Central National Road
Ladonia, Fannin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Created 1844 to connect Texas Republic with the United States. Route began in Dallas, to go to Kiomatia Crossing on Red River. Surveyed by Maj. George W. Stell, road was to be 30' wide and clear of tree stumps more than a foot high. Route ran north of land of John H. Loring (1 mi. E of present Ladonia), coming eastward to make abrupt north turn here and push over Sulphur River at crossing named for Isaac Lyday, who came here in 1836. A small segment of the road may still be seen (1972) skirting Lyday Cemetery in the W. D. Wehrmann, Jr. pasture, just east of FM 904, southwest of Dial. (1972)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Authorized in 1844, the Central National Road was meant to link the young Republic of Texas with the United States, running from Dallas toward a Red River crossing. Surveyor George W. Stell laid out a thirty-foot roadway cleared of stumps, and a small trace of it could still be seen near Lyday Cemetery in the 1970s.
Why it matters
Roads like this stitched an isolated republic to the wider nation and previewed the transportation networks that would drive Texas settlement.
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Related people
- · George W. Stell
- · Isaac Lyday
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ladonia
Ladonia, TX
Settled around 1840 and first called McCownville after early resident Frank McCown, this Fannin County community was platted with unusually wide streets by carpenter-merchant James H. Cole. Local legend says the name changed in 1857 to honor Ladonna Millsay, a singer traveling by wagon train from Tennessee, and by 1858 a post office made "Ladonia" official. The arrival of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway in 1887 turned it into a booming cotton-marketing town of 2,000 before it slowly declined in the 20th century.
Sonora Cemetery
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The Sonora Cemetery began in 1872 with the burial of a child, S. B. McBee, beside the Sonora community's church and school, and it grew to more than seven acres by 1880. When a rail line was completed a mile to the west in 1887, residents drifted to the new town of Fairlie, but the cemetery endured. Today it holds more than 900 graves and still serves the surrounding area.
Jernigin's Store
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Old National Road Crossing
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The Central National Road of Texas was chartered by the Congress of the Republic in 1844 to give the young nation a unified transportation route, running from near present-day Dallas toward the head of navigation on the Red River. It tied northeast Texas to the military roads of the west and central regions and connected to routes leading east. Undone by shifting population, the coming of railroads, and rival roads, it never achieved the international importance its founders envisioned.