BESSIE COLEMAN
101 N East St
Atlanta
(1892-1926) The tenth of 13 children born to tenant farmers Susan and George Coleman, famed aviatrix Bessie Coleman was a native of Atlanta, Texas. The family moved to Waxahachie when Bessie was two years old. She followed her brothers to Chicago in 1915 and developed an interest in flying. Because she could find no one in the United States who would teach an African-American woman, Coleman learned to fly in France and obtained her international pilot's license in 1921. Upon her return to the United States, she was hailed as the first black woman to pilot an airplane. Bessie Coleman died in an air accident in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1926 and is buried near Chicago. (2002)
Trammel's Trace
Dalton
Marker Location:
SW 77W, just east of intersection w/ CR 2729
Many prominent Texas pioneers traveled past this site as they entered Texas
via the historic Texas route known as Trammel's Trace, which crosses this field.
Near here, Trammel's Trace joined the Spanish or Mexican Trace connecting early
settlements on the Red River with the El Camino Real near Nacogdoches.
In 1813, horse trader and smuggler Nicholas Trammell established the road which
bears his name, widening it for wagon use in 1824. By beginning at Fulton, Arkansas,
on the great bend of the Red River, Trammell extended the great Southwest Immigration
Road from St. Louis (Missouri) into Texas. The trace entered Texas north of
Texarkana (Bowie Co.) and crossed the Sulphur River into Cass County at Epperson's
Ferry. It headed past this point and joined the pre-existing Spanish Trace (1
mi. southwest). Trammell then improved the Spanish Trace southward to Nacogdoches.
Trammell likely reused some trails that were worn down by centuries of travel
by game animals, Native Americans and the Spanish.
By the 1850s, other roads from the distant communities of Monterey, Daingerfield,
Boston, Naples and Clarksville also converged on the junction, and a community
developed near this hub of early roads. The site would become known as Old Unionville
when residents moved the town north after the Civil War. Although the community
no longer exists, archeological research has located the former settlement and
documented the convergence of early roads at the site. Today, few vestiges of
Trammel's Trace remain, but continued use of this section into the 20th century
as a county road preserved this portion of the important immigration route.
Dr. M. D. K. Taylor
Linden
Marker Location:
on US 59 (east side of road) about 9 mi. S of Linden in roadside park
Alabama physician. Came to Texas, 1847. Served Cass County in Texas House and
Senate for 24 years. Was called the ablest parliamentarian of his time. Served
as one of the speakers of Texas House of Representatives in critical Civil War
years, 1861-65. Legislators passed laws to raise, equip and supply 90,000 Texas
soldiers who fought on all fronts and provided for defense of state's 2000 mile
frontier and coast against Indians, enemy troops and ships. As naval blockade
reduced imports, the Legislature established plants to make guns, powder, cloth,
salt. Contracts, subsidies and land grants were provided to encourage private
industry to help meet heavy wartime demands for arms, supplies, clothing, food.
Taylor and the other lawmakers taxed property and business and required farmers
to turn in tithes of produce to meet the crisis. Funds were voted to buy cotton
for state exchange for goods in Mexico to aid soldiers' dependents, and to provide
hospitals and medical care for troops-- in and out of state. The Legislature
was in almost continuous session. Poor pay and inflated Confederate money caused
many members to live in tents and covered wagons on the Capitol grounds, and
cook over campfires.
Smith - Hicks House
606 Hiram at corner w/Harvey
Atlanta
Application: Built 1887. Splendid example of colonial architecture of 19th century.
Former home of Judge A. C. Smith and later of Texas Supreme Court Justice Ralph
Hicks Harvey. Four generations have lived continuously in this home. Although
it has been remodeled on several occasions care has always been exercised to
maintain the original architecture. The home contains much of the original furniture
and china.
Matthews-Powell House (Have Picture)
Miller St. Queen City
Built 1873
The symmetrical Victorian Mathews-Powell House, built in 1873 stands on a corner
lot once encircled by formally landscaped gardens. The one-story frame residence
has a symmetrical composition elaborated by Victorian ornament and is an excellent
example of the transitional style between the Greek Revival and Victorian periods.
The Greek Revival influences can be seen in the rectangular shape and central
hall floor plan. The exterior arrangement of the south facade also expresses
the symmetry in the five bay composition with a central door flanked by two
windows on each side. A three bay, one story gallery shelters the central part
of the main facade.
The Victorian flair for rich detail is evident in the embellishments. Characteristic
of this period are the slender gallery columns with punched spandrels and bracketed
eaves under the balustrade gallery roof. Accentuating the roof line are elaborately
carved brackets, coupled and spaced at regular intervals under the wide eaves.
Breaking the roof line at the center of the front and south facades is a gable
with graceful bargeboard ornamentation and a circular wooden rent displaying
a decorative pattern. The wooden cresting which originally encircled the deck
of the truncated hipped roof was removed in later years.
The wide central entrance contains a double door flanked by pilasters and surrounded
by sidelights and transom. Each door has a slender, round arched upper light
with a lower wooden panel. The sidelights are divided into two lights over a
wooden panel, while the transom crowns the composition with 3 large lights.
The windows now flanking the entrance have six-over-six lights, but the narrow
proportions of the original 4/4 light windows remain intact. Bracketed hood
molds and shutters embellish the apertures.
The east facade is arranged somewhat similarly, but on a slightly smaller scale.
The central entrance is sheltered by a small one-bay portico with detailing
matching the front gallery and is flanked by two windows on each side. The west
facade has two windows to the left of the gable and a bay window to the right.
Characteristically, the bay window displays elaborate detailing such as the
molded architrave with small brackets, the frieze with molded panels, and the
large carved brackets which support the cornice. The entablature is crowned
by a truncated hipped roof.
Early 20th century kitchen, dining room, and porch additions on the north facade
were destroyed in a 1946 storm. The modern gabled two-room addition and small
shed room were added later. At the same time the interior chimney on the east
side of the house was removed.
The Mathews-Powell House, an excellent example of symmetrical Victorian architecture,
has maintained its graceful gingerbread and ornate detailing with exterior structural
changes only in the form of rear additions. Built in 1878 as one of the first
houses in the newly settled Queen City, the house not only reflects the founding
of the new town, but also the contributions of two of Queen City's prominent
businessmen, William Franklin Mathews and Ross Albert Powell.
William F. Mathews, born in 1840, moved from Georgia with his parents to Marion
County near Jefferson at the age of 10. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War,
he joined the Confederate forces, enlisting in a mounted company of volunteers.
On April 17, 1867, he was married to Harriet India Sharp and operated a plantation
in Marion County for 10 years.
With the establishment of Queen City in 1877, Mathews moved with his family
to the new town and attended the First auction of town lots. The Mathews family
bought property on Miller Street and lived in temporary quarters at the rear
of the lot until 1878 when the home was finished.
In partnership with his younger brother, Joseph P. Mathews, Jr., William established
a grocery in the new town. After two years, Joseph sold his interest in the
business to attend medical school, and his share was bought by William's brother-in-law,
S. J. Hood. The business expanded to a general mercantile store and operated
until 1895 under the firm name, Matthews and Hood. After two tragic fires that
destroyed Mathews' first commercial buildings, a permanent building of brick
was erected in 1884 that currently stands one block from the Mathews-Powell
House in the Queen City business district. Due to poor health William Mathews
sold the home and business in 1895 and moved his family to Texarkana to join
his son.
Briefly owned by various people after 1895, the house was occupied from 1902
until 1909 by a local physician, Dr. J. N. White and his family. Besides the
normal use as a residence the home's long central hall served as a hospital
facility during local emergencies.
Ross Albert Powell bought the house in 1918 from his brother who had owned the
house for two years. Powell joined his father in a livery and small grocery
business that had operated in Queen City since 1877. The original store was
expanded into general merchandise and the name was changed to C. Powell and
Son General Mercantile to reflect both changes. During regular marketing trips
to St. Louis, Powell studied to be a mortician and became the area's leading
undertaker. Other interests included the business of buying and selling cotton
and the operation of the Queen City Post Office located in the store. Powell
closed the store in 1935 and went into the oil and mineral leasing business
for two years before his death in 1937.
Since 1937 the home has been owned by Evelyn Powell Moore and maintained as
a private residence for herself and her sister, Josephine Powell.