Pre-Foundation By 1820 Anglo settlers had started to arrive in the Angelina County. The Burris Family established themselves in the area. Before Lufkin was officially founded, a band of night riders allegedly lynched Jim Burris, John D. Gann, William Anglin, and another man for opposing the Confederate cause.
Railroad era 1882-1890 The city was founded in 1882 as a stop on the
Houston, East and West Texas Railway; it is named for Abraham P. Lufkin, a
cotton merchant and
Galveston city councilman. Lufkin was the father-in-law of Paul Bremond, president of the railroad, which developed the town. Lufkin continued to grow because of its proximity to the railroad and its
lumber industry. The history of Lufkin can be divided into three main eras, the railroad era, the timber boom, and the golden era of expansion. The railroad era lasted between 1882 and 1890. In 1881, the area that is now Lufkin was little more than a small settlement known as Denman Springs. A railroad surveying team began to plan a route through Angelina County, with a possible route through
Homer, Texas, which at the time was the county seat. According to legend, the men in the surveying team began to get rowdy in the saloon in Homer, which led to their arrest. They paid their way out the next morning, but this infuriated the chief surveyor. He ordered the team for the rail line to bypass Homer and go by Denman Springs. Conveniently, the new route went through the property of Lafayette Denman and his son, Dr. A. M. Denman, who as the legend goes, had hosted the surveying team a few days earlier. This legend is most likely not true since the prospectus in 1879 already had the railroad planned to bypass Homer and go through the future site of Lufkin. and in 1924, a mob attempted to lynch Booker T. Williams, but he escaped with the help of the local sheriff. Williams was ultimately executed by the state. By the 1920s, the
Ku Klux Klan had established a Klavern in Lufkin. In September 1922, over 1000 klansmen gathered in public in front of 5000 spectators in an initiation ceremony. Large parades for the Klan were held throughout the 1920s. In May 1932,
Clyde Barrow and
Bonnie Parker robbed a gas station in Lufkin and stole a car with a child sleeping in the backseat.
Golden era of expansion 1938–1945 The golden era of expansion occurred between 1938 and 1945. In the late 1930s, two of the principal industries in Lufkin, the Southland Paper Mill, later known as Abitibi Bowater Inc. which closed in 2007, and Texas Foundries opened. These companies provided much of Lufkin's industrial growth. The largest industrial employer was Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company, later known as
Lufkin Industries; it ceased operations in 2018. and held up to 300 German prisoners who worked for Southland Paper.
Cultural expansion and mid-to-late twentieth century In early Lufkin history, most daily life revolved around churches, schools, and sports activities, but this began to change between 1965 and 1983, when Lufkin began a cultural expansion. Improvements included the Kurth Memorial Library, new museums, a civic center,
Angelina College, a new federal building, a country club, municipal and city parks, two shopping malls, and the
Lufkin Independent School District. Before 1970, Lufkin schools were segregated with separate schools for different races. After a series of court challenges started in 1964 were resolved, in 1970 the LISD was integrated. A federal court order in place from 1970-2000 enforced integration. Lufkin celebrated its centennial in 1982. A
Little League Baseball team from Lufkin, locally known as the Thundering 13, won the U.S. Championship at the
2017 Little League World Series in
Williamsport, Pennsylvania. There have been many community tributes to the team. ==Geography==