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EVADALE,
TEXAS Jasper County,
East Texas
Highway 96 and FMs 105, 1131, and 2246
25 Miles NE of Beaumont
Population:
1,430 (2000) Evadale,
Texas Area Hotels
Jasper
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Evadale
History in a Pecan Shell
Originally called Richardson (after Neches River ferry operator Ben
Richardson), the town received a post office as early as 1839 (Ben Richardson,
postmaster). Richardson died in 1849, and the land sold to the Ford family. Now
known as Ford's Bluff, it was hoped that the location on the river would
become a milling facility. The family’s effort failed when Philip Ford died of
yellow fever while trying to buy equipment in New Orleans.
He did manage
to return home before dying, but his death dashed plans for a mill. But the bluff
did become a log collection point for mills downriver in Beaumont.
In
the 1890s, lumberman John Henry Kirby renamed the site after teacher Eva Dale,
of Jasper's Southeast Texas Male and Female College. Kirby built a mill here in
1904 and the town was granted a post office that same year.
In 1914 the
mill was producing 70,000 board feet of lumber per day and six years later the
population had grown to 300.
The Great Depression closed the mill and by
the end of the 1930 the population was down to 100 residents.
In 1948,
the Champion Paper and Fiber Company built a pulp mill here which was later acquired
by Temple-Eastex Industries. The boost to the local economy increased the population
to 700 in the early 1960s. In 1984 the town had a population of just 715, but
has doubled to 1,430 by 2000. |
Evadale,
Texas Area Hotels
Jasper
Hotels
Texas
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in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing Texas, asks that
anyone wishing to share their local history, stories, and vintage/historic photos
of their town, please contact
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