David Reed Mitchell

A log house found in 1980 may be the first building on the townsite Mitchell helped lay out. The National Register nomination for the county courthouse says that when a house at 209 West First Avenue was torn down, the log structure inside it was identified as Hampton McKinney's. A Southern Methodist University archaeologist's tree-ring work put its cutting dates in late fall 1848 or early 1849. McKinney's place served as post office, land office, hotel and quarters for the first county officials, and is believed to be the first structure on the townsite.

What the plaque says

David Reed Mitchell David Reed Mitchell, born in 1797 in North Carolina, arrived in Robertson County, Texas, in 1845. He was a surveyor by trade, and had surveyed the upper Trinity and Brazos River areas in 1844. He became surveyor of the Robertson County Land District, and worked on the Mercer and Peters colonies, as well as the original plans of Navarro County and Corsicana. Mitchell was also a land speculator of sorts, and by 1847 he owned a large amount of land in Navarro County. With two partners, Thomas I. Smith and James C. Neill, he donated one hundred acres on which the town of Corsicana was founded. For a time, he operated an inn in the town, sometimes referred to as the "Lower Hotel" because of its location in proximity to another hotel run by pioneer Hampton McKinney. David Reed Mitchell was married to Mary Ann Higgins, and they were the parents of five children. Mitchell continued to live in Corsicana until his death on October 7, 1853. He was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, and the citizens of Corsicana erected a monument at his grave in 1899. Of the three partners who donated land for the city of Corsicana, Mitchell is the only one buried here. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

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 — 21 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

• Col. Clinton McKamey Winkler — steps away
• Samuel R. Frost — steps away
• Colonel Roger Q. Mills — 0.2 mi
• Frank Neal Drane — 0.2 mi