Gist, TX

Gist, on State Highway 62 in extreme southeastern Jasper County ten miles northwest of Orange, was named for developer J. P. Gist. It served the sawmills and logging camps set up along the Orange and Northwestern Railway, which was completed from Orange to Buna in 1902. C. E. Slade operated lumber camps along the Newton-Jasper county line near Gist as early as 1903. A post office opened at Gist in 1912; that same year Gist granted S. M. Tomme and Sons the privilege of building a saw and planing mill, houses, and logging roads at the locale. In 1922 the Sabine and Neches Valley Railway linked Gist to Deweyville, thus providing additional outlets for local timber production. Gist's population was estimated at forty by the early 1940s. Although the Sabine and Neches Valley line was abandoned in 1945, the population of Gist was reported as sixty as late as 1968. The Gist sawmill and a church marked the dispersed community in 1986.