Micham Main

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Micham Main, out there in Anderson County. Now, most pioneers leave a trail of records behind them, deeds and letters and all manner of paper. Micham Main is not most pioneers.

History doesn't pick him up until 1820, when he married Elizabeth Van Winkle in Crawford County, Illinois. From there, the Mains settled in the Illinois township of Palestine, and that's where they stayed, for a while anyway. In 1833, something shifted.

The Mexican colonization laws changed in a way that looked favorable, and the Mains packed up their family and moved to the Nacogdoches District of what is now Texas. Micham applied for a land grant in David G. Burnet's colony and received his property in what is now Anderson County in 1835.

He farmed it, as the terms of the grant required. Then 1836 came around, and he joined the Republic of Texas army for a brief tenure. After that, he went back to working his land.

Ten years passed. The first Texas legislature created Anderson County, and somebody had to figure out where the county seat would go and what it would be called. The legislature appointed three men to do exactly that.

Micham Main was one of them. The other two were James Box and John Parker, and here is something worth noting: both of them, like Micham, had come from that same Illinois township of Palestine. The three men selected a one-hundred-acre tract of land, and the Anderson County commissioners court accepted it.

Now, this is where the story gets a little complicated, and a little honest. Early histories of Anderson County credit Micham Main with naming the new county seat Palestine, after that former home back in Illinois. Later accounts, though, point to John Parker as the man who gave it that name.

Primary source materials that could settle the question have not surfaced. So the record stands open. What the record does not dispute is this: Micham Main mattered to Anderson County from its earliest days.

He died at his home in 1847 and is buried in the Swanson Cemetery. The naming debate may never be resolved, but the man who helped choose the ground, whatever the county seat got called, that man is not forgotten.

What the marker says

Little is known about this Anderson County pioneer until he married Elizabeth Van Winkle in Crawford County, Illinois, in 1820. The Mains lived in the Illinois township of Palestine until 1833, when, drawn by a favorable change in the Mexican colonization laws, they moved their family to the Nacogdoches District of what is now Texas. Micham Main applied for a land grant in David G. Burnet's colony and received property in what is now Anderson County in 1835. He farmed the land, as was required under the terms of his grant, and joined the Republic of Texas army for a brief tenure in 1836. Ten years later, the first Texas legislature created Anderson County, and Micham Main was appointed as one of three men to establish a site for a county seat and to give it a name. Along with James Box and John Parker, also from Illinois' Palestine township, a 100-acre tract of land was selected and accepted by the Anderson County commissioners court. Early histories of Anderson County credit Micham Main with naming the new Anderson County seat Palestine for his former residence in Illinois. Later accounts, however, recognize John Parker for this action. Primary source materials that could verify either claim have not surfaced. Nevertheless, Micham Main remains an important part of Anderson County's early history. He died at his home in 1847 and is buried in the Swanson Cemetery. (2002)