Marion County, Texas

Marion County, located in northeastern Texas, is surrounded by Cass County on the north, Louisiana on the east, Harrison County on the south, Upshur County on the west and Morris County on the northwest. Jefferson, the county’s largest town and its county seat, is 17 miles north of Marshall.

Cities, Towns & Communities

Berea | Gethsemane | Gray | Hartzo | Jackson | Jefferson – county seat | Kellyville | Lassater | Lodi | Lodwich | Orrs | Potters Point | Prospect | Smithland | Sunview | Warlock

History

Marion County was demarked from the southern portion of Cass County by an act of the state legislature on February 8, 1860. Territorial additions in 1863 and 1874 extended its southern boundary to include both banks of Big Cypress Bayou. The county was named for American Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox.” Due to a large natural log-jam and collection of snags on the Red River, known as the Red River Raft, which formed a series of navigable lakes and bayous in the river valleys of Marion County, Jefferson, founded in the early 1840s, rapidly developed a booming river trade with New Orleans. Jefferson quickly became the favored inland Texas port for the deposit and transport of North Texas agricultural produce. Thus, Marion County became the commercial conduit for frontier Texas and did not relinquish this position until the establishment of transcontinental rail links that bypassed its wharves in the mid-1870s. 

Marion County 1937. Marion County is located in the timber section of northeast Texas. Its area is 391 square miles; popu­lation 10,371; assessed valuation in 1935 exceeding $3,000,000. The altitude is approximately 300 feet, and the average rainfall, 48 inches. Lumbering was the chief industry for many years, and is still im­portant, although much of the virgin timber has been cut. There is now a substantial stand of second growth pine in the uplands, and numerous varieties of hardwoods in the bottom lands. Marion County History

Location

Jefferson, TX 32° 45′ 26.5068″ N, 94° 20′ 42.6948″ W

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