Welcome to Laurel ...

Laurel is located in the Piney Woods (East Texas).

While we don't have a date for the founding of Laurel, you might consider that their post office opened in 1889.

When the people of Laurel refer to themselves (known as a demonym), they frequently use terms like Laurelite or Laurelian.<2>

Time Zone: Laurel lies in the Central Time Zone (CST/CDT) and observes daylight saving time

Area Code for Laurel: 409

Communities Also Named Laurel ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found that there are 40 communities that are also named Laurel - they are located in Alabama, Arkansas, California (3), Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky (2), Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina (2), Ohio, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania (4), Quebec, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee (2), Virginia (3), Washington (2) and West Virginia.

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Laurel.

Adding Laurel to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Laurel in the GNIS. For more information, see the Referenced GNIS Codes section on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found for Laurel was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<3>

From that list, the Laurel post office opened in 1889.

We also found Laurel in the book titled Business Atlas and Shippers' Guide (1895).

For more details, see References and Mentions for Laurel.

Footnotes ...

<1>	If you're interested in how the shape of Texas' counties, including Newton, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<2>	A demonym is the name for a resident of a community which is usually derived from (or is related to) the name of that community. In other words, it's how the residents of Laurel refer to themselves. It's important to note that there aren't any rules for taking a community's name and turning it into a demonym. A demonym is informal and while the majority of Laurel may use one name, keep in mind that others may use something different.
<3>	A copy of their list with background information can be found at: https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/