The History of Gladewater, Texas

Gladewater was established in 1873 by the Texas and Pacific Railway Company, on land purchased from local settlers Jarrett Dean and Anderson White as the rail line pushed through East Texas. The town's first post office opened on August 22, 1873, and it incorporated the following year.

The name likely came from nearby Glade Creek, a tributary of the Sabine River that rose in a sparsely wooded area known as 'the Glades.' For its first half-century, Gladewater was a typical small railroad and farming town in the rolling Piney Woods — until the discovery of oil changed everything in a matter of weeks.

On April 7, 1931, the first Gladewater oil well 'blew in,' tapping the great East Texas Oil Field that had been opened the year before near Henderson and Kilgore. The effect was explosive. Almost overnight, Gladewater's population leapt from around 500 to roughly 8,000 as drillers, roughnecks, speculators, and merchants poured into the boomtown. Derricks rose, businesses multiplied, and a sleepy railroad town became a chaotic, prosperous oil center.

The boom shaped Gladewater for decades. While the frenzy eventually settled — by 1940 the population had leveled to about 4,450 — oil and gas remained important to the local economy, and the town carries its oil heritage proudly. (A small footnote from the era: Bonnie Parker's sister reportedly worked at a Gladewater café in early 1934, during the height of the Bonnie and Clyde saga.) Gladewater celebrates its oil roots each spring with the East Texas Gusher Days festival.

As the oil economy matured and the downtown's original commerce faded, Gladewater found a new identity. Beginning in the 1980s and especially the 1990s, antique dealers filled the historic downtown storefronts, and the district grew into one of the largest concentrations of antique shops and malls in the region. In 1995, the Texas Legislature made it official, proclaiming Gladewater the 'Antique Capital of East Texas.'

The transformation gave the town a destination identity and a reason for visitors to come. Today, antique hunters from across the region browse the dozens of shops packed into Gladewater's downtown — a creative reuse of a historic business district that has become the city's defining characteristic.

Today Gladewater is a city of about 6,100, sitting in western Gregg County and southern Upshur County, just 12 miles west of Longview and part of the broader Longview area. Its economy blends the antiques-retail and tourism trade, manufacturing (the town diversified into furniture, clothing, paper products, and more in the 1970s), the legacy oil-and-gas industry, and proximity to Longview's larger job market.

Gladewater has produced a notable roster of figures for its size, including NFL head coach Lovie Smith, billionaire energy businessman Kelcy Warren, Pro Football Hall of Fame tackle Winston Hill, and acclaimed author Joe R. Lansdale. The town keeps its community spirit alive with a full calendar of events — Gusher Days in April, the long-running Gladewater Round-Up Rodeo in June, an arts and crafts festival in September, and a Christmas celebration. Railroad town, oil town, antique town — Gladewater wears all three identities at once.