Site of Martin Wagon Company

Daniel Webster Martin was a blacksmith for the Lufkin Land and Lumber Company when he invented the grip hook, a device for loading logs onto a truck. He patented it in 1907 and sold the patent in 1910, unable to keep up with demand. That year he started the Martin Wagon Company, which made his next patented success, an eight-wheeled log wagon. The Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company bought the firm in 1939. Its trailer division grew during World War II, and a $6 million trailer plant built in 1967 began operating in 1969.

What the plaque says

Site of Martin Wagon Company Daniel Webster Martin (d. 1916) and his two sons opened a small wagon shop here in 1908. An inventor and designer, Martin developed various wagons for use in the lumber industry. In partnership with B. L. Zeagler, he incorporated the operation as the Martin Wagon Company in 1910. The business continued to prosper until the 1930s, when the Depression caused decreases in the demand for timber related products. Later acquired by the Lufkin Foundry and Machine Co., renamed Lufkin Industries in 1970, it became the basis of the company's trailer division. (1980)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 31 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

• Site of Rehearsal Hall for The Hoo Hoo Band — 0.2 mi
• KRBA-AM Radio Station — 0.2 mi
• First Baptist Church of Lufkin — 0.3 mi
• Lufkin Daily News — 0.3 mi