Thomas Lewis Latane Temple

Temple was orphaned at eleven, when his father, an Episcopal clergyman, died in 1870, and at sixteen he was clerking in Tappahannock, Virginia. His lumber company had a hard start. The first Southern Pine Lumber Company, run with Ben Whitaker and C. M. Putman, was a planing mill at Kingsland, Arkansas, and was short of capital. Reorganized in 1893 with Temple as president, it built a mill at Diboll that could cut 75,000 feet a day, with offices kept in Texarkana. By 1906 its paid-in capital and surplus topped $1 million.

What the plaque says

Thomas Lewis Latane Temple (1859 - 1935) Virginia native Thomas Lewis Latane Temple, son of Henry W. L. and Susan (Jones) Temple, moved to Texarkana, Texas, in 1877. He married Georgie D. Fowlkes in 1880. In 1893 Temple organized the Southern Pine Lumber Company in Texarkana and began timber operations on lands he purchased here in Angelina County. Temple founded the town of Diboll in 1894 at the site of the company's main sawmill. His legacy of conservation and reforestation practices, and philanthropy towards the Diboll community and his employees was recognized by the Texas State Senate upon his death in 1935. (1994)

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Diboll — steps away
• Southern Pine Lumber Company Commissary — 0.5 mi
• Emporia — 1.1 mi
• Ryan Chapel — 2.1 mi