Wightman

Wightman was near Toledo and the Sabine River in extreme northeastern Newton County. During the second half of the nineteenth century a small community formed here, clustered around William Henry Gunter's water-powered gristmill, cotton gin, and sawmills. The area was devastated by a tornado in 1900, but a post office called Wightman was established there in 1906 with Kin Jackson as postmaster. It was presumably named after Newton attorney Clarence C. Wightman, who established a spoke and handle factory in the community around 1913. The post office was discontinued and mail sent to Burkeville in 1935, although some forty persons reportedly lived at Wightman during the late 1940s. The community had apparently disappeared by the mid-1980s.