Angelina County ( ) is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

located in the U.S. state of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. It is in

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that comprises most of 41 counties. It is primarily divided into Northeast and Southeast Texas. Most of the region co ...

and its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

Lufkin Lufkin is the largest city in Angelina County, Texas and the county seat. The city is situated in Deep East Texas and about 60 miles west of the Texas-Louisiana border. Its estimated population is 35,021 as of July 1, 2019. Lufkin was founded ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 86,395. The Lufkin, TX Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Angelina County. It was formed in 1846 from

Nacogdoches County Nacogdoches County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 64,653. Its county seat is Nacogdoches. The Nacogdoches, TX Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Nacogdoches County. ...

. It is named for a

Hasinai The Hasinai Confederacy (Caddo: ) was a large confederation of Caddo-speaking Native Americans who occupied territory between the Sabine and Trinity rivers in eastern Texas. Today, their descendants are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma an ...

Native American woman who assisted early Spanish

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

and was named Angelina by them.

History

The county's first Anglo settlers were what John Nova Lomax described as " Scotch-Irish backwoods folk."Lomax, John Nova. "Texas Tweakers." ''

Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely by advertising ...

''. Wednesday November 16, 2011
3
. Retrieved on November 19, 2011. Cotton farmers and slaves did not come to Angelina County because it had poor soil. Lomax added that "Culturally, the county was less moonlight-and-magnolias Dixie than a little pocket of

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, C ...

, where pioneers, often from similarly hardscrabble areas of

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

, wanted nothing more than to carve homesteads out of the Piney Woods and river thickets, farm a little, maybe raise a scraggly herd of tough cattle to drive to market in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

." Lomax added that " ey also wanted to brew up a little whiskey and subsist on the bass, catfish and perch they hauled from the Neches and Angelina rivers and whatever they could trap and shoot on dry land." Settlement was still thin when Texas won its independence. Angelina County was organized on April 22, 1846, when Nacogdoches County was divided. The first permanent settler after the county was formed is thought to have been George W. Collins. The population increased quickly thereafter due to the good farming land and to the rivers, which made steamboat transportation possible. The population reached 1,165, of whom 196 were slaves, in 1850. The first county seat was Marion; successively, Jonesville became county seat in 1854, Homer in 1858, and Lufkin in 1892. Lufkin was favored by the route of the Houston, East and West Texas Railway (now the Southern Pacific), which had been built in 1882 from Houston to Shreveport. Angelina County was settled predominantly by natives of the southern United States, some of them slaveowners who established plantations in their new Texas home. Large plantations were owned by the Stearns, Oates, Kalty, Stovall, and Ewing families. However, many Angelina County farmers were relatively poor men who owned no slaves. In 1847 slaves numbered 154, out of a total population of 834. In 1859 the number of slaves had grown to 427, valued at $269,550, and the total population was 4,271. Cotton culture, however, occupied only 2,048 acres of county land in 1858, a relatively small area for East Texas. Between 1850 and 1860 improved land in the county increased from about 3,000 to about 16,000 acres. In 1861 Angelina County was the only county in East Texas, and one of only a handful of other Texas counties, to reject secession. This election result was startling when compared with that of Angelina County's neighbor to the immediate south, Tyler County, which supported secession by a 99 percent vote. Angelina County had also given the Constitutional Union party candidate, John Bell, a strong minority vote in the 1860 election. Two companies of county men were organized to fight in the Civil War, but they saw only limited action; only nineteen Angelina County men lost their lives in the war, and no Union soldiers entered the county before 1866.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (7.7%) is water.

Adjacent counties

(north) * San Augustine County (northeast) * Jasper County (southeast) * Tyler County (south) * Polk County (southwest) * Trinity County (west) * Houston County (west) * Cherokee County (northwest)

National protected area

* Angelina National Forest (part)

Demographics

''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.'' As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

of 2000, there were 80,130 people, 28,685 households, and 21,255 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

was 100 people per square mile (39/km²). There were 32,435 housing units at an average density of 40 per square mile (16/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 75.10%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

, 14.72%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.30% Native American, 0.67% Asian, 0.02%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

, 7.77% from other races, and 1.42% from two or more races. 14.35% of the population were

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino of any race. There were 28,685 households, out of which 36.10% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.80% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

living together, 12.30% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.90% were non-families. 22.80% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.18. In the county, the population was spread out, with 27.70% under the age of 18, 9.70% from 18 to 24, 28.60% from 25 to 44, 21.50% from 45 to 64, and 12.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 96.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.70 males. The median income for a household in the county was $33,806, and the median income for a family was $39,505. Males had a median income of $30,373 versus $20,221 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the county was $15,876. About 12.40% of families and 15.80% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 21.90% of those under age 18 and 12.30% of those age 65 or over.

Government and infrastructure

The Angelina County Sheriff's Office is the county law enforcement agency. The Sheriff is Greg Sanches. Angelina County is governed by its Commissioners Court of which Don Lymbery presides over as County Judge It is a "partly-wet" county, with beer and wine generally authorized for off-premises consumption. However, the small community of

Burke Burke is an Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman Monarchy of Ireland, Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Normans, Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (–1206) had ...

voted to restrict alcohol sales only to restaurants holding permits.

County Government

Politics

John Nova Lomax of the ''

'' said that the residents of Angelina County "were, and are, a self-sufficient breed, good with their hands, bluntly honest and leery of all central authority." (In 1861, Angelina County voted against seceding from the United States, the only East Texas county to do so.) He also said " eir electoral peculiarity continued through the 20th Century." Angelina County was the seat of power of Charlie Wilson, a politician labeled the "Liberal from Lufkin". The current state representative from Angelina County is Republican Trent Ashby, first elected in 2012.

Crime

In previous eras criminals established

moonshine Moonshine is high-proof liquor that is usually produced illegally. The name was derived from a tradition of creating the alcohol during the nighttime, thereby avoiding detection. In the first decades of the 21st century, commercial dist ...

stands. Around the 1970s some criminals established

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various t ...

farms. the main drug dealing activity is the

methamphetamine Methamphetamine (contracted from ) is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is mainly used as a recreational drug and less commonly as a second-line treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and obesity. Methamp ...

trade. Allen Hill, formerly of the Angelina County Narcotics Squad, said that the local meth trade is doing more damage to the county than drug couriers passing through the county, crack cocaine, and heroin. According to Hill, many Hispanic drug dealers increasingly sold imported "ice"-style meth made by

drug cartel A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the l ...

s instead of crack cocaine or powdered cocaine, because they make more money than they did selling crack. Hill said that many of the drug dealers claim to be affiliated with Mexican drug cartels or gangs like MS-13.Lomax, John Nova. "Texas Tweakers." ''

''. Wednesday November 16, 2011
4
Retrieved on November 19, 2011.

Education

Primary/Secondary Education

The following school districts serve Angelina County (districts marked with (*) are located partly within the county and partly outside it): * Central Independent School District * Colmesneil Independent School District (*) * Diboll Independent School District * Hudson Independent School District * Huntington Independent School District * Lufkin Independent School District *

Wells Independent School District Wells Independent School District is a public school district based in Wells, Texas (USA). Located in southern Cherokee County, the district extends into a small portion of Angelina County. Wells ISD has two campuses – Wells High School ...

(*) * Zavalla Independent School District

Colleges and Universities

Angelina College, a community college, serves all of Angelina County. Stephen F. Austin State University is located in Nacogdoches, which is located in neighboring

Transportation

Major highways

U.S. Highway 59 U.S. Route 59 (US 59) is a north–south United States highway (though it was signed east–west in parts of Texas). A latecomer to the U.S. numbered route system, US 59 is now a border-to-border route, part of the NAFTA Corridor Highway Sy ...

Interstate 69 Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of 10 unconnected segments with an original continuous segment from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, ...

is currently under construction and will follow the current route of U.S. 59 in most places. *

U.S. Highway 69 U.S. Route 69 (US 69) is a major north–south United States highway. When it was first created, it was only long, but it has since been expanded into a Minnesota to Texas cross-country route. The highway's southern terminus (as well as ...

* State Highway 7 * State Highway 63 * State Highway 94 * State Highway 103 * State Highway 147 * Farm to Market Road 1818 US 59 goes through Angelina County. It is planned to be upgraded to interstate standards as part of the planned

Bus

Greyhound Lines Greyhound Lines, Inc. (commonly known as simply Greyhound) operates the largest intercity bus service in North America, including Greyhound Mexico. It also operates charter bus services, Amtrak Thruway services, commuter bus services, and ...

operates the Lufkin Station at the Kerrville Bus Company station in Lufkin."."

. Retrieved on July 29, 2012. NOTE: The information for Lufkin appears as a pop-up window.

Airport

Angelina County Airport Angelina County Airport is a county-owned, public-use airport in Angelina County, Texas, United States. The airport is located seven nautical miles (13 km) southwest of the central business district of Lufkin, Texas. Facilities and air ...

is located seven miles southwest of Lufkin.

Communities

Cities

* Diboll * Hudson * Huntington *

(county seat and largest municipality) * Zavalla

Census-designated place

* Redland

Unincorporated communities

* Bald Hill *

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...

* Clawson * Herty *

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

* Moffett * Pollok * Redtown

Ghost towns

Alco The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...

* Beulah * Boynton *

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony) * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...

* Dunagan * Durant *

Ewing Ewing may refer to: People * Ewing (surname) * Ewing (given name) Places ;United States * Ewing Township, Boone County, Arkansas * Ewing, Illinois, a village * Ewing Township, Franklin County, Illinois * Ewing, Indiana, an unincorporated co ...

* Granville * Manning * Monterey * Nancy *

Ora ORA or Ora may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ora'' (film), a 2011 experimental dance film * Rita Ora (born 1990), British-Albanian singer-songwriter and actress * ''Ora'' (Jovanotti album), 2011 * ''Ora'' (Rita Ora album), 2012 * "Ora" ...

* Peavy *

Platt __NOTOC__ Platt may refer to: Places * Platt, Austria * Platt, Florida, an unincorporated community in DeSoto County, Florida, United States * Platt, Kent, England People * Platt (surname) * Platt baronets, two baronetcies of the United Ki ...

* Rocky Springs *

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

Gallery

Image:Soldiers Monument at Angelina County, TX, Courthouse IMG 1800.JPG, Soldiers Monument at Angelina County Courthouse Image:Angelina County Peace Officers Memorial, Lufkin, TX IMG 3950.JPG, Angelina County Peace Officers Memorial at the courthouse Image:Fountain at Angelina County, TX, Courthouse IMG 1801.JPG, Fountain at Angelina County Courthouse

References

External links

Angelina County government
*
Angelina County
from the Texas Almanac
Angelina County
from the TXGenWeb Project {{coord, 31.26, -94.61, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-TX_source:UScensus1990 1846 establishments in Texas Populated places established in 1846