USA > Texas > Harrison County > Marshall > History Of Marshall Texas > Part 11
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Most of the people who came to this county came from Southern States. The first forty homes of settlers in Harrison County came from the states in the following order, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, and South Carolina. Most of them or their ancestors had come from still other states.
All of Panola County was carved from Harrison County. Parts of Marion, Upshur, and Gregg Counties were carved from Harrison County later on.
Some of the people of Harrison County were opposed to the Compromise of 1850, because they felt the North was taking rights away from the South. These people met in
1Sketches Drawn From Marshall and Vicinity, Past and Present. 2Dallas Morning News, February 28, 1937.
3Marshall News Messenger, August 23, 1936.
4Dallas Morning News, February 28, 1937.
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL
Marshall with Dr. William Evans, president; C. M. Adams, secretary; and. Ex-Governor J. Pinckney : Henderson as the principal speaker. Most of the people of the county agreed with the Compromise of 1850.5
The original City of Marshall was one-fourth square mile in area. Up till December 1945, the area of Marshall was nine square miles.6 With the addition of the Victory Drive section it is estimated that the city expanded to ten and eight-tenths square miles in area as it is in 1947.7
In 1850 Marshall was the fourth largest city in the State of Texas with. a population of 1;180, 421 of them slaves. It was surpassed by San Antonio, Houston, 'and New Braun- fels.8 In 1853 Harrison County had the largest, negro population of any county in the State of Texas.9 In 1860 the population of the city was four thousand, 10 The popu- lation of Marshall in 1870 was 1,920. In 1880 the city had jumped to a population of 5,624. In 1890 the population was 7,207; in 1900 7,855, and in 1910 the population of Marshall was 11,452.11 In 1920 the population of Mar- shall was 14,271,12 in 1930 16,203, and in 1940 the popula- tion was 18,401. In 1947 the population of Marshall is estimated to be 25,000.18
In 1922, Marshall ranked twelfth among Texas cities in manufacturing. That year gas was sold to manufacturers at Marshall as low as seven cents per thousand feet and was called the cheapest in the South. Thirteen deposits of silica sand were discovered near Marshall. The sand was tested and found to be ninety-nine per cent pure. This aided Marshall greatly in industrial development.
In 1922 Joe Weisman and Company, dry goods depart- ment store, was said to the largest department store in Texas east of Dallas.14
In 1923 Marshall had the largest repeating telegraph plant in the South and was working on twenty-four hour service.
5Armstrong, J. C., History of Harrison County, Texas, (1839-1880). 6Mrs. Chesly F. Adams. Letter.
"7Marshall Chamber of Commerce. Pamphlet.
8Armstrong, J. C., History of Harrison County, Texas, (1839-1880). 9Dallas Morning News, February 28, 1937.
10Texas Almanac of 1936, p. 144.
11Nelson's Encyclopedia.
12Worthman, Louis J., History of Texas, vol. 5, p. 267.
13 Marshall Chamber of Commerce. Pamphlet.
14Texas Commercial News, June 17, 1922.
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Diagram showing growth of Marshall in area
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1.000 LEGEND - = PEOPLE
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MISCELLANEOUS FACTS ABOUT MARSHALL
More people in the City of Marshall owned homes than any other city of its size in 1923.15
In 1936 Marshall was the tenth ranking industrial city in Texas. The value of the products turned out was over seven million dollars annually. It had twenty-seven factor- ies that employed three thousand workers with an annual industrial payroll of three million dollars.16 In 1947 Mar- shall is still ranked tenth as an industrial city in the State of Texas, with about $17,500,000 valued products turned out. The value of Marshall's manufactured products ex- çeeds that of any Texas city under a population of 100,000.17
Marshall was one of the smallest towns in the Southwest using the fully automatic dial telephone in 1936.
There are two prominent families in the City of Mar- shall that have an interesting history, as well as an im- portant one. One of these is the Blalock family. Horace Blalock's father, W. M. Blalock, was born in the Grange Hall locality, four and one-half miles south of Marshall, in 1850. W. M. Blalock's father, R. W., and two brothers, C. D. and E. B., came to Harrison County. Each one of them bought estates in different parts of the county. W. M. Blalock and his associates formed the Citizen's Party that is still in existence today. He served three terms in the State Legislature and died before his nomination for a fourth term had come in 1906. W. M. Blalock and his wife Willie Blalock reared seven sons, Horace C., Jesse H., Myron G., Charles S., William Bryan, Jack Boothe, and Richard W. Blalock.
The Adams family is the other interesting family in the history of the City of Marshall. The Adams family came from Alabama and settled a few miles outside of Marshall in 1841, where Mr. C. F. Adams was born in a four room log cabin. Adams lived all of his life in Harri- son County. For sixty years or more he was a member of the First Methodist Church of Marshall. Two slaves of the Adams family lived to be one hundred and thirteen and one hundred and fourteen years of age. In the stage coach days the livery stand stood one block east of the public square.
Believe it or not, there was once rice grown in the City of Marshall. It was once grown on the lot at the foot of
15 Dallas News, September 12, 1923.
16 Marshall News Messenger, August 23, 1936.
17Marshall Chamber of Commerce. Pamphlet.
Diagram showing the growth of the City of Marshall in population
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL
the hill below the Adam's home on South Washington. The cedar trees in the front yards were planted by slaves. 18
At the corner of East Houston Avenue and North Columbus Street there was a house razed in September 1947 that is claimed to have been constructed at least one hundred and three years ago, in 1844. It is the old Allen home that was constructed by Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Allen. It was a six room frame house made of virgin timber, home-made brick, and hard-forged nails. The bricks were made on James Cellum's farm, located nine miles east of Marshall: James Cellum was supposed to have supplied slave labor to construct the house.19
Mr. William Umbdenstock came to Marshall in 1857. He was known as an Internal Revenue Collector. At 109 South Wellington Street Mr. William Umbdenstock had a, large house constructed where there previously, had been located a print shop. The house still stands today and is another old landmark of the City of Marshall.20
Marshall High School had its first football team in 1908. Marshall played any team it could play and won seventeen games and lost none. No team crossed the Marshall goal line. G. B. Scheer was the first coach at Marshall High School. The coach wrote to Waco and challenged them a game but Waco did not even answer the letter: The coach from 1919 to 1934 was J. E. Willis. In 1920 Marshall lost the district to Forest Avenue of Dallas, 14-7. In 1921 Texarkana beat Marshall in a play off game, 3-0, for the district title. Marshall and Texarkana tied in the regular season, 7-7. In 1922 Texarkana defeated Marshall, 19-0 for the district title. In 1923 Texarkana beat Marshall 6-0 to win the district title after the two teams battled to a scoreless tie in the regular season. In 1924 Marshall defeated Texarkana 40-0 for the district title. It beat Athens for the bi-district 25-0, swamped Jasper 35-0 for the quarter-finals, and lost to Beaumont 16-7 in the semi-finals. In 1925 Marshall went to the semi-finals and got beat by Forest Avenue of Dallas, 7-0. In 1926 Mar- shall went to the semi-finals and lost to Waco, 9-0. In 1927 Marshall lost the district title to Athens 6-0. In 1928 Marshall beat Greenville in the bi-district 26-6. In the semi-finals Marshall and Port Arthur battled to a score- less tie on a muddy field and Port Arthur won it on the flip of a coin. In 1929 Marshall beat Tyler 20-13 to win
18Marshall News Messenger, August 23, 1936.
19 Marshall News Messenger, September 7, 1947. 20Mrs. Frank Resch.
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MISCELLANEOUS FACTS ABOUT MARSHALL
the district and lost to Denton 20-14 in the bi-district. In 1930 there was no contender. In 1931 Marshall battled Greenville to a scoreless tie in the regular season and Greenville won the play off game, 8-0.21 Marshall never did win the district again, until 1943, when the team went into the bi-district and lost to Lufkin 32-6. Marshall won the district again in 1944 and again lost to Lufkin in the bi-district, 19-13. In 1945 Marshall won the district and beat Lufkin in the bi-district game, 13-8. It lost in the quarter-finals 'game to Waco, 13-0. All of those years Odus Mitchell was head football coach. He resigned and went to North Texas State College at Denton as head foot- ball coach. In 1946 with Chester Weidman, a graduate of Marshall High School, as head football coach it had one of the best teams on record with eight wins, one tie, and one loss. It lost the title with a 13-13 tie with Longview and a 7-6 loss to Tyler. Weidman resigned and went to Daniel Baker College at Brownwood as head football coach in 1947.
Before football came to Marshall High School, or to either one of the negro colleges, there was a team of Mar- shall men that played anyone. It started in 1901 and was not very good. The good team was in 1903 made up of only eleven men; there were no substitutes. Marshall beat the Shreveport Athletic Club which had beaten L. S. U. and Texas University. It wanted to go undefeated. The score was not remembered. G. B. Scheer, who was the first coach at Marshall High School, was on the team. He also directed the first team at Wiley University. This team weighed less than most other teams. Only a few colleges had football teams in those days.
Organized baseball started in Marshall in 1910. That year brought Marshall the only semi-pro championship ever won. The team was called the Blues. Back in 1910, the fans sat on the ground at the game, and hats were passed around to collect admission prices. From this grew the first organized league called the South Central League. The Marshall Blues were made up of local talent, Some players later on went to the major leagues. Marshall stayed in organized baseball until 1928, when it was kicked out, as Longview faltered in the pennant race. The league was then composed of only six clubs. Then Marshall re- turned to the East Texas League in 1936, and remained
21Marshall News Messenger, August 23, 1936. 22Mr. R. P. Watson, Jr.
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until the league was suspended due to World War Two. 23 Marshall has gone back into organized baseball in 1947. The league is called the Lone Star League and the Marshall team is called the Comets. 24
The City Commissioners of Marshall in January 1947, are L. W. Kariel, Chairman, C. M. Phillips, Joe Bibb, Jr., J. A. Oliphant, and Willard Coker. H. A. Thomason is the city manager or chief administrator. The other offi- cers are Joe McGilvray, William A. Blalock, William Lane, Carl Bechtold, C. M. Ezell, Clark Ross, W. H. Bennett, Dr. G. E. Berglund, J. E. Albright, J. W. Schonhardt, Clarence Archbell, Will Hodge, L. V. Denton, Robert Hightower, and Mrs. Edna Archbell. 25
In February 1947, the University of Texas purchased from the Littlefield fund for Southern History the whole publication of the Tri-Weekly Herald, which was a news- paper' at Marshall from April 20, 1875, to November 13, 1888. This is the only file of this publication known to be in existence today.26
The altitude of the City of Marshall is three hundred and seventy-five feet. The average annual rainfall on a thirty-two year average is 44.25 inches. The mean annual temperature is 66.1 degrees. 27
Bibliography PART ONE
Books, statements, newspapers, pamphlets, and others
Mrs. Chesly F. Adams of Marshall, Texas., Letter.
Armstrong, James Curtis, History of Harrison County, Texas, (1839- 1880). Thesis submitted to the faculty and graduate school of the University of Colorado, 1930, M. A. degree, Department of History. The thesis is located at the Marshall Public Library of Marshall, Texas. A recopy of the thesis is located at the Marshall Chamber of Commerce Office.
The Austin Statesman, March 7, 1946, "Texas Town Once Was Capital of Missouri," by Jack Rutledge. Borrowed from the Loan Extension Library, Texas University, Austin, Texas.
Bolton, Herbert E., The Spanish Borderlands, Chapter 3, "Hernando DeSoto," Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 1921, pp. 46-79.
A Brief History of the First Baptist Church of Marshall, Texas, 1845-1928. It was given to me by Dr. Arthur. B. Rutledge, of Marshall, Texas.
The City Charter of Marshall, Texas. It was loaned to me by Mr. H. A. Thomason of Marshall, Texas.
City Directory Supplement of 1946, Mullin-Kille and Demmer, Mar- shall, Texas.
Crocket, George Louis, Two Centuries in East Texas, Chapter 11, "The Aftermath of the Revolution," The Southwest Press, Dallas, Texas, 1932, pp. 194-203.
Dallas Morning News, February 28, 1937, "Marshall Looks for Oil Boom to Provide its Latest Chapter," by Robert M. Hayes. Borrowed from the Loan Extension Library, Texas University, Austin, Texas.
Dallas News, September 12, 1923, "What I Like and What I Don't Like About My Home Town," by W. A. Adair. Borrowed from the Loan Extension Library, Texas University, Austin, Texas.
The East Texas Baptist College Bulletin of 1945-1946, vol. 25, no. 1. First Methodist Church, Marshall, Texas, 1845-1945.
Harrison County, Texas, Commissioners Court Records, p. 261. History of the Central Baptist Church, Marshall, Texas, 1943-1946.
It was given to me by Mr. Arthur Tyson of Marshall, Texas. Mr. R. C. Ladymon of Marshall, Texas. Letter. Marshall Chamber of Commerce of Marshall, Texas. Pamphlet.
Marshall News Messenger, August 23, 1936. Marshall News Messenger, August 25, 1940. Marshall News Messenger, October 26, 1941. Marshall News Messenger, January 3, 1947. Marshall News Messenger, February 9, 1947. Marshall News Messenger, February 24, 1947. Marshall News Messenger, March 11, 1947. Marshall News Messenger, August 31, 1947. Marshall News Messenger, September 7, 1947. Minutes, City of Marshall, Texas.
23 Marshall News Messenger, August 23, 1936. 24Mr. R. P. Watson, Jr.
25City Directory Supplement of 1946. 26 Marshall News Messenger, February 9, 1947. 27Marshall Chamber of Commerce. Pamphlet.
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1
Nelson's Encyclopedia. Borrowed from the Loan Extension Library, Texas University, Austin, Texas.
Mrs. W. A. Nunley of Marshall, Texas. Newspaper clipping.
Patman, Congressman Wright, History of Post Offices of First, Con- gressional District of Texas.
Mr. J. A. Riley of Marshall, Texas. Newspaper clipping. Shreveport Times of Shreveport, Louisiana, March 9, 1947, p. 39. Mrs. G. C. Sikes of 'Marshall, Texas. Newspaper clipping.
Sketches Drawn From Marshall and Vicinity, Past and Present, Price Publishing Company, 1918. A book of sketches loaned to me by Mrs. R. R. Fagan and Miss. Emma Mae Brotze of Marshall, Texas., Statement of Bishop College of Marshall, Texas.
Statement of Mr. Isom P. "Bill" Hydrick 'of Marshall, 'Texas. Statement of the Marshall Public Library of Marshall, Texas. Statement of Congressman Wright Patman of Texarkana, Texas.
The Texas Almanac of 1936, the Dallas News of Dallas, Texas, p. 144. Texas Commercial News, June 17, 1922, "Marshall: Twelfth in Manufacturing Among Cities," by Bryan Blalock. Borrowed from the Loan Extension Library, Texas University, Austin, Texas.
Texas and Pacific Railway of Dallas, Texas, from Ox-Teams to Eagles. White and Richardson, East Texas, Its History and Its Makers, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, 1940, vol. 1, pp. 72, 74, 126, and 355.
White and Richardson, East Texas, Its History and Its Makers, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, New York, 1940, vol. 2, p. 576 ..
White and Richardson, East Texas, Its History and Its Makers, Lewis Historical, Publishing, Company, New York, 1940, vol. 3, pp. 991 and 1290-1291.
Wortham, Louis J., History of Texas, Chapter LXIX, "Cities of the. Future," Wortham-Molyneaux Company, Fort Worth, Texas, 1924, vol. 5, p. 267.
Yoakum, H., History, of Texas, Redfield, 34 Beekham Street, New York, 1856, Chapter 14, vol. 2, p. 440.
PART TWO Personal Interviews
Mr. Fred Armstrong of Marshall,, Texas. Mrs. C. A. Beehn of Marshall, Texas. Mr. William Caven of Marshall, Texas. Mr. J. W. Cyphers of Marshall, Texas. Mr. N. D. Goldberg of Marshall, Texas. Mr. W. T. Hendry of Marshall, Texas. Mr. Oscar B. Jones of Marshall, Texas. Mr. Charles Lake of Marshall, Texas. Mr. Max Lale of Marshall, Texas. Mr. Arnold . Milner of Marshall, Texas. Mrs. Frank Resch of Marshall, Texas. Miss Anna Smith of Marshall, Texas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Mr. Ernest Smith of Marshall, Texas. Mr. J. Wesley Smith of Marshall, Texas. Mr. Marvin Turney of Marshall, Texas. Mr. R. P. Watson, Jr., of Marshall, Texas. Mr. E. L. Wells, Jr., of Marshall, Texas. Mrs. Elmer Wheeler of Marshall, Texas. Mr. Ben Woodall of Marshall, Texas.
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