George Taylor Jester
Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1846-1922) Lieutenant governor of Texas (1894-1898), also father of Beauford Jester, a later Texas governor. As a boy, came from Illinois to Corsicana in a two-horse wagon. Worked on courthouse, first brick building in area, for 50 cents a day. At 18, joined Confederate army but Lee surrendered same year. Married twice, had 5 children. "Clerked" for dry-goods store and traded in cotton before helping form Jester Brothers Bank in 1881. Served as representative (1890-1892) and senator (1892-1894) from Ninth District in Texas Legislature. Was one of the founders of Southern Methodist University. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
George Taylor Jester came to Corsicana from Illinois as a boy, working for fifty cents a day on the county's first brick building before making his name in dry goods, cotton, and banking. He joined the Confederate army in the war's final year, then climbed through the Texas legislature to serve as lieutenant governor from 1894 to 1898. A founder of Southern Methodist University, he also fathered a future Texas governor, Beauford Jester.
Why it matters
Jester's rise from day laborer to lieutenant governor typifies the self-made civic leaders of Gilded Age Texas, and his family produced a rare father-and-son pairing in high state office.
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Related people
- · George Taylor Jester
- · Beauford Jester
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Birthsite of Beauford H. Jester
Corsicana, TX
Born at his family's Corsicana home in 1893, Beauford Jester grew up sleeping in the Governor's Mansion during his father's tenure as lieutenant governor—then returned to it as governor himself in 1947. A University of Texas lawyer and World War I captain, he championed the landmark Gilmer-Aikin laws that modernized Texas public schools and personally aided rescuers after the deadly 1947 Texas City disaster. Re-elected in 1948, he died in office the following year, the only Texas governor to do so.
St. John's Episcopal Church
Corsicana, TX
St. John's grew from Episcopal missionary work that reached the Corsicana area in the 1850s, organizing as a mission in 1871 under the Rev. Virginius Gee. Three years later the congregation built its first church on land donated by the Simkins family, and the parish was formally established by 1876. In the 1940s it ran an Episcopal school said to be the first in the Dallas Diocese.
Corsicana Public Library
Corsicana, TX
Corsicana's women's clubs opened the city's first public library in 1901, and their efforts soon won a Carnegie grant that built a permanent home in 1906, complete with an auditorium for community gatherings. Mattie Houston served as head librarian for more than three decades. By 1967 the collection had outgrown its walls and moved to a new building.
First Methodist Church
Corsicana, TX
Founded in 1851 on the Texas frontier, this Methodist congregation built its sanctuary in 1871, and the following year hosted the State Democratic Convention that laid plans to end Reconstruction rule in Texas. The church also organized what it claims as the first missionary society west of the Mississippi in 1880, and ordained H. A. Boaz, who rose to lead Polytechnic College and SMU before becoming a bishop. Its story weaves together frontier religion, Reconstruction-era politics, and the growth of Methodist education.