Groveton

Groveton, the county seat of Trinity County, is at the intersection of State Highway 94 and U.S. Highway 287, near the center of the county. The community was established in 1881, when the Trinity County and Sabine Pass Land and Railway Company built a lumber mill on the south side of its newly laid track and plotted a townsite on the north side. Company director William S. Peters proposed the name Grovetown because of a stand of blackjack trees between the mill and the town; residents almost immediately shortened it to Groveton. The first building was a shack that William Magee used as a saloon; Tom Wortham built the first residence.

A post office was granted in 1882, the same year that voters chose Groveton as the new county seat. The courthouse at Pennington had recently burned down, and Groveton had rail facilities and was closer to the center of the county. The Trinity Lumber Company, which was auctioning off town lots, offered to donate the site for a town square and materials for a new courthouse, which was built of brick in 1884.