Town of Dawson

Dawson's early business directory is short and vivid. The Handbook of Texas says the town had a lumberyard and a drugstore by 1883, and that Ike Hughes opened a photography studio, then closed it to open a saloon. Dawson incorporated in 1908. Its population was reported at 950 from 1914 into the mid-1920s and peaked at 1,500 in 1928, then held near 1,100 from the early 1930s, when the town had some sixty-five businesses, through the mid-1950s. After 1960 the population began to fall.

What the plaque says

Town of Dawson This community grew out of Spring Hill (4 mi. NE), the oldest settlement in Navarro County. A Republic of Texas Indian agent, Dr. George Washington Hill, started Spring Hill in 1838 as a trading post to improve relationships with the Indians. When Britton Dawson (1817-1905) came to Texas, he lived first in Jasper County. He settled at Spring Hill in 1846 on land he received as bounty for his service in the Battle of San Jacinto. Married twice and the father of 13 children, Dawson moved here in 1847 and later built a large home that served as a stagecoach stop. In 1881 the Texas & St. Louis Railroad, known later as the "Cotton Belt," came through here on its route from Tyler to Waco. Dawson's sons, David E. and W. H., and their wives gave 100 acres in 1881 for a townsite on the new railroad. Named for the Dawsons, the town grew rapidly. Residents of Spring Hill, excited about business prospects, moved here. The railroad promptly set up a box car for a depot. Churches and schools were established immediately. Many merchants as well as the Masonic Lodge moved here from Spring Hill. This shift of population caused the Spring Hill community to decline while Dawson flourished. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 16 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 20 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site — 20 mi
  Where Limestone County Confederate veterans gathered each summer from 1888, later a water supplier in the Mexia oil boom, now a Texas Historical Commission site on the Navasota River.
• Old Fort Parker — 25 mi
  A rebuilt 1830s family stockade near the Navasota River, where a May 1836 attack killed men of the Parker settlement and took five captives, among them nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker.

More markers nearby

• Braniff International Flight 352 — 1.1 mi
• Battle Creek Burial Ground — 1.5 mi
• Former Site of Liberty Hill Settlement — 2.5 mi
• Dr. George Washington Hill — 2.6 mi