Editing Palestine, Texas (section)

===Founding===
A trading post was established by [[Anglo-Americans]] circa 1843, and some settlers gathered around it.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Memorial and Biographical History of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon Counties, Texas|date=1893|publisher=Lewis Publishing Company|location=Chicago|page=262|url=http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth46827/m1/268/sizes/l/|access-date=28 September 2014}}</ref> In 1846, the Texas Legislature incorporated Palestine to serve as a seat for the newly established Anderson County. James R. Fulton, Johnston Shelton, and William Bigelow were hired by the first Anderson County commissioners to survey the surrounding land and lay out a town site. This consisted of a central courthouse square and the surrounding 24 blocks.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth11916/ | title=Original Platmap of the City of Palestine, TX | website=Portal to Texas History | access-date=August 25, 2022}}</ref>

The city was named after [[Palestine, Illinois]], as suggested by Micham Main and or Daniel Parker, a minister of Pilgrim Church who had migrated with the Main family and numerous other settlers from that town.<ref name=courthouses>{{cite book | title=The Courthouses of Texas | last1=Kelsey | first1=Mavis P. Sr. | last2=Dyal | first2=Donald H. | publisher=Texas A&M University Press | place=College Station | isbn=0-89096-546-3 | page=31 | year=1993}}</ref>

By 1858, Palestine had grown to a population of about 2,000. An 1861 state almanac showed that the city was connected to the rest of Texas via a tri-weekly stagecoach that served Huntsville, Crockett, and Nacogdoches.<ref>{{cite book| title=The Texas Almanac for 1861 |year=1860 | place=Galveston, TX | url=https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123767/m1/292/?q=palestine | access-date=August 25, 2022 | publisher=University of North Texas Libraries | work=The Portal to Texas History | page=292}}</ref> In 1861,  a joint resolution called for the construction of the "Metropolitan Railroad" from Texarkana to Austin, passing through Palestine, Henderson, and Fairfield.<ref>{{cite book| title=The Texas Almanac for 1861 |year=1860 | location=Galveston, Texas | url=https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth123767/m1/118/?q=palestine | access-date=August 25, 2022 | website=The Portal to Texas History | page=118}}</ref> These plans were interrupted when the [[American Civil War]] broke out.

In the postwar period, during the [[Reconstruction era]], the timber trade and town growth were stimulated in the 1870s by the construction of a railroad through here.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/tx/palenstine.html|title=Palestine, Texas|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120616174754/http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/tx/palenstine.html|archive-date=2012-06-16}}</ref> The city had a population of more than 10,000 by 1898.<ref>{{cite book|title=Palestine City Directory, 1898-1899|date=1898|publisher=Hensley-Arnold Co|page=18|url=http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth39139/m1/18/}}</ref>