Josephine

Mrs. O. S. Scott's September 1938 column in the McKinney Courier-Gazette doubles as a street directory. The J. W. G. Club, a group of Josephine girls, kept up the park beside the railroad, wired for electric lights and paid for with swimming parties and ice cream socials. The town had a lumber yard, a blacksmith and repair shop, a cafe, a gas station, groceries, a market and a dry goods store. W. C. Davis, the Cotton Belt agent, had worked thirty years at Josephine and forty-seven for the railroad in all.

What the plaque says

Josephine The City of Josephine began as a gift when the St. Louis Southwestern Railway began construction in the area in 1887. Jesse Hubbard donated four acres of land for the construction of a new town to be named after his daughter. The prior settlement of Reed's Chapel existed nearby around the Methodist Episcopal Church, established in 1881, and the Baptist Church, established in 1888. Reed's Chapel Church served as a school and held services for both Methodists and Baptists. The churches moved to Josephine in 1888. In 1889, a train carried passengers from Josephine to the inaugural Texas State Fair in Dallas. Josephine grew into a center of commerce in the early 20th century, boasting a drug store, ice cream and soda fountain, silent movie theater, ice house and furniture, lumber, tool and dry goods stores, and a bank. The city experienced a setback in 1910 when a fire destroyed sixteen stores. The Baptist Church erected a brick building in 1911, the Methodist Church completed its brick building in 1915, and the school was replaced in 1916. A second fire in 1935 destroyed many buildings. A new school opened in 1940 with assistance from New Deal programs. In 1949, Josephine School became part of the community school district. The campuses divided in 1956 and Josephine became the community junior high school. The town incorporated in 1955 and the Collin County Fresh Water Supply District No. 1 was created in 1957. In 1974, Josephine Community School closed and was relocated to a new site to the west. A city park now marks the former school site. The city received the governor's community achievement award in 1985, and today celebrates a proud heritage and a promising future. (2012)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rockwall County Historical Foundation & Museum — 12 mi
  A small museum in Harry Myers Park that keeps the evidence on Rockwall's rock wall, sandstone dikes that geologists call natural and folk tales call built.
• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 13 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.
• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 19 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 24 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Josephine — steps away
• Central National Road of the Republic of Texas — 2.0 mi
• Community Independent School District — 3.2 mi
• Empire Masonic Lodge — 3.9 mi