Site of Henry and Emerson Colleges

The town behind the colleges began with a railroad. The Handbook of Texas says settlement started in fall 1880, when the East Line and Red River extended from Black Jack Grove to Greenville. A post office named it Oliverea in 1881, but the town was soon called Campbell, perhaps for Thomas M. Campbell, the future governor who helped extend the line, though one source disputes that. Henry College opened in 1892, and Emerson College, its successor, closed in 1906. Campbell incorporated in 1912, claimed about 1,000 people in 1925, and fell to 204 by 1970.

What the plaque says

Site of Henry and Emerson Colleges Prominent early institutions. Henry College, founded in 1892 by educators Henry Bridges and Henry Eastman, was re-established and renamed in 1903 for writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. Closed 1907. Other early colleges in Hunt County were Calhoun (1887-1899), Texas Holiness (1899-1920), the Elmwood Institute (1898-1906), Burleson (1895-1931) and Wesley (1914-1937). Only East Texas State University (opened in 1894) still operates, in Commerce. Although short-lived, these colleges (like more than 200 chartered in Texas 1836-1875) helped shape early culture. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 8.1 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.
• Cooper Lake State Park — 22 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.

More markers nearby

• St. Paul School — 4.8 mi
• Scatter Branch Church — 6.4 mi
• Cumby — 6.5 mi
• Center Point Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) — 7.0 mi