Corsicana "was established in 1848 to serve as the county seat of newly-established Navarro County. José Antonio Navarro, a hero of the Texas Revolution after whom the county was named, was given the honor of naming the new town; he suggested Corsicana after the island of Corsica, the birthplace of his parents ... By 1885 Corsicana had a population of approximately 5,000, three Presbyterian, a Catholic, a Baptist, and three Methodist churches, as well as three blacks churches, an oil factory, a gristmill, two banks, and four weekly newspapers-the Courier, the Observer, the Messenger, and the Journal; principal products included cotton, grain, wool, and hides ... By the early 1890s the rapidly expanding city had outgrown its water supply, and the following year civic leaders formed the Corsicana Water Development Company with the aim of tapping a shallow artesian well in the area. Drilling began in the spring of 1894; but instead of water, the company hit a large pocket of oil and gas. The find -- the first significant discovery of oil west of the Mississippi River -- led to Texas's first oil boom: within a short time nearly every lot in the town and in the surrounding area was under lease, and wells were being drilled within the city limits: five in 1896, and fifty-seven the following year." (http://www.tshaonline.org/)

There were four national banks chartered in Corsicana:

 

During the national bank period, 50 banks in 22 East Texas communities printed a total of $41,299,040.
Of that amount, $12,093,730 ­ or 29% ­ came from Corsicana banks.