RAYWOOD, TEXAS. Raywood is at the junction of U.S. Highway 90 and Farm Road 770, thirty-six miles west of Beaumont in southern Liberty County. It was settled during the 1830s and underwent extensive change after Alexander Miller introduced rice culture to the area about 1890. The town name is derived from that of rice mill proprietor Raymond Harwood. The Raywood townsite plat, located on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad, was filed in December 1893, and the post office was established the following year. Farming and ranching provided the community's major focus for the first half of the twentieth century, when the population ranged from 100 to 125. In 1954, however, drillers struck oil and natural gas southwest of town. The population quickly doubled, and the number of rated businesses jumped from four to eight. By the mid-1980s Raywood had 231 residents. In 1984 it had twenty-three businesses, dominated by two large grain elevators. Through 2000 the population was still reported as 231.

Robert Wooster