DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Houston-Leon County Coal Company. Now, 1900 is a fine year to start a story — a whole new century, East Texas timber country stretching out in every direction, and a handful of men with a notion that the ground beneath their boots was worth more than anybody around them suspected. The Houston County Coal and Manufacturing Company was formed that year for one purpose: mining lignite.
Not the glamorous black bituminous coal that fired the great furnaces up north — no, lignite. The marker describes it plainly as a substance between peat and bituminous coal. Softer, smokier, harder to sell.
But somebody had to sell it. They opened a slope mine near this very site and built themselves a company town to go along with it. Named it Wooters.
The founders were A. H. Wooters, D.
A. Nunn, G. Q.
King, and Eli Elkins — four men who believed in this enterprise enough to put their names on it, literally. Then in 1906, John LeGory came aboard as a principal partner, and the outfit kept growing. But those early years were difficult.
That's the marker's word, and it earns it. When you're sitting on a substance that nobody's quite sure what to do with, you don't sit back and wait for the orders to roll in. You find your market.
They found theirs — power plants, gins, and other facilities spread across East Texas. Lignite moved. Slowly, maybe, but it moved.
By 1907, the company was thinking bigger. Land was purchased in Leon, Limestone, and Freestone Counties. Additional mines were established over in Evansville in Leon County.
The operation had grown well beyond Houston County, and the name had to catch up — so the company was changed to the Houston-Leon County Coal Company. A new name for a new scale of ambition. Now here's where the story really opens up.
The peak years ran from 1916 to 1925, and during that stretch the company employed about two hundred people. Two hundred. And those miners were, as the marker puts it, a diverse mixture of cultures.
Some of them were recruited as they arrived on foreign vessels in Galveston — men stepping off ships at the Gulf Coast, barely found their land legs, and somebody was already pointing them toward East Texas with a job offer. That's a detail that'll stay with you. But 1932 is where the story turns, and it turns hard.
The company was dissolved. Not because the lignite ran out. Not because the market dried up slowly.
Natural gas changed the fuel market in Texas, and when that happened, there wasn't much room left for the coal company that had been clawing and scratching since the turn of the century. Still — and this is the part worth noting — the stockholders maintained diverse real estate holdings in the area after the dissolution. And the lignite rights?
Those were retained by the owners. Many of whom are descendants of the original stockholders. The founders' names faded from the masthead, but their families held onto what was underneath the ground.
A company born from a bet on an unfashionable fuel, built a town, crossed three counties, put two hundred people to work at its height, and when the age of natural gas arrived, it went quietly. But the ground it sat on? That still belongs to the people who believed in it first.
What the marker says
The Houston County Coal and Manufacturing Company was formed in 1900 for the purpose of mining lignite. Near this site, a slope mine was opened and a company town named Wooters was established. Company founders were A. H. Wooters, D. A. Nunn, G. Q. King, and Eli Elkins; John LeGory joined as a principal partner in 1906. The early years of the company were difficult, as a market had to be found for lignite, a substance between peat and bituminous coal. Lignite was sold to power plants, gins and other facilities in East Texas. In 1907 land was purchased in Leon, Limestone and Freestone Counties, and additional mines were established in Evansville in Leon county. To reflect this expansion, the company name was changed to the Houston-Leon County Coal Company. During its peak years from 1916 to 1925, the company employed about 200 people. The miners represented a diverse mixture of cultures; some were recruited as they arrived on foreign vessels in Galveston. In 1932 the company was dissolved when natural gas changed the fuel market in Texas, though stockholders maintained diverse real estate holdings in the area. The lignite rights were retained by the owners, many of whom are descendants of the original stockholders. (1996)