Broaddus

Broaddus is at the intersection of Farm roads 1277 and 83 and State Highway 147, seventeen miles southwest of San Augustine in southwestern San Augustine County. It was founded around 1904 as a station on the St. Louis Southwestern Railway and that year was granted a post office with the name Broaddus. The town prospered on its shipments of lumber and by 1914 had five general stores, a drugstore, and the Lufkin Land and Lumber Company. By 1925 the population of Broaddus was estimated at 400. Rail service to the community was discontinued in the 1930s, and in 1940 Broaddus had ten businesses, two churches, and a school. Its population fell to 300 by 1950 and to 231 by 1960, then fluctuated between 180 and 240 through the 1980s. It reported a population of 212 in 1990. In 2000 the population was 189. For most of the twentieth century it was the second most populous town in San Augustine County.