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is a city in Navarro County, Texas, United States. It its located on Interstate 45 some fifty-five miles south of downtown Dallas. The population was 24,485 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Navarro County.
Founded in 1848, Corsicana was named by José Antonio Navarro after the Mediterranean island of Corsica, the birthplace of his father, who died when Navarro and his many siblings were still quite young.
Women's groups have had a strong role throughout the history of the city. One of the earliest efforts was the establishment of the Corsicana Female Literary Institute, a school which operated between 1857 and 1870. The first public library in Corsicana opened in 1901 by effort of the women's clubs of the city. A 1905 library gift by Andrew Carnegie gave the library a permanent home and its first full-time, professionally trained librarian. The library today is housed in a dedicated building downtown and boasts more than 52,283 Books, 6,306 Audio Materials, 783 Video Materials, and 122 Serial Subscriptions.
The Corsicana Jewish community dates form 1871, and while there are few Jewish residents of Corsicana today, the Historical Society has restored the 1898 Moorish Revival Temple Beth-El, Corsicana, now in use as a community center.
The Corsicana YMCA was founded in 1884, and has grown with patron funding facilitated by local community leaders over now more than 125 years, including in its earliest days George Taylor Jester (1847-1922), a wealthy dry goods and cotton distributor later turned banker and a lieutenant governor of Texas.
The Corsicana oil field was discovered in 1894 by accident by parched water prospectors hired by the Corsicana Water Development authority. It was the first commercially significant oilfield find in Texas. An even larger oil field, the Powell oil field, was discovered in 1923 some 10 miles east of Corsicana. Another significant area oil and gas find occurred in 1956. Each oil and gas discovery brought a renewed development boom to the city.
During World War II, an airman flying school called Corsicana Air Field trained thousands of pilots.