Diboll Was Built Around Southern Pine Lumber

Diboll's old center of gravity was the mill. Texas Historical Commission markers tie the town to Thomas Lewis Latane Temple, who organized the Southern Pine Lumber Company in 1893 and founded Diboll in 1894 at the company's main sawmill.

The town marker says that by 1900 the sawmill community had a commissary, post office, churches, homes, and schools run by Southern Pine Lumber Company. It also says Diboll remained a company town until the company began promoting private ownership of homes and businesses in the 1950s.

That is why Diboll reads differently from a generic highway stop. It was a place where work, housing, shopping, school, church, and family life bent around pine. A reader who knows that can see Diboll as more than an exit on U.S. 59. The name on the map still points back to the company system that made southern Angelina County run.