DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker tells it, here's the story of the W.T. Colmesneil House in Tyler County. Now, most towns have a founder — somebody who planted a flag, built a church, maybe platted a few lots and left their name on the deed.
William Taylor Colmesneil left his name on something bigger: the whole town. And the house he built in 1883 is still standing to prove it. Colmesneil was one of the first conductors on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad — a passenger line that ran from Beaumont all the way to Rockland.
You imagine a man like that, spending his days calling out stops, feeling the rhythm of the rails under his feet. So what does he do when it comes time to build a house? According to legend, he had the thing built facing the railroad tracks.
Front porch pointed straight at the line. The story goes he wanted to sit out there and watch the trains go by. A man so deep in railroading he couldn't quit it even when he sat down to rest.
He didn't stay long, though. By 1885 he sold the house to Frank Patterson and moved on — moved on with the railroad, the way some men just do. The next year, 1886, he married Fannie Taylor.
They had one child, a son named Charles. And Colmesneil kept right on conducting, working the rails throughout his life, until he died in Evansville, Indiana in 1907. A long way from Tyler County.
The house, meanwhile, passed through a whole parade of hands after Patterson. J.E. Votaw came through.
Then Dr. William Martin Van Buren Stewart — now there's a name that fills up a room. Then Robert L.
Mann. Then Katherine Magouyrk. Each of them living their lives inside walls that William Taylor Colmesneil had raised back when the railroad was still new and the town was just finding its name.
And the house itself — it's worth a look. The original section is a center-passage floor plan: a hallway running through the middle, a large room on each side, tapered brick chimneys on both ends. Paired double-hung windows lined up on either side of those chimneys and the entry door.
Shiplap siding. Later on, somebody added rooms and a new porch entry, shifting the whole layout into a modified L-plan. The man rode rails his whole life and died in Indiana.
But that house in Tyler County, the one he had pointed toward the tracks so he could watch the trains roll by — that one stayed put. Some things outlast the people who build them, and sometimes, just sometimes, they outlast the restlessness too.
What the marker says
Willaim Taylor Colmesneil, the man for whom the town was named, built this house in 1883. He was one of the first conductors on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, a passenger train that ran from Beaumont to Rockland. According to legend, Colmesneil had the house built facing the railroad tracks so that he could sit on the front porch and warch the trains go by. Colmesneil sold the house to Frank Patterson in 1885 and moved on with the railroad. He married Fannie Taylor in 1886, and one child, Charles, was born to the marriange. Colmesneil worked as a railroad conductor throughout his life and died in Evansville, Indiana in 1907. Cowners of the home after Patterson included J.E. Votaw, Dr. William Martin Van Buren Stewart, Robert L. Mann and Katherine Magouyrk.The original section of the shiplap siding house is a center-passage floor plan with a large room on either side of a hallway and tapered brick chimneys on the ends. Paired double-hung windows are aligned on either side of the chimneys and the entry door. An early addition of rooms and a new porch entry created a modified L-plan layout.Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-2008