Site of the Old Town of Texana

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. You're rolling through Jackson County right now, and if the land out your window looks ordinary, well, friend, it's keeping a secret. Somewhere beneath all this quiet sits the ghost of a town called Texana.

Founded in 1834 by a Dr. F. F.

Wells, personal friend of Stephen F. Austin himself. That's the kind of detail that stops you cold, isn't it.

Not just any frontier doctor staking out a townsite, but a man who knew Austin, the very man who brought Anglo settlement to Texas in the first place. That's the company Texana kept right from the start. And the town didn't waste any time making itself matter.

By 1835, it was already the county seat of Jackson County. The seat of power, the place where things got decided, where people came to settle disputes and record their lives. For nearly fifty years, from 1835 all the way to 1883, Texana held that seat.

Folks were putting down roots here. The Methodist Church got organized in 1838, and that's not a small thing on the frontier. That's a community saying we're staying.

The Masonic Lodge followed in 1852, first of its kind in Jackson County. The Presbyterian Church came along in 1855. First of each, right here in Texana.

This was also the home of Captain Clark L. Owen, a name the marker carries with the quiet weight of Civil War fame. So what happened?

Well, the marker doesn't say, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. What it does say is that 1883 came, the county seat moved on, and the town of Texana faded into the kind of place that gets a historical marker instead of a street address. The State of Texas put this marker up in 1936, making sure at least the name survives.

Texana. Say it once while you're passing through. Somebody ought to.

What the marker says

Founded in 1834 by Dr. F. F. Wells, personal friend of Stephen F. Austin. County seat of Jackson County from 1835-1883. Old home of Capt. Clark L. Owen of Civil War fame. Here the following were first organized in Jackson County: Methodist Church in 1838, Masonic Lodge in 1852, Presbyterian Church in 1855. Erected by the State of Texas 1936