Navarro County, Texas
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Navarro County Facts

Navarro County was created in April 25, 1846 and formed from Robertson County. Navarro County was named for José Antonio Navarro, a leading Tejano participant in the Texas Revolution and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. The County Seat is Corsicana. The Official County website is located at http://www.co.navarro.tx.us/. See also Extended History for more historical details.

Areas adjacent to Navarro County are Henderson County (northeast), Freestone County (southeast), Limestone County (south), Hill County (southwest), Ellis County (northwest)

Navarro County, Texas History Books at Amazon.com
Family History Library - The largest collection of free family history, family tree and genealogy records in the world.
Search Historical Newspapers from Texas (1802 - 1993) - Quickly find names and keywords in over 450 million articles, obituaries, marriage notices, birth announcements and other items published in over 2,800 historical U.S. newspapers. New content added monthly!
Stories, Memories & Histories - Stories and histories compiled by others researching a person or area can be an amazing source of information about your ancestors. Not only do they generally contain dates and places of vital events like birth, marriage, and death, but they often relate stories and memories that help you really get to know the character of your ancestors.
Search Texas Historical Records - Databases include Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records; Birth, Marriage & Death Records; Voter Lists & Census Records; Immigration & Emigration Records; Obituary Records; Military Records; Family Tree Records; Pictures; Stories, Memories & Histories; Directories & Member Lists and much more....

Navarro County Court Records

Navarro County Vital Records

Navarro County Census Records

Navarro County Maps & Atlases

Navarro County Military Records

Navarro County Tax Records

Navarro County Genealogical Addresses

Navarro County Church & Cemeteries

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Navarro County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Navarro County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

Search for Local Texas Researchers or Earn Money by becoming a Local Texas Researcher!
Search 60 Years Of Everton Data: For the first time ever you can get access to more than 150,000 pedigree files and family group sheets from Evertons. Learn More
Search the Family Tree DNA Project- Use DNA testing to break through your genealogical barriers!
Sites on USGenweb: [ Navarro County ] [ Texas ] [ Main Page ]
[GenForum Message Boards] [Rootsweb Message Boards]
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
The Texas Family Group Sheet Project
Family Trees - Ancestry has thousands of family trees shared by other members. They can help you identify how ancestors are related and give you clues about birth, marriage, and death information. Family trees are an excellent resource for filling in gaps in your research or even to simply know where to begin.
Pictures - One of the more exciting discoveries in doing family history research is finding a photograph of your ancestors or their residence. Finding historic postcard photos and drawings of towns and important events throughout history can also give you a visual look into your ancestors lives.
Reference Materials & Finding Aids - Reference materials, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other how-to books, can be tremendously helpful in finding and interpreting historical documents. Many of these books can help you learn where to look for more information and how to use what you've already found to uncover more clues.
Navarro County, Texas Family Books at Amazon.com

Extended History

During the settlement of Texas the predominant Indian tribes in Navarro County area were the Iones, Kickapoos, and Comanches. One of the first white groups to settle in the area, the families of John, Silas, and Ben Parker, built a fort near the site of present Groesbeck (Limestone County) on the Navasota River in 1833. On May 19, 1836, the fort was attacked by Kiowa and Comanche Indians, and the settlers were either killed or taken captive, including Cynthia Ann Parker. The first Mexican land grant in the area that became Navarro County was to Thomas J. Chambers on September 23, 1834. His grant consisted of 35,424 acres fourteen miles east of the site of present Corsicana. Chambers served as surveyor counselor and supreme judge for the Mexican officials and in 1836 received an empresario contract to bring 800 families to Texas. In 1836 George Washington Hill was sent to the area to be an agent to the Kickapoo Indians. He built a trading post south of the site of present Spring Hill. In October 1838 a surveying party of about twenty-four men arrived at the trading post and set their camp one mile west. On the morning of October 4, the surveyors were attacked by the Kickapoos. In what is now called the Battle Creek fight, all but seven of the surveyors were killed. A rescue party was sent back to bury the dead, but only bones were found. One mass grave was dug one mile west of the site of present Dawson.

In the spring of 1839 more families moved in and settled around the trading post. Two growing settlements were Porter's Bluff and Dresden. All of the legal work for the two sites was conducted at Franklin, the county seat of Robertson County, 125 miles south of Hill's Trading Post. People in Porter's Bluff and Dresden felt they needed their own county with a local authority to handle legal matters. In the spring of 1846 a group led by Edward H. Tarrant, a Texas Ranger, met at the home of Thomas I. Smith. The men at the meeting drew up a petition for a new county to be made out of Robertson County, with a temporary county seat to be located at the home of W. R. Howe. Clinton M. Winkler, a local lawyer, presented the petition to the state legislature in Austin, and it was approved on April 25, 1846. The new county included all the portion of Robertson County within the east bank of the Brazos River to the northwest corner of Limestone County. It also extended to the Trinity River and north to Dallas County. It was named Navarro County in honor of José Antonio Navarro, a Texas patriot. The county seat remained at Howe's home until his death in 1847. On February 8, 1848, a committee headed by Tarrant voted to set up a permanent county seat at the halfway point between Porter's Bluff and Dresden. Rev. Hampton McKinney was already living at the site and later constructed the McKinney Inn at the location. On February 25, 1848, Thomas Smith donated 100 acres of land at the McKinney site, and C. C. Taylor was employed to construct a town plot. José Antonio Navarro chose the name Corsicana in honor of the Isle of Corsica, his father's birthplace. The town is located forty-five miles southeast of Dallas on Interstate Highway 45. Over the next twenty years the original Navarro County was divided into the following counties: Limestone in 1846, Ellis in 1847, Tarrant in 1847, part of McLennan in 1850, Hill in 1853, Johnson in 1854, Parker in 1855, Palo Pinto in 1856, and Hood in 1866.

In 1850 Navarro County had a population of 2,190. Of this number, 1,943 were white and 247 were black. By the beginning of the Civil War the population had risen to 5,996, of which 4,105 were white. In 1861 there were 1,920 slaves in the county valued at $3,440,000, and the residents, on February 23, 1861, voted for secession by a vote of 213 for and three against. Over 60 percent of the white males in Navarro County wore the uniform of the Confederacy. The first military company organized in the county was the Navarro Rifles. The group consisted of ninety men, and a training camp was set up in Spring Hill on March 6, 1862. In the fall of that year a second company was organized, and in 1863 three more were started. The Navarro Rifles left Texas in 1861 and fought with Hood's Texas Brigade in Virginia. Throughout the Civil War and continuing through the turn of the century the county population rose. In 1870 the number was 8,879; it increased 244 percent within the next ten years, to 21,702. By 1900 the population was 43,374. Private schools were first established in the 1850s. In 1865 a military school was built in Corsicana, and a female college was established in 1880. The Corsicana public school system opened in 1880, and the first class graduated in 1884. Growth in Navarro County was helped greatly in 1871 when the Houston and Texas Central Railway came through. In 1880 the Southwestern and Cotton Belt railways were added, making it easier for businessmen to ship their goods to market. Most businesses were in two areas—farming and, after 1895, oil. By 1880 there were 2,793 farms valued at $2,246,500 in the county. The main crops grown included cotton, corn, tobacco, peaches, sweet potatoes, and pecans. The number of farms and their values increased through 1900. Livestock production also increased; cattle, hogs, and poultry were raised. Oil was discovered in the county in 1894. In 1895 the first railroad tank car of oil was shipped from Corsicana by the Corsicana Petroleum Oil Company. By 1898 Corsicana had a refinery that produced 500 barrels a day. Petroleum production would continue to contribute to the area's economy for over a hundred years, the longest continuous oil production of any Texas county. Along with agriculture and oil, there were a growing number of manufacturers in the late 1800s. Manufacturing establishments grew 250 percent between 1860 and 1900. The number of employees jumped from twenty in 1860 to 655 in 1900.

By 1900 most religious denominations in the county had established their own churches. The Baptists and Methodists recorded deeds to church property as early as 1851. In May 1853 twenty members of the Presbyterian Church met. Mr. and Mrs. John Noonan donated land for a Catholic church in 1870, and in 1871 the St. John Episcopal Church was organized. The First Christian Church was formed in 1888, the Church of Christ in 1889, and the first Jewish synagogue was built in 1900. Newspapers published in the county began before the 1900s also. The papers include the Prairie Blade in 1859, the Corsicana Times in 1857, the Courier in 1880, and the Democrat in 1885. The Daily Sun, started on March 2, 1897, was still in operation in the 1980s.

The county prospered from 1900 to 1930. The population increased from 47,070 in 1900 to 60,507 by 1930. Farm production showed a similar rise; in 1930 6,513 farms produced 88,017 bales of cotton. Manufacturing grew also, but began a decline after 1920, when fifty-three establishments fell to forty-three in 1930. Under President Franklin Roosevelt the Work Projects Administration built roads through the county in the 1930s. Other works included picnic tables, a fishing pier, and a boathouse at Lake Halburt. From 1930 to 1970 population and agriculture decreased. The population declined to 51,308 in 1940 and to a twentieth-century low of 31,027 by 1970. The number of farms in the county decreased to 3,158 by 1950 and continued to decline to 1,796 by 1969. Cotton production dropped from 70,652 bales in 1950 to 6,970 bales in 1969. Livestock dropped to 1,599 cattle and 1,570 hogs in 1969.

After 1970 Navarro County's population began to rise again; by 1980 there were 35,600 people living in the area. Though the total number of farms decreased to 1,464 in 1982, the production of cotton increased to 8,477 bales. Cattle increased to 90,596 that year. Manufacturing, which reached a low of twenty six establishments in 1940, had risen steadily since then. The county business patterns show the most growth in employment from 1953 to 1980 in construction, wholesale trade, finances, and services. The primary crops grown in the early 1980s were oats, wheat, hay, sorghum, and cotton. Vegetables included potatoes and sweet potatoes; peaches and pecans were also grown. Livestock included cattle, milk cows, and hogs. Industries included oil, gas extraction, road construction, meat packing, fruit and vegetable canning, and the manufacture of prepared foods, men's hats, rubber products, oilfield machinery, and glass containers. Five railway lines cut through the county, and major roads included Interstate Highway 45, U.S. Highway 287, and State Highway 75.

A growth in education has continued from the mid-1930s. In July 1946 county residents voted to build Navarro Junior College. Classes began on September 16, 1947; the enrollment was 238. In 1988 the county had school districts at Corsicana, Kerens, Mildred, Dawson, Frost, Blooming Grove, and Navarro. The number of residents over twenty-five years of age with a high school or college degree increased from 17.7 percent in 1950 to 48.5 percent in 1980; by 2000 almost 69 percent had high school diplomas, and almost 6 percent had college degrees.

Navarro County voters supported Democratic presidential candidates in virtually every election from from 1848 through 1992, voting for Republican presidential candidates only in 1972 and 1984. By the late twentieth century, however, the area had begun to trend Republican. Democrat Bill Clinton was able to win pluralities of the county's voters in the 1992 and 1996 elections, partly because independent candidate Ross Perot ran strongly in the area in those years. But George W. Bush carried the county with solid majorities in 2000 and 2004.

The census counted 39,926 people living in Navarro County in 1990 and 45,124 in 2000. In the latter year about 66 percent were Anglo, 17 percent were black, and 16 percent were Hispanic. In the early twenty-first century a diverse array of manufacturing concerns, agribusinesses, and oilfield operations was the central element of the area's economy. In 2002 the county had 1,864 farms and ranches covering 537,104 acres, 49 percent of which were devoted to pasture, 42 percent to crops, and 6 percent to woodlands. In that year local farmers and ranchers earned $36,530,000; livestock sales accounted for $24,704,000 of the total. Beef cattle, cotton, hay, grain sorghum, wheat, herbs, and corn were the chief agricultural products. More than 316,000 barrels of oil and 430,000 cubic feet of gas-well gas were produced in the county in 2004; by the end of that year 218,357,721 barrels of oil had been taken from county lands since 1894

Corsicana (2000 population, 24,485) is the county's seat of government and its only sizeable city. Smaller towns include Kerens (1,681), Blooming Grove (833), Dawson (852), Frost (648), Mildred (405), Oak Valley (401), and Retreat (339). Corsicana hosts a Derrick Days festival each April.

Navarro County, Texas
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Navarro County Court Records

See Also Texas Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

Navarro County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in Texas

Navarro County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for Texas

Navarro County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Navarro County Military Records

See Also Military Records in Texas

Navarro County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Navarro County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Texas Genealogical Addresses

Navarro County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Texas

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Navarro County, Texas History, Records, Facts and Genealogy

Navarro County Court Records

See Also Texas Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

Navarro County Vital Records

See Also Vital Records in Texas

Navarro County Census Records

See Also Research In Census Records & Statewide Records that exist for Texas

Navarro County Maps & Atlases

See Also Research In State Map Collections

Navarro County Military Records

See Also Military Records in Texas

Navarro County Tax Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

Navarro County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Texas Genealogical Addresses

Navarro County Church & Cemeteries

See Also Church & Cemetery Records in Texas

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Extended History

Navarro County, Texas
History, Records, Facts and Genealogy