Alexander Beaton
Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A native of Scotland, Alexander Beaton came to the United States in 1843. He migrated to Texas in 1848 after serving in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. In 1850 he settled in Corsicana and began the practice of law. He was chairman of the finance committee to promote the routing of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad through Corsicana in 1871. Because of his efforts to bring the railroad to town, Beaton Street was named in his honor. Beaton was a Mason, a member of the First Methodist Church, and an amateur geologist. He married Elizabeth Jane McKinney and had 3 children. (1985)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A Scottish native, Alexander Beaton emigrated to the United States in 1843 and reached Texas in 1848 after serving in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. Settling in Corsicana in 1850, he practiced law and, in 1871, chaired the finance committee that persuaded the Houston & Texas Central Railroad to route its line through town — an effort that earned him the street bearing his name. A Mason, Methodist, and amateur geologist, he raised a family there with his wife, Elizabeth Jane McKinney.
Why it matters
Beaton's arc — immigrant, soldier, and railroad booster — is the classic story of how newcomers shaped Texas towns by literally bending the rail lines toward them.
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Related people
- · Alexander Beaton
- · Elizabeth Jane McKinney
Related events
- · Routing of the Houston & Texas Central Railroad through Corsicana (1871)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Town of Ennis
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Ennis sprang up in 1872 as a market stop on the Houston & Texas Central Railway, named for a railroad official, and quickly gathered churches, schools, and a mixed population of Anglo, French, Mexican, and — after 1874 — Czech settlers working its cattle and cotton economy. A coup in 1892, when local backers won the railroad's division shops, secured the town's industrial future.
R. N. White
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A South Carolina native, Robert Newton White moved his family to the blackland prairie in 1845, the year Texas joined the Union. When Navarro County was organized in 1846 he was elected its first county clerk, holding the post a decade while also serving as Corsicana's first postmaster and helping found a Cumberland Presbyterian church. A civic booster, he lobbied railroads to reach the young town, and his first home here was a simple log cabin.
The First National Bank of Corsicana
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Founded as a private firm in 1871 by former railroad men Capt. James Garitty and Joseph Huey, this bank served cotton growers, ranchers, and cattle drovers as Corsicana grew into a rail hub. Chartered as the First National Bank in 1886, it soon witnessed a turning point in Texas history: in 1894 a crew drilling for city water instead struck oil and gas, opening the state's first major petroleum field. That discovery brought Texas its first refinery and pioneering uses of natural gas and oil.
The Molloy Hotel
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Three years after the railroad reached Corsicana, lawyer Henry Molloy built this hotel in 1874 to house the businessmen and travelers the tracks brought. He added a second story in 1881, and over the decades the building became a hub of the town's business and social life, passing through the hands of leading citizens—among them the father of a future Texas governor. It closed in 1975.