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Centennial Marker
Text
Site
of the Town of Homer
Also known as Angelina
Third County Seat of Angelina
County
1858-1890
History in
a Pecan Shell
Homer became the
Angelina County
Seat in 1858 after defeating Jonesville
in a contested election. Homer’s name was changed to Angelina
at this time, but the name didn’t gain favor and it was officially
changed back to Homer in 1862.
Marion, Texas (being the first Angelina
County seat) had retained the county’s first (log) courthouse.
Since Jonesville never
built one, the courthouse was dismantled and moved to Homer where
it was used until it was replaced by a two-story frame building in
1873.
Homer became the county’s most important town—with only Lufkin
as a near rival. The tables were turned in the early 1880s when the
Houston, East and West Texas Railroad bypassed Homer in favor of the
more direct path through Lufkin.
Homer, even at its high water mark never had more than 500 residents
but the bypassing didn’t cause it to wither. It retained the courthouse
and a population in the 300s through the rest of the 1880s.
In late 1891, Homer’s courthouse burned. The more prosperous city
of Lufkin became county
seat the following year. This official shift did cost Homer its population.
By 1904 the population was down to 166 people and ten years later
it was a mere 75. It increased in the 20s to just over a hundred.
It received a shot in the arm in the 1960s and was incorporated in
1971. The population had increased to 360 by the 1990s – with that
figure given to the 2000 Census.
[ Lufkin - Angelina County
Seat ]
[ Angelina
County Courthouse ] |
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Homer, Texas
Chronicles
The
Murdered Sheriff by Bob Bowman
Angelina County Sheriff William Reed (Bill) McMullen was one of
the men who was killed during a feud between the Gilley and Windham
families at Homer in the 1860s. The seeds for the feud were sown
by two incidents...
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Angelina
County TX 1907 Postal Map showing Homer
(Above "G" in "ANGELINA")
From Texas state map #2090
Courtesy
Texas General Land Office |
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