Site of Bethany
Carthage, Panola County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A thriving town of the fifties - through it passed the Shreveport Road over which many emigrants entered Texas
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Bethany was a thriving Panola County town in the 1850s, sited on the Shreveport Road—one of the main routes by which emigrants crossed into Texas. Little remains today but the memory of the place and the road that ran through it. The marker fixes the location of a settlement that flourished on the tide of antebellum migration.
Why it matters
Bethany recalls the vanished waystations along the emigrant roads that funneled thousands of newcomers into early Texas before fading into the landscape.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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William Thomas Scott came to Texas in 1834 and founded the town of Scottsville, building this home of hand-hewn timbers and handmade brick between 1838 and 1840. He served as a congressman and senator in the Republic of Texas and eight terms in the state legislature, and in 1852 helped charter the Vicksburg & El Paso Railroad, a forerunner of the transcontinental-minded Texas & Pacific. Through his wife's family he was drawn into the bloody Regulator-Moderator feud that convulsed the region in the 1840s.
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