Homer is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Angelina County Angelina County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in East Texas and its county seat is Lufkin. As of the 2020 census, the population was 86,395. The Lufkin, TX Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Angelina Cou ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, southeast of Lufkin, in

Deep 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 consi ...

. It was reported to have a population of about 360 in the early 1990s through 2000. It is located within the

Lufkin, Texas 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 ...

micropolitan area.

History

Homer has a long and rich history. It served as the third of four county seats in Angelina County. Residents of the community voted in 1858 to make it the county seat instead of nearby Jonesville, as well as rename the community to Angelina, but residents continued to call it Homer. It was officially changed back to this name in 1862. The courthouse in Marion (the first county seat) was moved to Homer in 1858. Construction of the community's courthouse began in 1861 but was then stopped due to the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Only one wall was finished, but it was later knocked down. In 1873, a new two-story frame courthouse was built, and completed, in Homer. It became the most prosperous community in Angelina County from 1858 through the early 1880s and had the county's first church, a majority of the county's major businesses, and the county's first mechanical

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

. In 1881, the Houston, East, and West Texas Railway built a track through the nearby city of

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 ...

, which was the community's main economic rival. Rumors spread in the community for several years that the railroad's survey crew purposely bypassed Homer after they were angry that they were arrested in the community after a drunken brawl. However, it was found out to be false; in reality, they decided to build the track through Lufkin because the route was easier to follow, and many residents of the nearby city donated plots of land for it. The community never had a population greater than 500, even at its most prosperous point. There were many attempts made to move the courthouse to Lufkin after many of the county's businesses were moved there to be closer to the railroad, but an election held in 1885 resulted in a unanimous vote to keep Homer as the county seat. The community was prosperous in the 1880s, even though the railroad was located 6 miles north. It had a population of 300, three churches, two

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the Mill (grinding), grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist i ...

s, a steam-powered sawmill, a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); a ...

and daily mail delivery in 1884. Its most common commodities were

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals ...

, and

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

. It all came to an end in November 1891, when the Homer courthouse burned to the ground. An undressed leading merchant was said to have run through the fire shouting, "This is the work of Lufkin!" Lufkin then became the county seat that next year, and Homer's population plunged. Its population was reduced by two after a bloody feud between two families surnamed Scroggins and Borden in 1900. The community had a population of 166 in 1904, then went down to 75 a decade later. It grew to 130 in 1925. It continued to grow in the 1960s and by the end of the decade, it had a

shopping center A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

and several new homes built. Although it is unincorporated, both the

Handbook of Texas The ''Handbook of Texas'' is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Texas geography, history, and historical persons published by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). History The original ''Handbook'' was the brainchild of TSHA President Wal ...

and Texas Escapes magazine state that residents voted to incorporate it in 1971. It had a population of 360 from the early 1990s through 2000. Today, Homer is so small that the residents have

mailing addresses. Also, the majority of the residents consider themselves Lufkin residents, rather than Homer ones.

Geography

Homer is located along U.S. Highway 69, southeast of

on a main thoroughfare to

Sam Rayburn Reservoir Sam Rayburn Reservoir is a reservoir in the United States in Deep East Texas, north of Beaumont. The reservoir is fed by the Angelina River, the major tributary of the Neches River. The Reservoir is upstream of the Big Thicket National Preserve. ...

Education

Homer had two schools in 1884. Students study in the

Lufkin Independent School District Lufkin Independent School District is a public school district based in Lufkin, Texas ( USA). In addition to the city of Lufkin, Lufkin ISD serves a small portion of Burke. In 2009, the school district was rated "academically acceptable" by the ...

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Texas Unincorporated communities in Angelina County, Texas