Deweyville, Texas, Newton County. (original) (raw)
30�17'47"N 93�44'58"W (30.296478, -93.749441)
TX Hwy 12
on the West Bank of the Sabine River
15 Miles N of Orange
29 Miles NE of Beaumont
48 Miles S of Newton the county seat
ZIP code 77614
Area code 409
Population: 1,023 (2010) 1,190 (2000)
Deweyville, Texas Area Hotels › Beaumont Hotels
Admiral George Dewey
Wikimedia Commons
History in a Pecan Shell
In 1898 the site was either known as Princeton or Possum Bluff. It had been a ferry crossing but the new construction of a sawmill by the Sabine Tram Company required a break with the past.
That same year the Texarkana and Fort Smith Railway built a line into Beaumont, creating a direct market for freshly sawn lumber. Clearly, a new name was needed.
The National newspapers were still celebrating Admiral Dewey�s victory at Manilla Bay and the town was thus renamed � like several hundred others across the country who took the names of places or heroes of that conflict.
A post office was granted in 1900 as Deweyville and after a strike in 1910, Deweyville was transformed into a �company town� (1919) with the sawmill company (Peavy-Moore Lumber) owning every business here � including the hotel and employee housing.
A. J. Peavy also built a short fifteen-mile line (the Sabine and Neches Valley) from Deweyville to Gist. This formed a connection with the Orange and Beaumont Railroad.
Deweyville basked in its success and became the largest town in Newton County. Things looked as if they would continue until the town was hit by a double-whammy. The sawmill was destroyed by fire in 1943 and the railroad discontinued service just after that calamity. The drop in population was immediate. An estimated 1,500 people lived in Deweyville in 1936 and by 1949 it had dropped to 800.
Without a strong economy, growth was extremely slow and it took years to reach 850 � the number given for the mid 1970s-1980s.
Some residents commute to Orange and Beaumont. The population hit a high of 1,218 for the 1990 census and the 2000 census counted slightly less at 1,190.
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