Judge William Alexander
Palestine, Anderson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Born 1814 in Scotland. Settled in Palestine 1851. Trustee in first school. Practiced in Supreme Courts, Alabama, Texas. Was a partner of John H. Reagan, C.S.A. Postmaster-General, U. S. Congressman, U. S. Senator, Railroad Commissioner. Married 1857 Mrs. Susan Scott Mallard, widow of another law partner. Had two daughters. Chief Justice, Anderson County, 1860-1865. Died in Palestine, 1872. Recorded, 1965 Incise in base: Erected by Ruth R. Eppner, Granddaughter
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in Scotland in 1814, William Alexander settled in Palestine in 1851 and became one of the town's foundational figures — a trustee of its first school and a lawyer who practiced before the supreme courts of both Alabama and Texas. He partnered with John H. Reagan, the future Confederate Postmaster-General and U.S. senator, and served as Chief Justice of Anderson County through the Civil War years of 1860 to 1865. His statue was raised by a granddaughter to honor his memory.
Why it matters
Alexander's career traces the arc of a Scottish immigrant who helped build the legal and civic institutions of frontier Texas as it moved through statehood and civil war.
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Related people
- · William Alexander
- · John H. Reagan
- · Susan Scott Mallard
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Kolstad Jewelers
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Eilenberger's Bakery
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At the turn of the 20th century, waves of German immigrants brought Old World baking traditions to Texas towns, and F. H. Eilenberger was one of them—apprenticing in Galveston and Fort Worth before opening his own shop in Palestine in 1898. Moved to this site in 1918, the bakery became an East Texas institution, its bread carried across the region for decades. Today it endures for its fruit and pecan cakes, still made from the founder's family recipe and shipped worldwide.
The I&GN Railroad in Palestine
Palestine, TX
Named the Anderson County seat in 1846, Palestine first grew on Trinity River steamboat trade that stalled whenever low water forced residents back onto ox-drawn wagons. Local leaders courted the railroad, and when the line that became the International and Great Northern arrived in 1872 — soon relocating its headquarters, shops, and roundhouse here — it became the town's largest employer for decades. Recruited workers arrived from across the nation and abroad, and to spare the old courthouse square the noise of trains the line was routed west, spawning a separate 'New Town' that took years to blend with the old.
John Byler Mallard, Judge
Palestine, TX
John Byler Mallard, born in Alabama in 1820 and an honors graduate of the University of Tennessee's law school, settled in the Republic of Texas in 1845 and built one of Palestine's first homes in 1848. He was the town's first lawyer, forming a partnership with Judges William Alexander and John H. Reagan, and served in the Fifth Texas Legislature before his early death in 1854. A granddaughter later erected a monument in his memory.