Historical Markers in Mesquite, Texas

Sam Bass Train Robbery · 1968

Sam Bass -- with Seab Barnes, Hank Underwood, "Arkansas" Johnson, and Frank Jackson -- held up a Texas & Pacific train here, April 10, 1878. They took $152, but missed hidden shipment of $30,000. In planning a bank…

Z. Motley Cemetery · 1976

Zachariah Motley migrated to Texas (1856) from Kentucky with his family and slaves. He and his wife Mary, five sons and three daughters helped settle this area and built their home some 200' northeast of this site, a…

Florence Ranch Home · 1978

David W. (1848 - 1932) and Julia Savannah (Beaty) Florence (1850 - 1914) built the first portion of this ranch house in 1871-72 after moving here from Van Zandt County. Elaborate wood trim decorates the gallery of the…

First Methodist Church of Mesquite · 1991

In 1857, prior to the incorporation of the town of Mesquite, a group of area residents began gathering occasionally for Methodist worship services led by circuit riding preacher W. K. Masten. Services were held in a…

Lawrence Farmstead · 1998

The son of an original member of the Mercer colony, Stephen Decatur Lawrence (1853-1934) received about 640 acres of farmland on his twenty-first birthday. He began building the first structure, a small home, on this…

Potter Cemetery · 1998

John P. (1827-1899) and Martha (Oden) (1835-1872) Potter, pioneer citizens of the Republic of Texas, bought a farm near the Haught's Store community in 1860. When their son William L. Potter died in July 1861 he was the…

Public Education in Mesquite · 1998

Founded in 1885, the Mesquite community school served students until the first building of the newly formed Mesquite Independent School District was completed on this site in 1902, beginning with 200 students. Through…

Site of Galloway Farmstead · 2000

Confederate veteran Benjamin Franklin Galloway (1833-1912) And his wife Eliza (Fletcher) (1852-1883) came to Texas from Tennessee in 1872. Their son Bedford Forest is said to have been born in a covered wagon at Duck…

Mesquite Cemetery · 2001

This burial ground was in use well before the Texas and Pacific railroad established the city of Mesquite in 1873. The earliest marked grave is that of Britanna Santifee Chapman (1856-1859), who shares a plot with…

City of Mesquite · 2003

In May 1873, Texas & Pacific Railroad engineer A.R. Alcott platted a new depot town named Mesquite. The post office opened the following year. The community developed along the rail line, with businesses initially…

Holley-McWhorter-Greenhaw Family · 2008

Three generations of a Mesquite family made important contributions to the city’s commerce, schools and fine arts. Tennessee native Nathaniel A. Holley (1861-1947) came to the area in 1884, farming 40 acres near Balch…

First Presbyterian Church of Mesquite · 2009

CCC Company 850 · 2020

During the Great Depression, Hicks Jobson set aside eight acres of his farm to allow the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal work relief programs, to establish a local…