Town of Latexo

Texas Escapes says the stop began as Stark's Switch, for a siding that connected to a sawmill, and that the name Latexo came from the Louisiana Texas Orchard Company, known as LA TEX O. A post office opened in 1907. By 1914 the town had about 200 people, two stores and two doctors. The population had doubled by the Depression, then fell to about 100 in the 1950 census. By 1990 it was over 300, with four businesses, and the 1980s added a city hall, school and fire station.

What the plaque says

Town of Latexo Early community called Oldham, near Bethel Church and school, was renamed Starks' Switch when International & Great Northern Railroad in 1872 laid sidetrack to serve Starks' sawmill (2 mi. W). Latexo post office opened in 1907, after the Louisiana Texas Orchard Company platted 3,000 acres of fruit land and a town here. Lumbering later stripped timber from area, but permanent settlers grew fruit and cotton. About 1915 Latexo became first Houston County school to teach agriculture. Ranches sprang up, 1960s. Unincorporated, town has fire squad, other civic services. (1972) [SUPPLEMENTAL PLATE] Town incorporated 1979, electing mayor, aldermen. Street lights, signs added; new school (1980), city hall and fire station (1984), and post office (1985).

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 24 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.
• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 24 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.

More markers nearby

• John Wortham — 2.5 mi
• Vicory Barker Tunstall — 4.3 mi
• Congressman Nat Patton — 4.3 mi
• Wesley Chapel Church and Cemetery — 4.3 mi