A native of Houston County. Ike Daniel was a prominent businessman with assets in Kennard and Crockett. Among his various businesses were a general store, gristmill, cotton gin, sawmill, and real estate dealings. He served as Houston County Sheriff from 1892-94 and also represented the county in the State Legislature for three terms. Daniel married Ruth King (1875-1966) in 1905; they became the parents of five children.

A leading figure in 20th-century Crockett history, John Gordon "Big Jack" Beasley, Sr., was involved in a number of local businesses, including the Davy Crockett Federal Savings and Loan, which he helped organize in 1928. Beasley served as Mayor of Crockett (1936-1940) during the city's centennial celebration. Accomplishments of his administration included paved and lighted streets for the city and Davy Crockett Memorial Building and Park.

John L. Cleveland was born in Georgia in 1851 to James Monroe and Catherine (Wright) Cleveland. He studied agriculture and business before moving to Midlothian, Texas, to teach and farm. Annie Hamilton Upshaw, daughter of Samuel Crockett and Attelia (Aldridge) Upshaw of Old Washington, Texas, moved with her family to Hillsboro and attended Stuart Female Seminary in Austin. She and Cleveland married in Hillsboro in 1884, and the two settled in Cleburne, where, in 1887, they purchased two lots from B.J. Chambers. The couple began construction on their home in 1892 and moved in the following year.

John and Annie were both instrumental in the formation of the Main Street Methodist Church. John owned the Cleburne cottonseed oil mill, which was destroyed by fire in 1907. He also owned a hardware store and sold cars to Cleburne citizens, although he did not learn to drive until he was 80 years old. He was a member of the Knights of Pythias, the school board and the Democratic Club of Cleburne.

Annie, or Anne, served as president of the Cleburne chapter of Circle of Kings Daughters, headed the local Red Cross canteen during World War I and, in 1925, helped organize the city's parent-teacher associations and the Cleburne Council of Mothers, which later became the City Council. She served as the group's first president. The couple had ten children, six of whom lived to adulthood.

John died in March 1936, and Annie died four months later. The house passed to their children, who sold it in 1941. Subsequent owners maintained the aesthetic of the historic home, which was built in the Queen Anne style with Eastlake details. Interesting features include decorative Fishscale shingling, polychromatic painting, sunburst motifs, a prominent modified keyhole window and spindled friezework.

Maryland native John Lawrence Hall lived in New Orleans before coming to Texas in 1831. Hall served in the Texas Army (1835-36), Republic of Texas Army (1841), and in the Mexican War (1846). He added to the land grants he received for military service and became a successful land speculator. A Mason and a friend of President Sam Houston, Hall owned a thriving hotel in Crockett during the 1850s, and was among the signers of a petition to create Houston County.

Tennessee native John Long served in the War of 1812 before moving to Texas with his wife, Elizabeth, between 1836 and 1842. He and his sons, Samuel and William, were issued land certificates in Houston County and settled here, becoming involved in the early political and business development of the county. John Long served as the second Chief Justice (County Judge) of Houston County and operated the Long Hotel and a general store on the courthouse square in Crockett. After Elizabeth's death, he married Emily Cash, and they were the parents of three children.

One of first ports of entry into Texas for Anglo-Americans. Opened early as 1814; heavily used by 1817. Named for 1819-21 ferry owner Henry Jones (1789-1861).

Claimed by both Mexico and the United States, town was 1828-37 county seat of Miller County, Ark. Community had 2,350 people by 1834. At this crossing Sam Houston (1832) and David Crockett (1835) entered Texas. A well-known road led southeastward to other colonies by way of Nacogdoches.

In 1836, Clarksville became Red River District's capital. By 1840 Jonesboro had lost its trade and many settlers to other areas.

The town of Kennard was founded in 1903 by the Louisiana and Texas Lumber Company and platted on 160 acres. Land agent Alexander McTavish also acted as Kennard's first Postmaster. The town served as a terminus for the Eastern Texas Railroad, a line established to transport timber to Angelina County. Many businesses and citizens from earlier settlements nearby moved to Kennard when the rail line located here. Schools were built nearby as early as 1864 and served the area until Kennard School opened in 1903. Religious observances began with tent meetings conducted by traveling ministers. Permanent churches were soon organized. Early establishments included a bank, hotel, drug store, general merchandise stores, cafe, meat shop and Woodmen of the World lodge. In the 1920s and 1930s the timber industry and farming grew while other businesses came to town including a cottonseed mill, cotton gins, syrup mills, a blacksmith shop, gas stations, and a boardinghouse. In 1933 State Highway 7 was built through Main Street, shifting the town's business center there. Incorporated as a city in 1969, Kennard continues as an active and involved community located in the heart of the Davy Crockett National Forest.

In 1886 the Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, under the leadership of the group's secretary the Rev. Richard Allen, began planning for the establishment of a black girls school in Texas. After a statewide survey, they chose Crockett as the school site because of the area's large black population and because of a local black parochial school operated by the Rev. Samuel Fisher Tenny, pastor of the city's First Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Allen's wife Mary, for whom the school was named, was instrumental in raising the organizational funds for the new seminary. Dr. Byrd R. Smith became the school's first black president in 1924 and initiated a period of growth which included the adoption of new programs and the admission of male students. Transferred to the Missionary General Baptist Convention of Texas in 1944, Mary Allen College became a 4-year liberal arts institution. In 1972, plagued by a series of legal and financial setbacks, the school closed. Once the site of a 12-building campus and the home of a noted academic program of quality education and religion, this site serves as a reminder of the proud heritage of Texas black population.

This corner of the town square was developed as a law office after state legislator and Houston County Judge S.A. Miller (1805-1893) purchased it in 1840. In 1891, Rudd Crawford Spinks (1856-1938) bought the site and built a two-story brick building for his jewelry store with living quarters on the second floor. W.E. "Buck" Mayes, a Crockett merchant, banker and landowner, bought the building, now substantially altered from its original appearance, in 1895. The property remains an important site in Crockett's commercial history.

Built by William Dickerson Milliken, born in Paducah, Ky., Nov. 1, 1848; married Margaret Crockett Young. Children: W.D., Jr.; Samuel Ramsey, M.D.; Thomas Gillespie; Martin Horace; Maggie Bell (Mrs. Edens); Charles Young; Elizabeth Angelina; John Barnes.

After going into mercantile business in Lewisville in 1877, Milliken built this house, 1878. Framing is native oak. Siding was freighted from Port City of Jefferson, in East Texas.