Tennessee Colony

The Handbook of Texas dates the town to 1847, not the plaque's 1838. It records a log school in 1851 with Grant Kersky as teacher and a post office in 1852. In 1860 two white men from Mississippi, Cable and Wyrick, were accused of plotting a slave uprising, tried and hanged. In 1869 settlers forced a man named Seymour to leave after he opened a school for Black children. By 1884 the town had three churches, a steam gristmill and 200 people. In 1965 the state bought 21,000 acres nearby and began building the Coffield Unit prison.

What the plaque says

Tennessee Colony Founded in 1838 by settlers who came from the Old South by wagons, seeking fertile, watered farm lands. Later their cotton shipped from Magnolia Ferry on the Trinity created great wealth. Early businesses were a general store, blacksmith shop, cabinet shop (which made furniture still found in area). Town was trade center for places as far away as Dallas. The plantation era reached a climax in grandeur on the properties of F. S. Jackson, a settler from Virginia. Circuit riders held religious services in homes until a log cabin church could be built, probably in late 1838; a second log church succeeded this one. Masons attended the lodge in Magnolia for years, but in 1857 obtained charter for Tyre Lodge No. 198, A.F. & A.M., in Tennessee Colony. They then worked to build a 2-story church-school-lodge hall, which was finished in 1860 (and was to be used until 1948). The schools were outstanding, especially those taught by a Mr. Hooker and by Professor Sidney Newsome. They drew patronage from Palestine and other area towns. Remembered students included Addison and Randolph Clark, later to become founders of a college that would be forerunner of Texas Christian University. Descendants of original colonists still live here. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 17 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.

More markers nearby

• New Hope Missionary Baptist Church — 3.8 mi
• Bethel Cemetery — 7.9 mi
• Old Montalba — 8.8 mi
• Concord Baptist Church and Cemetery — 11 mi