Marshall

The Handbook of Texas traces Marshall's start to early 1841, when it was set up as the seat of Panola Judicial District. A Supreme Court decision then invalidated the judicial districts, and the town became the Harrison County seat in 1842. It was incorporated in 1844 and enlarged to one square mile in 1850. The entry calls it the first Texas town with a telegraph, and by 1854 its newspaper had a link to New Orleans. Marshall voted unanimously for secession in 1861, and United States troops occupied it on June 17, 1865.

What the plaque says

Marshall Founded 1839. Named for John Marshall, Chief Justice of U.S. Supreme Court. Supply, ordnance, medical, telegraph and military headquarters during Civil War. The Confederate capital of Missouri was located here. Trade, industry, rail and historical center. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas and Pacific Railway Depot and Museum — 1.8 mi
  The only surviving building of the Texas and Pacific shops at Marshall, a 1912 Mission Revival depot saved from demolition in the 1990s, still an Amtrak stop, with a railway museum and a Mikado locomotive.
• Harrison County Historical Museum — 2.2 mi
  Galleries in Marshall's 1901 courthouse that run from the Caddo to the present, with Wiley College, Lady Bird Johnson's inaugural gown and a military gallery across the square in Memorial City Hall.
• Starr Family Home State Historic Site — 2.4 mi
  Maplecroft, the 1871 Greek Revival house Frank Starr built in Marshall, with Ruth Starr Blake's glass and china, an 1880s kitchen restored in 2019 and a retirement home built for a formerly enslaved person.
• Caddo Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 12 mi
  Wetlands and woods on part of a former ammunition plant, now a refuge for wood ducks, prothonotary warblers and alligator snapping turtles, with four easy trails and a free visitor center on a Ramsar lake.

More markers nearby

• Old Powder Mill Cemetery — 1.5 mi
• Marshall Powder Mill — 1.7 mi
• Walter Paye Lane — 1.8 mi
• Marshall, C.S.A. — 1.8 mi