Pleasant Run
Lancaster, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Madison Moultrie Miller (1814-60) came west from Alabama and served under W. W. "Bigfoot" Wallace in 1844-45 as a Texas Ranger. Settling here in 1846 with a motherless daughter and son, he soon married Mary (Polly) Parks Rawlins, daughter of this area's pioneer settler Roderick Rawlins. Miller situated himself just north of present Lancaster, opening a store in his home on the road to Johnson's Station (present Arlington), and giving site for first local school. He enlarged his home to 15 rooms in 1848 and built a warehouse and a store, where goods imported from New York ranged from fine silks to hardware, medicines, and saddles. He had a grist mill, a stage stand and hotel; woodworking, tin, and blacksmith shops; and was first postmaster of Pleasant Run, 1848. In the 1850s, Miller laid out a town and sold lots. To benefit Pleasant Run and Dallas County, he tried to secure Trinity Navigation, and Railroad Service. His death at age 46 and the subsequent closing of his store and other enterprises halted growth of his town, but his family home stood until the 1950s. His post office building still exists as a part of a structure on Elm Street, and his town's name is memoralized in Pleasant Run Road, Lancaster. Marker Donor: Lancaster Historical Society
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Madison Moultrie Miller came west from Alabama and rode with 'Bigfoot' Wallace as a Texas Ranger before settling near present Lancaster in 1846. He built up a sprawling frontier enterprise — a home-store stocked with New York silks and hardware, a grist mill, stage stand, hotel, blacksmith and tin shops — and became the first postmaster of Pleasant Run in 1848. He laid out a town and worked to bring river navigation and railroads to Dallas County, but his death at 46 stalled the community's growth.
Why it matters
Miller's mercantile and civic ambitions capture how a single enterprising settler could seed an entire frontier town, and how the loss of that founder often decided whether such places thrived or faded.
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Related people
- · Madison Moultrie Miller
- · William 'Bigfoot' Wallace
- · Roderick Rawlins
Themes & tags
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