MARSHALL, TEXAS. Marshall is located on Interstate Highway 20
approximately thirty-nine miles west of Shreveport, Louisiana,
in central Harrison County. Harrison County was marked off in
1839. Two years later, in an effort to influence the
commissioners who were choosing a site for the county seat,
Peter Whetstone offered land for a courthouse, a church, and a
school. The offer was accepted, and the town, named by Isaac Van
Zandt in honor of Chief Justice John Marshall, became the county
seat in 1842. It was incorporated by the Texas legislature in
1844 and enlarged in 1850 to include an area of one square mile
with the courthouse at the center. Marshall was the first town
in Texas to have a telegraph; by 1854 the local paper had a
telegraph link to New Orleans, which gave it quick access to
national news. By 1860 Marshall was one of the largest and
wealthiest towns in East Texas, with a population estimated at
2,000. The community had an outstanding group of lawyers and
political leaders including the first