A Brief History of
Palestine, Texas
Palestine's Name Came from Illinois
Editors NoteThe real history of Palestine and Anderson County is written on gravestones in the silent cities of the dead surrounding Palestine.
Men and women of great distinction -- some proud, some humble --walked these streets and sylvan paths. They left their marks in institutions, buildings and lifestyles which survived a hundred years and more to this Bicentennial day of the nation.
Among them walked Don Quixote's disciple, a man called Bonner Frizzell: educator, historian, dreamer and puckish critic of pride and privilege.
That unique man loved to joust windmills. He even dared challenge lavish educational spending, while superintending the evolution of a fine school system here.
Frizzell, the publicist, the political liberal, licensed and operated Palestine's first real radio station.
Since his passing, the educational instrument he loyally served has grown and expanded. The Area Vocational School and the Anderson Center of Henderson County Junior College have been created for secondary and junior college level skill training, respectively.
Palestine in Frizzell's day was a rather proud, smug city engrossed in its sufficiency and somewhat close citadel.
Bonner Frizzell was a rebel to traditions which, nevertheless, he cherished. He was always the country boy from the wilds of Henderson County come to town with a blithe contempt for false pride.
Today he would be pleased with the virile new growth and life of this town and county. He would be excited by the new industries, such as Alcoa, and the new competitive spirit that has succeeded our complacency.
His "Some Early History of Palestine" taken from the files of the Palestine Carnegie Public Library is accurate and precise.
Without being spoiled by updating, we herewith present that historical reportage by a fine gentleman and scholar as a fitting salute to the nation's Bicentennial.
With Miss Kate Hunter, Mrs. Sam Ballard, Mrs. W. C. Wylie and Carl Avera, Bonner Frizzell ranks as a major collector and contributor to the sparse available history and folklore of this county.
By BONNER FRIZZELLAbout 1836 a settlement known as Fort Houston was established on a site about two miles southwest of the present city of Palestine. In response to a petition presented by settlers around Fort Houston, then in Houston county, the Legislature of the State of Texas passed an Act on March 24, 1846, creating a new county. A suggestion was made that the new county be called Burnet in honor of David G.. Burnet, who was one of the impresarios to whom the
Mexican government made a grant of land for colonization in this section of Texas prior to the independence of the state. The county was named Anderson, however, after Kenneth Lewis Anderson, a native of North Carolina, who came to Texas from Tennessee in 1837, and who was a prominent member of Congress and the last Vice-President under the Republic of Texas.
Settlers who had petitioned the State for the new county appointed a committee, composed of Dan Lumpkin, Captain W. T. Sadler, and John Parker, to lay out the site of the new county seat and give it a name. The Parkers had come from Palestine, Crawford County, Illinois; and upon the suggestion of John Parker, the new county seat was given the name Palestine. One record shows that the actual locating of the town site was made by a commission composed of John Parker, M. Main, and J. E. Box. Johnston Skelton, surveyor, drafted a map laying off the town site around the present public square or courthouse plaza.
The first court record for the new county reads as follows:
"The State of Texas, Anderson County. County Court, called session, July term, A. D. 1846. Present, the Honorable D. H. Edens, Chief Justice; and William Wright, James W. Gardner, Allen Killough, gentlemen comisssioners; John Grigsby, clerk; Peyton Parker, Sheriff; William M. Gibson, assistant tax collector; Alexander E. McClure, district clerk; J. Raney, coroner."
Public roads were ordered laid out from Palestine to the Neches river, to Fort Houston, and in other directions. James E. Box and D. H. Edens were authorized to erect a court room and construct "a jail 20 feet square, to be part dungeon under ground."
Fulton and Shelton conducted the first store in a log cabin near the site of the present courthouse. J. S. Hanks, an early settler, is authority for the statement that in 1843 "James R. Fulton and Charles Shelton sold goods in an old worn out field. Their storehouse was made of small black jack poles. They hauled their goods from Shreveport and sold them for deer hides, buffalo hides, etc. Levi Hopkins, Major J. E. Pinson, C. T. McKinzie, Holman Duncan, Buck Hiffin, Thomas Berry, George Hanks, Thomas Hanks, William Wright, and myself lived near by this pole storehouse. This stood where Palestine now is."
Afterwards came Captain Meyers, a large trader; Alexander Joost, a Frenchman, and the first Fort Houston merchant; J. W. Scott, John Murchison, Brantley Cox, Colonel G. R. Howard, E. M. Stackpole, and others who built their stores chiefly on the north and west sides of the courthouse plaza.
In September, 1849, a weekly newspaper was started by J. A. Clark, father of Addison and Randolph Clark, founders of Add-Ran College, now Texas Christian University at Fort Worth, Texas. Colonel J. A. Ewing, later editor of the Palestine Advocate, was foreman. Due to emphasis placed on commerce and navigation of the Trinity River, the newly established paper was called The Trinity Advocate.
The first District Court for Anderson County met on November 9, 1846, with Honorable William B. Ochiltree, Judge Sixth Judicial District of the State of Texas presiding, and Alexander E. McClure, clerk. The first cases tried were civil suits affecting title to land and slaves. At the next term of court, Honorable Amos Clark was the presiding judge. Succeeding judges were Bennett It. Martin, John H. Reagan, Reuben A. Reeves, W. I. Reeves, W. M. Taylor, L. W. Cooper, John W. Scott, S. L. Earle, A.J. Fowler, M.H. Bonner, R. S. Walker, James I. Perkins, Peyton F. Edwards, Frank A. Williams, W. Q, Reeves, A. B. Watkins, J. R. Burnet, W. H. Gill, A. B. Lipscomb, J. Y. Gooch, B. J. Gardner, J. S. Prince, W. R. Bishop, and B. F. Dent. John B. Mallard, father of Mrs. Bettie Oder, was the first lawyer to locate in Anderson County. He settled near Fort Houston in 1846.
Among County Judges who have served have been D. H. Edens, A. G. Cantley, J. B. Mallard, G. W. Tuggle, J. W. Gardner, W. Alexander, Elisha Pettit, I. N. Garner, W. G. W. Jowers, J. N. Link, T. L. Rogers, Z. A. McReynolds, G. W. Hudson, Adam Cone, E. V. Swift, M. Q. Reeves, Major Charles R. Stewart, and W. C. Quick.
Citizens of Palestine in 1858 subscribed stock for the erection of a school to be known as the Palestine Female Institute. A building was erected on the site now occupied by the new Junior High School on Avenue A. Among teachers in the Female Institute, the Masonic Institute, and other schools of early days were W. M. Bishop of Virginia, Elisha Pettit of New Hampshire, J. V. E. Covey, Rev. W.L. Moseley, John G. Scott, Rev. Elliott, Edward Wise, H.P. Phillips, N.B. Brooks, and A.H. Bailey.
When the smoldering embers of sectional hatred burst into conflagration of civil war, Palestine and Anderson County, with practical unanimity joined in defense of state's rights and sent the ablest of her men into the conflict. Companies volunteered for service in all sections requiring military operations. In Judge John H. Reagan Palestine furnished a member of the cabinet of the Confederate government. He served throughout the war with distinguished ability as Postmaster-General of the Confederacy.
Perhaps the most notable event following the war was the completion in the 70's of the International & Great Northern Railroad into Palestine. The Houston & Great Northern Railroad, chartered in 1866, completed its main line into Palestine in 1872. The International Railroad Company, organized in 1870, completed its line from Hearne to Longview in December, 1872. On September 22, 1873 the two lines were consolidated under the name of the International & Great Northern Railway.
Extracts taken from the advocate for the year 1875 give some idea of conditions of the time and the progress being made in Palestine:
"Ours has been a one-horse town long enough," says the editor, "and now it is about time to become a four-in-hand team. In less than eighteen months from date, the population will have doubled, and instead of having a populations of 2500, as at present, we will have 5,000 or 6,000."
Under the leadership of Judge John H. Reagan the people of the city and county joined in voting a bond issue of $150,000 which was given as a bonus to the railroad company as a part of the consideration for the locating in Palestine permanently the shops and general offices of the consolidated railroad companies.
The Advocate, on 1875, gives a graphic description of conditions, as follows:
"Located as we are on the southwest corner of the public square and Avenue A, which leads to the depot and what may probably be called 'West Palestine,' we go west and take our way down Avenue A toward the depot of the International & Great Northern Railroad Company. The avenue leading from the public square, where business men do congregate, to the depot, is in fine condition. Wagons of all sorts and sizes, loaded or unloaded, and pedestrians have ingress and egress there at all times and hours. This avenue is an institution. It cements and links the two hills and all other hills together, so far as relates to Palestine and its present and prospective prosperity. The mill men on the Neches -- and they control more than fifteen mills -- say they sell more lumber to Palestine people than to any town on the road."
The Palestine Advocate, in 1866, contained the following paragraph in regard to Palestine:
"There are twelve dry-goods stores in the place, and all doing a good business; six grocery stores, where anything may be had from a stick of candy to a barrel of Bourbon; and three saloons; there are three drug stores, on hotel, one cabinet shop, one wood shop, one watchmaker's bop, three blacksmith shops, shoe shop, two printing shops, any number of doctors' and lawyers' shops, etc. We can't boast of any very fine brick buildings as yet, except the courthouse and the clerk's office, and three or four other brick buildings."