John Adams' Mill

Pineland is on U.S. Highway 96 and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, ten miles southwest of Hemphill in southwestern Sabine County. It originated in a sawmill and lumber camp on the Gulf, Beaumont and Great Northern Railway, which was constructed through the county in 1902. The community was known originally as John Adam's Mill but was called Pineland by 1904, when it received a post office. In 1906 the Garrison Norton Lumber Company took over the timber operation and constructed a mill by 1907. In 1910 the company had decided to move the operation to another location, when Thomas L. L. Temple, a part owner of the mill, purchased the operation and formed the Temple Lumber Company. The town was at first composed almost exclusively of mill hands and their families. Temple constructed a large commissary building in the community and issued tokens which could be used in trade at the commissary, or, at intervals, redeemed in currency. During the first decade following Temple's purchase of the lumber operation, Pineland grew rapidly. In 1914 the population was an estimated 250, and by 1925 it had increased to an estimated 1,500. Residents of Pineland voted to incorporate in 1941. Although the lumber company remained the basis for the community's economy, by the 1960s the town also had other establishments, including a hospital, a library, a bank, and a supermarket. In 1987 Pineland had a population of 1,100, and the lumber company remained the principal industry. In 1990 the population was 882. The population was 980 in 2000.