DOUGLASS, TEXAS. Douglass, on the Old San Antonio Road four miles east of the Angelina River and fourteen miles west of Nacogdoches in Nacogdoches County, was originally settled about 1829. In 1836 Michael Costley laid the town out around a square on an 800-acre tract purchased from John M. Durst. It was named for Gen. Kelsey Harris Douglass, a prominent early settler who established several businesses at the site. By 1836 Douglass had a stagecoach inn owned and operated by John R. Clute. At one time it supported numerous businesses, including a gristmill, a tannery, a sawmill, a brick kiln, and a cotton gin. Residents had a church, a school, and a Masonic lodge. Early in the twentieth century a teachers' school operated in Douglass for two years. By 1927 the town had a large community hall with electric lights. Two big fires, one in January 1943 and one in January 1954, occurred in Douglass. In 1980 and 1990 the town comprised a post office, two businesses, a school, and a population of seventy-five. The population remained the same in 2000.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Nugent E. Brown, comp., The Book of Nacogdoches County, Texas (Nacogdoches, 1927). Richard W. Haltom, The History of Nacogdoches County, Texas (Nacogdoches, 1880; rpt., Austin: Jenkins, 197-?).
