BENDESTSEN, TEXAS. Bendestsen is on U.S. Highway 59 forty-five miles northeast of Houston in northwestern Liberty County. The heavily forested area was opened to extensive logging by the construction of the Houston, East and West Texas Railway during the late 1870s. One of a number of sawmills in northern Liberty County was established at Bendestsen, just south of Cleveland. The old sawmill community later became the site of the Champion Paper Company lumberyards. It is often considered part of Cleveland.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Barbara Smith, comp., "Cleveland's History," Cleveland Area Pioneer, June 1978.
