In 1884, Houston businessman Paul Bremond and other investors began planning a new railroad to connect Houston and Shreveport, Louisiana. Surveys soon began along the proposed route, and in 1885 Timpson was founded and named for Paul C. Timpson, the railroad official who laid out the town. The Houston, East and West Texas Railroad, a narrow gauge system, was soon operating, and the first passenger train arrived there on August 1, 1885. The town's first businesses were two stores separated by a pine thicket that was later cleared for the town square, and within a year the population had grown to 1,000. During that first year, a school was begun, churches and fraternal organizations were organized, and many businesses were established, including a newspaper, grocery and drug stores, other retail stores, an ice company, factories, and banks. Timpson also became an important East Texas lumber, cotton, and rail center. Railroads remained important there until the 1940s, when the development of state roads and highways reduced rail shipments.