USA > Texas > Cherokee County > A history of Cherokee county (Texas) > Part 7
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In January, 1861, General Joseph L. Hogg and J. M. Ander- son, afterward a law partner of Governor Richard Coke, of Rusk; Thomas J. Jennings, of Alto, Cherokee County member of the House of Representatives in 1857; and Peter G. Rhome, promi- nent Jacksonville merchant, represented Cherokee County in the citizens' convention assembled at Austin to consider the secession problem. This body, however, submitted the question to popular vote and, despite the almost superhuman effort of Governor Sam Houston to turn the tide of public opinion in favor of the preser- vation of the Union, the vote stood 34,415 for and 13,841 against secession.
When war became certain Cherokee County was quick to con- tribute her share to the defense of the Southern cause. Early in 1861 the volunteers, known as the "Lone Star Defenders," re- organized as a state company composed of Rusk, Jacksonville and Larissa men, with Frank M. Taylor in command. No one ex- pected that General Hogg, the first captain, would enter the war in that capacity. Military equipment was varied. Some men had
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THE CIVIL WAR
rifles, some shotguns, some no guns at all. Numbers carried huge chop-knives made in the blacksmith shop. After a meager course in military tactics and the acquisition of such horses and baggage as could be obtained, the company was ready to join Elkanah Greer's regiment of cavalry in Dallas.
On Monday morning, June 10, 1861, the population of Rusk and vicinity appeared en masse at the Thompson Hotel.1 to bid them goodby. S. B. Barron has left us this description of the scene :
"Men, women and children were on the streets, in tears, to bid us farewell. Even rough, hard-faced men whose appearance would lead one to believe that they had not shed a tear since boy- hood, boohooed and were unable to say 'goodby'."
Sadness, however, was at least outwardly short-lived. With the flag presented by Cherokee women proudly unfurled, the "Lone Star Defenders" marched to Jacksonville, stopping for a barbecue dinner. Then on to Dallas, cheered and feasted as they went. As Company C, Greer's Regiment, they were mustered into Con- federate service. This regiment, afterward known as the Third Texas Cavalry, fought in the front ranks throughout the war, first in Missouri, later in Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia.
Omitting details of the long journey to the Missouri front, we next find Company C preparing for its first battle. Scores of men are writing home. A typical message, taken from S. B. Barron's history of the company, follows :
My dear -:
We arrived at Gen. McCulloch's headquarters about 10 a. m. today, tired, dusty, hungry and sleepy after a long, forced march from Fort Smith. We are now preparing for our first battle. We are under orders to march at eleven o'clock to attack Gen. Lyon's army at daylight. All the boys are busy cooking up three days' rations. I am very well. If I survive to-morrow's battle I will write a postscript. Otherwise this will be mailed to you as it is.
Affectionately yours,
Orders to cook three days' rations ! All baggage, including cook- ing utensils, had been left behind on the forced march. Yet it was not for Cherokee men to reason why. They cooked. Even biscuit dough, rolled out like a snake and coiled around a small wooden stick, was baked before the fire.
1Present Ford Station site.
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Days of raiding followed, but when the anticipated battle finally began it caught Company C unawares. According to orders they were to have moved at 9 p. m., August 9. All night, in a drizzling rain, they stood to horse for the signal which, through somebody's blunder, never came. Daylight found a few of the men preparing to boil coffee, but the majority were asleep on the ground. Some horses had slipped the reins from sleeping hands and were grazing in a near-by field. Captain Taylor had gone to regimental headquarters for instructions. Suddenly shells came crashing through the timber above their heads. Almost simul- taneously another battery opened fire. The battle was on.
After some seven hours of fighting the battle of Oak Hill, also called Wilson's Creek, was proved a Confederate victory. In Company C four men were wounded. Leander W. Cole, of Larissa, died.
At home relatives and friends eagerly awaited news. The hourly telegraph bulletins of World War days were unknown. Mail serv- ice had been interrupted. Letters from the front, brought by fur- loughed soldiers, were irregular. Old-timers still vividly recall great crowds standing on the courthouse square in Rusk while the editor of the one county newspaper stood on a goods box and read the first public reports, printed letters from Taylor's men describing their first battle.
The knowledge that Cherokee blood had actually been spilled proved a strong stimulus to enlistment. Other companies, organ- ized in rapid succession, brought the total enlistment to some two thousand. Business was practically at a standstill, the majority of stores being closed because owners and clerks had enlisted. Court, for the most part, was discontinued. From letters written to soldiers at the front one learns that in 1861 there was nothing doing and nothing talked but war-"The town will soon be com- posed mainly of women and children . .. No money here .. . They ought to be hanged." The last statement refers to men who had not enlisted.
The second company to leave the county was under the com- mand of Captain Jack Davis. Joining the Seventh Texas Infantry at Marshall as Company E, it was immediately sent east of the Mississippi River. In October, 1861, the "Cherokee Cavalry," commanded by Captain R. B. Martin, became Company I of the Tenth Texas Cavalry. After fighting in northeast Arkansas, this regiment was also transferred to the East.
Although these three companies, units in the Third Texas Cavalry, the Seventh Texas Infantry and the Tenth Texas
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THE CIVIL WAR
Cavalry, were the only organized companies who went from Cherokee County to serve in the Tennessee Army, eighteen ad- ditional companies were formed under command of the following captains : Thomas R. Bonner, G. W. Knox, James Taylor, James F. Wiggins, W. G. Engledow, W. B. Campbell, Dan Egbert, O. M. Doty, John T. Aycock, Thomas J. Johnson, James C. Francis, W. F. Thompson, W. H. Mullins, John T. Wiggins, Patrick Henry, W. W. Foard, John B. Sydnor and J. C. Maples. Captain J. F. Duke organized a company in the vicinity of Alto just before the war closed which rendered service in maintaining order during the days of demobilization. Many Cherokee volunteers joined companies organized in adjacent counties.
Cherokee County had two Confederate camps, one on the Guinn hill north of Rusk, the other on Crockett Street in south- west Rusk. A prison camp was established some two and one- half miles south of Rusk on the old Jim Hogg Highway, now the T. C. (Lum) Alexander farm. After the battle of Mansfield, Louisiana, it was crowded with prisoners. The stockade is gone, but the ruins of the old well locate the site.
As the war continued, the maintenance of a reliable medium of exchange became a grave problem. By the summer of 1862 necessity for change had flooded the county with currency which had been issued in various parts of the state. Its redemption was extremely uncertain. In this emergency the commissioners court ordered Chief Justice M. Priest to contract for the printing of $10,000 in change bills, ranging from ten cents to five dollars, to be redeemed when as much as twenty dollars was presented.
The heroism of the Cherokee soldier is silently proclaimed by the monument erected to his honor on the courthouse square in Rusk. This monument was made possible by the contributions of the Frank Taylor Chapter, United Daughters of the Con- federacy, supplemented by private subscriptions ranging from five cents to one hundred and fifty-five dollars. Miss Frankie Tatham unveiled it, October 31, 1907, in the presence of a great crowd.
For a number of years the Confederate veterans maintained two organizations in the county. In 1925 the great death rate led the Ross-Ector camp at Rusk to join the James J. A. Barker camp at Jacksonville.
Her contribution of men, however, was not the only service Cherokee County rendered the Confederacy. Her natural re- sources proved of invaluable assistance.
The abundant supply of salt offered for sale at a nominal price, after having been used as ballast in the ships coming from Liver-
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pool for cotton cargoes, had made it unnecessary for early Chero- kee settlers to resort to the Indian method of boiling the water from the shallow wells in the salines on the Neches River. When the Federal blockade cut off the former source of supply, the de- velopment of the salt industry near Bullard not only satisfied Cherokee needs but helped to furnish this essential commodity to less fortunate districts.
Interested primarily in farming, Cherokee pioneers likewise made no effort to utilize the county's extensive iron resources until the war closed the regular channels for obtaining iron imple- ments and utensils. In 1863 Doctor C. G. Young, of Monroe, Louisiana, organized the Chappel Hill Manufacturing Company which established a foundry five miles west of Jacksonville. In connection with it two sawmills and two brickyards ran day and night. In order to supply the workmen, about seventy-five white men and several hundred negroes, a large store was built for which goods were hauled from Matamoras by six and eight-mule teams. Although a majority of the negroes preferred to continue work after the war closed, a boiler accident, in which one or two were killed and several injured, soon proved an almost fatal blow to the business. Not long afterward it was raided by a gang of jayhawkers. These reverses led to the abandonment of the enterprise.
In May, 1864, B. E. Jones and G. W. Weatherford, of Louis- iana, together with G. S. Doty, T. L. Philleo, John B. Sydnor, J. C. Green, W. W. Foard and F. M. Hicks, of Cherokee County, obtained a twenty-five year charter for the Cherokee Furnace Company, with a capital stock not to exceed a million dollars. The plant was located some nine miles south of Rusk, on the William Curl survey, and largely operated by refugee negroes from Louisiana. Some two years later the furnace chilled full of melted ore and work was discontinued. T. L. Philleo, of Rusk, bought the property and, under the name Cherokee Iron Works, utilized the supply of pig iron, supplemented by the purchase of old castings, in the production of cooking utensils and plow tools. The old furnace still stands as a monument to Cherokee's answer to the Confederacy's need.
In order to help supply the Confederate shortage of arms, the Texas government appropriated $5,000 to be used in the man- ufacture of guns. One contract was given to Whitescarver, Camp- bell & Company, whose gunshop was located in west Rusk, on Highway No. 22, opposite the present site of the Alvin Sherman residence. Production was necessarily slow. In 1863 a visitor
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reported the daily output was four rifles, for which the state paid thirty dollars each.
During the war the Confederate government built a large com- missary in Rusk where it stored hundreds of barrels and hogs- heads of Louisiana sugar. After the collapse of the Confederacy the people, especially the war-widows, claimed this government property. The soldiers, who at first tried to guard it, finally gave way before popular demand. In some unknown way, the report started that the sugar-house would be broken open on a certain day. Crowds of men and women rushed in. In the mad scramble which ensued vast quantities of the coveted sugar were wasted. According to tradition, the ground had almost a six-inch covering. The prospect of obtaining this long-deprived-of article of food apparently drove people wild. Later the Federal troops, stationed in Rusk for a short time, confiscated the sugar wherever found.
Cherokee, like other counties, suffered to some extent from the spirit of lawlessness which prevailed in those days of confusion following the demobilizing of the Confederate forces. Some ex- soldiers, without money and employment, felt justified in seizing private as well as government property. Such robberies made busi- ness men slow to reopen their stores.
Although local organizations existed, Cherokee County had little need for Ku Klux activity. According to the Rusk Observer of December, 1867, Cherokee negroes showed little interest in voting, expressing themselves willing to take "Ole Marster's" advice in election affairs. Apparently the only crisis in Cherokee's reconstruction era was the indignity suffered in the so-called "election outrages" of 1870. The conduct of Cherokee citizens during this four-day election was made the subject of an unfairly conducted investigation by Lieutenant Thomas Sheriff, of the State Police, on the ground of alleged fraud and intimidation of freedmen.
Census figures for 1870 afford a sidelight on the cost of the four years of civil strife. With practically no immigration to balance war casualties and emigration to new frontiers, there were one thousand less people in the county. The increased area of non- cultivated land resulting from shortage of labor caused a material decrease in the county's wealth. Educational reports suffered in comparison with those of the '50s. Since the majority of male teachers and the boys who ordinarily would have been students were in the army, a large percentage of the schools were closed during the war. In 1869 less than seven per cent of the population attended school. In 1849, when white children alone were eligible
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to attend, more than fourteen per cent of the population was enrolled.
This chapter would be incomplete without tribute to the women of Cherokee County who so courageously shouldered the burdens of those trying years of conflict. To the natural hardships of pioneering were added the new difficulties in securing supplies. Every housewife was taxed to the utmost in finding substitutes for articles no longer available. Corn cob ashes and certain mineral waters furnished soda. Okra seed, parched barley, wheat, rye and sweet potatoes took the place of coffee. Sassafras was used for tea. Beverages were sweetened with sorghum unless one was fortunate enough to find wild honey. Grease was used sparingly. Only those who grew wheat had flour. The wearing out of cooking utensils was a matter of grave concern, even though the presence of iron plants gave Cherokee housewives the advantage over their sisters in some parts of the state. Thorns were used for pins. Persimmon seeds, or molds of gourds, covered with cloth, took the place of buttons. Loss of a sewing needle was a household calamity. As leather became more and more scarce, women learned to make their own uppers for shoes. Sometimes soles were made of wood.
Yet, in addition to the toil necessitated by assuming direction of home affairs while husbands and fathers were at the front, these women found time to spin, weave and sew for the soldiers encamped in their midst and those already on the firing line.
Many are the stories of individual heroism, but the classic tale is the famous ride of Mrs. Amanda Spear, of Jacksonville. When her husband enlisted in the company of Captain J. C. Maples, she was left alone with two small children dependent upon her for support. Word soon came that Cicero Spear was at Little Rock, critically ill with typhoid-pneumonia. Amanda de- termined to bring him home.
To accomplish this task she rode horse-back, carrying a year- old baby in her arms, on the three-hundred-mile journey to the Arkansas capital. The baby got sick, rain fell in torrents, snow was knee-deep on a level, bridges went out. Yet, despite it all, Mrs. Spear reached her husband. Three months later she brought him safely home.2
2In 1913, at the request of the veterans of the James J. A. Barker camp, Mrs. Spear wrote the story of this ride. Her brother-in-law, who was returning to his command, accompanied her.
CHAPTER VII
IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES
RAILROADS
THE opening of the '70s found Cherokee County without a railroad but confidently awaiting the materialization of this asset out of the dreams of one of her own citizens.
INTERNATIONAL AND GREAT NORTHERN
Impoverished but undaunted by the calamities which had be- fallen his iron plant at the close of the Civil War, Doctor C. G. Young, once president of the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas Railroad Company, moved to Rusk and continued to vision the possibilities of East Texas. The result of his dreams was the Houston and Great Northern Railroad Company, chartered in 1866, to begin at Houston and build northward to Red River.
The first draft of the Houston and Great Northern charter was dictated in the log cabin law office of Bonner & Bonner in Rusk. M. H. Bonner and Doctor Young were among the incorporators authorized to receive stock subscriptions. Securing some five million dollars by personal appeal to William Walter Phelps, Moses Taylor, John Jacob Astor and other New York financiers, Doctor Young moved to Houston and was elected president of his per- fected organization.
In the meantime excitement prevailed in the Cherokee county seat. According to the charter the proposed road was to pass as near Rusk as "cheapness of construction, practicability and the general advantage of the country would permit." At a big barbe- cue, in addition to some cash, about two thousand acres of Chero- kee land subscriptions were secured. Although work had not begun, his erstwhile fellow-citizens trusted Doctor Young to carry out his plans. After twenty-five years of dependence upon ox- wagon and stagecoach, Rusk was to have train service.
Then the blow fell. Doctor Young met his tragic death (August 11, 1871) in the wreck of a construction train on which he was making a tour of inspection of the roadbed out of Houston. The road had a new president. Surveyors made reports. Railroad con-
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
struction through the Rusk hills was pronounced too costly. Ander- son County voted $150,000 in bonds and the route was changed to connect with the International Railroad at Palestine. Thus Jacksonville, instead of Rusk territory, became the scene of action when railroad teams and scrapers first appeared.
The International Railroad Company, building from Laredo northward, began its extension from Palestine into Cherokee County in the fall of 1871. In August, 1872, the first passenger train puffed its way into Jacksonville, affording her younger citi- zens their initial view of an "iron horse." The Palestine-Troup division was formally opened November 9. On May 27, 1873, the Houston and Great Northern section of the line was completed to Palestine.
The International and the Houston and Great Northern com- panies consolidated to form the International and Great Northern Railroad Company. This consolidation, effected by an agreement February 19, 1872, was not approved by legislative action until 1874-75.
THE RUSK TRAMWAY
Out of the bitterness of disappointment over the loss of the Houston and Great Northern Railroad was born the Rusk Tram- way, a town's desperate effort to save itself from commercial ruin.
A six-ton engine, puffing and snorting over a track of wooden rails, valiantly pulling a street railway passenger coach and three tiny flat cars-such was the historic old county seat's first rail communication with the world, via intersection with the Inter- national and Great Northern at Jacksonville.
The rails of native pine were constantly warping and buckling. The section foreman always had a repair job. Passengers rarely made a trip without getting off to assist in putting the train back on the track. Freight thrown from the open cars had to be picked up. Cotton wagons were known to beat it to Jacksonville. Towns with standard lines jeered at it. But to Rusk of the '70s, its proud promoter, no road of steel could have been more grand. Its story constitutes a most unique chapter in railroad history.
On May 2, 1874, the incorporators secured a charter for the Rusk Transportation Company to build and operate a first-class tram railway, or horse-car road, from any point on the I. and G. N. to Rusk. These incorporators were C. C. Francis, T. L. Philleo, George D. Neely, J. J. Mallard, B. B. Cannon, J. C. Francis, A. Jackson, H. W. Graber, S. B. Barron, R. B. Reagan, R. H. Guinn, J. T. Wiggins, F. W. Bonner, M. J. Whitman, S. A.
IMPROVED TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES 71
Willson, John G. Slover, W. T. Long, J. E. Dillard, J. H. Sartain, J. R. Newton, J. B. Reagan and W. L. Byrd. Among the pro- moters were ministers, merchants, lawyers and doctors. The capital stock was $500,000 with the privilege of increasing it to one million. Shares were fixed at fifty dollars each.
After a preliminary organization on May 7, the following officers were elected at the stockholders' meeting, June 5, 1874: Reverend N. A. Davis, president and financial agent; F. W. Bon- ner, vice-president ; S. B. Barron, secretary ; John T. Wiggins, treasurer ; S. A. Willson, attorney.
Although the original plan had been to make the tram entirely a home project, the urgent need for cash soon led to the solicitation of outside subscriptions and finally to the acceptance of U. S. currency instead of the previously required gold in payment of stock. Although stock was sold in Galveston and Tyler and all non-resident Rusk property owners were solicited to share in the enterprise, Jacksonville was made the center of the drive. Negotia- tions remind one of a determined lover wooing a very coy maid.
Early in June the sales committee sent to Jacksonville reported a cordial reception but no concrete results. On June 15, in behalf of Jacksonville citizens, M. D. Morris wrote as follows: "We have not sufficient reliable data on which to base calculations of receipts and expenditures of the road per annum ... Are in favor of assisting you in the enterprise in any reasonable way but want a little more light on the subject and think the importance of the undertaking demands should have it before agreeing to take stock. All you have to do is to convince the people it will be a success and a safe investment with reasonable probability of getting their money back in eight or ten years. Then you will receive hearty cooperation. We believe it will be to the mutual advantage of Rusk and Jacksonville to build the road as soon as possible, but let us go cautiously inasmuch as we are inexperienced in building tram railroads. Hope you will duly consider the resolutions which will reach you tomorrow before you definitely locate your road to any other point."
After giving estimates as to cost of construction, the Rusk Transportation Company concluded its reply as follows : "The cost of running will depend upon the volume of business, economy of management, rates, etc. Your opinion on this is as good as ours. We have nothing to conceal from your people. Engineers are now running a line to Reynolds. If you aim to cooperate, what you do we expect you to do decidedly and promptly."
After making surveys to the three prospective terminals-
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Reynolds, the nearest point on the I. and G. N., which was some three miles east of Jacksonville, and Jacksonville-engineers re- ported the cheapest route would be to Jacksonville. The vote was taken and Jacksonville chosen. Officials, however, were pledged to secrecy. Danger of losing the terminal might yet lure sub- scriptions.
Eagerly pressing his suit, President Davis offered to guarantee the terminal if Jacksonville would take $5,000 in stock and pro- cure the right-of-way for five miles. Jacksonville delayed a reply. Tram officials voted to permit payment of the $5,000 in United States currency, such concession necessitating granting a premium on earlier gold payments. On July 11, the committee joyfully re- ported Jacksonville buying $2,000 stock and procuring the right- of-way from the majority of the landowners at that end of the line.
About the middle of July, with only $22,000 worth of "good and available stock," the company decided to borrow money and let the contract. Ward, Dewey & Company, lessees of the peni- tentiary, were the successful bidders, agreeing to take land, which had been accepted as stock payment, at twenty-five cents per acre as part payment. Their convict laborers arrived August 5, 1874.
For the next eight months company officials, minus a Hill or a Harriman, waged a grim battle. Cash was always insufficient for their needs. The minutes of almost every meeting record ef- forts to secure additional loans. Time and again work was kept going only by loans from individual stockholders.
Yet no obstacle could quench the flame of faith. In February, 1875, an amendment to the charter permitted future extension of the road, southward through Alto to Sabine Pass as a terminal, northward through Larissa to Tyler. The idea of using mule power was abandoned. A locomotive, gaily lettered the "Chero- kee," was ordered to pull the street railway passenger coach, the "Gov. Coke," and the three flat cars, which constituted the com- pany's rolling stock. James A. Ross, of Pittsburg, was imported to run it.
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