Doucette

Doucette is on U.S. Highway 69 and the Southern Pacific Railroad three miles north of Woodville in central Tyler County. In 1834 Elijah Hanks received a land grant in the area. A community coalesced around a sawmill built in 1890 by Alva Carrolls and for a while was known as Carrolls' Switch. In 1891 Carrolls was bought out by William McCready, a Mr. Bodev, and Pete Doucette, for whom the community was renamed. A post office was established in 1893, and sawmill operator William McCready was the first postmaster. The sawmill was eventually bought by Samuel F. Carter and his brother, whose partnership firm was called the Emporia Lumber Company. Before Emporia ceased operating the mill in 1906, Doucette had become one of the leading towns in East Texas.

The Emporia Lumber Company was followed at Doucette by the Thompson Brothers Lumber Company (see THOMPSON TIMBER INTERESTS), which later sold out to Fidelity Lumber Company. Fidelity was succeeded in 1911 by Long-Bell Lumber Company and in 1956 by International Paper Company, which still maintains an office and yard in Doucette. However, the sawmill there has been closed down since 1944. During Long-Bell's ownership of the mill, Doucette prospered. The company had a commissary where everything "from bassinets to caskets" could be purchased. The town also had a drugstore, a doctor, a bank, a railroad station, and a post office. Civic and cultural aspects of the town included groups like the Masons, the Woodmen of the World, the Boy Scouts, and the PTA. There were traveling circuses and medicine shows, a little theater group, baseball, and church revivals and picnics. On the darker side, the Ku Klux Klan was active locally.