VALDA, TEXAS. Valda was on the Houston, East and West Texas Railway between the stops of Bering and Seven Oaks in central Polk County. The Abe Peebles Lumber Company operated a sawmill at Valda in 1886; the Hackney Lumber Company moved its mill from Lone Star to Valda at a subsequent date. The Valda post office was opened in 1890. In 1892 W. H. Findley, R. A. Clifford, and W. T. Ward were appointed trustees of the Valda school. The sawmill town of Valda grew to become one of Polk County's largest communities; by 1904 it had a population of 468. However, competition with other mills proved stiff, and the timberlands around Valda were gradually cut out or claimed by other lumber companies. In 1906 the post office was changed to nearby Bering, another sawmill town. Since then no population figures have been reported for Valda, and it has not been shown on county highway maps.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A Pictorial History of Polk County, Texas, 1846-1910 (Livingston, Texas: Polk County Bicentennial Commission, 1976; rev. ed. 1978).

Robert Wooster