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CORRIGAN, TEXAS
Polk County, East
Texas
Highways 59 and 287
FM 352 and FM 942
6 miles N or Moscow
25 miles N of Livingston
100 miles N of Houston
Population: 1,764 (2000)
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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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Corrigan's
new water tower
Photo Courtesy Ken Rudine, June 2005 |
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