BACKGROUND:
The small community of Loeb, in extreme southern Hardin County,
lies along Pine Island Bayou, which marks the boundary between
Jefferson and Hardin counties. It sits on the site of one of the
earliest towns in Hardin County, known as Concord during the
nineteenth century. A post office was established there as early as
1858. Concord soon became an important landing on Pine Island Bayou
and had been an assembly point for trade to the Big Thicket during
the heyday of Southeast Texas steamboating. At that time the town
had several saloons and mercantile establishments. In the 1870s
Concord's importance diminished, and its post office was closed in
1877. With the construction of railroads through the area in the
1880s, Concord lost its position as a shipping center for Hardin
County, even though it was on the Texas and New Orleans
Railroad.
The community's declining economy received a boost when Henry
Loeb erected his Diana Brick and Tile Company there during the
early 1900s. The town was renamed Loeb, and a post office by that
name was open from 1903 to 1908. Although Loeb was a flag stop on
the Gulf, Beaumont and Kansas City Railway, it never became as
economically important as Concord had been. Its population was
estimated at twenty in the early 1940s and in the early 1990s was
counted with that of nearby Lumberton, a growing suburb of
Beaumont.
In the early 1900s, the Leatherwoods, one of the most prominent
families in the area, expanding an older existing cemetery and
renamed it Loeb Leatherwood Cemetery. Today you will find graves
more than a century old, along with some spooky reminders of times
past.
THE CACHE
You'll be looking for a camouflaged pill bottle. Bring your own
pen to sign the log. And be sure to check out the strange detritus
near the cache site. Perhaps the ghosts gather here after dark to
relive old times. And perhaps they prefer their spirts to be
dispensed in the old-fashioned glass bottles they're accustomed to
On the way out, you can admire charming Jinks Pond from a distance;
the locals say it's full of lunkers, but resist the temptation to
trespass. Have fun!