Appleby, TX

Appleby stands in Nacogdoches County northeast of Nacogdoches, on a site that was once a Caddo village. Settlers began arriving in the surrounding country in the 1820s, but the community took town form after the Houston, East and West Texas Railway reached the area in the early 1880s. The railroad laid out a town named for James Appleby, its former auditor. By 1885, Appleby had a general store and two cotton gins; at its height it had churches, sawmills, hotels, drugstores, and a school that became the first independent school district in Nacogdoches County.

Appleby is smaller now, but the town still has a clear local center and a strong connection to Nacogdoches. City government, Nacogdoches Independent School District, neighborhood roads, and the surrounding timber and farm country shape daily life. U.S. 59 and nearby farm roads bring residents toward larger jobs, health care, shopping, and school activities, while Appleby’s older name and railway history remain visible in local memory. The town’s story includes a boom, a long decline, and a gradual residential revival as people from nearby Nacogdoches built homes in the area.