Rusk

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, some towns just exist. They fill a spot on the map, they've got a gas station and a post office, and that's about the size of it.

But then there are towns like Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas. Towns that seem to have been put on this earth to matter. Founded in 1846, and right from the start, somebody decided this place deserved a name worth carrying.

They named it for Thomas J. Rusk, statesman of the Republic of Texas itself. Not just the state, mind you.

The Republic. That's the kind of name that sets a tone. When the Civil War came calling, Rusk answered.

The town served as an industrial site and a supply depot, a working, grinding, serious contributor to the Confederate war effort. Rusk wasn't sitting on the sidelines. It was in the middle of things, the way it always seemed to be.

But here's where the story gets something close to extraordinary. This one town, this single patch of Cherokee County, produced not one but two governors of Texas. James S.

Hogg was born here. Thomas M. Campbell was born here.

Two men who would each go on to hold the highest office in the state of Texas, and both of them first drew breath in Rusk. The city and the county around it are rich in historical sites, marked and waiting for any visitor with the good sense to stop and look. Some places make history once and coast on it forever.

Rusk just kept making it.

What the marker says

Founded 1846. Named for Republic of Texas Statesman Thomas J. Rusk. Industrial site and supply depot in the Civil War. Birthplace of Texas governors James S. Hogg, Thomas M. Campbell. City and county rich in historical sites marked for visitors.