McNeill's Landing

Marion, the first of four county seats of Angelina County, was north of State Highway 103 near the Angelina River and thirteen miles northeast of Lufkin, near present-day Marion Ferry Park. The town was known as McNeill's Landing as early as 1828 and was once the largest and most important town in Angelina County, serving as the northernmost steamboat stop on the Angelina River. From 1855 to about 1882 a regular steamboat service linked the town with Sabine Pass on the Neches River. Going south, the principal cargo was cotton; on the return trip the ships brought foodstuffs and other supplies. The town grew slowly; the census of 1850 listed 196 families for all of Angelina County. In 1846 the town became the county seat and was renamed Marion after Revolutionary War general Francis Marion. County officials and tradesmen made up most of the population of the town, which had a dry-goods store, a druggist, a smithy, several residences, and a two-story courthouse constructed of logs. The first post office in the county was established in Marion on March 8, 1847, with John D. Gann as the first postmaster. Marion remained the county seat until 1854, when county officials chose Jonesville, which was more centrally located. Marion continued to exist for several decades, however. With the arrival of the railroad in Angelina County in 1882 the steamboat service ceased. No longer the county seat or a steamboat stop, Marion went out of existence after 1899. By 1948 all that was left was a small log barn and a marker placed by the state of Texas in 1936.