Part 1

PRINTED BY THE GILMER MIRROR AUGUST, 1946

A BRIEF HISTORY OF UPSHUR COUNTY

BY G. H. BAIRD

God formed a little verdant spot And filled it with His bounty; Men come to dwell within its bounds, And named it “Upshur County.”

About one hundred years ago, the history of Upshur County began.

As one drives over our modern highways, through our towns and villages, and passes the beautiful country homes by the wayside, he can hardly realize the condition of the country one hundred years ago. No towns, no homes, no roads, with this vast expanse of territory occupied by wild animals and a few Indians. The hoot of the owl and the yell of the savage were the only sounds that broke the lonely solitude.

During the period of the Texas republic, a number of emigrants from the older states were induced to settle in Texas, but most of them settled in the southern part of the state near San Antonio or Goliad, while a few settled in East Texas near Nacogdoches.

The Civil War checked the emigration for a while, but after the war closed, Texas was making liberal offers to settlers, and all roads leading to Texas were crowded with emigrants to the Lone Star State. Upshur County, in the eastern part of the state, lay in their path, and was settled at an early date and by a high class of citizens. This part of the state was well watered and timbered, and was well stocked with wild game, so the early settler had little trouble in building his home and procuring food for his family.

Log houses were first built near some bubbling spring where an abundance of pure water could be had. As there were many fine timbers here, the early log cabins soon gave way to larger and better homes. Crude sawmills were soon built which converted this timber into lumber for building purposes.

A few of these old pioneer log houses have been preserved until the present time, monuments of the pioneer days.

The living conditions in Upshur County were very simple in the early days. They had few luxuries and knew nothing of modern conveniences. But they made the best of what they had and were contented and happy. Every home was a miniature manufacturing plant. They made their own clothes and shoes, and, in fact, almost everything else used by the family. The spinning wheel and loom were kept busy in every home. In those days, large families of children were common, and these youngsters were taught to work. Many little girls, five or six years old, prided themselves on their skill in sewing and knitting. The men and boys wore home spun jeans. Little money was possessed by the settlers and little was needed. Home made wagons, with wheels cut from large black gum trees, with wooden spindles, were common in those early days. The wagons were usually drawn by a yoke of oxen and the creaking noise made by the wagon informed the neighbors when someone was going along the road.

Location of Upshur County

Upshur County is situated in the upper East Texas area. It is in almost a perfect square and contains six hundred square miles of territory. Most of Upshur County was formerly occupied by the Caddo Indians but about the year 1800, one tribe of Cherokee Indians migrated to this section and drove all other Indians out. The Cherokees continued to occupy this country until 1839, when General Thomas J. Rusk drove them out of Texas. Upshur County was originally a part of Nacogdoches County, but later, when Harrison County was organized, it was included in that county. By an act of the State Legislature, Upshur County was organized into a separate county on July 13, 1846.

How Upshur County Got Its Nome

Upshur County was named for Abel P. Upshur, of Virginia, who was Secretary of War and later Secretary of State, under President John Tyler. Upshur worked faithfully for the annexation of Texas to the United States.

Gilmer, the county seat of Upshur County, was named for Thomas W. Gilmer, who was Secretary of the Navy during the same time. Both of these men were killed by an accidental explosion of a large wrought iron gun on board the steamer Princeton, on the Potomac River, in 1844, shortly before the first bill was introduced in the Legislature to create this county.

Upshur County has an altitude of about 370 feet above sea level. This is an ideal elevation above malaria and other contaminations.

Upshur County is bounded on the north by Camp County, on the northeast by Morris County, on the east by Harrison County, on the southeast by Gregg County, on the south by Smith County, and on the west by Wood County. The Sabine River forms the boundary line on the south between Upshur and Smith Counties.

The surface of Upshur County is considerably rolling with many creeks and spring branches that afford an abundance of stock water the year round. In addition to the many smaller streams, the county has two larger waterways, the Cypress creek in the northern part of the county, and Big Sandy creek in the southwestern part. Many wooded hills, some of which culminate in picturesque little mountains add to the beauty of the county. East Mountain, West Mountain, Pridgeon Mountain, and others are examples.

The Mississippi Divide passes through Upshur County in a northwestern and southeastern direction. All drainage east of this divide flows into the Mississippi River, while that on the west flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

Upshur County is located at 32 degrees north latitude, and 94 degrees and 22 minutes west longitude. The average rainfall is 45.1 inches, and the annual temperature is 65 degrees. Upshur County has an average of 44 people to the square mile, while the state’s average is 24.

Upshur has always been an agricultural area. The undulating soils and rich, alluvial bottom lands have been favorable for this industry.

Upshur County has two main railroads crossing the county. The Cotton Belt, running north and south, passing through Gilmer, the county seat, and the Texas & Pacific, running east and west, crossing the Cotton Belt at Big Sandy. The county also has three paved state highways, Highway No. 271, running north and south, passing through Gilmer, and Highway No. 80, running east and west, through the southern part of the county. Highway No. 154 extends to Marshall, starting at an intersection with U. S. No. 271 in Gilmer. Also, the county has other paved roads, and a number of graveled and graded lateral roads over the county. Other state highways are in prospect and will be built as soon as conditions become more settled. The state highways have regular bus service, which give direct connection with all points in the state and other states. Upshur County has a system of rural electrification with a modern plant located at Gilmer.

Upshur County lies partly in the East Texas oil field. The southeastern part of the county has a number of wells, which have caused a wonderful development of the county, and a corresponding increase in its wealth. Lignite, brick clay, and iron ore, are other resources. These are waiting to be developed.

Natural Resources of Upshur County

The soil of Upshur County is of a rich sandy loam. There are many rich creek bottoms on which are grown sugar cane and other crops. The soil is also suited for the growing of many kinds of fruits and vegetables. Many farmers are beginning to go into the livestock business and the county is being changed to a land of dairies and truck farms, and other wide farm diversifications.

The lumber industry is still important in Upshur County. Many small mills are located over the county. During the first few years of the twentieth century, there were nearly one hundred sawmills in Upshur County at one time.

In the early part of 1931, oil was discovered in southeastern Upshur County, and there are over one thousand producing wells in the county now. This industry brought great wealth into the county as well as increased the population by several thousand. The communities of East Mountain and Union Grove have changed from peaceful farming communities to busy oil field villages. Where their schools had from fifty to seventy-five students, and two or three teachers, they now have four or five hundred students and eighteen to twenty teachers.

Iron ore has been found near the surface in different parts of the county. One deposit, near Ore City, contains between 80 and 120 millions of tons of ore. In addition to this one big deposit, there are several smaller ones. When this ore is developed, in the opinion of many, the county’s profit will be greater than the profit from the thousand oil wells now producing, because of the many more men employed and the time necessary to complete the excavation and mining of the ore.

Conditions In Early Upshur County

The early settlers who came to Upshur County, paid very little for the land they acquired. When a person wanted to build, he found a place near a good spring of water. The houses were built of logs, of which there were plenty. There were millions of feet of pine as well as an abundance of hardwood in the county. The logs were squared up with the broad ax and foot adz and notched together. The cracks were covered with boards or chinked with mud and straw.

There were no cook stoves, so everything was cooked over the open fireplace, or outdoors in pots or skillets. Wild game, such as deer, turkey, squirrels, and wild razor-back hogs were plentiful.

Cornbread was universally used, unless the farmer grew his own wheat. This was done quite often, and there was a flour mill known as the Hoover Mill located on Big Sandy creek on the Gilmer-Big Sandy road at the Seago crossing, and operated by water power.

There were few mules and horses in the country and the settlers used oxen almost exclusively. There was no hurry in those days, such as is seen up and down the highways today. Everyone took his time, not expecting to get rich. The roads were only blazed trails or narrow roads used for horseback or ox carts in making trips to town. There was no such thing as a road building machine. The roads were so narrow that when two wagons met, one had to drive out into the weeds while the other passed. There were no bridges across the streams. They were forded or crossed by ferries.

For entertainment, the settlers had house-raisings, log-rollings, square dances, speech-making, patriotic meetings celebrating some holiday, or gathering in some home and listening to some versatile fiddler. No picture shows, no automobile rides, no ball games. But they knew what the word “hospitality” meant. Every home was open to strangers, as they brought news from the outside world. There were no charges for spending the night. Once a year, the head of the house loaded his ox cart with produce and headed for Jefferson to market his goods. Jefferson was at that time one of the largest towns in the state.

First Roads and Trails

The old Cherokee Trace trail made by the Indians from Arkansas to Nacogdoches County was one of the first roads made through Upshur County. It came into the county near Simpsonville and crossed the southern border near East Mountain and forded the Sabine near where Longview’s city water plant stands now. Other early roads were the Red Rock Road which crossed the Sabine at a ferry near Big Sandy, and went east through what is now Gladewater, Longview, and on into Jefferson. Another old road went from Newsom, Camp County, through Coffeeville and on to Jefferson. It was over these roads that the people from North and West Texas went to Jefferson to trade.

When the United States bought Louisiana from France in 1803, a dispute arose between the United States and Spain over the boundary line of new territory north and east of the Sabine River. They made it a “Neutral Ground,” not to be occupied by either country until satisfactory settlement could be made. This “Neutral Ground,” having no laws, was soon overrun by free-booters, desperados, and outlaws. Upshur County was probably occupied by these characters at that time.

In 1824, the Republic of Mexico made a land grant to Hayden Edwards, and Upshur County was included in this grant. Edwards never settled very many people here and the grant was eventually taken from him, but there is a Hayden Edwards Survey in the county now. About the year 1835, the first land grants were made to settlers in this county. After the removal of the Cherokee Indians, in 1839, the country was settled almost over night, and in a few years all the free land was patented.

According to Thrall’s history of Texas, John Cotton was the first white man to settle within the boundary of what is now Upshur, Camp, and Gregg Counties. These three counties were originally united and known as Upshur County. Isaac Moody was the second settler, and about 1838, O. T. Boulware opened a store and trading post on John Cotton’s farm. This was the first business enterprise in the county.

Captain William Hart

Captain William H. Hart moved to this county in 1843. As a land surveyor, the Indians made a deal with him to locate a public highway from Gilmer to Marshall. With his brother-in-law, David Lee, he set out in a one-horse carry-all, blazing the way through the almost trackless woods. They had a tent in which they lived until they could clear ground and build a log house. This was located on the Cherokee Trace about a mile north of the present city limits of Gilmer, on what is now known at the Walter Barnwell farm.

Captain Hart had left the mountains of his native eastern Tennessee to follow his sweetheart, Miss Evaline Kelsey, to Marshall, Texas, where her father, Dr. W. H. Kelsey, was a physician, merchant, and Methodist preacher. So much like his native hills did he find the country, it was easy for him to quickly feel at home and to love his new surroundings.

It was from the Kelsey family that the creek and community west of Gilmer received its name. As more people moved in, the Hart home became headquarters and the meeting place for the new settlers, and it is claimed that for a time, it was used as the county’s courthouse. Here Judge O. M. Roberts, who later became governor of Texas, and District Attorney Dave Arden held court. Among the legal attendants were General Sam Houston and John Reagan. Occasionally, court would be suspended so all could go on a hunt. Leading the chase would be a Mr. Lee, a noted bear hunter.

In 1856, Hart represented his district in the State Legislature. He traveled to Austin on horseback. The legislator’s pay was so small that Mrs. Hart always had to send him money from the farm to pay his expenses at the capital. Hart also served as magistrate, or justice of the peace. Walter Boyd, patriarch of the entire Boyd clan in Gilmer, bought his marriage license from Hart, when he married here. In later years, one of Boyd’s grandsons, J. Walter Marshall, married one of Hart’s granddaughters, Mae Hart.

In November, 1865, the late Rev. W. H. McClelland, and his family, arrived in Upshur County to make his home in the pioneer community. They made the trip from St. Louis to New Orleans by steamboat, and thence to Marshall by train. The family secured a wagon and drove to Upshur County, where the Rev. McClelland settled on a farm seven miles southeast of Gilmer.

The early settlers of Upshur County brought their slaves with them, without whom it would have been almost impossible to do the work of clearing the land, splitting rails for fencing the farms, felling the trees, and building the log houses. All this required a lot of hard, physical labor. The negro slave did his part of this work for which he deserves credit.

Early History

The first deed recorded in Book 1 of Upshur County records is: Britton Smith to Bond J. Bowman, October 2, 1846. Smith sold Bowman 320 acres of land lying on Little Cypress. William Hart was county clerk. The second recorded instrument is Mary Ivey, administratrix, to a bill of sale to Susan Decker:

“Republic of Texas, County of Harrison, know all men by these presents: that I, Mary Ivey, administratrix of the estate of Isah Ivey, deceased, doth by these presents, convey all the rights, title claims and interest that I have to a certain Negro girl, named Nancy, slave for life, unto Susan Decker during her natural life, and then to her bodily heirs forever, and I do bind myself to warrant and defend the right, title and claim of the said Negro unto the said Susan Decker and her heirs from all persons whomsoever.”

In 1846, three-fourths of the records pertained to slaves. Negroes were worth from $300 to $1,000 each. On December 28, 1846, B. M. Hampton mortgaged to A. B. Denton one Negro boy named Grant for $348. The deed made by Mary Ivey was made while Texas was still a republic, and Upshur County was a part of Harrison County, but was not recorded until Upshur became a separate county.

Upshur County had officers from 1846 to 1848, but no record has been found of them. From the register of county officers, pages 223-24, in the archives of the state library, is found the following information:

The first regular election held in Upshur County was on August 7, 1848, and the following men were elected: Thomas D. Brooks, county judge; P. R. Wilson, district clerk; Robert G. Warren, county clerk (Warren held this office until in the sixties); C. G. Patille, sheriff; J. W. Richardson, assessor, and many lesser officers. John McNairy, of Upshur County, was elected state representative.

Judge Mills, candidate for governor, spoke at Gilmer, Saturday, August 4, 1849. Election returns from Gilmer precinct in the governor’s race, 1849, gave Weed 98 votes, Mills 27, and Bell 2. Bell was elected. Upshur County had 306 poll tax receipts in 1849 compared to 4,200 in 1946. Cotton was worth 9-cents to 9½-cents per pound. Mail to Gilmer via Marshall arrived every Sunday at 6 p.m., and departed every Friday at 6 a.m.

Upshur County’s Courthouse

As people come and go to and from the courthouse daily, how often officers hear compliments on the beautiful, well constructed building, the Upshur County courthouse, and how much we should appreciate the spacious offices with their modern equipment! How much more those facts become realistic to us when we talk to some pioneer or read some historical record of the first courthouse; and others that were built later!

According to information gathered from the oldest citizens, and from earlier records, Upshur County did not have a courthouse when the county was first organized in 1845. Court was held under an oak tree a mile north of Gilmer on the Cherokee Trace. The first case tried in the “open air” court was that of John Craig for “assault and battery.” This was during the spring term of 1846. When court met again the following fall, 1846, an order was granted by O. M. Roberts, first assistant judge, appointing the residence of William H. Hart, first county clerk, as the place where court was to be held in Upshur County until the seat of the county could be “carefully located.”

There was no district clerk at that time, so the governor of Texas appointed Elias L. Bishop as temporary district clerk. A few years later a small, one-room log cabin was built out on the Cherokee Trace which served as a meeting place for the officials. Just how long this cabin was used for this purpose there is no record. When the court met April 4, 1871, it granted an order allowing J. P. Ford $500 to pay for a courthouse. By October 30, 1872, a wooden building was erected on a selected spot where the present courthouse now stands. This building boasted a waterproof roof and a cupola supported by four large columns. The several offices were heated by fire places. Many of the prominent lawyers and citizens sat around these fire places spinning fabulous yarns and discussing plans for a better future.

Five years later, in 1877, improvements were made about the grounds around the courthouse. A wooden fence was built by W. A. Roberts to enclose the courtyard. A well was dug, which supplied water, not only for the public in general but for water troughs placed near the hitching posts. No cattle or hogs were allowed in the courtyard. This building stood for eleven years, and on the night of October 25, 1888, it was destroyed by fire, together with all records and papers, with the exception of a few that were placed in the fire-proof vault by the county clerk, S. P. McNair. This vault had been installed a few months before the fire. T. C. Mitchell was tax assessor-collector then.

While plans were being made for the erection of a new building, the county rented the opera building from Walter Boyd. This place was located near the site of the J. M. Still residence. The Tilman House, then one of the modern hotels, was also rented for extra space. On January 25, 1899, plans and specifications were accepted, and according to contract with Wilson Brothers, a new building was constructed of choice brick. The officials had the best material to go into the construction of the new building. They stuck to the old system of heating by means of fire places. The floors were covered with sawdust to protect them from rough boots, spurs, and tobacco juice, as well as to cut down on cleaning expenses. It had a tin roof, with lightning rods on all sides. A decorative iron fence was placed around the courtyard.

Schools of Upshur County

In the early days of Upshur County, there were no public free schools. Schools were private, and were supported by private tuition or by private donations. Back in the days of the Texas Republic, when Lamar was president, in 1839, a law was passed setting aside three leagues of land for each county for the establishment of primary schools and academies. The next year, 1840, another league was added. If there was not enough good vacant land in the county for this purpose, the survey was to be made from public lands elsewhere. Upshur County’s school land lies in Baylor and Throckmorton counties. It has never been sold and now yields a considerable income to the schools from rents and leases.

Upshur County has had from its earliest days some good schools located in different parts of the county. There was the Murry Institute, located somewhere about where Ore City now stands. It was a school of considerable note and was doing excellent work when the Civil War broke out. The Rev. J. J. Clark was founder and manager of the school.

Murry League got its name from William Murry who was the original grantee in a very early day. The Rev. Joshua Clark and his family and William L. Coppedge and his family moved to Texas from Haywood County, Tennessee, in wagons, in the fall of 1853, and settled at Murry League and together with others, began the erection of a large frame school building which received the name of Murry Institute. This school soon became the largest and most prominent school in the county, sending out many young men and women of various callings to make their mark in the world. The Rev. Clark was the head of the school, and some of the first teachers were Virgil M. DuBose, William L. Coppedge, W. B. Baley, and a number of other teachers of wide reputation. Later, some of the teachers were H. M. Mathis, R. G. Hersley, D. LeLand, Mrs. Eva Mash, J. A. Coppedge, James S. Palmer and others.

The Civil War broke into the progress of this school. Many of the young men quit school to join the army and the school never gained back all that was lost by the war.

School was held in the old building until it grew too large for the building, then the Methodist Church was used. Clark, the founder and first principal, was perhaps one of the greatest teachers that ever lived in Texas. He was said to be a man of strong character, and had the ability to raise money, even in the backwoods, to carry on a great school.