DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to do it justice. Now, picture Orange County, Texas, in the 1880s. The lumbering boom is in full swing, and folks are pouring in from all corners of the world chasing timber and a paycheck.
One of those folks was a man named Emmett Beuhler, born way back in 1853 over in Alsace-Lorraine, and he made his way here during that boom with ideas and ambition to spare. He linked up with a fellow named L. Miller, who'd come over from Germany, and together those two did not think small.
They established a cypress shingle mill, which in itself is a fine enough enterprise. But then they went and built a railroad to the mill. A railroad.
Not a road, not a mule path. A railroad. And at its peak they had seventy-five men on their payroll.
Seventy-five. That is a serious operation by any measure. Now, a man running that kind of enterprise needed a home worthy of the work, and around 1890, Beuhler erected himself a Victorian cottage right there to serve as his residence.
He built it with cypress and yellow pine, and here's the detail that lingers: rare curly pine trim. Three rooms upstairs, three rooms down. Simple in count, but built with the finest materials a lumberman could lay his hands on.
The house stood as his home until 1904, when the Beuhlers picked up and moved to Louisiana. The property changed hands more than once after that, getting owned and modified along the way, as old houses tend to do. Then in 1955, the R.
B. Johnson family bought it, and they're the ones who've been preserving it ever since. Emmett Beuhler lived from 1853 to 1943, and the house he built is still standing.
That's a legacy that outlasted the boom, the mill, and just about everything else.
What the marker says
Emmett Beuhler (1853-1943), a native of Alsace-Lorraine, came here in the 1880s, during the lumbering boom. With L. Miller, who came from Germany, he established a cypress shingle mill. They built a railroad to the mill, and had 75 men on their payroll. Buehler erected this Victorian cottage about 1890 as his residence, using cypress and yellow pine, with rare curly pine trim. He built three rooms upstairs and three down. In 1904, the Beuhlers moved to Louisiana. After others had owned and modified the property, it was bought in 1955 by the R. B. Johnson family, who preserve it.