old man from dallas Wrote:
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> I believe that the most common route into Texas
> from Arkansas and Indian Territory in the Republic
> and earlier days was through the area of Locust
> Grove rather than Bonham. I could be wrong on
> that, too.
>
> M.C.?
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Dave - The earliest route out of Arkansas was probably the Trammel Trace from Fulton, drifting southwest through northeast Texas then south to Nacogdoches, It had a northwest branch to Jonesborough on Red River. Both Jonesborough and Pecan Point were the earliest entry points from Indian Territory and were originally reached by boat from Louisiana before 1810 after working though the great raft. The Wright family, founders of Paris Texas about 1840, made that trip from Tennessee by floating down the Mississippi then poling up the Red River
After Fort Towson was built about 1830 on the north side of Red River at the Kiamitia mouth there were military roads direct from there to Fort Gibson in Indian Territory and Fort Smith In Arkansas which provided the primary routes from Missouri and Illinois.
You are correct that Fort Inglish / Bonham was never an entry point - there was not a good crossing to the north. It benefited by being on the Chihuahua Traders' Trails which is now roughly the route of US 82.
Ca 1850 and later maps show a network of roads coming into Texas from the northeast and east with Jefferson also being a major port before the raft was cleared and I believe Locust Grove would have been along that route to Dallas. There was also a Locust Grove in Dallas County where the McKinney Road crossed White Rock Creek.
The very early roads took the easiest, though not necessarily shortest or direct route, to avoid water crossings and heavily wooded bottom lands. They followed the ridge lines just as the Indians and Buffalo did.
I have account of Maxime Guillot who made his way directly from Shreveport to the Icarian Colony in Denton County in 1848 mostly pushing a handcart and the difficulties with both the terrain and the sticky black prairie when wet which caused him to miss the Peters Colony deadline.
M C
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> I believe that the most common route into Texas
> from Arkansas and Indian Territory in the Republic
> and earlier days was through the area of Locust
> Grove rather than Bonham. I could be wrong on
> that, too.
>
> M.C.?
=====================
Dave - The earliest route out of Arkansas was probably the Trammel Trace from Fulton, drifting southwest through northeast Texas then south to Nacogdoches, It had a northwest branch to Jonesborough on Red River. Both Jonesborough and Pecan Point were the earliest entry points from Indian Territory and were originally reached by boat from Louisiana before 1810 after working though the great raft. The Wright family, founders of Paris Texas about 1840, made that trip from Tennessee by floating down the Mississippi then poling up the Red River
After Fort Towson was built about 1830 on the north side of Red River at the Kiamitia mouth there were military roads direct from there to Fort Gibson in Indian Territory and Fort Smith In Arkansas which provided the primary routes from Missouri and Illinois.
You are correct that Fort Inglish / Bonham was never an entry point - there was not a good crossing to the north. It benefited by being on the Chihuahua Traders' Trails which is now roughly the route of US 82.
Ca 1850 and later maps show a network of roads coming into Texas from the northeast and east with Jefferson also being a major port before the raft was cleared and I believe Locust Grove would have been along that route to Dallas. There was also a Locust Grove in Dallas County where the McKinney Road crossed White Rock Creek.
The very early roads took the easiest, though not necessarily shortest or direct route, to avoid water crossings and heavily wooded bottom lands. They followed the ridge lines just as the Indians and Buffalo did.
I have account of Maxime Guillot who made his way directly from Shreveport to the Icarian Colony in Denton County in 1848 mostly pushing a handcart and the difficulties with both the terrain and the sticky black prairie when wet which caused him to miss the Peters Colony deadline.
M C