Early years Long before the birth of Nash, the land on which it is located was in the name of the State of Texas. The State of Texas patented the land which makes up the eastern portion of Nash to William Crutcher on December 19, 1849. The west portion of Nash was patented to Josiah W. Fort, assignee of Thomas Price on December 18, 1951.
Growth period Originally, the town of Nash was first called "T. C. Junction" or sometimes Texarkana Junction for its location on the transcontinental division of the
Texas and Pacific Railway, which officially was entitled from its construction days as the Trans-Continental Division. The first railroad track was built from
Marshall eastward to T.C. Junction in 1873. The official origin date of the town is unknown, but records indicate Nash began sometime between 1873 and the late 1880s. In 1884, the town was renamed "Park", after Dr. John N. Parker, who received a grant for a post office. He was the first postmaster. Dr. Parker changed the name of the town to "Park" because the government would not accept such a long name as Trans-Continental Junction; therefore, he used his own name dropping the "er". In 1906, the town was renamed again to "Nash", in honor of Martin Manny Nash, the Division Superintendent for the Texas & Pacific Railroad Company. The first school started in 1885, in a single room by Dr. K. M. Kelley, located on the corner of Dodd and Elm streets. In 1890, the town had a store, a pharmacy, two mills, a cotton gin, and 100 inhabitants. In 1894, the town was struck by a cyclone that destroyed one-third of the town, demolishing the first school, the
Methodist church, the
Baptist Church, several dwellings, and killing two people. The Nash Cemetery, the second oldest cemetery, is the burial place of the following Confederate soldiers: Joshua R. Brower, A.J. Herrington, Ruben L. Redden, George R. Robinson, George W. Simpson, William G. Blocker, Pvt Co. G. Third Regiment Alabama, and John King. During the 1950s, the town was incorporated and began to grow again. In 1980, many Nash residents were employed either in Texarkana or at one of two nearby military installations:
Red River Army Depot and
Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant, located a few miles west of the town. The population was 2,169 in 2000. ==Geography==