Wonder how many of you might have family in this picture - from the You Might Be From Orange If site: Shift change at Levingston Shipbuilding in Orange TX, one of several photos posted in the 1981 calendar. You can tell by the sheer number of employees how important it was to the local economy. Samuel H. Levingston, an immigrant from Northern Ireland, started building ships in Orange in 1859, completing paddle-wheel steamers for service on the Sabine River and converting river steamers to gunboats for the Confederate Navy. His son (George Levingston) and Joe Weaver continued operations from 1896 until World War I, then moved operations to the foot of Moss Avenue. Edgar W. Brown Jr., a major figure in the lumber industry in East Texas, bought Levingston in 1945 and operated it until his death in 1976. His estate sold Levingston to Ashland Oil and the shipyard closed in 1985 when the offshore market collapsed.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 12:57:43 +0000
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