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Corrigan's
old water tower
Photo Courtesy Ken
Rudine, June 2005 |
History in
a Pecan Shell
Although
settled earlier, Corrigan didn't get a jump start until the arrival
of the Houston, East and West Texas Railway in 1881. Pat Corrigan,
conductor on the first train to arrive was given the honor of having
the town named after him.
The Trinity and Sabine Railway arrived the following year. Having
two railroads were a boon to area lumber companies, and in the early
1880s there were as many as seventeen sawmills operating in the vicinity.
A post office was granted in 1883. By 1900, Corrigan's population
was a respectable 461 residents.
Corrigan had a bottling works, stone quarries, sand pits, and of course,
cotton. This diversified economy
buoyed Corrigan through the hard times when the mills shut down. After
the timber was nearly exhausted, particleboard plants appeared after
WWII.
The population reached just over 1,400 in the early 1950s, but declined
to less than a thousand by 1960. It has since increased to over 1,700.
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People
Babe
Ruth in East Texas by Bob Bowman
Imagine, if you can, baseball slugger Babe Ruth walking around a field
and shoveling cow manure. In 1923, Ruth joined fellow baseball players
for a series of exhibition games in Texas, including three which were
played at Corrigan, 22 miles north of Livingston, in a pasture owned
by Mrs. P.B. Maxey... |
Texas
Escapes,
in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing Texas,
asks that anyone wishing to share their local history and vintage/historic
photos, please contact
us.
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