James Emerson Whiteselle

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, friends. James Emerson Whiteselle came into this world on December 31, 1851, born in Tennessee, and if you think the details of his life don't get more interesting than that, well, just wait. In 1870 he made his way to Texas, not chasing a dream exactly, but answering a call from family.

His uncle, P. W. Ezell, had a lumber company, and young James came to work it.

That's how Texas got him, and Texas, as it tends to do, kept him. By 1875 he had moved on to the local Carruthers Lumber Company, and somewhere along the line he didn't just work that company. He owned it.

Under his management the business grew, expanded into manufacturing and selling brick, because a man who sees what a place is becoming doesn't limit himself to what it already needs. In 1882 he married Kate Huey, and the life he was building got a proper foundation. Prominent businessman.

Banker. The kind of man a growing town leans on. Then came 1894, and Corsicana handed him the mayor's office.

He'd serve through 1898, and here is where the story shifts under your feet, the way Texas ground sometimes does. While James Emerson Whiteselle was mayor of Corsicana, oil was discovered there. Right there, on his watch.

And he was influential in the development of that field. Think about what that means for a town, for a region, for everything that comes after. He was right in the middle of it.

Now, the last detail the marker gives us is the one that stops you cold. James Emerson Whiteselle died in 1915. On his birthday.

December 31. The man who was born on the last day of the year went out on the last day of the year. Tennessee gave him that date, and Texas honored it one final time.

What the marker says

Born in Tennessee on Dec. 31, 1851, James Emerson Whiteselle moved to Texas in 1870 to work in the lumber company of his uncle P. W. Ezell. In 1875 he began working in the local Carruthers Lumber Company which he later owned. Under his management the business was expanded to include the manufacturing and selling of brick. Married to Kate Huey in 1882, Whiteselle became a prominent businessman and banker. As Mayor of Corsicana, 1894-98, when oil was discovered here, he was influential in the development of the field. He died on his birthday in 1915.