Colmesneil

Colmesneil is at the intersection of U.S. Highway 69 and Farm Road 256, nine miles north of Woodville in north central Tyler County. The town, sometimes referred to as Colmesneil Junction, was named for one of the first conductors on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad through the area. The T&NO line was crossed at Colmesneil by the Trinity and Sabine. In 1881 Jay Gould, of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, secured a charter for the Trinity and Sabine and built sixty-six miles of track from Trinity to Colmesneil, which became a railroad center for Tyler County. It had the only turntable in the county at the end of the Waco, Beaumont, Trinity and Sabine line. The actual terminus of the railroad was not located in what today is thought of as downtown Colmesneil, but rather in what flourished for a time as a neighboring town called Ogden. The two towns had a long-standing feud, largely between the Manns and Sturrocks of Colmesneil and the Ogdens and Campbells of Ogden. The two towns were consolidated under the single name of Colmesneil in early 1888.

Adapted from the official Handbook of Texas, a state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). It is an authoritative source of trusted historical records.