History of Fannin County, Texas, 1836-1843^*

^*Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Southern Methodist University in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts.

I. THE FORERUNNERS

The history of Fannin County may be said to begin with the arrival within its subsequent area of Dr. Daniel Rowlett and a party of six associated families during the latter part of March, 1836. Prior to that date hunters and trappers had traversed at infrequent intervals the portion of Red River County lying west of Bois D'Arc Creek, which later became Fannin County, and probably one or more persons had lived temporarily in the section. Rowlett, in later years, recalled the names of four men who were in the country at the time of his arrival.¹ Of two, Johnston and Jay, nothing definite can be determined ;² of the other two it may be concluded that the men whom Rowlett called Quillan and Westbrook were Charles Quillan, who received First Class Land Certificate No. 30, in which he gave as his date of entry into the Republic of Texas, the month of December, 1834,³ and Stephen Westbrook, who resided at Warren in 1840.⁴¹"Information from Dr. Rowlett on Red River," The Lamar Papers, IV, 217.
²It is possible that the Jay mentioned was George or Jefferson Ivy. George Ivy came to Texas prior to the Declaration of Independence, and Jefferson Ivy, who received First Class Land Certificate No. 75, assigned as his date of entry, February, 1835. In transcribing the Rowlett notes the word Ivy could easily have been changed to Jay.
³Record of the Board of Land Commissioners for Fannin County, 12. In all cases the county documents cited were found in the archives of Fannin County at Bonham. Happily these documents were saved from the fire that recently destroyed the courthouse of Fannin County.
⁴Deed Records of Fannin County, Book A, 54.

The first pioneers in Fannin County did not enter a section of the frontier that was entirely unoccupied, although that portion west of Bois D'Arc Creek was practically so. In 1836 there were living within what is now the northwestern part of Lamar County two families, those of John Emberson and Carter P. Clifft. Emberson, a Tennesseean, with three or four companions, had spent the winter and spring of 1815-16 hunting and trapping on Emberson's Lake near present-day Sumner. He returned to Arkansas and there married. Some years afterward he came back to Texas and settled in 1823 or 1824 within a mile of his original camp.⁵ Clifft, and his wife Abigail, whose former husband, James Garland, had died in May, 1835, were living in the spring of 1836 at the famous Rocky Ford on Bois D'Arc⁶ Clifft's wife seems to have been a woman of considerable wealth, having inherited a number of slaves from Garland's estate.⁷⁵W. A. Neville, "John Emberson, Pioneer," The Paris Morning News, June 26, 1921.
⁶Lusk, History of Constantine Lodge, No. 13, A. F. and A. M., Bonham, Texas, 23.
⁷Texas Reports, V, 229.

The pioneer settlers in the Red River valley were dominated by a culture that was essentially riparian in its nature. As the adventurous spirit of the frontiersmen drove them to move westward, they confined their colonizing activities to the banks of the river and its confluent streams. Two motives prompted them in their choice of such locations. Building material was more easily found in the timber fringing the water courses, and the river itself provided a better avenue for travel than that furnished by wagons across the uncharted uplands. Thus it was not strange that the first group of pioneers to settle in Fannin County should use the river as a means of transporting themselves and their goods from their homes in the United States to Texas.

This first party, consisting of Daniel Rowlett, of Wadesboro, Kentucky, John and Edward Stephens of Lamar County, Alabama, Daniel Slack of Mississippi, and Richard H. Locke of Somersville, Tennessee, engaged Captain Benjamin Crook, of the steamboat, Rover, to bring them from Memphis, Tennessee, where they had assembled in the autumn of 1835 to Jonesboro in the Mexican province of Texas.⁸ The voyage was necessarily slow, and it was not until March 1, 1836, that the Rover discharged her passengers and cargo at their destination. At Jonesboro they were joined by Jabez Fitzgerald and Mark R. Roberts, two Tennesseeans, who had traveled overland with their families through Arkansas and the Cherokee country to the Fort Towson Landing, where they crossed the Red River into Texas. The little band of pioneers remained at Jonesboro several days before making preparations for their trek westward. During the latter part of March they set out on their journey along the south bank of the river with Carter P. Clifft's residence on Bois D'Arc as their destination. Arriving there about April 1, the men left the women, children and most of the slaves while they proceeded further up the river in search of favorable building locations.⁹⁸Jonesboro, which was situated on the south bank of Red River opposite the mouth of Kiamichi, was the first American settlement in Texas. It was established by Claiborne Wright, a Tennesseean, in September, 1816. In 1836 it was a town of considerable size. Almonte, "Statistical Report on Texas," in Southwestern Historical Quarterly, January, 1925, XXIX, 209.
⁹"Information from Dr. Rowlett on Red River," The Lamar Papers, IV, 218.

Slack alone favored a location on the east side of Bois D'Arc. Rowlett selected his land on Red River, in the Tulip Bend, and built several small cabins on the bank of the river about one hundred yards west of the mouth of Pepper Creek Camp.¹⁰ Associated with Rowlett in the Tulip Bend settlement, which is called Lexington in early court documents, were Locke, Roberts and Fitzgerald. No doubt the name Lexington was given to the settlement by Locke in honor of his birthplace, Lexington, Kentucky.¹¹ John and Edward Stephens located on Red River between the mouth of Bois D'Arc and the Blue Bluff.¹⁰Lusk, History of Constantine Lodge, No. 18, A. F. and A. M., Bonham, Texas, 23.
¹¹Ibid., 107.

During the month of April, 1836, several additional families moved into the Fannin area, among whom were those of Nathaniel T. Journey, Charles Smith, John Russell and Daniel Dugan. Of these Daniel Dugan holds an outstanding place due to his long connection with the history of Fannin and Grayson Counties. He was born in Maryland in 1784, moved with his parents to Ohio when quite young, and went thence to Kentucky when seventeen years of age. In the latter state he married Catherine Vaden, whose parents were among the early settlers of that historical region. Being animated by the pioneering spirit he lived successively in Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Not yet having reached the extreme frontier of his dreams he came to Texas in 1836. His eldest son, George C. Dugan, preceded the family to Texas, in 1835, on a prospecting tour, returned to Arkansas, and came back to Texas in February, 1836, to make preparation for the arrival of his kinsmen. Somewhat later in the same spring the father, mother and other members of the family left Arkansas to journey overland to the location he had selected for their new home in the untenanted West. James, the youngest child, died during the long trip. He was buried by his father and brothers in a coffin hewn from a log, the lid of which was fastened down by a passing stranger. It is said that the marks of the Dugan wagon train were the first to be made on the site of Honey Grove and Bonham. The Dugans settled temporarily on middle Bois D'Arc near present-day Orangeville, but the peril of their exposed position induced them to abandon this locality after a few weeks and return to Rocky Ford.¹² Here they remained a short while, but returning about the middle of the summer they built a cabin that became the nucleus of the middle Bois D'Arc settlement.¹²Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 381-382.

Meanwhile (May the 10th) all of the men belonging to the river settlements had organized themselves into a militia company. Immediately after the formation of this company five men under the command of Daniel Rowlett started up the river along the south bank on a scouting expedition. Two days later they discovered an Indian trail leading northward toward the river. Following this track to the banks of the Red River they found a party of friendly Kickapoos who informed them of the defeat of the Mexicans at San Jacinto. They then proceeded to Shawneetown, north of the present site of Denison, where they met a party of thirty Shawnees. Among them Rowlett found an old acquaintance, Jim Logan, who had been educated at the Great Crossing of the Elkhorn, Scott County, Kentucky. Logan's father had lived with Judge Logan, a prominent Kentuckian, and had lost his life fighting on the American side in the War of 1812. Jim Logan had a flute that had been presented to him by Richard M. Johnston—nor was he averse to playing a few of his favorite tunes for his white friends.

After this pleasant diversion the scouts turned southward and proceeded toward the headwaters of the Trinity where they fell in with a party of Caddoes who were traveling northward. The scouts requested the Indians to refrain from visiting the Red River area until they were given permission to do so by the whites. This without protest they agreed to do. This contact with the Caddoes probably occurred somewhere southeast of the present site of Sherman. From this place the scouts turned eastward to the source of Bois D'Arc. Riding down this stream they came to the deserted camp of Daniel Dugan. The detachment followed Dugan's trail to Rocky Ford which they reached on the seventeenth of May. Here they found a company of fifty-seven men who had been recruited from all the settlers on Red River.¹³¹³"Information from Dr. Rowlett on the Red River," The Lamar Papers, IV, 218.

During the next two months all the settlers were busily engaged in making secure their perilously advanced position on the frontier. From time to time small detachments were sent out to determine the location and disposition of the Indians, and in all instances, were strictly cautioned to maintain amicable relations with their semi-savage neighbors. As soon as the settlements were made, Rowlett and a number of his associates departed for south Texas to take part in the war for independence. Among these were Richard Locke, Daniel Slack and John Seymore, all of whom were in service with Rowlett from July 18 until October 20, 1836.¹⁴ Jabez Fitzgerald loaned Seymore the horse that he rode to south Texas, and for this patriotic service he was granted an additiontal Land Certificate by the Board of Land Commissioners.¹⁵¹⁴Record of the Board of Land Commissioners for Fannin County, 8.
¹⁵Probate Court Records of Fannin County, A, 1-9.

During the summer and autumn of 1836 the Red River and middle Bois D'Arc settlements were the nuclei for a very considerable group of pioneers who were attracted to the subsequent Fannin area. An examination of the Record of the Board of Land Commissioners for Fannin County in the county archives at Bonham, reveals the dates that the claimants entered the Republic of Texas, but there is no exact method by which we can determine whether they resided in the county proper from the time of their entry. This datum, however, supplemented by other rather fragmentary sources, will not lead us far astray, if we remember that an extremely early date proven for the right to a First Class Land Certificate may be taken to show that the petitioner was probably a resident of some section of the Republic in 1836, but with the probability that he subsequently emigrated to Fannin County prior to 1838.¹⁶¹⁶Record of the Board of Land Commissioners for Fannin County, 38. To secure a land certificate it was only necessary to prove residence in the Republic of Texas prior to March 2, 1836.

Eighty-eight Fannin County First Class Land Certificates were given to persons who dwelt in the Republic prior to the declaration of independence, March 2, 1836. Fourteen of these were issued in the names of persons who died before February 26, 1838.¹⁷ Of the group of fourteen, only two are definitely known to have resided in Fannin County: namely, Charles Smith and Carter P. Clifft. Three others, it is equally certain, were never west of Bois D'Arc. Patrick Fitzgerald died at Jonesboro, March 5, 1836, James Garland in Red River County in 1835, and William Womack lost his life on the Sabine River while returning from army service in June, 1836.¹⁸ It is probable, also, that the other nine deceased were citizens of Red River County.¹⁷Probate Court Records of Fannin County, 1-9.
¹⁸Ibid., 38.

Of the seventy-four persons remaining, who received First Class Certificates, we can determine their residence with more certainty. Charles Quillen was a resident of the area when Rowlett and his party arrived, April 1, 1836. The residences of Daniel Rowlett, Richard Locke, Daniel Slack, Edward Stephens, Jabez Fitzgerald, John Stephens, and Mark R. Roberts have been located in the preceding pages and there are reasons to believe that John Seymore came to Texas with this party. Later in April, as it has been seen, Nathaniel T. Journey, Charles Smith, Daniel Dugan, Sr., Daniel V. Dugan and George Dugan moved into the district. Journey located in Mulberry Bend north of the mouth of Caney Creek, while the Dugans lived for two years on Bois D'Arc in the present Orangeville community.¹⁹¹⁹"Information from Dr. Rowlett on Red River," The Lamar Papers, IV, 217.

The claim of Holland Coffee that he was living at the mouth of Cache Creek on March 2, 1836, and was therefore entitled to land as a resident of the Republic, introduces to our study an interesting and unique character. In 1833, Coffee, who was a member of the firm of Coffee, Colville and Company, traders, of Ft. Smith, Arkansas, had led a party of trappers, forty in number, to the upper Red River and established a post in what is now the southwest part of Tillman County, Oklahoma. Later he built two more trading houses: one on Walnut Bayou, which empties into Red River within what is now Love County, Oklahoma, and the other at the mouth of Cache Creek, in the extreme southeastern part of present Cotton County, Oklahoma. It was at the latter place that Coffee was living in March, 1836; certainly not west of the one hundredth meridian, as he believed, but his error is excusable in light of the fact that the one hundredth meridian had not been accurately determined at that time. Two of Coffee's Posts subsequently served as trading houses for Abel Warren, the Walnut Bayou post from 1836 to 1848 and the Cache Creek post after this date.²⁰ Daniel Jackson and Elijah Cowan also received land in Fannin County on the basis of their residence at Cache Creek in 1836. Coffee, presumably in 1837, settled at Preston Bend within what is now Grayson County, Texas, where he resided until his death.²⁰Foreman, Pioneer Days in the Southwest, 157.

Mention of Warren's Post at the mouth of Walnut Bayou brings to mind the interesting fact that Abel Warren established a post in Fannin County in 1836. He was born at Northboro, Massachusetts, September 18, 1814, and there grew to manhood and obtained a fair education. Having been fired by the stories of the vast frontier in the southwestern part of the United States, he set out at the age of twenty-one to this land of romance. He eventually arrived at Ft. Smith in the Territory of Arkansas. Here, being interested by the stories of hunters and trappers, he conceived the idea of establishing a trading post somewhere on the upper Red River. Easily gathering about him a company of young adventurers, Warren set out with the requisite Indian guides upon his chosen enterprise. Finding a location which he believed to be suitable for his purposes on the south bank of Red River, one mile below the mouth of Choctaw Bayou, within the extreme northwestern angle of what is now Fannin County, he and his company built a log stockade and storehouse and began to barter for hides and furs. But the venture was financially unsuccessful. The prairie Indians, Warren's most profitable customers, were too far to the westward, while the civilized Five Tribes, north of Red River, preferred to trade through their own agencies. Settlers, too, were coming into the prospective trading area in increasing numbers, so that Warren deserted his post after a short time and returned to Ft. Smith, leaving his memory indelibly impressed on the history of our county in the name, Warren, its first seat of justice.²¹²¹Clift, W. H., "Warren's Trading Post," Chronicles of Oklahoma, II, 136.

Other Red River settlers during 1836 were John and Thomas Jouitt, Joseph Murphy, Joseph Swagerty, Richard R. Beal, Jacob Black, Hilary B. Bush, Joseph Sowell, John R. Garnett, James S. Baker, William R. Baker and Joseph P. Spence. Swagerty and Murphy became members of the first Commissioners Court,²² while John G. Jouitt acted as first Chief Justice. Jouitt was a native of Raleigh, North Carolina, but moved with his parents as a child to Tennessee. He lived there until young manhood when he, and his younger brother, Thomas, moved to Spadra Bluff, Arkansas. There John Jouitt married Narcissa Pace, a daughter of Twitty Pace, who himself followed his son-in-law to Fannin County in the late forties. From Arkansas the Jouitts emigrated to Texas and settled in November, 1836, near Blue Bluff, on the west edge of the Blue Prairie on Red River. After coming to Fannin County Thomas Jouitt married a daughter of Mark R. Roberts. The brothers' settlement under the Republic was the site of a post office known as Raleigh. John Jouitt also had a store at Warren while it was the county seat of Fannin County.²³ More will be said of Sowell; it suffices to mention here that he located on Red River at the place yet known as Sowell's Bluff.²⁴ The Bakers settled near present-day Elwood and later operated a store at Warren. William R. Baker, who was a nephew of James S. Baker, was a Presbyterian minister.²⁵²²Records of the Commissioners Court for Fannin County, A, 1-4.
²³Lusk, History of Constantine Lodge, No. 13, A. P. and A. M., Bonham, Texas, 25.
²⁴Ibid., 25.
²⁵Ibid., 24. Allen, J. Taylor, Early Pioneer Days in Texas, 137.

In November the Dugans were joined in their settlement on middle Bois D'Arc by a party of former neighbors from Missouri, among whom were Samuel S. Washburn, Israel Gabriel and Jonathan Anthony. After coming to Fannin County, Anthony married a daughter of Washburn's, to which union was born, February 1, 1839, a daughter, Mary Anthony (Butler), who (in 1929) is still living and thus has the distinction of being the oldest living native of the county.²⁶²⁶A personal interview with Mary Anthony Butler.

The year 1837 witnessed an augmented immigration into the Fannin County area. Every center of settlement—the mouth of Bois D'Arc, Tulip Bend and middle Bois D'Arc-served as a nucleus for newcomers. In addition settlements were begun at Ft. Inglish, Kentuckytown, at the mouth of Choctaw Bayou, and on North Sulphur Creek.

On March 17, 1837, Bailey Inglish, a long-time resident of Red River County,²⁷ located permanently in the northeastern edge of present-day Bonham.²⁸ Soon after his arrival he constructed the blockhouse since famous as Ft. Inglish. This was a log structure, sixteen by sixteen, topped by an overhanging story, twenty-four feet square. It was probably surrounded by a stockade although tradition is silent concerning this fact.²⁹ In September John P. Simpson and Mabel Gilbert (a very masculine man despite his feminine pronomen) settled near Ft. Inglish. Gilbert, who located two miles south of the fort on Gilbert's Creek, moved in 1841 to Bird's Fort in Tarrant County and thence to John Neely Bryan's settlement on the Trinity and was numbered among the founders of the city of Dallas.³⁰²⁷Hempstead, Pictorial History of Arkansas, 877. Among the early officials of Miller County, Arkansas, we find the name of Bailey Inglish, sheriff, 1823-1825. But it is easy to see from a map of Arkansas during that period that Miller County occupied the area now known as Red River County, Texas.
²⁸The Bonham News Annual for the Year 1888, 6.
²⁹Lee Nelms, who came to Bonham in 1846, told the writer in a personal interview that he recalled the fort as described above. It was located about two hundred yards north of the Smith Lipscomb house, and possibly a like distance east of the Denison, Bonham and New Orleans Railroad track.
³⁰Lusk, History of Constantine Lodge, No. 13, A. F. and A. M., Bonham, Texas, 26 and 33.

Andrew Thomas, William McCarty and William Daugherty settled in the autumn of 1837 south of the present "Cotton Belt" Railroad, between Whitewright and Kentuckytown. They abandoned their places the following summer on account of Indian raids and moved to the vicinity of Ft. Inglish.³¹³¹Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 387.

Settlers along Choctaw Bayou during 1837 were Daniel Montague³² and John Hart,³³ who settled near Warren's deserted stockade on Red River; John F. Moody, at the Shawnee Crossing (the present-day Bells-Denison highway bridge spans the bayou at approximately this site); and Rene Allred,³⁴ a mile south of where Dugan Chapel now stands.³²Daniel Montague was born at South Hadley, Massachusetts, August 22, 1798. He received an excellent education and became a surveyor and civil engineer. In 1820 he immigrated to Louisiana, and practiced his profession there for some fifteen years. In the spring of 1836 he hastened to Texas to assist the colonists against Santa Anna, but arrived too late to take part in the battle of San Jacinto. Returning to Louisiana, he sold out his interests there and moved in the spring of 1837 to the upper Red River valley. He settled in April at Warren. He became the first surveyor of the Fannin Land District, and by the customary practice of accepting fees in land accumulated a vast estate. He fought in the Mexican War and the War between the States. Following the latter struggle, he went to Tuxpan in Mexico where he remained for eleven years. He returned to visit friends at Maryville, Cooke County, and died there, December 20, 1876. Needless to say, Montague County was named for this eminent pioneer. Fulmore, The History and Geography of Texas as Told in County Names, 86-87.
³³John Hart was a noted trapper, trader, and Indian fighter. He came from Ohio to Ft. Smith, Arkansas Territory, as early as 1822. From that place he led a fur trapping party to the Washita River in the Indian Territory. Hostile Indians scattered the party, and only Hart and a Creek guide eluded the marauders and returned to their camp on the Washita. Later the guide was killed, but Hart undaunted built a canoe, loaded it with pelts and set out for civilization. He floated down the Washita and Red River to Jonesboro and thence to New Orleans. He then returned to Ohio, but the call of the frontier was too strong, and in 1832 we find him operating a store at Jonesboro. Except for a year's service in the Texas Revolution, he remained there until 1837, when he moved to Warren. He served as the first sheriff of Fannin County. In the early "Forties" he was killed at Warren by Silas Colville in a dispute over a land title. The Paris News, June 17, 1921.
³⁴Rene Allred was a native of South Carolina who lived for a time in Tennessee. Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas, 28.

James McFarland,³⁵ Wiley B. Merrill³⁶ and Daniel Davis³⁷ were among the early settlers on North Sulphur. McFarland located north of present-day Ladonia at the crossing on Sulphur while Davis lived some three miles to the westward.
³⁵James McFarland was born in Tennessee, married there, but immigrated to Missouri. He came to Texas in 1837 and located four miles north of the townsite of Ladonia. His eldest son, Jackson, was present at the murder of Daniel Davis, and likewise of John B. Denton by the Indians. So constant was the danger of Indian attack during their first five years in Texas that the McFarlands practically slept on their arms, and to forestall the theft of their horses arranged their stable so that it could only be entered through the house. Johnson, Texas and Texans, IV, 1436 ff.
³⁶Wiley B. Merrill was born in Sumner County, Tennessee, in 1804. He was a man of adventurous disposition, fond of frontier life and constantly on the move. He lived successively in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas before coming to Texas on a prospecting tour in 1836. Satisfied with the new area, he moved his family to Texas in 1837, crossing Red River, January 7, 1837. Merrill was an Indian fighter of some note and was present at the death of John B. Denton. Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas, 588.
³⁷Daniel Davis was a man of the pioneering type and was recognized as a leader wherever he lived. He had settled at Jonesboro as early as 1818. His first wife was a Tidwell, and in all probability, a sister of the man who was the first president of a Methodist class organized in Texas. His second wife was the mother of Andrew Davis, the famous pioneer preacher. Sam Houston, on his first trip to Texas in December, 1832, stopped at the Davis home in Jonesboro "to rest and feed up his horse." The next month Davis' second wife died, and he soon moved to Shelby County, carrying with him his son and a negro slave in whose charge Andrew had been placed. There the elder Davis married a third wife, a widow named Margaret Bascus. In 1836 he returned to Red River County to recruit a company for Houston's army, but did not reach south Texas in time to take part in the revolution. Returning to north Texas, Davis located some ten miles west of Clarksville, where he remained until 1837 when he moved to the North Sulphur region. Phelen, History of Early Methodism in Texas, 1817-1876, 173.

Other pioneers of note who may be reckoned among the forerunners were: Robert Kerr and Jacob Black, who settled near Rowlett in Tulip Bend; Bastian Oliver, who located on the river west of Sowell's Bluff; William Cox who built his cabin on Timber Creek; William Rice and Wesley Chesser, who headrighted on upper Bois D'Arc near present-day Orangeville; the Davises, who joined the Dugan-Washburn settlement on Bois D'Arc; and William Onstott, who very early fixed his home on Bois D'Arc northeast of Ft. Inglish. To the west, James and Samuel Blagg settled on the site of what is now Sherman. William R. Caruthers lived where the Ray Yards are, west of where Denison is now situated, and Richard McIntire, after living a year at Shawneetown, located permanently at the Shawnee Crossing on Choctaw. Many other pioneers, less well known, but no less worthy, came into the section prior to 1838, for Rowlett estimated the population by the summer of 1837 to have amounted to six hundred or seven hundred persons, and noted that the settlements extended as far west as the Cross Timbers and the Trinity.³⁸³⁸"Information from Dr. Rowlett on Red River," The Lamar Papers, IV, 219.

Thus two years after the first advent of the pioneers into the area a very considerable population occupied the country west of the Bois D'Arc. The principal settlements extended along Red River, clustered at the mouth of Bois D'Arc, at the Blue Prairie, then known as Raleigh, at Rowlett's settlement, Lexington, in Tulip Bend, at Sowell's Bluff, at Warren, and at Coffee's Station in Preston Bend. The entire length of Bois D'Arc was thinly settled with groups at Ft. Inglish, and at present-day Orangeville and Kentuckytown. Pioneer cabins were found along Timber and Honey Grove Creeks, and on North Sulphur; and likewise, in present-day Grayson County on Choctaw, Iron Ore and Big Mineral. No settlements existed on the prairies. The colonizing thrust was obviously riparian in its character, following the streams in quest of wood and water.

II. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF FANNIN COUNTY

Separation of the section of Red River County west of Bois D'Arc Creek and its organization into a new county followed close upon the heels of the development of the area.

The election for the second House of Representatives for the Republic of Texas took place on the second Monday in September, 1837. Red River County selected three members to the House: Edward H. Tarrant, who afterward resigned and was succeeded by Peyton S. Wyatt; Collin McKinney (re-elected); and Dr. Daniel Rowlett, who assumed the seat held by Mansell W. Matthews in the First Congress. On the twenty-sixth of September, President Houston called a special session of Congress.¹¹Brown, History of Texas, II, 131-132.

Rowlett, in a sense, was the representative of the settlers west of Bois D'Arc Creek, while his colleagues were from the older settled region about Clarksville. The rapid increase in the population of the area between Bois D'Arc and the Cross Timbers by the autumn of 1837 was such that it justified the division of the widely extended Red River County into two sections. Rowlett, therefore, on October 25, two days after his arrival at the capital, presented a petition from sundry citizens of that county praying for the creation of a new county west of Bois D'Arc Creek. This request was referred to the Committee on County Boundaries.² Two days later Rowlett's motion to withdraw the petition from this standing committee and to assign it to a select committee of three was adopted. Tarrant, McKinney and Rowlett were appointed to serve on this special committee.³ On the twenty-eighth of October these gentlemen reported on the petition in the form of a bill which was read for the first time.⁴²Journal of the Second Congress of the Republic of Texas, 63.
³Ibid., 72.
⁴Ibid., 75.

The only debated question was that of a name. The debate took place on October thirty-first, when the bill was read for the second time. The name the committee had proposed for the new political subdivision was that of Independence. But one searches a map of North Texas in vain to find an area bearing such an appellation today. To Patrick C. Jack belongs the credit of changing the name tentatively suggested to the one that the county actually bears, since it was he who moved that the word "Independence" be stricken from the bill and that of "Fannin" be inserted.⁵ His motion was adopted, and henceforth the county was destined to bear as its official designation the name of the hero of Concepción and Goliad. Thus on November 11 the amended bill creating the county of Fannin as such received its second reading. During the debate Rowlett made a last effort to have the name Independence given to the county, but his motion was lost.⁶ The bill was then read for the third time and finally passed November 14, 1837.⁷ The Senate completed its approval of the act on December 4, and President Houston signed it ten days later.⁵Journal of the Second Congress of the Republic of Texas, 79.
⁶Ibid., 119.
⁷Ibid., 124.

According to the act, the new county's boundaries were drawn from the mouth of Bois D'Arc Creek up that stream to the crossing at the residence of Carter Clifft; thence southward to a point thirty miles in a straight line from the place of the beginning; thence westwardly and northwestwardly to Red River so as to include all of the territory within these limits east of the Cross Timbers. The lines as thus fixed included the area that is now approximately Fannin, Grayson and the eastern half of Cooke Counties. The act also provided that the cabin of Jacob Black in Tulip Bend, or Lexington on Red River, should be the seat of justice until a more suitable location could be found.⁸⁸Sayles, Early Laws of Texas, 1781-1876, I, 53.

No account of the early settlement of Texas is clear without a knowledge of the system whereby the public lands were distributed to the settlers. As Fannin County participated in this general disposal, and since this constituted the leading public business, it is necessary to outline the land system.

December 12, 1837, two days before Fannin County was created, Congress drew up the General Land Act. This provided for a general land office under the direction of the Commissioner General of the Land Office. The local officers provided for were the county surveyor and a board of land commissioners. The surveyor, elected by both houses of Congress, was required to reside at the county seat and to appoint as many deputies as he thought necessary. He was also to receive and examine all field notes of surveys by his deputies, and certify these, under his hand to the Commissioner General of the Land Office, and to record the same in his own book of record. His fees were, for inspecting the field notes of a league and a labor $500, for one-third of a league $400, and for a smaller quantity $300.

The local boards of land commissioners investigated the claims of applicants for land, each claimant being required to appear before the board and take the following oath:

I do solemnly swear that I, .......... ., was a resident citizen, of the Republic of Texas at the date of the Declaration of Independence; that I did not leave the country during the campaign of 1836 to avoid a participation in the war; that I did not aid or assist the enemy; that I have not previously received a title to my quantum of land, and that I conceive myself justly entitled, under the Constitution and laws, to the quantity of land for which I now apply.

He was required, in addition to the oath, to prove by two or more credible witnesses that he was a citizen of Texas at the date of the declaration of independence, and that he had continued there since; and also whether he was married or single at that date. The fees of the board for granting a certificate were five dollars.

By the provisions of this act, all married men were entitled to one league and labor of land, and all single men to one-third of a league. In addition, all men who married after their entrance into the Republic were entitled to an additional two-thirds of a league and a labor. All grants issued under these conditions were called First Class Land Certificates.

Every person who arrived in the Republic after the date of the declaration of independence but prior to October 1, 1837, who was the head of a family, and who actually resided in the government with his family, was entitled to a conditional grant of one thousand, two hundred and eighty acres of land by paying the fees of office and of surveying. The conditions of the grant were that the person, man or woman, should reside continuously in the Republic for three years, after which time, upon due representation of the fact, he should receive an unconditional deed to his land. All single men received six hundred and forty acres of land under the same conditions of dates of entry and residence. Such grants were denominated Second Class Land Certificates.⁹⁹Kennedy, Texas, 771-781.

On December 17, 1837, a joint session of the houses of Congress elected a board of land commissioners for Fannin County. The members appointed to this commission were Bailey Inglish, president, and Joseph Murphy and William H. Burton, assistant commissioners. At the same time, James S. Baker was selected clerk of the board, and Daniel Montague, surveyor.¹⁰ Presumably Burton did not qualify, since Samuel McFarland served in his stead along with Inglish and Murphy. The board met for the first time, February 1, 1838, at the home of Bailey Inglish. The initial act of the commissioners was the acceptance of the bond of Inglish as president of the board signed by Mark R. Roberts, Martin Vernon, John R. Garnett and Wesley Lollett.¹¹ The first deed recorded was to John Hart and James S. Baker, jointly, for a tract of land situated three-fourths of a mile below the mouth of the False Washita,¹² i. e., on the south side of Red River in what is now known as Preston Bend. John Russell was granted Land Certificate No. 1, the first issued by the board.¹³ On February 15, 1838, Daniel Montague made bond as county surveyor, offering as security Edward Stephens, Daniel Rowlett and Samuel Stewart.¹⁴ A pertinent commentary on one side of the life of the early settlers is shown us in a bill of sale recorded September 26 by which William Heath, who had married the widow of Carter P. Clifft, conveyed to Daniel Rowlett the title to seven negroes, Jefferson, Hannah, Burke, Isaac, Peter, Squire and Harriet, for the consideration of $2800.¹⁵¹⁰Journal of the Second Congress of the Republic of Texas, 276.
¹¹Deed Records of Fannin County, A, 1.
¹²Ibid., 2.
¹³Record of the Board of Land Commissioners for Fannin County, 1.
¹⁴Deed Records of Fannin County, A, 5.
¹⁵Ibid., p. 26. An interesting account of the final disposal of these slaves will be found in the Texas Reports, I, 229.

The boards of land commissioners continued to function over a period of several years with a rather frequent change of personnel. The second board appointed in June, 1839, consisted of John G. Jouitt, Daniel Rowlett, William R. Baker, Samuel Blagg and Daniel Montague.¹⁶ In January of the following year Daniel Montague, John P. Simpson, John Hart, Joseph Murphy and Garrett Langford qualified as members of the third board.¹⁷ Their term of service was short, for we find that in April, 1840, the board was reorganized with James S. Baker, Daniel Rowlett, John G. Jouitt and John P. Simpson as its members.¹⁸ The work of these groups of men was probably the most important governmental function exercised by the citizens of the county during its formative period, in view of the fact that to them was given the disposal of millions of acres of land. The land laws of the Republic of Texas bear evidence to the fact that the conditions that distinguished the various classes of land certificates were highly complicated, and that their proper interpretation required a nice sense of justice and a complete degree of honesty. To the credit of the members of the various boards it is fair to say that they were among the more substantial citizens of the frontier community, and that there is nothing to show that their work was other than satisfactory.¹⁶Ibid., 28.
¹⁷Ibid., 32.
¹⁸Deed Records of Fannin County, A, 28.

The first official business aside from land matters transacted in Fannin County was the work of the commissioners court sitting as a probate dourt in Jacob Black's cabin, February 26, 1836. John G. Jouitt presided as chief justice,¹⁹ and Daniel Rowlett and William M. (Buckskin) Williams²⁰ were present as attorneys. Administrators upon the following estates were appointed: Jacob Black for William Hayman, who died September, 1837; Jabez Fitzgerald, for his son, Patrick, who died March 5, 1836; Robert B. Beal for Enos Murphy; Joseph Swagerty for William Howard; Robert B. Beal for Anderson Clifft; John Stephens for William Garretson; Sophia Smith for Charles Smith; Abigail Clifft for Carter P. Clifft, who died December, 1837; William Williams for Alexander Spencer; Thomas Jouitt for James Garland, who died May, 1835; Squire Mays for William Womack, who was supposed to have died in service June, 1836, or to have died on the Sabine River while returning from service in the army of the Republic of Texas; William Williams for James Dalton; and John Hart for Eli Sweeden, who died January, 1836. The majority of the estates consisted of land certificates, and personal property seems to have been meager. At the same time the court appointed Nathaniel Journey as guardian for Peggy and William Bowman, children of John Bowman, James Blagg for Lucinda Smith, and James S. Baker for Artelia and Samuel Abel Baker, his sister and brother.²¹¹⁹The Bonham News Annual for the Year 1888, 2. Probate Records of Fannin County, A, 1-9.
²⁰William Williams was not a resident of Fannin County, but was living at this time in the Emberson settlement in what is now northwest Lamar County, then Red River County. He was a noted pioneer lawyer who specialized in the location of land claims. Neville, "Buckskin Williams," The Paris Morning News, July 3, 1921.
²¹Probate Court Records of Fannin County, A, 1-9.

The commissioners court met for the first time on April 9, 1838, at Jacob Black's cabin on Red River. The members present were John G. Jouitt, chief justice, James P. O'Neal, Joseph Swagerty and Thomas Lindsay, associate justices. The court immediately proceeded to appoint a committee composed of Wiley B. Merrill, William R. Baker, John G. Stephens, Sr., William R. Caruthers and Andrew Thomas to select a county seat site, "keeping in mind the centre of the county, subsequent subdivisions, and constitutional size." These men were appointed with the idea of having each section of the county represented on the board of location. Merrill lived on North Sulphur near present-day Ladonia, Baker in Tulip Bend where Elwood is now located, Stephens at the mouth of Bois D'Arc Creek, Caruthers on Big Mineral just west of the present site of Denison, and Thomas on the source of Bois D'Arc between present-day Whitewright and Tom Bean.

The court then established a tax schedule with the rates as follows: On capital employed in machinery and merchandising, one-eighth per cent ad valorem; on horses, mules, cattle and negro property, one-half per cent ar valorem; on stallions and jacks, the price of one mare's season; for grocery and merchant licenses, thirty dollars per year; for merchant peddler's licenses, fifty dollars per year; for clock peddler's licenses, one hundred dollars per year;²² for ferry licenses, five dollars per year (no ferry to be located within two miles of one already operating); and white male poll tax, one dollar per year. Panther and wolf scalps were to be accepted in payment of taxes at the rate of one dollar for adult, and fifty cents for cubs, provided that such scalps were obtained from animals killed within Fannin County. The clerk of the court, Thomas Jouitt, was directed to make out the tax list and deliver it to the sheriff.²²In this exorbitant license may be discerned the prevalent distaste for the "Yankee" clock peddler so common in pioneer communities of this period.

Absentee members of the court, Robert Fowler, Mabel Gilbert and Thomas G. Kennedy, were fined twenty-five dollars each for not being present.²³²³Records of the Commissioners Court for Fannin County, A, 1-2.

The second term of the commissioners court met at Jacob Black's cabin, July 23, 1838. A quorum not being present, the only business transacted was the remission of Mabel Gilbert's fine for non-attendance upon the spring session of the court after he had proved that his absence was due to Indian hostilities.²⁴²⁴Ibid., 3.

At the next term of the court, October 2, 1838, Daniel Rowlett presented a petition asking that a road be laid out from the Rocky Ford Crossing on Bois D'Arc through Warren to Daniel Montague's plantation on Red River. The court again acting on their principle of selecting men familiar with the district concerned appointed to the committee settlers in order of their residence from east to west, namely, John Stephens, Sr., Richard B. Deal, Robert Kerr, Joseph Sowell and Joseph Murphy. All fines imposed on members of the court for previous non-attendance were remitted except that of Fowler, who, for his persistent refusal to attend, was prosecuted by Daniel Rowlett, county attorney pro tempore, and fined in the sum of twenty-five dollars for each of three separate offenses.²⁵²⁵Records of the Commissioners Court for Fannin County, A, 4-5. There is no record of payment.

The most important early session of the commissioners court was that held at Black's cabin, January 8-9, 1839. John G. Jouitt presided as chief justice, and Joseph Murphy, Thomas Lindsey, Joseph Swagerty, Mabel Gilbert and Thomas G. Kennedy were present in their capacity of associate justices. At the first day's session the report of the committee appointed to lay out the road from the Rocky Ford Crossing to Daniel Montague's plantation was accepted and approved. This, the first officially designated road within the confines of Fannin County, extended as follows:

Beginning sixty yards south of Carter Clifft's, thence in a straight line up the ridge to the old camp on the hill, thence in a straight line across Bois d'Arc at the first bend above the buildings, thence to John Stephens', thence to John Jouitt's, thence to Hart's Prairie Spring, thence to the seat of justice, thence to an elm tree on east bank of first creek 150 yards below old crossing, thence to Joseph Sowell's, thence to a point 150 yards south of Stewart's cabin, thence to the right side of Montague's improvement on the lower side of Caney Creek, thence in a straight line to Murphy's Creek passing equal distances between Journey's field and the river, thence to William Bailey's field and thence to Daniel Montague's. Said road to be divided into four precincts; first, from Bois d'Arc to the corner of Duncan's field; second, from the end of the first precinct to the first large branch above Clark's cabin; third, from the end of second precinct to Montague's improvement below Caney; fourth, from end of third precinct to Montague's plantation.²⁶²⁶Records of the Commissioners Court for Fannin County, A, 8-9.

John Stephens, Joseph Swagerty, George Dameron and Daniel Montague were appointed overseers for the construction of the road, which was to be cleared of all obstacles for the space of thirty feet in width except at the creek crossings where fifteen feet fords were to be provided. At all crossings where a ford was impractical, bridges, twelve feet in width, were to be constructed.

At the same time Rowlett petitioned the court to appoint a board of reviewers to mark out a road from Montague's place to Coffee's Station. Charles Jackson, John F. Moody, Thomas Shannon, Samuel Blagg and William R. Caruthers were selected to serve on this commission.

John G. Jouitt then pointed out to the court that a bridge on Bois D'Are at the Rocky Ford Crossing was a necessity, and that such a bridge, on account of the size of the stream to be crossed, was too expensive to be built by the citizens of the precinct in which that crossing was located. He therefore petitioned the court to be permitted to build a toll bridge at the Rocky Ford Crossing, and asked that they set the toll to be charged at the bridge. The court assented to his request and fixed the following tariff for traffic:

Man or other person on foot - .06¼
Horse, mule or ass - .06¼
Horn cattle - .03
Hogs, sheep or goats, per score - .25
Two wheeled carriages or slides - .50
Four wheeled carriages for pleasure - .75
Four wheeled road or plantation wagons - 1.00²⁷²⁷Records of the Commissioners Court for Fannin County, A, 13.

While there is no record that the committee appointed in April, 1838, to select a location for a seat of justice reported the results of their investigations to this session of the court, it is quite probable that they did so. For on the second day's sitting the court drew up the plans for a courthouse as follows:

On this day the court proceeded to draw a draft of a courthouse for Fannin County: A post oak or cedar log body, 18x24 feet, one and one-half stories high, the lower floor of rough plank, the upper floor to be dressed, and a wooden chimney, two doors and four windows (twelve lights) with shutters; one flight of stairs, the upper apartment to be divided into two rooms of equal size and one alley; to be covered with good oak boards three feet long nailed to good rafters with one foot to the weather; to have a shed room at the opposite end from the chimney fifteen feet wide which is to be of the same material and covered in the same manner as the body of the building; to have a good rough floor; with a door and a window in each end of it and at each end of said shed room to have a small wooden chimney; all to be furnished with a judge's bench with sufficient room for commissioner's court, a bar ten feet long and four benches with backs eight feet long, a clerk's table with a large drawer and a lock and key.²⁸²⁸Records of the Commissioners Court for Fannin County, A, 14.

On April 8, 1839, the commissioners court held its last session in Black's cabin. The heavy shadow of Indian depredations may be plainly seen in the brief minutes of the court, as they recite that Stephens, Swagerty, Dameron and Montague had been unable to open the Bois D'Arc-Warren road on account of predatory raids by hostile bands. For a like reason, Blagg, Shannon, Jackson and Caruthers report that they had not been able to review and mark out the Warren-Coffee Station road.²⁹ They might have added that John F. Moody, who had been appointed on the board of reviewers with them, had been permanently discharged from the committee by death, as he was murdered by Shawnees in the early winter of 1838-1839.²⁹Ibid., 15-16.

Dr. Daniel Rowlett was the representative for Fannin County in the Fourth Congress of the Republic of Texas that assembled at Austin on the first Monday in September, 1839.³⁰ Largely through his influence, Congress passed, on November 28, "an act better to define the boundaries of the county of Fannin," which provided that:³⁰Brown, History of Texas, II, 168.

Hereafter the boundaries of the county of Fannin shall be as follows: Beginning at the mouth of Bois D'Arc Creek on Red River; thence up said creek with the meanders thereof to the crossing at the residence of Carpter P. Clifft; thence south so far as to make sixty miles from the place of beginning on a straight line; thence west to a point south of the head of the upper Wichita; thence north to Red River and down the same with the meanders thereof to the place of beginning.³¹³¹Sayles, Early Laws of Texas, I, 194.

The territory comprised within the boundaries set forth by this act covered the magnificent area of over twenty-four thousand square miles, an addition of probably 22,500 square miles. It included within its limits the present-day counties of Fannin, Grayson, Collin, Cooke, Denton, Montague, Wise, Clay, Jack, Wichita, Archer, Young, Wilbarger, Baylor, Throckmorton, Hardeman, Foard, Knox, Haskell, Stonewall, King, Cottle and Childress, with a greater portion of Hunt and half of Collingsworth.

The first regular session of the commissioners court held in the new court house at Warren met January 8, 1840. The court appointed Solomon Chambliss county tax assessor and directed him to remain at the house of Captain James Hart in Warren while in discharge of his duties. The amount of taxes to be raised for the year 1840 for county purposes were to be equal to the amount of revenue due to the Republic of Texas from Fannin County. The court also appointed two boards of road reviewers, one to lay out a road from Warren to "the Honey Grove," and the other to assume the duties of the group previously appointed to mark out the way from Warren to Coffee's Station.³² At the April term of court it developed that through carelessness this second board of reviewers had not been properly sworn in the preceding January and it became necessary to reaffirm their nomination. At the same time Jacob Ketchum and William Cox reported that they had selected the following route from "the Honey Grove" to Warren:³²Records of the Commissioners Court for Fannin County, A, 17-18.

Commencing at Honey Grove on the old way from Mark R. Roberts to Bullard Creek, thence on to Bois D'Are down the Prairie Ridge Way to Jacob Ketchum's, thence to Timber Creek at Cottonwood Tree, thence to Caney Creek at the Shawnee Trace, thence on to Brushy Creek at wagon ford to Montague's.³³³³Records of the Commissioners Court for Fannin County, A, 19-23.

Despite the fact that John Stephens, Joseph Swagerty, George Dameron and Daniel Montague were appointed to build the Rocky Ford Crossing-Warren road in January, 1839, it was not until July, 1840, that they announced the completion of their task. In July, likewise, James Shannon and Rene Allred brought into the court the long delayed report concerning the road from Warren to Coffee's Station. The route was blazed as follows:

Running with old road from Montague's to Richard McIntire's, thence leaving old road but intersecting it again at the upper end of the Sumach Prairie, thence to Bald Point above Caruthers', thence leaving it and turning to the right and intersecting it again at the forks of the road where the Shawneetown road intersects, and thence on old road to Coffee's Station.³⁴³⁴Records of the Commissioners Court for Fannin County, A, 25-26.

In January, 1841, Thomas Jouitt petitioned the court to be allowed to establish a ferry across Red River at the mouth of the Blue River, affirming that it was his belief that the National Military Road from the Elm Fork of the Trinity would strike Red River at that point.³⁵ The court deferred their action on the request until the April term of court, when they acceded to the petition and at the same time established the ferry rates for:³⁵Ibid., 29.

4 horse or ox team - $2.00
2 horse wagon - 1.50
Man and horse - .37½
All loose horses or cattle - 12½
Sheep or goats - .064¼

At the same term of court Daniel Rowlett was given permission to establish a ferry across Red River at his settlement at Lexington with the same rates as charged by Jouitt at the mouth of Blue.³⁶ The establishment of ferries by the settlers was incidentally a source of friction between the Texans and the civilized Indians north of the river, and led to the exchange of notes between the Departments of State of the United States and Texas. For instance, in April, 1842, Daniel Webster sent to Joseph Eve, charge d'affaires of the United States in Texas, an extract of a letter from a Choctaw dated February 9, 1842, which said:³⁶Ibid., 32.

The Choctaws are likely to have difficulties with the Texas on account of the ferries they have taken possession of on Red River. They have taken possession of all, from the line up, and have put in their boats, and will not let the Choctaws have a ferry-boat on the river. Unless something "is done for us by the United States government, serious difficulties will arise out of this, as they lay entire claim to all privileges on the river.³⁷³⁷Senate Executive Documents, 32nd Congress, First Session, III, No. 14, p. 76.

There are no records to show that these anticipated fears of the Choctaws were ever realized, or that Jouitt and Rowlett had in any way contributed to the trouble.

In the fragmentary condition of the sources it is difficult to determine the date of the first election in Fannin County. That it occurred prior to April, 1840, may be concluded from the fact that at that time the commissioners court acceded to the petition of certain citizens of the eastern part of the county that the voting box be moved from John G. Jouitt's house to that of Samuel Erwin. Likewise for the convenience of the settlers of the North Sulphur area, a balloting place was established at the house of James McFarland.³⁸ The first official count of votes by the court took place July 4, 1842, when the results of an election held on January 3 were confirmed. Only five county officers, sheriff, county clerk, district clerk, surveyor and coroner, were elected; the Congress of the Republic appointed the members of the commissioners court, who in turn appointed the county assessor and treasurer.³⁸Records of the Commissioners Court for Fannin County, A, 39.

The district court for Fannin County did not function until the erection of the courthouse at Warren. On April 27, 1840, Judge John Hansford opened the first session of court, but as there had been no docket prepared he ordered court adjourned after drawing a jury panel for the next term.³⁹ On November 2, the court convened again, and a grand jury was appointed. This body consisted of John Hart, foreman, Samuel Young, William H. Anderson, Jackson McFarland, John P. Thurston, Felix G. Sadler, Daniel Dugan, Franklin W. Davis, Rene Allred, Richard R. McIntire, Barsdale Cason, S. W. Fitzgerald, Joel C. Fuller and Bastian Oliver. It brought an indictment against John W. Davis for the murder of William Wenlock on June 14, 1840. On the next day after the presentation of the indictment Davis was tried by "twelve good men and true," Stephen Westbrook, Seth Parker, Joseph Spence, Jacob Ketchum, William Onstott, Curtis Moore, Thomas S. Smith, Joseph D. Rogers, George Dameron, Samuel McFarland, Mabel Gilbert and John Stephens. He was found guilty as charged and sentenced to five years' imprisonment in the custody of the sheriff.⁴⁰ What disposition Sheriff Simpson made of his prisoner is unknown, as the records are silent upon the point. At this same session Wyatt Kennedy was indicted for the murder of Thomas Journey, February 25, 1840, but was not tried until a succeeding term of court, when he was acquitted. It is noticeable that the major part of the civil cases tried in the district court during the days of the Republic were suits for the recovery of debts. Gaming, affrays, assault and battery, selling goods without license, and extortion were the misdemeanors most commonly charged.³⁹Minutes of the District Court for Fannin County, A, 1.
⁴⁰Minutes of the District Court for Fannin County, A, 2-12.

On January 16, 1843, Congress passed an act legalizing the location of the county seat of Fannin County as follows:

Section 1. Be it enacted, etc., That the location of a county site of the county of Fannin, as made by the commissioners elected for that purpose by the citizens of said county, in October last, be, and the same is hereby, declared to be the county site of said county, to be known and called by the name of Bois D'Arc.

Section 2. That the records of the probate, county and district courts of the said county be, by their respective clerks, immediately moved to said site.

Section 3. That the post office of Ft. Inglish be removed to Bois D'Arc, and bear the name of Bois D'Arc postoffice.⁴¹⁴¹Sayles, Early Laws of Texas, II, 36.

It is only necessary to state that the site so selected and legalized is present-day Bonham. It is of interest, however, to know that the inhabitants of the town, according to local tradition, wished to call the new seat of justice Bloomington. But the more patriotically minded citizens prevailed upon their fellows in 1844 and had the name Bonham substituted for that of Bois D'Arc in lieu of Bloomington.

In accordance with this act of Congress, the county records were moved at once to Bois D'Arc. On the first Monday in April, 1843, the commissioners court convened at that place and proceeded to appoint boards of reviewers to mark out roads from Bois D'Arc to Honey Grove, North Sulphur and Lexington.⁴² Soon after the historic road from Rocky Ford to Warren was discontinued—an act that epitomized in a large measure the social and political change that came over the county upon the removal of the seat of justice from the river bank to the upland. Rowlett, Jouitt and the coterie of lowlanders from now on played a diminishing part in the governmental affairs of the county, and the uplanders, led by Simpson, Roswell W. Lee, the Beans and Bailey Inglish, assumed the leadership in the administration of public business.⁴²Records of the Commissioners Court for Fannin County, A, 46.

III. INDIAN WARFARE, 1837-1839

The most important problem that the pioneers were obliged to face, aside from the establishment of their homes, was the maintenance of them in the face of invasions of hostile Indians. Consequently Indian warfare was a constant occupation of the settlers until the end of the period under consideration.

In 1836 there were no indigenous Indians living east of the Cross Timbers in the area subsequently organized as Fannin County. There were a number of Indians, probably four thousand, however, who had emigrated from the United States, and settled in the country bordering the Trinity, and between that stream and Red River. These bands contained portions of several tribes: Kickapoos, Coushattas, Delawares, Choctaws, Shawnees, Biloxis, Cherokees, Ionis, Alabamas, Unataquas, Quapaws, Tohooktookies, and Caddoes, generally called in Texas, in the aggregate, "the Cherokees and their Twelve Associated Bands." Most of this group had left the United States in 1822 and 1824.

William Kennedy says of these Indians:

These intrusive Indians were generally more dangerous neighbors to white settlers than the native tribes of Texas. To the obstinate courage and profound dissimulation of their race, they united a spurious civilization, limited chiefly to the vices and mischievous arts of social life. They were expert in the use of the rifle, and not insensible to the advantages of cooperation in warfare. From a long residence in the United States, many of them had acquired a knowledge of the agriculture. These had fixed habitations, rudely cultivated lands, and stock. Some were possessed of money, received from the government of the United States in compensation for their lands, and had purchased negro slaves for working their farms, for even the half-civilized Indians have a rooted aversion from manual labor. The tendency of all, when removed from white settlements, was gradually to relinquish habits of wholesome restraint and relapse into barbarism.¹¹Kennedy: Texas, 336-337.

Such then were the Indian neighbors of the early settlers of the Red River area. In his first exploration of the territory Rowlett met with roving bands of Kickapoos and Caddoes, and visited with Shawnee friends of Kentucky days who were living north of present-day Denison.² Another Shawnee village was located in 1836 in the northeastern part of the county near the Pinckney Self Spring a mile northeast of the subsequent site of Shiloh Church.³²"Information from Dr. Rowlett on Red River," The Lamar Papers, IV, 218.
³Allen, Early Pioneer Days in Texas, 67.

During the year, 1836, the Indians showed a sulky friendliness toward the white settlers. They at times visited the homes of the pioneers, and aside from some petty thieving seemed to be disposed to maintain amicable relations with their new neighbors. At length, however, they began to grumble about the occupation of their hunting grounds, and to manifest their hostility by painting their faces and complaining about the whites killing their "cows" (buffaloes) and turkeys. Their squaws and papooses ceased to accompany them on their visits—a sure sign to an experienced Indian fighter that they were planning mischief. In spite of this, the settlers took no special precaution against attacks until the savages encouraged by their lethargy began to steal horses. The principal offenders seem to have been Kickapoos and Caddoes.⁴⁴Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 385.

The Indians, however, were not altogether to blame for the beginning of actual hostilities. On May 16, 1837, Daniel Montague and a party of seventeen men, seemingly without provocation, attacked a band of Kickapoos, Shawnees, Cherokees and Delawares near Warren. Several Indians, among whom was Billy Amos, a cousin of Rowlett's friend, Jim Logan, were killed and burned. A truce was arranged after this fight, but the Shawneetown Indians, thoroughly aroused by what they considered the perfidy of the settlers, manifested their enmity by stealing horses. In this thievery they were assisted by their kinsmen who dwelt along the Trinity River in what is now Dallas and Tarrant counties.⁵⁵"Information from Dr. Rowlett on Red River," The Lamar Papers, IV, 219.

In the spring of 1838⁶ two volunteer companies were organized to punish these marauders. The Fannin County contingent, commanded by Captain Nathaniel T. Journey, met at Jonathan Anthony's place, eight miles south of Ft. Inglish, with, as John P. Simpson says, "all in high glee under the influence of strong drink." During the night Indians took advantage of their hilarity to steal the horses of the leader and two of his command. The next day was spent in securing new mounts and moving to Lindsey's Spring on Bois D'Arc, where they were joined by Captain Robert Sloan's company from Red River County. Beef having been killed for rations and guards mounted, the companies settled down to a night of reminiscences and boisterous bragging. Suddenly a shot was fired by one of the watchers, whereupon the other sentries fled precipitately into camp. The men tumbled confusedly over one another in the darkness; some were unable to find their guns, while others of the scrambling soldiery learned that a shot pouch or powderhorn is an elusive object in time of necessity. At length an officer was dispatched to find the cause of the alarm. The guard who had fired the shot now dashed into camp to report that he had fired at an Indian who was attempting to steal the horses. The captain reported that he had found no dead or wounded Indians, although he had discovered one of the fleeing rascal's blankets. A closer examination revealed that this object was not a discarded article of Indian apparel, but only the paunch of the steer slaughtered by the hungry volunteers. This anti-climax dampened the roisterers' zeal for the remainder of the night.⁶Mabel Gilbert was excused from attendance at the meeting of the commissioners court, April 9, 1838, on account of Indian hostilities. Records of the Commissioners Court for Fannin County, A, 2.

On the following day they started in earnest on their march for the Indian country. They were roused by their pickets on the third night, but no one was killed or injured. On the next day the scouts who were riding in advance reported an Indian village near at hand. Preparations were made for an attack, and in a short interval the white men possessed themselves of what proved not to be an Indian village, but only the camp of a few roving hunters. These Indians were speedily killed by the scouts and their scalps taken by Captain John Hart. The horses stolen from Captain Journey were found among the Indians' herd. Only one white man was wounded in this short melee.

After the battle the men searched for a wounded Indian whom they knew to be lying concealed in the tall grass. Garrett (Brandy) Pangburn approached so close to the savage that he was unable to fire at him before he sprang to his feet, tomahawk in hand, and began to hack furiously at Pangburn's head. The white man wheeled and ran toward his comrades, calling for help at every jump. One shot from the ranks dropped the Indian and Hart added this scalp to his collection. The site of the battle was afterward occupied by Captain John Bird in the winter of 1840-1841 when he built a post there known as Bird's Fort.⁷⁷Carter, History of Fannin County, 45-46.

Three days after the battle the volunteers returned home to find that in their absence the Indians had killed Samuel S. Washburn on Bois D'Arc. He, the father-in-law of Jonathan Anthony, was an early settler along with Daniel Dugan and Micajah Davis, but had been left in an isolated position by their removal to other locations. Washburn, on the day that he was killed had ridden over to Davis's deserted blacksmith shop to obtain a log chain. Subsequent investigation proved that he reached his destination safely, procured the chain and started homeward. He was then shot from ambush, his scalp taken and his horse and gun stolen. These facts were ascertained by neighbors the next morning after they had been summoned by his wife who had waited his return through an anxious night.⁸⁸Ibid., 46. Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 382. In recording the death of Washburn, John P. Simpson and Catherine Dugan Taylor each give to the murdered man the wrong Christian name. Simpson speaks of the death of William Washburn, and the latter of the murder of Josiah Washburn.

A more formidable force was organized for the protection of the frontier during the autumn and winter of 1838-1839. It consisted of Fannin and Lamar County men commanded by General John H. Dyer of Red River County. The battalion rendezvoused at Ft. Inglish then a settlement of eight or ten families who had congregated there for refuge from Indian raiders. When the Rangers left the fort in search of hostile Indians, John P. Simpson was placed in command of twenty men who were left as a guard for the women and children.⁹⁹Carter, History of Fannin County, 28.

As in the case of Washburn's death the Indians waited until the Rangers were away to perpetrate one of their outrages. William Daugherty, William McCarty and Andrew Thomas have been mentioned as early settlers on the source of Bois D'Arc. After Washburn's death the outside settlers had deserted their homes and moved to more secure locations, some going to Red River County, and others to lower Bois D'Arc near Ft. Inglish. Among the latter were Thomas, and his father-in-law, Daugherty. In the autumn during the absence of Dyer's expedition, Thomas and Daugherty, accompanied by Daugherty's son, Andrew, and a son of William McCarty returned to their former homes to kill their hogs and secure a supply of meat for the winter. They obtained their meat without a mishap and started homeward, stopping to cook dinner in William Rice's deserted cabin near present-day Orangeville.

Thomas busied himself with the preparation of the meal, and young McCarty was sent to the creek for water. An Indian war whoop was the first intimation of danger nor could there be any doubt of the boy's fate when the savages came swarming toward the house from the creek. William Daugherty was shot in the left side, and his son, Andrew, received an arrow through the elbow. Thomas rushed to the door only to be confronted by a swirling mass of Indians. Their first volley miraculously missed him, burying itself in the opposite wall of the room, but they charged so closely after that he was unable to return their fire. Grasping an iron poker, Thomas laid about him so effectively that he felled five of his savage foes senseless to the floor. His unexpected defense caused the Indians to retreat to the adjacent thickets for safety, and Thomas and Andrew Daugherty started at once across the prairie for Ft. Inglish which was some eight or nine miles away. The Indians followed, not daring to charge for fear of Thomas's deadly aim with the rifle. Tradition has it that he dragged the weakened Daugherty a great part of the distance. It is certain that the two reached the safety of the fort at nightfall.

The next morning John P. Simpson and a party went to the scene of the massacre. William Daugherty had been scalped three times and his naked skull crushed with a tomahawk. Young McCarty was discovered at the creek shot full of arrows, unscalped but decapitated except for a small ligament. The bodies were conveyed to Ft. Inglish, and their burial was the second to be held in the Old Inglish cemetery. Dyer's force returned soon after this killing without having accomplished any material results.¹⁰¹⁰Carter, History of Fannin County, 28 ff. The date of Daugherty and McCarty's death has been difficult to fix accurately. Simpson intimates that it was in the fall during the absence of Dyer's Expedition. Catherine Dugan Taylor says that it was in the autumn after Washburn's death— Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 387. On December 15, 1838, Hugh McLeod wrote to President Lamar that he was camped thirty miles west of Clarksville and that reports were current that several men had been killed on the frontier by Indians some days before. He adds further that Gen. Dyer was absent to the westward. That the pioneers to whom McLeod refers were Daugherty and McCarty there is little doubt. Thus we are justified in placing the murders on Bois D'Arc in the last week of November or the first week of December, 1838. Lamar Papers, III.

During the summer and autumn of 1838 three forts were constructed as places of refuge for the harassed settlers of Fannin County. A stockade was built at Warren to afford protection for the pioneers along Red River and Choctaw Bayou. Many availed themselves of its shelter and camped within the walls while others lived in tents and houses nearby. Cows were pastured under guard. The pioneer wives and mothers kept their spinning wheels and looms busy. The men tilled the fields co-operatively, some watching, and some plowing. Among those who camped at Warren at this period were the Shannon brothers, Micajah Davis, the Caruthers brothers, Henry Green and Daniel Dugan and their families.¹¹ The settlers on Bois D'Arc and Timber Creek depended for safety on Ft. Inglish,¹² while the families in the North Sulphur section built a fort in the southwestern part of Lamar County, some ten miles east of present-day Ladonia. At this stockade, Lyday's Fort (so called for its commandant, Captain Isaac Lyday), there were concentrated some twenty-five or thirty families under the protection of a ranger force of eighty-five men.¹³ Thus the forts faced the Indian Country.¹¹Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 393.
¹²Carter, History of Faninin County, 42.
¹³"Information from Wm. B. Stout," The Lamar Papers, IV, 273.

Despite these precautions life and property were secure only within gunshot of the forts. The Indians rode into the country during the light of every moon. Scouts were constantly on the alert, but even then the savages managed to penetrate their lines, to steal horses, to kill the cattle on the prairies, and to massacre defenseless settlers and solitary travellers. Hunting practically ceased except for that carried on by the scouts, who, fortunately, were successful in obtaining ample supplies of meat for the barricaded settlers.

Among the isolated ones was John R. McIntyre who had early settled several miles above the mouth of Choctaw Bayou near Red River. The proximity of Shawneetown rendered this location unsuitable, if not unsafe. Accordingly McIntyre moved to the crossing on Choctaw (at the present site of the Bells-Denison highway bridge) about 1838. This crossing has since borne his name. There he had John F. Moody as a neighbor. Shortly after McIntyre's arrival, Moody was obliged to go to Warren on business. Late in the afternoon while riding homeward he was fired upon from an ambuscade which the Indians had laid almost directly in front of McIntyre's house. The latter heard the shot and saw Moody fall dead from his horse. Barricading his family in the cabin, he watched the savages indulge in a veritable orgy over the body of their victim. Moody was scalped and his face and body shockingly mutilated. This done, the Indians built a bonfire and held a war dance around the bloody corpse. It was thought at the time that the Shawnees committed the murder by mistake, intending rather to kill McIntyre whom they hated.¹⁴¹⁴Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 401 ff.

Soon after Moody's death, Shawnees killed McIntyre's two eldest sons while they were hunting below Choctaw. The boys were about twelve and fourteen years old, respectively.¹⁵ Dr. Rowlett, in describing their murder, says,¹⁵Ibid., 401.

At one time I saw two little boys, the sons of John R. McIntire, of the age of ten, and twelve years [Rowlett is at fault concerning the age of the boys] who had been murdered in sight of each other and within a half mile of their father's camp, and a sister and two brothers all younger than the two murdered remained at the camp alone until the neighborhood was called together, the boys found and disposed of, and the Indians trailed off; night after night did the three little fellows remain by themselves protected by a half faced camp and heaven.¹⁶¹⁶"Information from Dr. Rowlett on Red River," The Lamar Papers, IV, 219.

The boys were killed the twenty-ninth of January, 1838.^17>17"Information from William B. Stout," The Lamar Papers, IV, 274.

That there may be, however, a ludicrous side to the most desperate situation this story from John P. Simpson will demonstrate:

While the white people were forted at Warren, in 1839, Daniel Dugan and Henry Green two old men volunteered their services to guard the horses at night. The young men had become worn out by incessant watching and guarding the horses of those citizens who were forted, being kept in an enclosure for safety, where they had to be guarded at night. In the center of this enclosure, a stable had been built, which answered for a guard-house, and was surrounded by shade trees. The stable loft was partly laid with rails, which projected over the center joist, and which was for the guard to occupy while watching for the Indians.

The two old veterans took their stand in the guard-house, on the rails, watching vigilantly for the foe, who true to their instinct for stealing, made their appearance in the horse lot, secreting themselves behind and in the shade of the trees. The moon shining very bright, gave the old men a chance to see; but the shadow of the Indians as they passed suddenly from one tree to another, gave them no chance to get a shot. They being extremely anxious to sun the Indian moccasins, and in their eagerness to get a position to do execution, they reached beyond the ballance on the joist, when their footholds gave way, the rails turning end upon end, and away went the old men, guns, rails and all, with a great crash in the stable, making a great noise. The Indians did not take time to see what was the matter, nor what was done, but ran and made their escape to the brush, not being accustomed to such charges in warfare. The old men were somewhat bruished by the fall, but had the honor of inaugurating a new way of scaring off Indians.¹⁸¹⁸Carter, History of Fannin County, 35 ff.

But tragedy stalked the frontier more often during that fateful winter than did comedy. On February eighth or ninth, 1839, Bushnell Garner and Isaac Camp started from Warran to Coffee's Station. When they reached the subsequent site of the Ray Yards west of Denison, they were fired upon from ambush, and instantly killed. The victims, as usual, were scalped and their skulls broken into fragments with tomahawks. Their bodies were stripped of clothing and horribly mutilated.¹⁹ On the same day James G. Kiethley was murdered at his home by Indians who probably belonged to the same party that killed the two travelers.²⁰¹⁹Ibid., 36.
²⁰"Information from William B. Stout," The Lamar Papers, IV, 275.

While the murders above recorded were probably committed by Texas Indians—mainly Shawnees—the settlers were not entirely secure from thieving raids that originated among the Indians who dwelt in the United States. On May 1 a group of twelve citizens led by Dr. Rowlett set out in an attempt to recover horses stolen on the previous night from Jabez Fitzgerald, John R. Garnett, John Duncan, George Duncan, George Dameron, J. C. Dodds, John Davis and Isham Davis. The trails of the thieves converged at a possibly pre-arranged rendezvous near Red River whence the common trail followed the south bank of the river for twenty miles before it crossed into the Indian Territory. The Texans trailed the horses a hundred miles beyond this crossing in a northeastward direction and on the fourth day retook one of the stolen mares. Not yet satisfied they continued their incursion to a point within forty miles of Ft. Smith, where all turned back except George and John Dameron and Isham Davis. These three, pursuing their quest further, were informed by Andy Van, a Cherokee, that two of the stolen animals were at the house of Deertracks, another Cherokee, on the east side of the Arkansas River. They took possession of these horses but were unable to recover the other nine, although they were informed by Aaron Hicks, an officer of the United States Army, that they were at a grocery (saloon) nearby. The party saw at Deertracks' house four horses that had been stolen from Israel Gabriel, Parker McFarland and Jacob Black on February 1.²¹ They then went to William Armstrong, the Cherokee Agent, who readily agreed that the value of the stolen horses and the expenses of the pursuit should be retained out of the first annuity that should fall due to the Indians who were responsible for the theft of the animals.²² There is no record, however, that the government of the United States sanctioned its agent's agreement or that the Texans were ever reimbursed for their stolen property.²¹Deposition of Swagerty and others, July 10, 1840. Garrison, Diplomatic Correspondence of the Republic of Texas, II, 68-69, in Am. Hist. Assn. Report, 1908, II.
²²Rowlett to Burnet, January 5, 1840. Ibid., 64-65.

The spring of 1839 came bringing no relief. Crops were planted and tilled cooperatively. Two men watched, one at either end of the field, while the arms of those who were engaged in the farming were piled conveniently close at hand in the center of the tract. Fortunately the harvest was a bountiful one, and when it was divided according to the number of teams and hands that contributed to its production rather than by the return from each individual farm there was a sufficiency for all. At all three of the forts this communistic principle of division was observed in distributing the harvest of 1839.

That events that savor of the ludicrous or the laughable may occur even in the midst of the most perilous times we have seen in the case of Green and Dugan's repulse of Indian horse thieves. John P. Simpson relates another comical episode so charmingly that one may be pardoned for quoting his account in full:

In 1839, the Indians in the territory of Fannin County, had reduced horse stealing to a science so perfect that the most watchful and adroit citizen was duped and deceived by their cunning. Wm. Rice, an old and talented bachelor, owned the house and land where Dority [Daugherty] and McCarty's son were killed, near where Orangeville now stands. Rice having no help-mate to enjoy his pleasures and profits, or divide his sorrows, determined to live on his land and enjoy all the felicity arising from such a course of life, supposing that he could outwit and manage the dexterous savage in his plans and purposes of rascality. Having but one horse, he determined to keep him secure, and arranged his feedbox on his porch by the side of his house, fastened his lariat around his neck, deposited the feed in the box, and would lariat himself to the other end of his rope until his horse was done eating. He would then unlariat himself and lead his mustang to his meathouse, which was close by, put him in the house, fasten a heavy slab door-shutter with chains and lock, then retire to his bed of sweet repose, composed of buffalo hides and bear skins, confident of his success. His arrangement succeeded admirably for some time, and he was elated with the thought that he had outwitted the wily savage. But how quick the success and fortunes of life can be changed and thwarted, and the party left to look on the scene of disappointment with regret.

Mr. Rice having one night gone through with his process of caution and vigilance, lariated himself to the opposite end of his rope, he being in the house, and after fastening his cabling around his waist, retired to his bed scaffold, and laid down to rest until his horse would be done eating, after which he intended to secure him in his fortress of safety. Thinking over the perils and dangers to which he was exposed (which he afterward told me) his horse suddenly stopped eating—he hesitated a moment—could hear nothing of his horse, and drew his cable to the shore, but he found only anchor at one end and that around himself. He was left afoot and had to make acknowledgment that he was duped and outgeneraled by the savage foe.²³²³Carter, History of Fannin County, 32 ff. Rice made his first crop of corn in Fannin County in 1837, above the mouth of Choctaw Bayou on Red River with a plow made of bois d'arc timber.

Daniel Davis, as we have seen, had moved from Red River County into the North Sulphur country in 1837. His house at that time was an outside one and consequently much exposed to Indian attacks. In order to render his family the more secure he adopted the expedient of carrying his wife, son and baby daughter to a dense thicket a half mile from the house and concealing them there. He then returned to guard the house with the assistance of his negro slaves. For a year this plan was regularly carried out with entire success, but eventually Indian hostilities became so persistent that this method of defense was deemed no longer adequate. Thus it was that Davis moved with his family to Lyday's Fort along with the other settlers in December, 1838, and remained there until the following autumn when he, encouraged by the apparent cessation of Indian raids, left the fort and returned to his deserted farm. He paid for his temerity by being killed by the marauders on the morning of the twelfth day after his return.

It was Davis's habit to rise at four o'clock in the morning, dress himself except for lacing his shoes, call the negro cook from her cabin in the back yard, send the colored slave to feed the stock, then slip his shoes off and lay back down to await breakfast. The morning of his death he followed his usual custom. After a short interval, Susie, the negro cook, called her mistress to the back door, saying, "Mis' Margaret, there's Indians about the place."

Mrs. Davis apprised her husband of the woman's fears, and he arose with his usual self-possession and walked to the door.

"Susie," he asked, "what makes you think there are Indians about?"

"Why," she answered, "I heard them holloaing at the barn like owls."

"Well, that is just what it is—it is nothing but owls you hear, Susie. You know that you are a great coward. Now go back to the kitchen and see that you have your breakfast on time."

At daybreak Davis walked to the front gate to talk with a young man named Glothlin whom he had hired to assist him about the place. While the two stood conversing they were fired upon from the horse lot some sixty yards away. Glothlin escaped uninjured, although his clothing was torn and a lock of hair cut from his head. Davis, less fortunate, had one arm broken and received a ball through his breast that killed him instantly.

During that night a heavy rain had fallen forcing a scouting party of twelve or fourteen men from Lyday's Fort to seek shelter at the Davis house. This proved a fortunate thing for the remainder of the family, for no sooner had the Indians fired upon the two at the gate than they charged the house. They were swarming over the fences when the rangers opened the door. The sight of their unexpectedly large numbers caused the savages to retire in spite of the fact that the scouts were caught unarmed by the sudden attack and did not fire a shot. The rangers moved the dead man and his family from the scene of the tragedy to James McFarland's place three miles to the eastward, and it was there that Andrew Davis, the son, learned of his father's death, at ten o'clock in the morning, as he was returning from the fort where he had been sent the night before with an old slave to obtain some hogs.²⁴²⁴Phelan, History of Methodism in Texas, 400f. The date of Davis' death cannot be accurately fixed although the evidence tends to place it in the latter part of November, 1839. It is certain that Asa Hatfield was appointed by the Probate Court as administrator of Davis's estate on December 13, 1839. Probate Court Records, A, 79.

The assassination of Davis, however, was rather an isolated incident in the warfare between the whites and the Indians. For the settlers in general were enjoying a respite from predatory raids by the mid-summer of 1839. This was due, in part, to Rusk's defeat of the Cherokees and their associated bands at the Delaware village in Cherokee County, July 15-16, 1839,²⁵ and, in part, to the better organization of the ranger forces under the captaincy of Mark R. Roberts, Daniel R. Jackson and Joseph Sowell.²⁶ Moreover, late in the spring of 1839 Holland Coffee returned to Warren from Houston where he had served as a member of the Third Congress of the Republic, bringing with him his bride, Sophia Suttenfield. The couple stopped a few days in Warren while an escort was being secured to attend them to Coffee's Station. Coffee, while waiting, made an investigation of the Indian situation, and promised the harassed settlers to use all of his prestige with the savages in an effort to establish peace with them. No sooner had he reached his trading post than Coffee raised a party of men and set out to hold a series of peace parleys with the Indians. His negotiations proved entirely successful, and while the treaty lasted but a short while it gave the settlers a much needed rest from Indian hostilities and permitted them to return for a time to their neglected farms.²⁷²⁵Brown, History of Texas, II, 162-163.
²⁶Bates, History and Reminiscences of Denton County, 2.
²⁷Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 394.

IV. TARRANT'S EXPEDITION

The defeat of the Cherokees and their associated bands in east Texas removed for the time being the most persistent organizers of mischief among the intrusive Indians. Many of them crossed Red River into the United States, while others under the leadership of Egg and John Bowles sought to reach Mexico. Not all of the Cherokees left Texas, however, for a very considerable group settled at the deserted site of the Kickapoo village, destroyed by General Rusk in October, 1838, on Village Creek, a mile or two above where that stream joins the Trinity between present day Dallas and Fort Worth. Here they were joined by remnants of various tribes, principally the Seminoles, Wacos, Caddos, Kickapoos, Anadarcos and Shawnees. Chastened by the crushing defeat of 1839 and closely watched by the Rangers, the Indians maintained a peaceful relationship with their white neighbors throughout the year 1840. But at the first relaxation of this policy of constant vigilance on the part of the settlers, the confederated bands renewed their predatory raids into Fannin County.

These incursions, as well as the grave menace of the Comanches along the central and southern frontier, prompted Congress to adopt a more vigorous Indian policy and to institute means for frontier defense. On the first of February, 1841, it appropriated $8000.00 for the maintenance of a frontier battalion to be commanded by Colonel William G. Cooke.¹ Three days later an act was passed whereby the following counties were authorized to raise companies of minute men: Fannin, Lamar, Red River, Bowie, Paschal, Panola, Nacogdoches, Houston, Robertson, Milam, Travis, Bexar, Gonzales, Goliad, Victoria, Refugio, San Patricio, Montgomery and Bastrop. Each company was to consist of not less than twenty men nor more than fifty-six. The volunteers, who were to elect their own officers, were to hold themselves in readiness for instant service. The act provided:¹DeShields, Border Wars of Texas, 357.

The members of said companies shall at all times be prepared with a good substantial horse, bridle and saddle, with other necessary accouterments, together with a good gun and one hundred rounds of ammunition; and in addition to this, when called into service, such number of rations as the captain may direct. . . . The captains . . . may, when they deem it prudent, detail from their companies a number of spies, not more than five to act upon the frontiers of their several counties.

In return for their service, the minute-men were exempted from the payment of all poll taxes, from the tax imposed by law on a saddle horse, and from the performance of road duty. The volunteers were to be paid one dollar a day for all service rendered . . .

. . . provided that the members of the companies shall not receive pay on any one expedition for a longer period than fifteen days; and, on the several expeditions within one year after their organization, shall not receive pay for a longer period than four months in the aggregate, excepting the spies.²²DeShields, Border Wars of Texas, 357 f.

The second series of Indian troubles began in the spring of 1841. On March 14, 1841, while John Yeary,³ his little son, and a negro slave were working in a field near present-day Bagby, a party of fifteen Indians approached his cabin occupied by his wife and daughter. The younger woman discovered the marauders when they were some thirty yards from the house and with admirable presence of mind closed and bolted the door. The Indians, yelling hideously, attempted to break down the door but did not succeed before the arrival of Yeary, the boy, and the slave, who had been attracted by the commotion. The savages as soon as they noted the approach of the rescuing party left off their hammering at the door and sallied forth to meet them at the fence thirty feet from the house. There a sanguinary fight ensued. The Indians tried to shoot Yeary with arrows but the pioneer, a man of powerful physique, laid about him so furiously with his heavy eye hoe that his assailants were unable to take careful aim, and began beating him about the head with their unstrung bows. Meanwhile the negro and Yeary's small son were not inactive. The mother and daughter now threw open the door and marched into the fight, each bearing a loaded rifle. The older woman sustained a deep wound in the thigh from an arrow, but undauntedly carried the gun to her husband who hurdled the fence to meet her. At the same time the boy obtained a rifle from his sister, whereupon the Indians took alarm and fled, leaving the settlers completely victorious. Yeary then sent the slave to Elbert Early's place, some five miles to the eastward, for assistance. William Bourland, who was visiting Early, rode to Yeary's rescue, but found that except for Mrs. Yeary's wound and Yeary's badly lacerated face the situation was well in hand. Bourland in commenting on the affair said:³John Yeary came to Texas from Northwest Arkansas in 1839. He had been a captain in the United States Army, and for nine years prior to his arrival in Texas he had been in charge of the mowing and baling of hay which was used for the cavalry horses at the various army posts in the Southwest. He resigned his commission in 1839 and led a party of six families to Fannin County. He settled northeast of present-day Ladonia across North Sulphur. In 1845 he moved to Farmnersville, in Collin County, then called Sugar Hill.—W. S. Adair, "Red-haired Aunt Object of Indian Attack," the Dallas Morning News, July 24, 1927.

Captain Yeary was strongly solicited by his family and friends to leave the frontier, but he refused and said that he felt that he could succeed every time even if double the number should attack him.⁴⁴W. H. Bourland: "Captain J. Yeary's Fight With the Indians," The Lamar Papers, IV, 235 ff. The above is the only authentic account of Yeary's fight with the Indians. Various garbled accounts have been written, but none are founded on Bourland's recital, which is undoubtedly correct, as he was at the Yeary place within an hour or two after the battle. Even the usually reliable Rowlett seems at fault in his details of the fight.—The Lamar Papers, IV, 220.

Early in April, 1841, Indians massacred the Ripley family on the Cherokee Tract in Titus County. While this outrage was not perpetrated within the confines of Fannin County, it led to the organization of the most important of Fannin's four punitive campaigns, namely, Tarrant's first expedition. On May 4, citizen volunteers began to assemble on Choctaw Bayou eight miles west of Warren. On the following morning the company perfected its organization by electing James Bourland captain; William C. Young lieutenant; Dr. Lemuel M. Cochran orderly sergeant; and by placing John B. Denton and Henry Stout each in charge of a few scouts. Edward H. Tarrant accompanied the party without command, although his position as general of militia and his experience as an Indian fighter caused him to be accepted as actual leader. The volunteers moved the same day to Ft. Johnson (near the present site of Denison), built the previous winter by General Cooke. Here they remained some days awaiting the arrival of tardy members of the party.⁵⁵There are two important sources in which the accounts of this expedition are recorded by participants: "Report of Acting Brigade Inspector William N. Porter to Secretary of War Branch T. Archer, June 5, 1841," DeShields, Border Wars of Texas, 355-359. Reminiscences of Andrew Davis, in Phelan, History of Methodism in Texas, 400 f. In addition, John Henry Brown, Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, 85-87, has preserved an account founded on the personal memoirs of James Bourland, William C. Young, Lemuel M. Cochran and Daniel Williams, as well as personal interviews with Henry Stout, John M. Watson, Alex W. Webb and James G. Stephens.

Different accounts vary as to the number of men who took part in the campaign. Lemuel Cochran, the orderly sergeant, reported eighty, while Henry Stout placed the total at seventy. Porter's statement that there were sixty-nine on the main expedition clears this discrepancy in view of the fact that Holland Coffee, W. A. Wallace, Silas Colville and seven others left the expedition and returned after a few days to Coffee's Station. The names of approximately half of the men who took part in the expedition are known, and are given here for the first time in a tabulated list. From Fannin County there were John Yeary, Daniel Montague, Andrew Davis, Jackson McFarland, William H. Gilbert, William R. Baker, Lemuel M. Cochran, James G. Stephens and Wiley B. Merrill. Red River County was represented by Edward H. Tarrant, John B. Denton, Henry Stout, William C. Young, James, William, and Mack Bourland, John L. Lovejoy, Claiborne Chisum, William N. Porter, Richard Hopkins, Elbert Early, Calvin Sullivan, Lindley Johnson, Alsey Fuller and Andrew J. Fowler. Others whose residence has not been fully determined were: Samuel Sims, Isaac Parker, Alex W. Webb, John M. Watson, Daniel Williams, Hampton and Littleton Rattan, Jack Ivey and one Pickens.

On the fourteenth of May the party moved westward along the Chihuahua Trail, with Jack Ivey,⁶ a mulatto halfbreed, acting as guide. Since it was believed that the Indians were encamped on the West Fork of the Trinity near the present site of Bridgeport, the expedition moved west of south, passing through the Lower Cross Timbers and crossing the middle fork of the Trinity. The fourth day out they changed their line of march a little more to the southwest and on the following day came to the rumored village which they found deserted although there were signs of recent occupancy. Tarrant was afraid to fire the sixty or seventy empty lodges that composed the village lest from their elevation the smoke and flames would attract the attention of any nearby Indians, and therefore he had them destroyed by axes.⁶Jack Ivy is frequently mentioned by early trappers and explorers and was a well known figure among the Indians.

They changed their line of march the next day (the twentieth) to the southeast down the west side of the Trinity, but deviating from their course on the twenty-first they crossed the high divide and made camp on the East Fork of the Brazos. Finding no Indian signs, they again turned and marched eastward until they struck the Trinity near present-day Fort Worth. On the night of the twenty-third they camped in the fork of Fossil Creek and the Trinity.

On the next day they crossed from the east to the west side of the Trinity⁷ along an old buffalo trail that led diagonally down the river. Upon the discovery of fresh Indian signs, scouts were sent ahead to reconnoiter. These returned with the report that there were Indian villages some three miles in front of them. At nine or nine-thirty the main party arrived within three hundred yards of the encampment and took a position behind a thicket. There they were given five minutes in which to divest themselves of their blankets and packs and to prepare for a charge into the village on horseback. Tarrant addressed the men briefly, saying:⁷Rather, as the river flows eastward at this point, they crossed from the north to south side in a southeastward direction.

"Now, my brave men, we will never meet on earth again. There is great death and confusion ahead. I shall expect every man to fill his place and do his duty."⁸⁸Bates, History and Remriniscences of Denton County, 20. This is from the Dallas News, October 6, 1900.

They swept forward on the run, yelling and firing, and in an instant possessed themselves of the village. The men at once began to scatter into small parties. James Bourland and some twenty men, including Denton, Cochran, and Lindley Johnson, crossed the creek and found a road along which they galloped down the valley northward toward the river. In about a mile they discovered another and larger camp than that they had just taken. The occupants of the second camp fled into the thickets fringing the stream without offering any resistance. There was still a third village in sight below toward which a portion of the party began to advance on foot as their horses were about spent. The savages there, having recovered from their surprise, opened a desultory fire. Tarrant, seeing that his command was becoming badly scattered and deeming it advisable to establish a common rallying point, ordered the men to fall back to the second village captured. A roll call showed that not a man had been killed, although a dozen were horseless and as many as eight slightly wounded. Tarrant commended the men for their good behavior and ordered them to prepare to advance within fifteen minutes.

John B. Denton now sought permission from Tarrant to take a party and scour the woods for retreating Indians, a great number of whom had gone northward toward the Trinity. His request being granted, he took ten men and rode out along a trail that led from the northwestern part of the village. Bourland, accompanied by Andrew Davis, Henry Stout and ten others, departed from the northeastern side of the village. Stout, who was really in charge of Bourland's party on account of his extensive knowledge of Indian warfare, halted when he came to the juncture of the two trails a mile and a half below the point of departure. Andrew Davis continues:

When Captain Stout came to this point he halted and addressed his men, "Here the trail from the west unites with ours; a great many Indians have gone out on both trails, and from the large cottonwoods in sight we are near the river. I think it imprudent for a little squad of men to enter such a trap, for if the Indians make a stand at all it will be near the river."

Just then some one said, "I hear the sound of horses' feet."

Captain Stout said, "That is Denton; we will wait until he comes and we will consult."

When Denton came up, he said, "Captain, why have you stopped?"

Stout repeated to Denton what he had just said to his men, but added, "I am willing to go as far as any other man."⁹⁹Bates, History and Reminiscences of Denton County, 21.

Each of the two leaders seemed to have been piqued by the attitude of the other. Denton spurred his horse ahead with Stout and the men following. Bourland and Calvin Sullivan rode across a muddy branch after some horses, but the remainder of the party pushed on down the little stream across a corn field and came to a road leading to the creek. Here Denton halted. Stout rode to the front, remarking, "If you're afraid to go in there, I'm not." Denton answered sharply, "I'll follow you to hell. Go on." In approximately three hundred yards they found a well-worn buffalo trail that formed a fair ford. There they descended into the bed of the creek with Stout leading and Denton riding next. After having gone some thirty paces down the stream, they were fired upon by Indians concealed in the heavy underbrush along the bank. Stout, although in front, being partially protected by a small tree, was shot through the left arm. Denton, immediately behind him, was shot at the same instant. He wheeled his horse about, rode up the bank and dropped dead. He had received three wounds; one each in the shoulder, arm and right breast. The others of the party, except for Captain John Griffiin, did not come in range.

In the midst of the confusion John Yeary called out, "Why in the hell don't you move your men out where we can see the enemy? We will all be killed here." Stout answered, "Men, I'm wounded and powerless. Do the best you can for yourselves." The men, thoroughly demoralized, fired a few random shots and began an irregular retreat, but not before one of them had taken Denton from his saddle and laid him upon the ground. The party returned to the village where Bourland called for volunteers to go to the creek for Denton's body. He was not scalped nor was his body mutilated.

The attack was not pursued further, and Porter in his report makes clear the reason for the cessation of hostilities:

From the prisoners we had taken we had learned that at those villages there were upward of one thousand warriors, not more than half of whom were then at home. The other half were hunting buffalo and stealing on the frontier. Here was the depot of the stolen horses from our frontier, and the home of the horrible savages who had murdered our families. They were a portion of a good many tribes—principally the Cherokees who were driven from Nacogdoches County; some Creeks and Seminoles, Caddos, Kickapoos, Anadarcos, etc. We counted two hundred and twenty-five lodges, all in occupation, besides those we could see a glimpse of through the trees in the main village. They had about three hundred acres in corn, that we saw; and were abundantly provided with ammunition of every kind. They had good guns and had molded a great many bullets. Every lodge had two or three little bags of powder and lead, tied up in equal portions; and, at one lodge, a sort of blacksmith shop, where we found a set of blacksmith tools. We found over a half bushel of molded bullets, and we found also some sergeant's swords, musket flints, rifle and musket powder, pig lead, rifle and musket balls, which we supposed they must have taken from the place where the regular army had buried a portion of their ammunition. They had all manner of farming utensils, of the best sort, except plows. In some of the lodges we found feather beds and bedsteads.

We felt convinced that if the Indians could ascertain the smallness of our numbers, they might, with so great a number, by taking advantage of us at the crossing of the creeks with such immense thickets in their bottoms, which we were compelled to cross, if not defeat, at least cut off a great many of our men; and if we had remained in the village all night, it would have given the Indians time to have concentrated their forces, ascertained our numbers, and with ease have prevented our crossing a stream the size of the Trinity. It was deemed advisable, therefore, to take up the line of march and cross the Trinity that night. At five o'clock with our poor dead companion tied across a horse we left the village, marched twelve miles back on the trail we came, crossed the Trinity, and camped in the open prairie. The next morning twenty-five miles from the village we buried our friend, and in five more days we arrived in the settlements.

We had one killed; one badly and one slightly wounded.¹⁰ The Indians had twelve killed, that we counted; and a great many more must have been killed and wounded, from the quantity of blood we saw on their trails and in the thickets where they ran.¹⁰John Griffin.

We brought in 6 head of cattle; 37 horses, 300 pounds of lead, 30 pounds of powder, 20 brass kettles, 21 axes, 73 buffalo robes, 15 guns, 13 pack saddles, and 3 swords, and divers other things not recollected.¹¹¹¹"Report of Acting Brigade Inspector William N. Porter to Secretary of War Branch T. Archer, June 5, 1841," Indian Papers of Republic of Texas.

The exact burial place of Denton has been the subject of acrimonious discussion and endless controversy. Andrew Davis says,

At 11 o'clock we halted on a prairie on the south side of a creek, with a high bank on the north. On one of these elevations Captain Denton was buried—tools having been brought along from the village for that purpose. His grave was dug a good depth, a thin rock was cut so as to fit the bottom of the grave, similar rocks being placed at the sides, and at the head and feet. Another rock was placed over the body, and the grave filled up. Thus was buried one of God's noblemen.¹²¹²"The Story of the Fight and Captain Denton's Death," The Dallas Morning News, October 6, 1900. Quoted in Bates, History and Reminiscences of Denton County, 23.

Brown tells substantially the same story, adding that the body was buried "not far from where Birdville now stands."¹³ The remains were exhumed in 1860 by John Chisum, whose father, Claiborne Chisum, took part in the Village Creek Fight, and buried in the yard of the old Chisum ranch house. In 1901 the Old Settlers' Association of Denton County removed the remains and reburied them on the courthouse square in Denton, where a tall monument stands in honor of the pioneer preacher, lawyer and soldier.¹⁴¹³Brown, Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, 87.
¹⁴Bates, op. cit., 23.

The rite of burial performed, the party traveled up the country west of the Cross Timbers until they struck their outward trail at the site of later day Gainesville, and thus returned to Ft. Johnson about the twenty-sixth of May.¹⁵¹⁵Brown, op. cit., 87.

Not content with the partial victory of his spring campaign, Tarrant made preparations for a more extensive expedition to be carried on against the Indians of the Trinity area during the summer of 1841. Thus in July a much larger force recruited from the entire Red River section gathered at Ft. Inglish. The volunteers between four hundred and five hundred in number, assembled from the fifteenth to the twentieth of the month, and organized by electing William C. Young, colonel, and James Bourland, lieutenant-colonel. John Smither was made adjutant and among the captains were William Lane, David Key and Robert S. Hamilton. The expedition marched southwestward into the region traversed by Tarrant earlier in the year. At the same time General James Smith with a Nacogdoches group moved into the same area from the south. Neither force succeeded in finding Indians, nor did they join one another, although the hostiles, frightened by Smith's approach, deserted their camps just in time to escape Tarrant's attack. After some weeks the regiment returned home and disbanded. Thus the Indians of the Trinity area were dispossessed of their homes and forced to seek places of abode elsewhere, and for the first time since 1838 Fannin County was freed of predatory raids from the south.¹⁶¹⁶Brown, Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, 87. Also, DeShields, Border Wars of Texas, 362, footnote.

The activity of these expeditions, however, did not furnish absolute protection. William and Jesse Cox, brothers, were living four miles north of Fort Inglish in 1841. On the afternoon prior to the departure of Tarrant's force, William Cox sent his son and his nephew, each of whom was twelve years old, to drive up the cows. After a long wait for their return, the father became alarmed and sent a runner to the fort to notify General Tarrant. The commander sent out his scouts in all directions to search for the missing boys and to warn the settlers to be on the alert. The rangers, who carried the message to John P. Simpson, surprised a small party of Indians as the latter were mounting some stolen horses but, supposing them to be another detachment of scouts, hailed the savages. The Indians rode across the prairie where the city of Bonham now stands with the troops, who strangely did not fire a shot, in close pursuit. But in the darkness the whites became confused and permitted their foe to escape.

The main body of the Indian force then charged Fort Inglish but were repelled by the sentries. The two boys, as they afterward told their story, were compelled to ride behind the warriors as they attacked the stockade. The only casualty in this tilt was a squaw who was so severely wounded by the pickets that she died during the night. She was buried the next morning near present-day Orangeville. Not far from the same place the Indians ambushed a one-armed man who, it appeared from his actions, was looking for a stray horse. After shooting and scalping the cripple, the savages cut off the good arm at the elbow and threw the body into the creek. At their next camp the Indians roasted and ate the arm, intimating to the boys all the while by gestures that they might be the next item on the bill of fare. So far as it has been possible to determine, this is the only instance of cannibalism in the history of north Texas Indian depredations.

The boys were carried by the Indians to their village, which they reached after a march of six days. The little captives were cruelly treated; their backs cut and lacerated; they were deprived of their clothing and forced to go naked in the chilling Texas "northers." Six months elapsed before they were ransomed for six hundred dollars by some traders and sent home to their families.¹⁷ Concerning their home-coming John P. Simpson says:¹⁷The Sixth Congress of the Republic of Texas in session November, 1841-February, 1842, appropriated $600 to redeem the Cox boys. Laws of the Republic of Texas; 5th and 6th Congresses, Sixth Congress, 42.

The case of the prodigal son was eclipsed by the return of the two captured boys. The father fell on the neck of his son and wept; the mother ran to meet them, but swooned away with ecstatic joy and fell to the ground, and then returning to consciousness, with deep emotion and tears exclaimed, while embracing them in her arms, "My son was lost but now is found; was dead but liveth again; glory to God on high."¹⁸¹⁸Carter, History of Fannin County, 43-44.

Although Tarrant's two expeditions disposed of the menace from the Indians in the Trinity area, there was yet danger to be apprehended from renegade bands who lived north of Red River. To these invaders doubtless should be attributed the last, and most atrocious, murder committed within the boundaries of Fannin County proper, namely, that of Mrs. William Hunter, her daughter, and her negro slave woman on Caney Creek in 1842.

The first settler on Caney Creek was George Dameron who built his cabin in 1838 on the site now occupied by Carson Cemetery, but the danger of his exposed position forced him to return to Fort Inglish before the end of the year. In the spring of 1842, lulled into a feeling of security by the success of the Tarrant expeditions, he induced Dr. William Hunter to move with him from the fort to the locality in which he had formerly lived. The doctor settled on what is now known as the Jenkins' farm east of Caney Creek at a distance of a mile from Dameron's. Soon after Hunter's eldest daughter married William Langford of Warren,¹⁹ leaving the family composed of Hunter, his wife, two sons and two daughters.¹⁹Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 398.

On the day of the massacre Dr. Hunter and his sons were obliged to leave home on business. Shortly before noon one of the little girls was sent to the spring some fifty yards from the house to obtain a pail of water. The Indians, who were lying in ambush at the spring, killed her with arrows and took her scalp. They then rushed to the house and killed Mrs. Hunter and the negro woman and captured the other girl. The slave probably fought heroically for her life since she was found with a bloody club in her hand. The victims were scalped and tomahawked and their bodies mangled barbarously, after which the Indians poured over them the feathers from the beds which they had ripped open. The savages then gathered as many quilts and as much clothing as they could carry and taking the girl with them began their retreat.

That night Alonzo Larkin went from John P. Simpson's to the Hunter place. He hallooed several times, and receiving no response, turned his oxen out to graze and entered the house. Groping about in the dark for a flint and steel to make a light, he stumbled over an object that he at once determined was a dead body. Larkin's first thought was that the Indians were still in the house in an effort to trap the first comer, and without further ado he rushed from the house and hastened across the dark creek bottom to George Dameron's place. He found the settlers there unaware of the murder of their neighbors and unconscious of danger. On the following morning the bodies were brought from the scene of the murder to Dameron's and there buried.

Some eight months passed before the girl captured on the day her mother was murdered was ransomed from the savages by friendly Choctaws. On her return home she stated that her captors had always treated her kindly, and that on the retreat after her mother's death when she tired of walking one of the Indians obligingly carried her on his back.²⁰²⁰Carter, History of Fannin County, 37-38.

From this time on the various expeditions seem to have had their effect, since no further atrocities were committed in eastern Fannin County.

V. INDIAN AFFAIRS AT WARREN, 1841

Immigrants came in increasing numbers to western Fannin County during the spring of 1841, and the scene of Indian troubles following the frontier line shifted westward likewise. Many settlers stopped temporarily at Daniel Dugan's place, near present-day Dugan's Chapel, camping in his yard while they prospected for suitable locations. Among the families were those of John Kitchens, the Rev. Mr. Spivey, a Methodist minister, Henry Green, and a Mr. Long.

In July Dugan's son, Daniel V. Dugan, who expected to be married soon, engaged William Kitchens to assist him in cutting logs for the construction of a house. The young men carried with them enough provisions to last them for a week with the addition of such game as they might kill. The place where the woodsmen busied themselves was on the banks of Choctaw Bayou some two miles west of the main settlement. Two days after their departure, John Kitchens went above Choctaw on business and there learned that eleven Coushattas had crossed Red River west of Coffee's Station. He returned immediately to warn the settlers. He passed the young men's camp, but finding it deserted he concluded that they had been apprised of the danger, and so rode on homeward. At Dugan's he was informed that the young men had not yet returned. Runners were dispatched to Warren for the Rangers, but they were found to be absent on Tarrant's second expedition. Volunteers gathered at once but night having fallen nothing could be done until morning.

At daybreak of July 28 search began. Its results may be easily surmised. At nine o'clock William Henderson brought the news to the anxious mothers that Kitchens's body had been found near the site of the camp, but as yet that of Dugan had not been discovered. Kitchens had been shot from ambush and scalped. Later Dugan's mutilated body was located three hundred yards from that of his murdered companion. Evidences of a terrific struggle were apparent. From all appearances he had been attacked while he was some distance from his gun. The savages had missed him at their first fire, and then closed about him with their knives and tomahawks. He defended himself with his axe, retreating toward the timber. When at length his arms had been so hacked that he could no longer hold his bloody axe, he turned to flee. He then was shot twice and scalped. Their bloody work finished, the Indians had ransacked the camp and fled. The bodies were brought to the Dugan home, and buried on a knoll just east of the present site of Dugan Chapel. The Rev. Mr. Spivey performed the last rites of respect over the dead.

On Sunday following (August 1), the Kitchens family returned home after having spent the day with the Dugans. The chores having been finished, Kitchens, his son Dan, and a young man named Stevens sat outside in a state of constant watchfulness with their chairs tilted against the cabin and their guns between their knees. The house, a one-roomed structure, was unchinked so that Mrs. Kitchens and the girls could be plainly seen as they moved about in preparation of supper. Suddenly the Sabbath stillness was broken by three shots, two of which took effect, one in the foot of the elder Kitchens, and one in the foot of Dan Kitchens. The men ran into the cabin instantly, forgetting in their haste their guns and powder horns. Kitchens, however, without a moment's delay walked out into the hail of bullets and handed the weapons to the defenders of the house. Now the fight began in earnest. The men fired continually. Mrs. Kitchens assisting with an old-fashioned pistol, while the girls molded bullets. A burly negro who accompanied the marauders made an attempt to reach the door but was shot down by Kitchens, while Stevens killed an Indian who was trying to secure a horse tied to a wagon in the yard. This staunch defense so discouraged the savages that they desisted from their attack and fled to the security of the adjacent timber. No sooner were they gone than Kitchens sent young Dan to the Dugan place for aid. The pioneers there had heard the firing and were upon the alert. A party was dispatched to the assistance of the attacked house, but the Indians had been beaten so effectively that they did not renew the attack.¹¹Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 405-411.

It may be well in the course of this narrative to pause long enough to correct some misapprehensions concerning the chronology and exact events in the Warren vicinity immediately after the attack on the Kitchens family. Various popular histories of Indian depredations have confused the story of this attack with that of the subsequent fight at the Dugans. Even John P. Simpson falls into an error when he places Joseph Sowell's raid into the Indian Territory after the battle at the Dugan house.² But since this fight took place on the night of November 15, and as Sowell himself was killed on the night of October 31, obviously the cause of his raid was the battle at the Kitchenses which occurred August 1.²Simpson, "Death of Sowell," Carter, History of Fannin County, 48.
³³An account of the fixing of these dates may be interesting as well as instructive. Two entries in the Dugan family Bible establish three important dates. First, we read, "Daniel V. Dugan was killed by Indians July 27, 1841." Reference to a perpetual calendar will show this day to have been Tuesday. Catherine Dugan Taylor mentions that the attack on the Kitchens family occurred on the following Sunday, which was August the first. The data of the attack on the Dugan house is fixed by the fact that it took place on Monday night following the marriage of Mary Dugan to Daniel Montague. This wedding was solemnized November 14, 1841. Accordingly, the battle was fought on the night of November 15-16. Joseph Sowell was killed, John P. Simpson says, on Sunday night before District Court assembled in 1841. Here we must decide between the May or November terms of court. Fortunately this is easy to do, as we find in the Probate Records of Fannin County a copy of Sowell's will made August 18, 1841, a fact which defers his death to the later of two possible dates. The first Monday in November, 1841, fell on the first day of the month, so we may safely conclude he was killed the night of October the thirty-first. The District Court Minutes for Fannin County, 31, for the November term show that in reality court did not convene until the second. Would this not be due to the confusion resultant upon the death of the host of the officials and jurors?

The Indians responsible for the death of young Dugan and Kitchens and the attack on the Kitchens house were renegade Coushattas from the United States. This group of Indians, and associated bands, were not only a source of constant menace to the white settlers of Texas but also to the civilized Chickasaws north of Red River, as is shown in the letter which A. M. M. Upshaw, of the Chickasaw Agency, near Fort Towson, wrote to Major William Armstrong, acting Superintendent for the Western Territory, on September 13, 1841:

. . . For the last two years the Chickasaws have been very much annoyed by various bands of Indians, who intruded into their district, viz.: Delawares, Kickapoos, Cherokees, Caddoes, Uchees, Coushattas and others. The ostensible business of these various bands was hunting, but they carried on an extensive trade with the Comanches and other wild tribes, who are situated to the south and west of the Chickasaw district; and I have reason to believe (from the horses that they bring into this country being States-raised horses, and generally shod) that they, or the Indians they traded with, stole them from the citizens of Texas. This last winter those bands became more numerous and troublesome. They commenced killing the stock of the Chickasaws, and stealing their horses, and got so strong, bold, and threatening, . . . that the Chickasaws, Choctaws and traders petitioned me to have them removed forthwith. I immediately went among the various bands and advised them to move, but all I could say to them had no effect. They at one time threatened hostilities, and the good and peaceable citizens became so alarmed, that I called on the commander of the second department, western division, to send, as soon as possible, troops to protect the frontier and move these bands off; which request was complied with in the last of April, May and the first part of June. The troops left the Chickasaw district about the fifteenth of June, since which time some of the Indians have returned, and stolen some fine horses and some negroes; two negro men have been stolen from Blue River in the last ten days.

"About five weeks since some of the citizens of Texas, well armed, crossed to the north side of Red River, and killed two Indians, a man and a woman; the other Indians made their escape, but their property was all destroyed. Two or three weeks afterward a company of about sixty or eighty Texans, well-armed, crossed Red River above the mouth of,the False Washita, and scoured the country between the Washita and Red Rivers, committing depredations on some of the houses of the Chickasaws."⁴⁴U. S. Senate, Executive Documents, 27th Congress, Second Session, No. 1, 340. Report of the Secretary of War.

The raids into the Chickasaw country, mentioned in Upshaw's report, were organized at Warren. The settlers, thoroughly aroused by the Indian murders and attacks, crossed Red River on two separate occasions for the purpose of exacting revenge on the marauders. John P. Simpson states that the Coushattas, who had been working on the plantation of Dr. Daniel Rowlett, left after the attack of their fellow tribesmen on August 1, and fled across Red River into the Chickasaw district. Joseph Sowell, with a band of ten or twelve men, followed them, and in a night attack on their camp killed a number of Indians. He naively remarks, "This matter was kept still with the Texans for some time, the act being a violation of international law with the United States."⁵⁵Carter, History of Fannin County, 48.

The knowledge that this raid was a breach of international policy did not trouble the Texans as much as Simpson would have us believe. For, as we have noticed, two or three weeks after Sowell's invasion of the United States a much larger force crossed the river, and, not content with punishing the renegades, proceeded to destroy the property of the civilized Chickasaws. If there was an attempt on the part of the Texans to keep these raids a secret, there was certainly no lack of knowledge concerning them among the Indian agents of the United States. On August 27, James Wolf, one of the chiefs and commissioners of the Chickasaws, wrote from the Depot on Boggy, to Upshaw:

We have lately learned with a feeling of deep regret, that a party of Texans, numbering about one hundred men, crossed Red River above the mouth of the Washita, and were urging war on any one they might find . . . And it is a well known fact, and one that the Texans will not deny, that about four weeks ago a party crossed the Red River, near Mrs. Charles Colbert's place, and fired on a party of Indians, killing several of them, and plundering their camp of everything of value. One of the Texan men, and the one that led the party, was a Mr. Huston, that formerly lived with Major James Colbert.

Upshaw, in a letter transmitting this report to Captain George W. Allen, of the United States army, commandant at Fort Towson, adds,

Mr. David Wall arrived here since I commenced this letter, and informed me that some sixty Texans crossed Red River a few days since, and committed depredations on the property of Eno-ti-a, a Chickasaw.⁶⁶U. S. Senate, Executive Documents, Thirty-second Congress, First Session, III, 69, Document No. 14.

In this triangle of Texans, renegade Indians and Chickasaws, the last were the ones who appear to have suffered most without efforts at retaliation. Exposed as they were on the extreme frontier with their property in jeopardy at the hands of both the Texans and the Coushattas and their associates, the Chickasaws seem to have displayed admirable patience and restraint. Eventually their appeal for protection led General Zachary Taylor to attend personally to the selection of a site for a military post on the Washita River. The post subsequently located some twenty miles north of the mouth of the Washita was named Fort Washita. Its completion in 1842-43 marked the end of the predatory raids across Red River by the Indians and the Texans, and proved to be an unmixed blessing to that section of the troubled frontier.⁷⁷Foreman, Pioneer Days in the Southwest, 283.

In 1841, however, there was no such protection and the next raid took place just prior to the November term of the District Court for Fannin County, 1841, which was set to meet on Monday, the first day of the month. Owing to the large area included in the jurisdiction at that time, it was customary for the court officials and jurors to arrive in Warren on the preceding Sunday afternoon. They stayed during the session at the tavern kept by Joseph Sowell⁸ and John H. Scott. "After securing lodging for themselves, had their horses cared for," as John H. Simpson says, "they would indulge in drinking, and engage in recitals of the dangers, narrow escapes and combats with the Indians."⁸Joseph Sowell was an early settler of Fannin County, arriving in September, 1836. He settled on Red River below the mouth of Sandy Creek at a location still known as Sowell's Bluff. His oldest son, John, was captured by Indians about 1837 and held as a prisoner for eighteen months, after which he was ransomed by Sam Houston and returned to his father. Sowell was a native of South Carolina. Lusk, A History of Constantine Lodge, No. 13, Bonham, Texas, 3. Sowell, A. J., Texas Indian Fighters, 791.

Sowell owned a fine stallion that he kept securely locked in a stable, while the horses of the guests were permitted to run free in the corral that surrounded the barn. During the early part of the night Indians cut through the door jambs and secured the stallion. Mounting him, one of the thieves began to drive the other horses through a gap that his companions had laid in the corral fence. The neighing and tramping of the frightened animals attracted the attention of the revellers who ran out to ascertain the cause, but in the confusion most of them forgot their guns. Scott and Sowell were foremost; they reached the gap in the fence where Sowell fired his pistol at the savage astride his horse. The shot went wild, whereupon the marauders loosed a volley of arrows at him, one of which pierced his body. Calling to Scott to shoot the Indian, Sowell dropped dead without a groan. His friend shot the rider off the horse. This turn of affairs so frightened the Indians that they fled in every direction. It was afterward learned that they had collected on the road near Brushy Creek and prepared an ambuscade to intercept any possible messenger to Fort Inglish, but no one was so unwary as to attempt the journey. From the number of moccasin tracks the settlers estimated the number of Indians to have been twelve.⁹⁹Carter, History of Fannin County, 48-49.

The settlers were always on the alert to revenge themselves on their relentless foes. Sometime after the death of Daniel V. Dugan and William Kitchens two hunters rode into the settlement to report that they had observed an Indian sentry on a high place on the prairie eight miles west of Choctaw Bayou. George C. Dugan and six companions at once departed in search of the Indians. They located their camp easily and killed one of the savages. Besides capturing a number of horses, the party brought in a quantity of bows and arrows and several great cowhide shields. From these the settlers concluded that the marauders were wild Indians, in all probability, Comanches, who had not learned the use of firearms.

With the approach of winter many of the settlers on Choctaw became dissatisfied at the prospect of fighting Indians without hope of any cessation of hostilities so that late in the autumn they began to move to more secure locations. Some went further down the river in Fannin County while others emigrated to Red River County. The Dugans and a company of young men, however, resolved to stay and fight it out. Among the latter were Joseph Gordon and Calvin Hoover. Henry Green and his family were prepared to go but delayed a few days to attend the wedding of Mary Dugan and Colonel Daniel Montague. The couple were married on Sunday afternoon, November 14, before a large number of the relatives of the bride and friends of the groom who came from Warren to attend the ceremony. The following morning the wedding party left for Warren accompanied by George and Emily Dugan. Green and his family went with them also, but much against his parents' wishes the eldest son, William Green, decided to remain. His sisters joined in entreating him to go, but the prospect of a winter's hunting and trapping with Gordon proved more potent than their pleading, and unfortunately for him, he permitted them to depart without him.

After the departure of the guests, Gordon and Hoover went hunting. In the meantime, William Dugan and young Green began to make the house more secure against Indian attacks and cold weather. They chinked the cracks between the logs, cut portholes and fitted blocks for them, and made bars for the doors which had been fastened previously with wooden pegs. The house proper was a long log structure, with an open "dog-trot" between, facing north and south. At the west end was the kitchen, which projected far enough on either side to allow a porthole to command a view of the yard and side of the house. The young men slept in the room furthest east but George and William Dugan had their quarters over the stable so that they might the more easily watch the horses.

At night-fall, November 15, George and Emily Dugan returned from Warren, and the hunters brought in a deer. William Dugan and young Green completed their work, except that of placing a bar on the door of the east room. It was noted that toward evening the cows acted strangely, as if Indians were in the vicinity, but no especial precaution was taken to forestall an attack as the Dugans always relied on their dogs to prevent a surprise. The settlers soon retired; George and William Dugan to their accustomed place over the stable; Hoover, Gordon, Green, Henry Dugan and William Allred—the last two mere boys—to the east room; Mrs. Dugan to the kitchen where Mr. Dugan dozed before the open fire. Catherine and Emily were likewise in the kitchen. Absolute quiet prevailed. The dogs, busy with their bones, had for the once left off their customary barking.

The first intimation of the attack came when the Indians pulled the peg from the door to the east room and kicked the shutter open. After a moment's ominous silence, three shots broke the stillness. Then all became confusion: the Indians began yelling and blowing their whistles; the dogs came rushing around the house to add to the uproar, while Daniel Dugan, Sr., true to his instinct as a trained Indian fighter, seized his flint lock and fired into the night in the general direction of the savages. The Indians left as suddenly as they had come, leaving the whites to reckon their casualties.

Two shots had been fired into the east room, the first striking Green and killing him instantly. Hoover sprang from the bed but sank to the floor with a flesh wound in his side. Gordon hurdled the bed to a position behind the door and closed it with the strength of sheer desperation fairly knocking the Indians out of the room. He then secured the shutter with chains and tables, extinguished the fire, and went to Hoover's assistance. Henry Dugan, awakened by the commotion, attempted to arouse his dead bed-fellow, telling him that the Indians were upon them. The brothers at the barn started to the aid of their kinsmen and comrades at the house, but hearing the reassuring crack of their father's rifle, they decided to await developments.

The watchers at the stable did not have long to wait. Soon they saw an Indian dart from behind a tree and leap rapidly up and down in an effort to provoke an unwary shot. As the brothers withheld their fire, in a moment he approached the barn and attempted to pick the padlock that fastened the stable door, all the while venting his anger at the ingenious contrivance of the white man in the choicest English curse words. His efforts attracted the attention of two of his companions who incautiously stepped out into the open. Taking careful aim, the sentinels shot the curious braves who dropped to the ground but got to their feet and ran into the adjacent thickets. The Indians, however, were not to be discouraged by one failure. George Dugan soon espied a dark figure that crawled and grunted its way across the cowpen. He was able to detect such irregularities in its motion as to be convinced that the supine figure was not a hog, as it purported to be, but an Indian horse thief. His charge of a bullet and twenty-four buckshot almost cut the prowler in two, although the wounded savage was able to stagger into the security of the forest. The remainder of the night was quiet except for the continual whistling of the Indians which indicated that they were unable to locate all their dead and wounded fellows.

When morning came George Dugan was dispatched posthaste to Warren to apprise Green of the death of his son, and to secure aid. With the bereaved family came a physician and several rangers. The party was seated at the dinner table when all were aroused by a shrill whistle. Rushing forth, they discovered an Indian making his escape into the forest. Further investigation by the whites disclosed a dead Indian lying west of the barn. The men carried the body to the house and laid it out in state in the yard. All were invited to come and view the deceased who was dressed in light marching order; namely, a pair of leather leggings and a calico shirt. When Dr. Rowlett, who had been attending to Hoover's wound, came out, he gazed at the body a moment and exclaimed, "Why, that's Coushatta Bill; he used to work for me. My wife made that shirt he has on."¹⁰¹⁰Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 411-418.

During the winter of 1841-42 the United States Indians continued to harass the settlers along the border. From time to time fences were broken down and horses stolen. Isolated travellers were murdered and their bodies mutilated. On April 29, 1842, David Alberty was attacked and killed while on his way from Warren to Coffee's Station. James Seymore who was accompanying Alberty on horseback made his escape and carried the news to Warren. A party under the leadership of Mark R. Roberts immediately went out to the scene of the attack and recovered the body of Alberty who had been scalped and frightfully mangled.¹¹ Incidentally John P. Simpson confused the death of Alberty with that of Garner and Camp, killed in 1839. This is a pardonable error in that the three men were murdered at approximately the same place and under almost identical conditions.¹¹"Deposition of Mark R. Roberts before District Judge John T. Mills, May 7, 1842, Manuscript, "Indian Affairs of the Republic of Texas."

The death of Alberty was followed by a rather unusual episode in the relationship between the Texans and the Choctaws and Chickasaws. In May, 1842, James R. O'Neal in his capacity as major of the Second Battalion, Fourth Regiment, Fourth Brigade of the Texas Militia, addressed the following letter to the chiefs and principal officers of the Choctaws and Chickasaws:

I have received intelligence of a late discovery of the wild tribe of Indians up Red River, supposed to be those who committed the midnight robbery on the western frontier of Texas and the citizens of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, having no regard to the law of our land, and having not the fear of God before their eyes! We must arise and put them to the sword, for they are a people that have forgotten God. I intend to give immediate information to the brigadier general, and advise a campaign about the first of July next, and we want all the assistance we can get from your side of the river. I will endeavor to let you know the further arrangements in the matter. Rub up your guns, prepare yourselves with ammunition, rouse up your warriors by your bugles, and we will teach these rogues and murderers that their policy is bad, and we will let them know we resent their wicked deeds.¹²¹²U. S. Senate, Executive Documents, Thirty-second Congress, First Session, III, document No. 14, 82 f.

Immediately upon the receipt of this communication the Indians forwarded a copy of it to Fort Towson to Choctaw Agent A. M. M. Upshaw. That official warned the Chickasaws and Choctaws to have nothing to do with the affair and informed them that if they needed protection from predatory bands to remember that the commanding officers at Fort Washita and Fort Towson were always ready to come to their assistance. The action of Major O'Neal was also brought to the notice of the State Department of Texas through a letter from Joseph Eve, charge d'affaires, to Secretary Terrell.¹³ The government of Texas disavowed the act of O'Neal and ordered that he be discharged from the service should he not be able to acquit himself of the charge. Jesse Benton, Jr., District Attorney for the Seventh Judicial District, was asked to make a full investigation into the affair and report his findings to the Secretary of State.¹⁴ As might reasonably be expected the inquiry resulted in the exoneration of O'Neal.¹³U. S. Senate, Executive Documents, Thirty-second Congress, First Session, III, document No. 14, 84 ff.
¹⁴Ibid., p. 87.

Thus the six years of Indian warfare and bloodshed on the northern frontier of Texas flickered out from thievery, abduction, and murder to the exchange of polite notes between diplomats who were living a thousand miles from the theatre of action. Although rumors of Indian attacks continued to frighten the settlers along the border for another year,¹⁵ no actual depredations occurred. At length, on September 29, 1843, Tarrant and Terrell signed the treaty at Bird's Fort with the Tehuacanos, Keechis, Wacos, Caddos, Anadarcos and others that forever removed the menace of Indian attack from the Fannin frontier.¹⁶¹⁵The Clarksville Northern Standard, October 22, 1842.
¹⁶Brown, History of Texas, II, 277.

VI. FANNIN COUNTY—A TYPICAL FRONTIER SETTLEMENT

Figures are not available whereby the birthplace of all the settlers of Fannin County can be determined. A study of data involving thirty-two typical pioneers reveals the fact that eight of them, or one-fourth of all the group under consideration, were natives of Tennessee, that seven were born in North Carolina and five in Kentucky. Of the remaining twelve, two were born in Alabama, one in Maryland, one in Massachusetts, with the birthplace of the other four unknown.

A further study of the group with the view of determining the states from which the settlers came to Texas brings to light these pertinent facts. Six of the eight Tennesseeans, above mentioned, came directly from their native state to Texas, one resided for a while in Alabama and one in Mississippi. A study of the North Carolina group brings Tennessee more prominently into the foreground as a source of emigration into the Red River area, since no less than five of the seven North Carolinians lived for a number of years in Tennessee before coming to Texas. In addition one Kentuckian came to Fannin County from Tennessee. Arkansas, likewise, proved to be a popular stopping place on the road to Texas. Seven heads of families in our group came to Fannin County from that state, despite the fact that not one of them claimed that state as his birthplace. Included in these seven were two Virginians, one native of Ohio (rather an exception), one Kentuckian, one Marylander (reared in Kentucky), one Tennesseean and one North Carolinian. Of twenty-nine pioneers whose movements we can trace completely, twelve came to Texas directly from the state of their birth, ten lived in one other state than that in which they were born, four lived in two other states, two in three other states, and the doughty Daniel Dugan dwelt in eight states and territories prior to coming to Texas.

The immigrant into the Fannin area was, in most cases, a native of North Carolina, Tennessee or Kentucky. If he was a young man he had come very likely from his native state to Texas, but if he was older the chances rather favored his having lived for a number of years in either Tennessee or Arkansas on his westward hegira.

In ability and possessions these men were neither better nor worse than their frontier contemporaries of other sections. They were, on the whole, poorly educated in books but abundantly capable in dealing with the perplexities of pioneer life. Produced in the inexorable school of the wilderness they were versatile, self-reliant and sturdy. Their wealth generally consisted of land but all of them should not be judged by the same financial yardstick. If on the one hand there were Holland Coffee, Daniel Rowlett or Daniel Montague who possessed large numbers of slaves, on the other hand there was the poorer single man whose entire estate consisted of a land certificate and a cow and a calf.¹ From a will probated in 1839 a fair knowledge of the wealth of an unmarried adventurer may be obtained. He wrote simply,¹Probate Minutes for Fannin County, A, 33.

I bequeath to John Stephens my own headright of six hundred and forty acres of land, & one black horse & one rifle gun, one bullet pouch, & all my corn and kettle and skillet.²²Deed Records for Fannin County, A, 51.

Leadership in a pioneer community passes as inevitably into the hands of men of proven ability as it does in more developed areas. In Fannin County of the formative period there appeared several men who stood out among their fellows as leaders. Daniel Rowlett held the most important position among this group of pioneers, if we may judge by education, wealth and versatility of accomplishment. He was a physician, an attorney at law, a slaveholder, a land contractor, an owner of an extensive plantation, captain of militia, and the first member of the Congress of the Republic of Texas from Fannin County. To him we owe the first written account of the early settlers along Red River, and ample evidence shows him to have been connected with every event of importance that occurred during the first decade of our history.

Roswell W. Lee, who came to Fannin County about 1840, was probably the most highly educated man of pioneer Fannin County. Lee, a native of Springfield, Massachusetts, was admitted to the United States Military Academy, July 1, 1829, and graduated eighth in a class of forty-three members July 1, 1833. After a somewhat checkered career in the United States Army he was dismissed from the service in July, 1838.³ After coming to Texas he served as a second in the duel between Major Lysander Wells and Captain William D. Redd at San Antonio in 1840. Both participants were killed. Lee never ceased to regret his connection with the tragedy, and, it is said that the other second left Texas never to return.⁴ Soon after his coming to Fannin County Lee was elected county clerk and continued to serve in that capacity until 1852. He was a man of fine physique, courtly demeanor and splendid intellect. But for his love of strong drink he probably would have been one of the most prominent men in Texas and a general of first rank in the armies of the Confederacy.⁵³Letters from H. B. Lewis, Adj. U. S. Military Academy, to author, March 2, 1925. Also, Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, I, 625.
⁴Brown, History of Texas, II, 187.
⁵Lusk, History of Constantine Lodge, No. 13, A. F. cG A. M., Bonham, Texas, 30.

John P. Simpson, a Tennesseean by birth, who came to Fort Inglish from Alabama in the summer of 1837, was another of Fannin's leading citizens during the formative period. Hie served as sheriff of the county from 1839 until 1843 when he became chief justice, a position that he held until 1846. In the 1880's he contributed a series of sketches of early Fannin County history to the Bonham News. These were afterward printed by W. A. Carter in his History of Fannin County and are considered the most authentic source for the history of the settlement of the Fannin area.

Holland Coffee, Daniel Montague and Bailey Inglish were other pioneers of distinction. Each of them is remembered as the founder of a settlement famous in Fannin's early history. Coffee established Coffee's Station in Preston Bend, Montague located at Warren's stockade near the mouth of Choctaw Bayou, and was the real originator of "Old" Warren, while Inglish's blockhouse was the first house in the settlement that afterward became Bonham.

Among these settlements Warren early assumed the first rank. The village, as we have seen, was built about the deserted stockade erected as a trading post by Abel Warren in 1836. Its first inhabitant after its abandonment by Warren was Montague, who settled near by in November, 1837. In the summer or autumn of 1838 the committee on location of the seat of justice selected Warren as the most likely place for the erection of a courthouse. During the succeeding winter and spring the stockade was frequented by refugees who camped within the walls of the fort in order to escape the attacks of hostile Indians. Doubtless it was during this year that Montague and William Henderson built the general merchandise store that supplied the pioneers with the few simple commodities that they were unable to produce at home.⁶⁶Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 390 ff.

The summer of 1839 was made notable by the establishment of a school at Warren. A log cabin previously used as a stable was thoroughly cleaned and furnished with split log benches. A patron wealthy in furniture donated a chair for the teacher. John Trimble was hired to serve as instructor, and a search was instituted to determine what books were available for texts. The following books were discovered and pressed into use:

(1) The New Testament; the Old Testament was considered too historical for beginners, observes Mrs. Catherine Dugan Taylor, a student in this pioneer school;
(2) The Life of John Nelson, a Methodist preacher;
(3) Pilgrim's Progress;
(4) Fox's Book of Martyrs;
(5) a number of Webster's Spellers;
(6) a grammar, Murray's;
(7) an arithmetic, kind unknown.

The students in this school were William and Lee Langford, Artelia Baker and a smaller sister, Mary and Louisa Davis, Catherine and Henry Dugan, a girl named Moody, and Martin Hart.⁷⁷Ibid., 393 ff.

With death and destruction sweeping the frontier during the summer of 1839 the forerunners found relaxation from their hard life in attending Daniel Montague's Fourth of July Ball. The host upon this occasion had just completed the most elaborately constructed house in the Warren settlements. It had two large front rooms with a spacious hall between and boasted of a front porch. The walls were made of logs smoothly finished and tightly chinked with mortar. Finally, the building was treated with a coat of whitewash inside and out. Wide fireplaces cast their light over floors that had been adzed to velvety smoothness. All being finished, invitations were sent from Coffee's Station to Lower Bois D'Arc asking all without regard to station or wealth to attend Montague's housewarming. Slaves busied themselves preparing chickens, turkeys, pigs and all kinds of wild game in every manner known to backwoods culinary practices. For those who cared to indulge there were liquors of every variety from persimmon beer to "Ohio" whiskey. The frontier beaux and belles for two days and nights danced to the lively strains of "Money Musk" or paced more slowly to the stately "Virginia Reel."⁸⁸Ibid., 404.

On January 8, 1840, the Commissioners Court held its first session in the new courthouse at Warren. The town's balmiest days now began. James S. Baker and his nephew, William R. Baker, opened a store, as also did John and Thomas Jouitt. The size of the town and the number of its inhabitants are matters for conjecture. But it is known that it was a platted town whose streets radiated from a public square. Nor have the names of the streets vanished from record; today the historian finds in the Deed Records of Fannin County mention of the transfer of certain lots on Pecan and Water Streets in Warren.⁹⁹Deed Records for Fannin County, 115.

Joseph Sowell and John F. Scott built a tavern here that was frequented by the jurors, lawyers and officials who came to the county seat to attend the various courts. Many prominent men were among these visitors. John M. Iansford and John T. Mills presided over the District Court in which William Williams and Jesse Benton, Jr., prosecuted and John B. Denton plead for the defense. Edward H. Tarrant and William G. Cooke, Colonels of the Frontier Battalion and Texas Regulars, respectively, found time from their military duties to assist in the institution of a Masonic lodge. Tall, robust, stately Daniel Rowlett, physician to an area as large as many a state at present, was doubtless seen there often on errands of mercy. John P. Simpson, chronicler of early days in Fannin County, was frequently present in his capacity as sheriff.

Among the most important events at Warren during 1840 was Fannin County's first sermon. It came about in this manner. John B. Denton, who has been mentioned as a practitioner in the law courts, was a Methodist minister. He was born in Tennessee in 1806, but was carried to Indiana by his father when he was quite young. The father died soon after moving from Tennessee and the boy was apprenticed to a blacksmith who raised him under the most adverse circumstances. But after being converted, Denton gave up his trade and became a Methodist minister. His wife taught him to read and write after the birth of their second child. He preached in Arkansas and Texas from 1834 to 1838, but in the fall of the latter year he settled at Clarksville and took up the practice of law to provide a living for an increasing family.¹⁰ The Dugan family had known Denton in Arkansas, and upon his coming to Warren in the course of his law practice he was invited by Mrs. Dugan to preach to the settlers. He cheerfully made an appointment for the following Sunday, when, in the little log stable and schoolhouse, the pioneers heard their first sermon in Fannin County.¹¹¹⁰Fulmore, History and Geography of Texas Told in County Names, 34.
¹¹Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, 395.

Another typical event in connection with Fannin's history was the organization of Constantine Lodge No. 13, at Warren, November 3, 1840. The first entry in the minutes of the lodge possesses great historic value:

Be it remembered that in accordance with a warrant from the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas conferring upon Worshipful Past Master and Master D. Rowlett, of Mt. Moriah [Lodge] No. 39, Dover, Tennessee, and Brother James S. Baker, Senior Warden of Constantine Lodge No. 64, Lexington, Tennessee; William M. Williams, Junior Warden of De Kalb Lodge No. 9, Red River County, Texas, the Lodge being duly styled by our worthy Brother Master Mason Seth Parker, late of St. John's Lodge, Auburn, New York, the Worshipful Constantine Lodge was duly and regularly constituted and the officers thereof installed according to ancient usage. Brother Master Masons John B. Craig of De Kalb Lodge, Red River County, Texas, John B. Denton of Do., Wm. C. Young of Do., John M. Hansford, late of Allen Lodge No. 24, Glasgow, Kentucky, on the third day of November, A. D. 1840, A. L. 5840 The Worshipful Master appointed Win. C. Young, secretary pro tem., Brother John B. Craig, treasurer pro tem., Brother John B. Denton, Senior Deacon pro tem., Brother John M. Hansford, Junior Deacon pro tem., Brother Seth Parker, Tyler. Whereupon the Worshipful Constantine Lodge was opened in due form, this third day of November, 1840, A. L. 5840.¹²¹²Minutes of the Constantine Lodge, No. 13, A. F. & A. M., 1 ff.

It will be noted that only three Fannin County men took part in the first meeting of the lodge, the others, Williams, Craig, Denton, Young and Hansford, being Red River County men who were in Warren attending court which opened its term November 2.

The first session of the lodge continued through the following three nights. Upon the night of the fourth, Edward H. Tarrant was present and served as Worshipful Master, while William G. Cooke, "the most Worshipful Deputy Grand Master" acted as Junior Deacon. The following were elected to receive the first degree in Masonry: John R. Garnett, William R. Baker, Thomas Jouitt, John P. Simpson, John Hart, Thomas F. Smith, John G. Jouitt and Joseph Sowell. All were duly initiated the same night except Joseph Sowell who for some reason did not take the degree. Before the next meeting of the lodge he was killed by Indians.¹³¹³Lusk, History of Constantine Lodge, No. 13, A. F. & A. M., Bonham, Texas, 6-7.

Warren served not only as the first seat of justice for Fannin County but it was also one of the first postoffices established west of Clarksville. In December, 1837, the Postmaster General of the Republic of Texas was instructed by Congress to establish as soon as practicable a mail route from Nacogdoches, via the county seat of Red River County and Jonesboro to the seat of justice of Fannin County, and see to it that mail was carried over the route every two weeks.¹⁴ In January, 1839, a route was established from Shelton's store in present day Lamar County to Coffee's Station by the way of Fort Inglish and Warren.¹⁵ In February, 1840, Congress confirmed the use of the following routes that had been previously established: Route number seven, from Jonesboro to the seat of justice of Fannin County, via Franklin, Johnson, Raleigh, and Lexington; route number eight from the seat of justice to Coffee's Station; and route number nine from Clarksville to the seat of justice of Fannin County via Shelton's store and Fort Inglish.¹⁶ Early postmasters were Rowlett at Lexington, Jouitt at Raleigh, Inglish at Fort Inglish and Roswell W. Lee at Warren.¹⁷¹⁴Gammel, Laws of Texas, I, 1439.
¹⁵Ibid., II, 128.
¹⁶Ibid., II, 676.
¹⁷The Clarksville Northern Standard, October 14 and December 9, 1813.

With the removal of the county seat from Warren in 1845 that town began to decline as a business center. One by one its buildings were moved or permitted to fall into decay. At the present there is not a single structure standing upon the site of Warren to show the location of that once flourishing town. The old log courthouse was moved years ago to the Whiting place in the Virginia Point community, whence it was moved, after having been taken apart, to Bonham in 1924. The building has not been reassembled since its removal.

In 1840 the town of Bois D'Arc was composed of two log huts that were situated near the present site of the public square, one to the south and the other to the northeast. At the distance of a mile and a quarter to the northeast of this pair of buildings stood Bailey Inglish's residence that served both as fort and postoffice. To the south and east of where the square is now located there was heavy timber but to the north and west was the open prairie. After 1843 when the county archives were moved from Warren to Bois D'Arc the village began to grow somewhat rapidly.¹⁸ The postoffice was likewise moved from Inglish's home to Bois D'Arc, but Inglish continued to serve as postmaster for a time at least.¹⁹ Later, during 1846, Alex Johnston, his brother-in-law, was postmaster.²⁰¹⁸Carter, History of Fannin County, 95-96.
¹⁹Clarksville Northern Standard, December 9, 1843.
²⁰Personal interview with Lee Nelms.

John P. Simpson built the first jail of Fannin County in 1843 at his own expense. It was a small log structure four feet by eight.²¹ Tradition has it that the first house built in Bois D'Arc after the removal of the county seat was a school building in which Wilkes Fletcher taught the first term of school.²²²¹Lusk, History of Constantine Lodge, No. 13, A. F. d A. M., Bonham, Texas, 26.
²²Biographical Souvenirs of Texas, 571.

The first act in the drama of the planting of Fannin County is completed. The characters have been introduced and the stage and background presented. To others the task of completion is committed.

In 1843 seven years had passed since the entry of the first settlers into Fannin County. If during this time the area had not lost its status as a pioneer community, much had been accomplished toward pushing the frontier westward into what is now Cooke and Denton Counties. The rapid influx of immigrants had filled the older sections of the county to such a degree that the hard conditions of backwoods life had been ameliorated, and the loneliness and isolation of the days of the forerunners practically done away with. A completely organized system of local government carried out the administration of justice and attended to the disposition of the public lands as fully and exactly as any similar public business at present. The permanent fixation of the seat of justice at Bonham had eliminated the possibility of future contention between rival communities over the location of the county seat and the consequent hard feelings engendered by such wrangling. The marking and clearing of roads and the establishment of ferries and bridges made possible communication between the local communities and connected the inhabitants of the county with the settlements in east and south Texas. The circuit rider and wandering preacher had brought in the beginnings of church organizations, and schools had been started. Primitive manufacture was represented by tanyards, grist mills and distilleries. Finally the pioneers no longer were forced to devote their major energy toward repelling hostile Indians or their renegade fellows. Civilized endeavor was soon to clear large farms, replace the log houses with frame buildings, plant orchards, and introduce large herds of cattle to use the open prairies. Speculators were soon to offer lots in townsites and rude villages to furnish retail centers for enterprising merchants.