BERING, TEXAS. Bering is on U.S. Highway 59 in central Polk County, about ninety miles north of Houston. Conrad, E. J., and W. G. Bering built a sawmill at the site in the early 1880s, after the construction of the Houston, East and West Texas Railway through Polk County opened up the area to large-scale lumber interests. A post office was established in 1906. The Bering plant, one of the long-running sawmills in the region, was managed by W. D. Winston for much of the time and operated until about 1920. After the mill closed, most of the community's residents drifted away, although about fifty remained through the 1930s.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A Pictorial History of Polk County, Texas, 1846–1910 (Livingston, Texas: Polk County Bicentennial Commission, 1976; rev. ed. 1978).
