Cushing, TX

Cushing is a city in northwestern Nacogdoches County, about 18 miles northwest of Nacogdoches in the East Texas Piney Woods. The Texas and New Orleans Railroad announced a line in 1902, and the community took the name of railroad official Edward Benjamin Cushing. Passenger service began in 1904, and the tracks turned Cushing into a shipping center for sawmills across the county. The city incorporated in 1905. The 2020 census counted 557 residents.

Cushing Independent School District has served the community since 1933 and still gives the city its clearest civic institution; the Bearkats name runs through school events and town life. State Highway 204 and Farm Road 225 connect Cushing to Nacogdoches and nearby East Texas communities. The old lumber economy has receded, while the railroad-era layout remains legible in the road network and the school-centered town. Cushing is a small Piney Woods city with a railroad name, a timber shipping past, and a school district that carries the community forward.