Virginia native Thomas Lewis Latane Temple, son of Henry W.L. and Susan (Jones) Temple, moved to Texarkana, Texas, in 1877 and married Georgie D. Fowlkes in 1880. In 1893 he organized the Southern Pine Lumber Company in Texarkana and began timber operations on lands he purchased in Angelina County. He founded the town of Diboll in 1894 at the site of the company’s main sawmill. Upon his death in 1935, the Texas State Senate recognized his legacy of conservation and reforestation practices and his philanthropy toward the Diboll community and his employees.