Midway

Midway is north of U.S. Highway 190 on an unnamed road, east of the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation and sixty-six miles northwest of Beaumont in eastern Polk County. By the 1850s the site had become a stage and mail station between Woodville and Livingston. When a school was built midway between Pinckney and Morganville, it was named Midway. The name was also applied to the agricultural community that grew up at the site. By the 1890s Midway had a gristmill, a cotton gin, and a sawmill and served as a center for local farmers. A logging tram line also connected the community with the larger mill at Camden. Shortleaf pine trees are predominant in the rolling woodlands near Midway. Although logging operations had declined, about twenty families still resided there as of the early 1960s, the last date for which population figures are still available. Much of the surrounding countryside is now used as ranch and farm land. The communities of Midway, Pinckney, and Morganville are collectively called Midway by contemporary Polk County residents.

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.