Nesbitt

Harrison County, TX

Status: Located

Year Established: Unknown

Council of Governments: ETCOG

Public History: “Nesbitt is on State Highway 154 seven miles northwest of Marshall in western Harrison County. It was probably named for the Nesbitt family, who settled in the area around 1850. The oldest grave in the Nesbitt cemetery, located south of Nesbitt, dates to 1851. By 1896 Nesbitt had a voting box, and in 1904 the community had five schools serving 256 Black pupils and one school serving twenty-seven White pupils. In the 1930s the dispersed community consisted of one business, two churches, two schools, and a number of scattered dwellings. In 1962 Nesbitt had the Oak Haven Home, the Nesbitt Baptist Church, and a collection of houses, but it began to grow in the later 1960s, possibly because of the development of the nearby Petit oilfield. The community incorporated about 1970, and its population was estimated at sixty in 1972 and 270 in 1980. The town declined to 141 residents by 1988, but in 1990 its population was reported as 327. The population was 302 in 2000.”
From THSA online handbook.

Community History: Nesbitt Cemetery Marker text: Robert Jameison (1810-86) and Nathan L. Nesbitt, twin brothers from Tennessee, settled this area in 1847. First grave here was that of Nathan’s wife, Psyche (“Sackey”) Walker Nesbitt (1815-51) Robert’s wife, Susan Adeline Nesbitt (1827-1901), who often nursed sick neighbors in the absence of a community doctor, donated this site for the family cemetery. After her husband died, she used her pension from his service in the Mexican war (1846-48) to fence the plot. Nesbitt descendants, led by Julian Womack Nesbitt, established a trust fund for perpetual care of the cemetery in 1969.

Cemetery: Nesbitt Cemetery