Diboll

Duane's take

Here's my take on what the official marker has to say about Diboll, straight from the record. Now, most towns out here in deep East Texas grew up slow, one farmhouse at a time, one church at a stretch. But Diboll, well, Diboll came up a different way.

It came up all at once, out of sawdust and timber rights and one man's idea of what a working town ought to look like. The year was 1894, and a man by the name of T. L.

L. Temple established a sawmill right here on this ground. And where a sawmill goes, people follow.

By the turn of the century, by 1900, this place already had a commissary, a post office, churches, homes, and schools. Built up in just six years, all of it running under the hand of the Southern Pine Lumber Company. Now that is not slow growth.

That is a town arriving fully dressed. The name itself comes from the Diboll family of New Orleans. Temple had purchased timber rights from them, initially, before the sawmill, before the town, before any of this.

And so the name stuck to the land like pine sap sticks to everything else around here. For decades, Diboll remained a company town, the Southern Pine Lumber Company the spine of the whole operation. But change has a way of findin' even the most settled arrangements.

Come the 1950s, Southern Pine Lumber Company began promoting private ownership of homes and businesses. The company town started letting go, parcel by parcel. And then in 1962, Diboll was incorporated, standing on its own at last, a full community in its own right.

Today it boasts a multiethnic citizenry supporting numerous community activities. From one man's sawmill to a whole living town. That is the story the marker tells, and it is a story worth stopping for.

What the marker says

A sawmill established here in 1894 by T. L. L. Temple gave rise to a town that by 1900 contained a commissary, post office, churches, homes, and schools run by the Southern Pine Lumber Company. The town was named for the Diboll family of New Orleans from whom Temple initially purchased timber rights. Diboll remained a company town until Southern Pine Lumber Company began promoting private ownership of homes and businesses in the 1950s. Diboll was incorporated in 1962 and today boasts a multiethnic citizenry which supports numerous community activities. (1994)