USA > Texas > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Texas 1839 to 1880 > Part 6
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About the same thing happened in Harrison County.
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The ancestors of Walter P. Lane came from Ireland, settled in Maryland, moved to Virginia, later to Kentucky, and finally, he wound up by settling in Harrison County. Lane himself, died in Marshall, but relatives of his are distributed in the counties from Harrison to the Rio Grande. The first wave of pioneers who came into this county were the small farmers. Naturally, they
settled in the eastern half. This is indicated by two facts, the location of the county seat, and the location of the houses at which the first election in the county was held. The house of Thomas Timmons was about 18 miles southeast of Marshall, and three miles from Elysian Fields, while that of Wells was located about six miles north of Marshall. Thus neither was located in the west, indicating very little, if any, population in this area. Greensborough, the county seat, was located 12 miles directly south of Marshall. 13 Assuming that it was customary then, as now, to locate the seat of justice as near the center of the population as possible, it would seem safe to conclude that the fron -- tier of 1839 was approximately a line passing through the place where Marshall now stands, and running due north and south.
The period of settlemant of the small farmer was approximately the decade between 1832 and 1842, partic-
13. American Sketch Book, II, 227.
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ularly the latter part of the decade. At about the latter date, the small slave owners began coming in. Many of the holdings of the small farmers were bought out, and in some instances combined into small planta- tions. The small farmers moved on to the western end of the county, or the eastern side of the next county, or on still farther west. This wave of immigration lasted for another decade. Around 1850, many large slave owners from the southern states to the east, having need for expansion, sold out or abandoned their former plantations, and settled in the eastern half of Harrison County. The smaller plantation owners moved westward, some settling in the western part of the county . It was under the regime of the large plantation owners that the county made its greatest development in a social, religious, economic, and political way. By 1860, it had more slaves than any other county in the state:" At the same time, it was one of the three wealthiest counties in Texas.
Settlement as described in Harrison County, may be traced all the way across the state, except that of the last wave of farmers. The large plantation owners barely got out of that first tier of eastern counties, of which Harrison is a part, before the Civil War came
14. There were 8, 784. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860, Population, p. 481.
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destroying the institution of slavery. In fact, there are evidences that. the third wave of immigration barely reached the western half of the county. Even today, the western half is a region of small farmers, while the eastern half is one of large farms. This is due, in part, to the large slave owners not having yet moved into the western end of the county. Of course, there were slave owners in the western half, and even in counties to the west, but the number was not great, and the size of the plantations was not so large. Even today, most of the negroes are in the eastern and southern part of the county. Once immigration had started, it spread rapidly over all eastern Texas. Of course, as one traveled west- ward, the population became less dense. Just to give an idea of how this westward movement, of which Harrison County was a connecting link, progressed across the state. A line was drawn due west from Marshall, the date of the creation of each county through which the line passed was noted. The following was found to be true: Harrison County was created in 1839; Upshur, the next county to the west, was created in 1846; Smith, 1846; VanZandt, 1848; Kaufman, 1848; Dallas, 1846; Tarrant, 1850; Parker, 1856; Palo Pinto, 1857, and so on across the state to Gaines County on the New Mexico border, in 1876. There are
15. Harrison County Soil Survey, p. 37.
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only two breaks in the steady westward movement; Dallas was created ahead of Kaufman to the east, and Shackleford ahead of Stephens.
Of course, to a certain extent, settlement in all East Texas was going on at about the same time, due to the fact that not all of the immigrants who came into this and other border counties settled in them. After the county became fairly well settled, a great many of them, perhaps a majority, passed on through to the next county or even further as is indicated by the following comment :
For the last two weeks emigrants have been passing through our town to an extent never before witnessed. We. suppose they have averaged from ten to fifteen families a day, and "still they come". It is reason- able to suppose that Old Harrison catches her share. With the emigrants there have passed at least 2,000 negroes.16
There are no definite figures as to how many people 7 were in Harrison County when it was created. However, it is known that there were about 150 voters in the county at the time of its first election. Assuming that 1 one-fifth of the population were voters, which may have been slightly high or slightly low, the population must have been around 750. It is possible that there were a few more, if slaves were included. By 1850, the popula- tion had increased to 11,822, of which number 6,213 were
16. American Sketch Book, II, p. 217
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slaves. 17 At that time Harrison County had the largest population of any county in the state. The next figures available are in 1857. At this time the estimated population was only 13, 752, of which number 7, 203 were slaves. 18 During the seven years from 1850 to 1857, there was an increase of 1, 000 in the slave population, which was slightly more than the increase in the white population for the same length of time. No more figures are available as to the white population until 1873. In 1858, there were 7, 71719 negroes, showing an increase of over 500 in one year. Le year. 20 By 1859, the negro
population had increased to 8, 095. It is safe to say that there were 8, 800 negroes in Harrison County at the outbreak of the Civil War, but there seems to have been an actual decrease in white population. In 1870, there were only 4, 310 whites in the county. 21 One possible
reason for this decrease might be traced to casualties suffered during the war. Another might have been due to the emigration of small farmers and plantation owners to make way for the expansion of the plantation system. Statistics show that some of these plantations were un. usually large. Colonel Scott of Scottsville was perhaps the largest landowner in the county at that time. This
17. Frontier Times I, 16; Texas Almanac, 1850, p. 181. 18. Texas Almanac, 1858, p. 230.
19. Texas Almanac, 1859, p. 224.
20. Texas Almanac, 1860, p. 228.
21. Ninth Census of the United States, Population, 1870, p. 64.
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man owned five great plantations over each of which he had an overseer. At one time he owned practically all of the land from Scottsville to Elysian Fields one way, to Marshall the other, to Caddo Lake another, and to Jonesville still another. There must have been at least 25,000 acres in these five plantations; of course, the larger part of this land was unimproved. Colonel Scott's plantation was without doubt the exception in size rather than the rule, but four and five thousand acre estates were not unusual, while 1,500 to 2,000 acre estates
were common. In 1860, there ware forty plantations in the county having between 1,400 and 2,500 acres. 22 Still
another cause for the decrease in white population may be attributed to hard times which followed the Civil War, usually in such cases there was a general exodus west- ward.
An indicator of the increase in population appears in 1841. An act of the congress of the Republic of Texas passed on January 30, 1841, organizing the northern part of Harrison County into the judicial county of Panola. 23 The southern line of this judicial county ran about two miles south of Elysian Fields, east to the Louisiana border, and west to the border of Harrison County. This county was to have all of the functions of any other county, except separate representation. All that portion south of
22. Eighth Census of Agriculture, 1860, transcript from Census bureau.
23. Laws of the Republic of Texas, Fifth Congress, p. 153.
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the above line constituted the County of Harrison. The act named the following men as commissioners to select a seat of justice for Panola County: Seaborn Robinson, John M. Clifton, David Hill, Peter Whetstone, and James A. Williams. The name of the county seat was to be Marshall, and the commissioners were granted the right to purchase or receive a donation of land not exceeding 320 acres to be laid out into lots and sold to get money to build whatever public buildings were necessary. A like committee, composed of Hancock Smith, Samuel McCall, William Fitz Gibbons, Captain Copeland, and James Tippet, was selected for Harrison County. The latter committee selected Pulaski, about 30 miles southeast of Marshall, situated on the east side of the Sabine River. The land for the county seat was donated by Joseph Humphries.
When it became known in the northern half that a county seat was to be established, there was great rivalry among the owners of the land in the county, because each wanted the county seat built on his headright. Perhaps the most ingenuous of all these was Feter Whetstone. Although a member of the locating commission, he seemed to be unable to convince all of his fellow commissioners as to : the desirability of his headright for the location. One, in particular, John M. Clifton, seemed harder to convince than the others. After Whetstone had conducted the commissioners over his headright, pointing out its many merits as they went, he was met with this speech
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from the obdurate commissioner: "Oh, yes, the elevation is all right, the view is picturesque, and all that, but it is too dry, don't you know?" Whetstone did not say a word, but running his hand into the hollow of the tree he happened to be leaning against, he brought out a rather corpulent black bottle, which he handed to Clifton. The latter drank heavily, and long from the same, and passed it on to the next commissioner who did likewise. Thus the bottle made the round. By the time it got back to Whetstone, it was empty. Clifton at once withdrew his objection with the remark that he was mis- taken as to the land's having been too dry. .24 Accord the town was laid out on one hundred and sixty acres, Whetstone entering into a contract with the commissioners by which he donated the eighty comprising the east half of the survey, and thirty lots in the west half. At the same time, he donated the ten acres for the Marshall
Accordingly,
University. The commissioners proceeded at once to erect a frame building to serve as a court house. It was locat- ed on what is now the southwest corner of the square. In 1851, another court house, placed in the center of the square, was built by B. T. Boulware.
The town thus located, now a city of some 20,000 people, is forty-two miles from Shreveport, on the east,
24. Morning Star, May, 1894.
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and about 150 miles from Dallas on the west. It was named in honor of. John Marshall, for a long time the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Issac
Van Zandt is given the honor of selecting its name."> Van Zandt, like most lawyers of that time, worshipped at the shrine of this great man, so when he was given the privilege of naming the county seat of his county, he unhesitatingly said that it should be called "Marshall".
The first store in Marshall was owned by Edmund Key. The store is said to have been located just west of the present site of the post office. It was a dry goods store, and is reputed to have been one of the largest in Texas. A little later, G. Gregg, opened an- other dry goods store about where Garret's Furniture store now stands. The only furniture store in Marshall, or in the county, before the Civil War was operated by a Mr. Long in his residence. The owner lived in the back of a two-room building and made and sold his furni- ture in the front room. A Mr. Satter, owned the only shoe shop in Marshall before the Civil War. There were few grocery stores in Marshall at this time, as the great planters of the county bought all of their supplies out of New Orleans. 26
The City of Marshall was incorporated in 1844 by an
25. Charlie Behn, "Harrison County's Three Court Houses, " MS. in office of Marshall News-Messenger .
26. American Sketch Book, II, 220.
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act of the Congress of the Republic of Texas. Not much 27 is known as to the growth of population. It is known, however, that almost from its beginning, it was noted for three things, the strength of its pulpit, the strength of its bar, and for its educational opportunities. In 1820, there were three well established churches with pastors in Marshall, the Methodist, the Cumberland Presbyterian, and the Baptist. Its bar included such men as T. J. Rusk, Issac Van Zandt, Louis T. Wigfall, and other prominent Texas lawyers. For young men, it had the Marshall University, and for young women, the Marshall Female Institute.
By 1850, its population had reached 1,180, 421 of which were slaves. 28 It was one of the four largest towns in the state, being surpassed only by San Antonio with a population of 3,488, Houston, with 2,396, and New Braunfells, with 1,298. Ten years later, it had been passed in population by several other towns. The plantation system was not conducive to the development of towns.
Within a year from the time it was founded, this town faced the danger of losing its prestige because of a Supreme Court decision that the act creating such judicial counties as Panola was unconstitutional. The
27. Laws of the Republic of Texas, Ninth Congress. p. 6. 28. Statistics of the United States, 1850, p. 504.
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question now came up, "Where is the county seat?" It was decided to be at Pulaski; but this place was intended as the county seat of only the southern half of Harrison County. It was far from the center of the population; accordingly, an election was held for the selection of a county seat, and Marshall was chosen.
In the meantime, C. K. Andrews, the county clerk of Harrison County, before its division had resigned, and he now became a candidate for, and was elected, county clerk of the new County of Panola. Thomas H. Wolf was elected clerk of Harrison County. Both men entered upon the discharge of their duties. Soon after the decision of the Supreme Court was announced, Andrews resigned as county clerk for Panola County, and the chief justice of Harrison County issued writs for the election of a county clerk for Harrison County. Edward C. Beazley became a candidate, and was declared elected, but when he asked Wolf for the seal of office and certain papers, the latter refused to give them up, claiming to be the legally elected clerk of the Harrison County Court. Beazley then brought suit in the district court. In this suit he claimed that Pulaski, and not Marshall was the county seat of Harrison County. The district court rendered a decision against the plaintiff who thereupon appealed to the Supreme Court of Texas. This court, after reviewing the case, handed down the decision that Marshall was legally the county seat of Harrison County;
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that C. K. Andrews, having resigned the office of county clerk of Harrison County to accept that position in Panola County, was accepting an office incompatible with the duties of his former office, and that the office of county clerk in Harrison County was thereby vacated; that Thomas H. Wolf, being elected in his stead, and that since the judicial county was not legal, there was no vacancy, and hence the election of Beazley was illegal. 29
In January, 1844, a part of Harrison County was cut off and added to Bowie County. In March, 1836, the 30 County of Panola was actually created. A part of this county was cut off from Harrison County, and a part from Shelby. However, instead of Panola's becoming the north- ern part of Harrison County, as was intended when it was divided for judicial purposes only, the southern part of the original Harrison County went to Panola, while the northern part with Marshall &s county seat, retained the name Harrison.
¿ On two or three occasions at later dates, parts of Harrison County were detached and added to other counties. The part detached in 1844 seems to have gone to Marion, when it was organized in 1860. When Gregg and Upshur were organized, they also received a share of the original County of Harrison. After the Civil War, the last reduc-
29. Texas Reports, Vol. 0, 1843, p. 537.
.30. Laws of the Republic of Texas, Seventh Congress, p. 12.
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tion was made when Marion County received another strip.
Thus far, nothing has been said in regard to the Indians of Harrison County. The truth of the matter is, that the people of Harrison County were singularly free from the molestations of their red brothers. There are several reasons for this. In the first place, Indians in this section of the country at the time of the settle- ment of Harrison County were not numerous. Secondly, those that were here, the Caddos, were more or less friendly, and caused little trouble for the early settlers. In Wilbarger's Indian Depredations In Texas, there are 238 references to fights with Indians, but not one is in Harrison County, and few are in East Texas. This leaves us to suppose that, while there must have been skirmishes with Indians, probably there never were any real battles.
Prior to 1836, a white settler's cabin might be found here and there within the present boundaries of Harrison County, but the only settlements of any import- ance at that time were five villages of Caddo Indians. 31
These Indians were friendly, and proved not to be un- pleasant neighbors. At night, their camp fires glowed through the gloom of the forest, and their weird singing in sad and plaintive cadences varied the stillness of the summer nights. It was this tribe of Indians, who, while away from their homes one night, some years earlier, heard
31. Morning Star, May, 1894.
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a great roaring, and rushing back found that a great lake (Caddo) had formed there. 32
In 1836, or 1838, the government of the United States purchased the claims of the Caddo Indians to the land they were occupying within the boundaries of the United States. At that time, the line between Texas and the United States had not been run, so the Indians in Harrison County, supposing that they had sold their possessions on the Texas side, moved westward. 33
Until 1842, Harrison County was a border county, and for several years during the earlier period of settlement, there were only a few white settlements to the west. The county was, therefore, to a certain extent subject to the invasions of Indians. As a protection against these raids, the settlers built Fort Crawford, only a short distance from where the town of Hallsville now stands. In 1839, the Indians seem to have made a raid in the county and killed several persons. The settlers, in order to protect themselves, their families, and live stock, fled to the stockade of Fort Crawford. 34
32. This is purely legendary. The explanation is that a tremendous amount of gas had collected beneath the surface in this region, and finally finding itself too closely confined within its subteranean passages, suddenly blew the top of the earth to pieces, thus creating a depression in the earth's surface which quickly filled with water. There are other theories of its formation. Ecologists claim that the lake was formed sometime between 1770-1778.
33. The American Sketch Book, II, 216.
34. Ibid., p. 226. This is the only recorded raid of Indians on Harrison County, though others are indicated.
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On one other occasion, the settlers of Harrison County had contact with the Indians. During the Indian troubles in Nacogdoches County, General Thomas J. Rusk, with his army, went in pursuit of a band of Caddo Indians, a part of the tribe which had formerly lived in this county . As Rusk advanced, the Indians fled before him, crossing Harrison County in their attempt to reach the border. This they soon accomplished, but the Texas general did not stop at the border, but without hesitation, went on into Louisiana. Some of the citizens of Shreve- port protested against this act as a violation of treaty stipulations, and demanded protection from the United States troops at Fort Jessup, about sixty miles distant. Rusk finally withdrew, but not until he had informed his accusers that if the Indians he pursued committed any further depredations in Texas, he would punish them
regardless of where they went. So far as is known, 35 the above incident was the last occasion on which the people of Harrison County had to fear an Indian invasion. Soon afterwards, the county was so well settled as' to make Indian raids unprofitable.
The birth of justice .-- In July, 1806 Herrera, a Spanish general, with over a thousand men, alarmed by the activities of Zebulon Pike along the Red River, made t
35. Ibid., p. 227.
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forced marches to the vicinity of the Sabine. He feared that the eastern boundary of Texas was about to be in- vaded by the troops of the United States, and it was his purpose to defend Spanish soil. Not content, he soon crossed the Sabine where his immediate return to the other bank was demanded by General Wilkinson, then in command of the United States troops in Louisiana. To re-enforce the demand, Wilkinson rendezvoused his troops at Natchitoches. Here the politician, General Wilkinson, and the suave Herrera met and held a consultation. What they said has never been made public. Many conjectures have been made as to the details of the consultation. The conference seems to have borne fruit, for Herrera at once withdrew, and the territory between the Sabine River and the Arroyo Hondo was declared to be neutral ground, pending a settlement of the boundary question. 36
The neutral ground then became the scene of one of the darkest pages in Texas history. Being neither under the jurisdiction of Spain, nor of the United States it became the sanctuary of the lawless element from both countries. If a man got into trouble at home, he was almost sure eventually to come to the neutral ground. Thieves, forgers, wife deserters, murderers, all were there; land being subject to no law, each individual lived
36. Atterbury, "The Bloody Neutral Ground in Harrison County, " Texas History Teacher's Bulletin, XIV, pp. 74 ff.
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his own life in whatever way he thought would bring the greatest profit to himself, and discomfort to his enemies. To say that all who settled in the neutral ground were of this character would be to exaggerate, for some were of an enterprising character and had come to this land to build their homes. However, these were the exception rather than the rule. These men continued their acts of lawlessness after settlers began to come. Cattle and horses were stolen, men were murdered, and in 1838, when the Texas land office was opened, the profits arising from the sale of the headright certificates sug- gested their manufacture and sale in quantities. So, counterfeiting of land certificates became one of the leading businesses of the county, and incentive was given to a new character of lawless people to come in. The focus of their counterfeiting operations was not in Harrison County, it reached this county, as well as several others. The members of the board of land com- missioners for Shelby County were found to be suitable instruments for this business, so in the main, its operations were confined to that county. However, that the operations of counterfeiters did reach this county is shown by the large number of land suits during the first years of its existence. Nor was the counterfeiting traffic limited to land certificates, but included the circulation of counterfeit money.37 of
37. Wooten, A Comprehensive History of Texas, I, 431.
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Lawlessness of all kinds increased so rapidly that something had to be done. The first outbreak precipitated was outside of the boundaries of the neutral ground. In 1841, Charles W. Jackson, at one time of Kentucky, who had been running a steamboat on the Mississippi, to escape punishment for some crime, had disappeared; and, coming to Shreveport, had set up a mercantile business. A large reward was offered for his return. One day a party of men recognized him, arrested him, and put him on board a vessel bound for New Orleans. However, he managed to make his escape and returned to Shreveport ahead of his captors, where he was successful in raising a band )of his friends for his defense. When his captors tried to retake him, several were killed, and the attempt was abandoned. Jackson, fearing further trouble, left Shreveport in secret and came to Shelby County, one of 38 the three counties included in the neutral ground. Shortly after his arrival here, he became involved in politics and ran for congress, but was defeated, so he declared, by the counterfeiters. He then wrote a letter to Austin, the state capital, reporting the state of affairs. As a result of this letter, he received one from Joseph Goodbread, one of the commissioners of the Shelby County land office, to the effect that if he did not cease to meddle in affairs that did not concern him,
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