The History of Brownsboro, Texas

Brownsboro was first settled in 1849 by John 'Red' Brown, who operated a toll bridge across Kickapoo Creek on the road connecting Jordan's Saline and Tyler. In frontier Texas, a reliable crossing was a valuable thing, and Brown's bridge made his settlement a natural stopping point on a well-traveled route — the seed of a town that would bear his name.

The community grew steadily through the 1850s. By 1860 Henry Cade had erected a sawmill and a cotton gin, giving the settlement the means to process timber and cotton, the twin staples of the East Texas economy. A crossroads with a bridge, a mill, and a gin had the makings of a real town.

Brownsboro's history holds a distinctive thread: it lay at the heart of one of the earliest Norwegian immigrant settlements in Texas. Between 1849 and 1857 a number of Norwegians settled in the area, drawn by the efforts of Johan Reinert Reiersen of Kristiansand, Norway, who had founded the nearby community of Normandy in 1845 and actively urged his countrymen to emigrate and settle in this part of East Texas.

Reiersen's promotion of Texas as a destination helped bring Norwegian families to the prairies and woods of Henderson County, adding a Scandinavian strand to the region's settlement story. That early Norwegian heritage sets Brownsboro apart from the typical Southern-settled East Texas town.

Like so many East Texas communities, Brownsboro's fate turned on the railroad. When the St. Louis Southwestern Railway was built through Henderson County in 1880, the town moved to meet the tracks — relocating to take advantage of the trade and shipping the railroad brought. By 1885 Brownsboro had six general stores and a population of about 100, established as a small commercial center.

Through the 20th century Brownsboro remained a small town serving the surrounding farms and the route between Tyler and Athens. Today it's a community of around 1,200 residents on State Highway 31, anchored by the Brownsboro 'Bears' schools and its location in the lake-and-woods country of northeastern Henderson County — a quiet town with a deep and unusual history.