DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the source here, and I'm just the one bringin' it to life — so let's talk about a house that's been standin' longer than most of us have been dreamin'. Out in Navarro County, in the town of Corsicana, there's a place they call the Roger Q. Mills Home.
And right off, that name deserves a moment. Roger Quarles Mills — born in Kentucky in 1832, died in 1911 — was a United States Senator who gave Texas twenty-seven years of service as congressman and senator both. A colonel in the Civil War.
A married man, a father of five children. The kind of figure who casts a long shadow across a county's history. But here's what I love about this story: it's also the story of a house that grew up alongside the man.
Mills came to Corsicana in 1852. Now, four years after he arrived, in 1856, he built the northwest section of what would become his home. And here's where it gets interesting — when he built that section, he didn't start from nothing.
He used logs from a cabin that had already been standing on that very same site since 1847. Old timber, worked into something new. There's a kind of stubbornness in that, a reverence for what was already there, that feels very Texas.
The house wasn't finished all at once, though. It took time — the way anything worth havin' takes time. The whole house wasn't completed until 1875.
What stood at the end of all that building was described as an outstanding example of plantation architecture. Broad verandas wrapping around it. Carriage lamps glowing at the edges.
The kind of place that makes you slow down just looking at it, reminders — the marker calls them — of a gracious era. Logs from 1847. A wing raised in 1856.
A house completed in 1875. A senator who served until 1911. That home in Corsicana didn't just shelter a man — it held a whole chapter of Texas history inside its walls, and some of those walls were already old when Mills first put his hands to them.
That's the thing about a place like this. The years just keep stackin' up, quiet as timber.
What the marker says
Outstanding example plantation architecture. Was long the home of U. S. Senator Roger Quarles Mills (1832-1911). Born in Kentucky, Mills came to Corsicana in 1852. Was colonel in Civil War; served Texas 27 years as congressman, senator. Married: five children. He built northwest section of house in 1856, used some of logs from cabin built on same site in 1847. House was completed 1875. Broad verandas, carriage lamps are reminders of gracious era. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967