The History of Longview, Texas

Longview's founding is tied directly to the arrival of the railroad. Landowner Ossamus Hitch Methvin Sr. sold 100 acres to the Southern Pacific Railroad for one dollar to encourage the line to build through his property, then sold another 100 acres for $500 in gold. The gamble worked: the railroad came through, a town site was platted, and Longview was incorporated in 1871 — the first incorporated town in newly formed Gregg County, which had been carved out of Rusk and Upshur counties that same year.

As a rail junction, Longview quickly became a shipping and trading center for the cotton and timber that East Texas produced. The Texas and Pacific Railway, which absorbed the earlier line, made the town a crossroads, and the depot district became the commercial heart of the community. By the 1870s Longview had the bones of a real town — a courthouse square, churches, stores, and the steady traffic of a railroad economy.

Longview's most infamous day came on May 23, 1894, when the Bill Dalton gang rode into town and robbed the First National Bank. The robbery went badly for the outlaws. A gunfight erupted in the streets, and when the smoke cleared, gang member Jim Wallace and three Longview citizens — J.W. McQueen, Charles Learn, and George Buckingham — were dead. The bandits got away with cash, but the bloody shootout became part of local lore.

The story endures in Longview today. The Gregg County Historical Museum preserves the original "holdup note" the gang handed the bank, along with weapons from the gunfight, and the city marks the anniversary each year with an event called Dalton Days. It's a reminder that East Texas in the 1890s was still close to its frontier roots.

The event that reshaped Longview — and all of East Texas — was the discovery of the East Texas Oil Field in 1930. Centered just south of Longview around Kilgore and the Rusk County town of New London, it proved to be one of the largest oil fields ever found in the lower 48 states. Almost overnight, the quiet railroad town became a hub for the people, money, and equipment pouring into the oil patch.

The boom brought rapid growth, new wealth, and the rough edges that came with any oil rush. Longview's position on the rail lines made it a natural distribution and supply center for the field. Oil money built downtown buildings, funded civic institutions, and tied the city's fortunes to the energy industry for decades to come.

During World War II, Longview played a direct role in the national war effort. With German U-boats sinking oil tankers along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, the federal government built the Big Inch pipeline to move crude oil overland from the East Texas field to refineries on the East Coast. The pipeline began near Longview, and between 1942 and 1945 it carried more than 261 million barrels of crude — a strategic lifeline that helped fuel the Allied victory.

The war and postwar years brought lasting change. In 1946, industrialist and inventor R.G. LeTourneau founded what became LeTourneau University in Longview, building on his earth-moving equipment company in the city. Population climbed steadily, from about 24,500 in the late 1940s to over 40,000 by 1960, as manufacturing took root alongside the oil economy.

The Longview of today is a diversified industrial and medical center rather than a one-industry oil town. Eastman Chemical Company, which traces its Texas operations to the 1950s, is one of the city's largest employers and a major presence in the regional economy. Manufacturers like Komatsu, AAON, and Trinity Rail build heavy equipment and railcars here, and the city has become notable as a venue for patent litigation in the federal courts.

Healthcare is now one of the largest sectors, anchored by CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Medical Center and Longview Regional Medical Center. LeTourneau University and a Kilgore College campus give the city a higher-education presence. In recent years Longview has invested in its quality of life, designating a downtown Cultural District, opening the Longview Arboretum and Nature Center, and building out a connected system of trails. The long view that named the town in 1870 now takes in a city that has reinvented itself more than once.