The Houston East and West Texas (HE&WT) Railroad came through Angelina County in 1882, and a community named Bitterweed Flat developed there. In 1913 W.E. Hoshall purchased land and timber rights in the area and began shipping logs from Hoshall Switch on the HE&WT in Bitterweed Flat. In 1917 Luke E. Wright established a sawmill and town with churches, schools, and a commissary at the switch site. The company town, named Hoshall, included Anglo and African American citizens. After the sawmills closed, by 1940 only the cemetery and the mill pond remained.