The History of Corsicana, Texas

Corsicana was established in 1848 and named by José Antonio Navarro, one of the most important Tejano statesmen in Texas history — a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and a champion of Tejano rights. Navarro named the new town after Corsica, the Mediterranean island that was the birthplace of his father, Ángel Navarro. The surrounding county was named Navarro in his honor.

The town grew as the seat of Navarro County, a trading center for the rich farmland of the Blackland Prairie. Its first school opened in 1849, and through the second half of the 19th century Corsicana developed into a typical North Central Texas farm and county-seat town — until 1894 changed everything.

In June 1894, a crew drilling a water well for the city of Corsicana struck oil instead. It was an accident, but a momentous one. In October 1895, the first commercial oil well was completed by the Corsicana Oil Development Company, and Corsicana became the site of the first commercially significant oilfield in Texas — the first major oil discovery west of the Mississippi River. It predated the famous Spindletop gusher near Beaumont by several years.

The Corsicana field launched the Texas oil industry. The town built the state's first oil refinery, drew drillers and investors, and pioneered the techniques and businesses that would explode across Texas after Spindletop in 1901. Corsicana's oil heritage is still celebrated today, and the city has long marked it with the annual Derrick Days festival.

Corsicana's oil-boom prosperity coincided with the founding of two businesses that would carry the town's name far and wide. In 1896, the Collin Street Bakery opened, and its DeLuxe Fruitcake — packed with pecans and fruit and baked to a closely guarded recipe — became a mail-order phenomenon shipped to customers around the world. To this day, Collin Street Bakery is Corsicana's most recognized brand.

A year earlier, in 1895, Wolf Brand Chili got its start as a downtown by-the-bowl lunch wagon, reportedly named after the owner's pet wolf. It grew into one of the best-known canned chili brands in America before production moved away in 1986. Together, the fruitcake and the chili made Corsicana a surprisingly tasty footnote in American food history.

Today Corsicana is a city of about 25,000 on the Interstate 45 corridor, roughly 50 miles southeast of Dallas — close enough to feel the metroplex's growth, far enough to keep its own identity. Its diversified economy includes Russell Stover Candies, the enduring Collin Street Bakery, Guardian Industries glass manufacturing, Corsicana Bedding, and distribution centers, anchored by Navarro Regional Hospital and the historic Texas State Home.

Navarro College gives the city a higher-education presence and, since the 2020 Netflix docuseries Cheer, an unlikely national spotlight: its powerhouse cheerleading program, coached by Monica Aldama, has won more than a dozen national titles. Corsicana also honors its musical heritage as the hometown of country legend Lefty Frizzell, and its historic downtown — anchored by one of the oldest soda fountains in Texas — has been steadily revitalized. It's a town that punches well above its weight in Texas culture.