Corsicana

In 1900 Corsicana counted 9,313 people, three banks, twelve newspapers, eight hotels, forty-nine retail stores, a cotton mill, thirty-two doctors and thirty-five saloons. The Handbook of Texas says the saloons worried many residents and fed a temperance movement that ended in a November 1904 prohibition law, after which bootleggers filled the gap for oilfield workers. Oil money lasted. The Handbook reports about twenty-one millionaires in the early 1950s, and a new field in 1956 brought 500 wells, nearly one in every backyard.

What the plaque says

Corsicana Soon after Navarro County was created by the Texas Legislature in 1846, a committee was appointed to choose a site for the county seat. The committee selected a 100-acre tract of land that came to be the city of Corsicana. The town was named for Corsica, the homeland of the parents of Texas patriot Jose Antonio Navarro, for whom the county was named. Corsicana was first governed by a town commission, whose duty was to map the area and sell lots. Early settler Hampton McKinney built a log cabin for his home, which also was used as a school, post office, courthouse, and land office. He also operated the McKinney Tavern, where many early settlers and travelers boarded. Other early Corsicana businesses included a hardware store, carpenter shop, drug store, saddle shop, saloon, and blacksmith shop. A period of tremendous growth was initiated in 1871 with the coming of the Houston & Central Texas Railroad. The first free public schools were offered during the early 1880s, and the late 19th century saw Corsicana in the midst of an oil boom. The city became a Texas pioneer in commercial oil production and in the use of natural gas for fuel and lighting and continues today as a leader in the area's growth. (1985)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Petroleum Industry Park — 0.3 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

• Corsicana City Jail of 1908 — steps away
• Corsicana Public Library — steps away
• Samuel Wistar Johnson, M. D. — steps away
• The First National Bank of Corsicana — steps away