Nodena

Nodena was on the St. Louis Southwestern Railway five miles east of Mount Pleasant in eastern Titus County. In 1908 L. C. Libby, former superintendent of the Mount Pleasant school district, began a coal-mining operation in eastern Titus County. Railroad officials named the switch near the mines Nodena. Libby also believed that he could make brick from the clay in the area, and shortly after he began mining coal, he built three brick kilns and brick presses. The presses had a capacity of 20,000 bricks per day, and the kilns had a combined capacity of 250,000 bricks. Between twelve and forty miners were employed in the coal mine, and about twenty-five men worked in the brick plant. These businesses were known as the Libby Brick and Coal Company. The mining community that grew up around this company included a commissary, a hotel and boarding house, and about twenty residences. Shortly after World War I Libby sold his interest in the company, and in the early 1920s the company ceased operations. The lignite mined had never been of highest quality, and the bricks were also inferior because the local lignite used to heat the kilns did not provide enough heat for proper firing. When the company ceased its operations the buildings were torn down, and Nodena ceased to exist as a named community.