Woodson Lumber Company

A lumberyard needs freight, and Caldwell's second railroad arrived just in time. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe built through town in 1880 and made it a shipping point for the county. In 1912 the Houston and Texas Central laid a line from Hearne through Caldwell toward Flatonia, with freight and passenger service beginning in 1913, the year the Reeves-Woodson yard opened. By 1900 Caldwell had gins, an oil mill and wholesale grocers, and by 1905 six passenger trains arrived daily.

What the plaque says

Woodson Lumber Company Brothers James R. (Jim) (1884-1940) and Harrie P. Woodson, Jr. (1892-1974) left their home in Richmond, Missouri after their mother died in 1912. In California they worked in a lumberyard, with Harrie as a laborer and Jim in the office. Jim made his way to texas in late 1912 and Harrie arrived in 1913. When they learned that Reeves-Slliman Lumber Company was for sale, they partnered with D.E. Reeves. Area population growth and a booming east Texas timber market made Caldwell an ideal location for the retail lumber industry. The Reeves-Woodson Lumber Company opened on December 1, 1913, and soon became the area's primary source for building materials. In 1916 the name changed to Woodson Lumber Company. The company's building materials, household items and supplies equipped a majority of homes and other buildings in the area. The business helped families establish homes as the area grew, particularly in the 1910s and again during the post-war boom of the late 1940s to 1950s. Proximity to the railroad depot made unloading and delivering materials convenient. The company also expanded to more than a dozen retail locations throughout the region and across Texas beginning in 1924. In 1946, after Harrie's two sons-in-law returned from World War II service, the company's second generation joined the family business. The Woodson brothers were also active in their community, with Jim serving as an alderman and acting chamber of commerce president and Harrie serving as First United Methodist Church trustee and building committee chairman. In 1974, the city's Harrie P. Woodson Memorial Library was dedicated in his honor. Woodson Lumber Company has had the privilege of serving multiple generations of neighbors over more than 100 years in the same family. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 18 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 21 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 25 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 28 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church — 0.2 mi
• Warren Lodge No. 56, A.F. & A.M. — 0.3 mi
• City of Caldwell — 0.4 mi
• Early Settlers of Burleson County in the Texas War for Independence — 0.4 mi