Huntington Started With Rail, Timber, and a Rowdy Lot Sale

Huntington's old story points to the railroad. The Texas Historical Commission marker says settlers tried to form a townsite in the 1880s, but the place did not draw a thriving population until the railroad lines arrived. The town was established in 1900 and named for Collis P. Huntington of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

The start was public and a little scrappy. E. A. Blount and W. J. Townsend, Sr., laid out the townsite and sold lots at a public auction in June 1900. A post office opened that same year, the school district came in 1901, and churches followed in 1901 and 1902.

The mills came right with the people. The marker says A. F. Smith built a sawmill outside town within a year, and lumber and agriculture became the area's economic heart. The Texas & New Orleans line from Beaumont to Dallas was built through Huntington in 1902, with a permanent railroad station in 1903. That is the deeper point: a rail line could turn pine woods into streets, church pews, storefronts, and payrolls fast.