Kerens

Kerens, at the junction of State highways 31 and 309 and Farm roads 667 and 3096, fourteen miles east of Corsicana in eastern Navarro County, was established in 1881 when the St. Louis Southwestern Railway of Texas built through the county. It was named for Judge R. C. Kerens of St. Louis. The railroad bypassed the nearby settlement of Wadeville, and within a short time all of the businesses from Wadeville moved to the new town. Two attorneys in Corsicana, Samuel R. Frost and Bryan F. Barry, bought the plat and offered lots for sale in 1881 and 1882. A post office opened in 1882, and the town was incorporated in 1888. W. P. Noble was the first mayor, and Sam Sluggs was sheriff. By the mid-1890s the town had three cotton gin-mills, four grocery stores, two hotels, two drug stores, a wagonmaker, and a weekly newspaper named the Navarro Blade