Major James P. Douglas

James P. Douglas headed his household at seventeen, after his father died in 1854, and ran the Tyler Male Academy while reading law. His Smith County battery fought at Elkhorn Tavern, Chickamauga and Atlanta, and lost its guns in the retreat from Nashville in 1864. In the state Senate from 1870 he opposed Reconstruction. He was first president of the Tyler Tap Railroad, chartered in 1871; its only locomotive, the Governor Hubbard, brought the first train into Tyler on October 1, 1877. He also owned a chain of canning factories, the first in Tyler.

What the plaque says

Major James P. Douglas (Star and Wreath) (1836-1901) School named for Texas Confederate. Born in South Carolina. Came to Texas 1848. Led 50 Tyler men, 1861, to join 50 in Dallas to form Good-Douglas Battery - only Texas artillery serving east of the Mississippi. At Chickamauga, Battery shoved its big guns to edge of Federal rifle pits. Gallantry of Douglas was praised. In 1865 he returned to editing Tyler "Reporter." Became a lawyer. Was in Texas Senate, 1876-80. Joined leadership of Tyler Tap Railway. Was president of Cotton Belt Railroad. Led in Tyler's fruit and vegetable growing, canning industry. Was an organizer and trustee of East Texas University, Tyler. Good-Douglas Texas Battery - marched out of Texas July 9, 1861, after much romantic fanfare in Dallas. (1963)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 0.8 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 2.1 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 2.6 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Tyler State Park — 8.1 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.

More markers nearby

• Colonel Bryan Marsh — 0.7 mi
• Tyler Tap Railroad — 0.8 mi
• Henry Miller Morgan — 1.1 mi
• Smith County, C. S. A. — 1.1 mi