Nesbitt, TX

Nesbitt lies on State Highway 154 seven miles northwest of Marshall in western Harrison County. The community’s oldest local marker is a cemetery south of town, where the oldest grave dates to 1851. By 1904, five schools served Black children and another served White children, and the scattered community later held businesses, churches, and homes across the roads around the highway. Nesbitt grew again in the late 1960s, when nearby Petit oilfield development added another chapter to the local map.

Churches give Nesbitt’s older community map some names. Center Hill Free Will Baptist Church grew from an 1887 congregation with African-American roots; after the first building burned, the present white frame church was built in 1956 on Center Hill Road. The Dial-Williamson House on FM 449 adds another historic landmark near Nesbitt. That layered history is still visible on the roads around Nesbitt. The local scoop is a highway community with a cemetery, church, oilfield, and historic house marking different layers of East Texas life.