 1875 and let anyone use it free. Both accounts have him killed at the mill in 1880, crushed between railcars. Block dates it November 29, as the plaque does, and the Leader gives December 4.

What the plaque says

Robert B. Russell (April 1, 1817 - Nov. 29, 1880) Born in New Milford, Conn.; emigrated to San Augustine, Texas, 1835. Joined Texian Army and fought at San Jacinto. Married Lavinia Brownrigg, June 1, 1841; had 6 children. Published San Augustine "Redlander," 1846-50; moved to Sabine Pass, 1850, then Orange, 1854. Served as postmaster of Orange under Confederacy, 1861-65. Entered lumber business about 1870, with steam-operated shingle mill. Prospered until untimely death in mill accident. Recorded - 1973

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stark Museum of Art — 0.6 mi
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 1.2 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 19 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 21 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.

More markers nearby

• Emma George Latchem — steps away
• Samuel Wallace Sholars, M.D. — steps away
• John Thomas Stark — steps away
• Dr. Samuel M. Brown — steps away