The Millard - Lee House
Millard's Crossing, Nacogdoches County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built about 1837 by Nacogdoches merchant-deputy postmaster - road overseer Robert F. Millard (1803-47) as family home that sometimes was also a boardinghouse. In 1859 David Lee, a blacksmith-merchant-county official, bought the house. Then situated near public square in Nacogdoches (5 mi. S), it remained until 1960 the Lee family home. In 1970, Mrs. Albert (Lera Millard) Thomas bought, moved, and restored it here at Millard's Crossing, named for the builder's family. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1974
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built about 1837 during the days of the Republic of Texas, this frame house served Nacogdoches merchant and deputy postmaster Robert F. Millard as both a family home and, at times, a boardinghouse. The blacksmith and county official David Lee bought it in 1859, and it stayed in the Lee family for a full century. In 1970 it was moved and restored at Millard's Crossing, the settlement named for its builder's family.
Why it matters
A surviving Republic-era dwelling, the house links the commercial life of early Nacogdoches — one of Texas's oldest towns — to the frontier officials and tradesmen who built the young republic.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Robert F. Millard
- · David Lee
- · Lera Millard Thomas
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Burrows - Millard House
Millard's Crossing, TX
Elijah M. Burrows, a Confederate veteran, built the back rooms of this Nacogdoches County farmhouse before marrying Molly Millard in 1867, then added the front rooms and porch over the next several years. His family lived in the house for more than a century, until a descendant of the original builder moved and restored it in the 1970s. It stands as a well-preserved example of a Reconstruction-era Texas pioneer home.
Site of Old North Church
Nacogdoches, TX
Worshippers of several denominations gathered here as early as 1836, giving the congregation its first name, Union Church. Formally organized in 1838, it built a log meetinghouse on ten acres donated by Dr. John M. Sparks; the present structure dates to 1852. Many of the leading Anglo-American settlers of Nacogdoches County lie in its graveyard.
Nacogdoches County
Nacogdoches, TX
Long home to the Nacogdoches Indians, this East Texas region saw Spanish settlement begin in 1716, though the presence was repeatedly abandoned and re-established amid French encroachment. The town of Nacogdoches was founded in 1779, and the area became the scene of the Fredonian Rebellion in 1827. Organized as a municipality under Mexico in 1832, it was made a Texas county in 1836.
Stephen Fuller Austin
Nacogdoches, TX
Stephen Fuller Austin inherited a colossal task when his father Moses died in 1821: settling hundreds of families in Spanish—then Mexican—Texas. Born on the Virginia frontier and schooled across the young United States, Austin proved a shrewd administrator, guiding the original "Old Three Hundred" families and hundreds more into southeast Texas. Imprisoned in Mexico after pressing for Texas statehood, he returned to help win independence and served as the new Republic's first secretary of state.