HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded AgeProgressive & Modern Era

Judge John S. Callicutt

Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas

Marker Inscription

John Spencer Callicutt moved to Corsicana in 1886 and opened his law practice. As an active member of the community, Callicutt served on the founding board of the county hospital, as well as the boards of Central State Bank and other businesses. A member of the First Methodist Church, he was active in Masonic activities, including work with handicapped children. In 1935 he was appointed district judge by Gov. Miriam A. Ferguson. Married to the former Evelina Jack, he was the father of seven children. He and his wife are buried in Oakwood Cemetery. (1988)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

John Spencer Callicutt hung out his law shingle in Corsicana in 1886 and wove himself into the fabric of the community, helping found the county hospital and serving on bank and business boards. A devoted Methodist and Mason, he gave particular energy to charitable work with handicapped children. In 1935 Governor Miriam A. Ferguson appointed him district judge, crowning a long career of civic leadership in Navarro County.

Why it matters

Callicutt's life reflects the outsized role that hometown lawyers and judges played in building the institutions โ€” hospitals, banks, and courts โ€” of Progressive-era small-town Texas.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • ยท John Spencer Callicutt
  • ยท Evelina Jack
  • ยท Miriam A. Ferguson

Themes & tags

EducationMemorial

Nearby & related markers

Alva Everett Taylor

Corsicana, TX

Alva Everett Taylor (1891โ€“1965) was a farmer and sometime oil driller near Dawson whose real passion was digging up the past. A lifelong grassroots researcher, he published books and pamphlets in the 1950s, helped found the Navarro County Historical Society in 1956, and in 1958 launched the pioneer village his work here made possible. His preservation drive turned scattered county history into a place people could walk through.

Beauford Halbert Jester Home

Corsicana, TX

Beauford H. Jester and his wife Mabel built this colonial revival house in 1923 on what had been his family's Corsicana dairy farm. A lawyer who rose through the University of Texas Board of Regents, the State Bar, and the Texas Railroad Commission, Jester was elected governor in 1946 โ€” and in 1949 became the only Texas governor to die in office, having kept this home throughout his tenure.

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.

George Taylor Jester

Corsicana, TX

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.