Homer is a small community in Angelina County in Deep East Texas, located on U.S. Highway 69 about six miles southeast of Lufkin. Its modest present-day size belies a significant local history: Homer was the third of the four communities to serve as the Angelina County seat, holding that role from 1858 until 1892. The community was reported to have about 360 residents around the turn of the 21st century. Homer's time as county seat shaped its early development. In 1858, county residents voted to make Homer the seat in place of Jonesville, and the community grew around the courthouse and the public business it attracted. That era ended in November 1891, when the Homer courthouse burned, and the following year the county seat was moved to Lufkin, which had been favored by the arrival of the railroad. Homer's population declined afterward, a shift compounded by the consolidation of its upper-grade students with neighboring districts in the 1920s and 1950s. In 1971, Homer residents voted to incorporate their community, preserving a measure of local governance. Today Homer functions primarily as a small residential community in the orbit of Lufkin, the Angelina County seat and the region's principal city. Students attend schools in the Lufkin Independent School District. Homer's location along U.S. Highway 69 gives it direct access to Lufkin's employment, shopping, and medical facilities within a few minutes, while the surrounding Deep East Texas landscape of pine and hardwood forest defines its rural setting. Its story as a former county seat remains the community's most distinctive claim to attention, and for those seeking a small, quiet community with a direct link to East Texas history, Homer offers an alternative just outside the region's largest town.