The town of Lufkin, Texas was founded in 1882 as the Houston, East and West Texas Railway planned a stop on its line to connect Houston,Texas to Shreveport, Louisiana, per the Texas Almanac. The article continues to say that the railroad company’s president, Paul Bremond, named it for his friend Abraham Parker Lufkin.
Abraham P. Lufkin was born on October 1, 1816 in Bucksport, Maine to Asa Lufkin and Hannah Parker Lufkin. Abraham lived in Maine until around 1845 when he moved to Texas. He was married to the former Mary Ann Stone of Massachusetts in 1846. The couple had four children born between 1846 and 1858: Henry Austin, Theodore Dodd, Walter E. and Catherine. Their son, Walter E. married a daughter of Paul Bremond. Abraham is sometimes referred to as a former sea captain but assuming this is correct, accounts of this period of his life are unknown. However, he did serve at the rank of captain in the Confederate Army during the Civil War in the 1st Regiment, Texas Infantry State Troops, Company D. He is listed on the roster of this regiment by the National Parks Service, though his dates of service are not shown. This regiment served with the Army of Northern Virginia during the entire war. Soon after the war ended, Lufkin founded the Southern Cotton Press & Manufacturing Company located in Galveston. Cotton press machines were used after the ginning process to form harvested cotton into tight and uniformly sized bales for storage and shipping.
Southern Cotton Press appears to have been a large operation. An advertisement in the January 9, 1867 issue of the Galveston Daily News said that the company used Tyler Mammoth Steam Presses, each one of which was capable of producing 800 bales of compressed cotton each day. The advertisement stated services that the company provided, including storage of up to 40,000 bales, shipping, repairs to bales, rebaling, drying wet bales and reassembling damaged bales.
Abraham Lufkin died of heart disease in Galveston on April 24, 1887. His wife Mary Ann Stone Lufkin survived him another nineteen years. Abraham was buried in the Trinity Episcopal Cemetery in Galveston along with his wife and at least about ten other members of the family.
A business for which Lufkin is known is called Lufkin Industries which took its name from the town. It had no obvious connection to the Abraham Lufkin family. The Austin American Statesman in its March 5, 1902 issue reported the incorporation of Lufkin Foundry and Machine company. Capital stock was $30,000 and the incorporators were J. Kurth, Eli Wiener, S. W. Henderson and others. A few weeks later, the Houston Post reported under a headline “Lufkin News Notes” that the foundry and machine shop was to be located near the track of the Houston East and West Texas railway near the depot. Machinery was expected to arrive soon and it was projected that the business would be ready for operation by May, 1902. Incorporator S. W. Henderson was described as taking on the position of general manager and was currently the general manager of Angelina County Lumber Company. In its issue of August 12, 1902, the Waco Times Herald reported that the business had “more work than it can do” and that it had a backlog of work extending into the next month.
The lumber industry was strong when the company opened its doors and the primary line of business early on was the repair and maintenance of sawmill equipment. In 1919 as oilfield production was just beginning in the area, the company expanded its production to building oilfield pipe and refinery fittings. In 1923, the facilities were devoted to producing reduction gears for use in oilfield pumping.
By 1943, under the leadership of industrialist W. C. Trout, the company had become known as one of Texas leading war plants. An article in the Liberty Vindicator in its issue of October 7, 1943 reported that the foundry had recently received the Army Navy “E” Award for excellence. The awards program began in 1942 and singled out individual plants that had achieved outstanding performance in service to the war effort.
After the war began, the company had doubled the size of its production facilities. Some of the products mentioned in the 1943 article included reducing gears that were adapted for military use. Military production was described as including tank gears, ship gears, mobile laundry units, and gun carriages for artillery. It also noted that the company still maintained a strong position in the lumber business producing sawmill parts. Mr. Trout had joined the company in 1905. He was well known in the industry and was a past president of the Texas State Manufacturer’s Association. Also listed as still serving in the company were Mr. Kurth, a son of the original incorporator Henderson and Mr. Weiner.
Before the war, the company had added the construction of commercial trailers to its lines of business. After World War II, this was resumed and expanded along with its wide range of products used in oilfield production. Lufkin ceased operations in the town of Lufkin around 2018. It was a major manufacturer of oilfield pumping units like the one shown below.
Corporate changes: The company name was changed to Lufkin Industries Inc in 1970. For about sixty years its stock was publicly traded, lastly under the ticker symbol LUFK on the NASDAQ exchange. It was completely acquired by General Electric in 2013 and operated as a subsidiary of its oil and gas unit. For a while it was merged with Baker Hughes, another subsidiary. The two companies were again made separate in 2019 before Lufkin was acquired by a private equity firm, KPS Capital Partners, not publicly traded. Lufkin’s headquarters are now located in Missouri City, Texas outside Houston.
Another business in Lufkin was Southland Paper Mills, Inc., no longer in operation. The company was a pioneer in newsprint production. It was the first plant to be successful in turning southern pine into newsprint using a formula developed by a Georgia scientist by the name of Dr. Charles Holmes Herty. For its raw material it used East Texas pine which was a variety that had previously been considered unusable for newsprint because of its naturally high resin content.
The Longview News-Journal in its issue of January 29, 1937 carried an Associated Press article revealing plans for a $5,000,000 paper mill to be built in Lufkin. The first mill was to be called Texas Mill Number 1. Southland Paper Mills, Inc. was incorporated in 1938 and began operations in 1940. Its first president was familiar to Lufkin residents, Mr. E. L. Kurth, who had been in the lumber business. The company was in business for about sixty years before it closed its doors in 2007.
It is the county seat of Angelina County and is the location for Angelina College and various other employers. Angelina College was founded in 1966 and accepted its first students for the fall semester in 1968. It currently serves over 4,000 students. Lufkin had a population of under 1,000 in 1890. More recently its population has fluctuated from 30,000 to 35,000 according to census figures.
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