Colonel Roger Q. Mills

Mills made his name on the tariff, and the Handbook of Texas follows what came after. As House Ways and Means chairman he developed the Mills Bill for lower duties and campaigned for it across the East and Midwest in 1888, when the Democrats lost. In 1891 he lost the race for Speaker as silver coinage displaced tariffs. The legislature sent him to the Senate in 1892, and he opposed acquiring Hawaii. He did not seek reelection in 1898; oil wells on his Corsicana property gave him a secure retirement.

What the plaque says

Colonel Roger Q. Mills (1832-1911) Born in Kentucky. Came to Texas 1849. Civic and political leader. Represented Navarro County in Legislature, 1859-60. Joined in call for State Secession Convention, 1861. Joined 3rd Texas Cavalry. Later a colonel in 10th Texas Infantry. Wounded in Tennessee and Georgia battles. A leader in 1871 Democratic Convention held in Corsicana, which started move to end Reconstruction in Texas. Member United States Congress 1873-92. Author Mills Tariff Bill. In U. S. Senate 1892-99. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Petroleum Industry Park — 0.8 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 20 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Ellis County Courthouse — 30 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's courthouse of 1897 in Pecos red sandstone and pink granite, with twenty-one carved stone faces and two cornerstones left by a quarrel over its building.

More markers nearby

• Frank Neal Drane — steps away
• David Reed Mitchell — 0.2 mi
• Joseph S. Cullinan, Pioneer in Texas Oil — 0.2 mi
• Col. Clinton McKamey Winkler — 0.2 mi