For some time I have been studying the story of the development of historic trails, traces, roads and communities in Northeast Texas, focusing particularly on the Anglo-American dispersion across the region beginning in the early 19th-Century in what is now Red River County and Bowie County (where I live) in far Northeast Texas. The early history of this area is deep, encompassing that of a complex Caddo Indian Nation developed over more than a millennium, an 18th-Century French trading post, and the first Anglo-American communities in Texas.
The Caddos had found Northeast Texas to be a good place to farm and to build a successful society. But they could not sustain it, largely due to population decline caused by introduced European diseases, and they abandoned the area before the Americans came. The Americans built an extensive farming network, albeit in the case of the Anglo plantation owners only with the forced labor of enslaved people, and healthy rural communities spread across the landscape. This network was disrupted by the Civil War, but recovered in the latter part of the 19th-Century so that Red River and Bowie Counties were almost completely covered with farms and their associated communities, only to then see a gradual decline in agriculture in the 20th.
Underlying centuries of human agriculture was the land, fertile and well-watered, with deep forests and verdant prairies, although punctuated by almost impenetrable swamps and sometimes roaring streams. With the advent of the Republic of Texas in 1836 and its policy of providing free land to prospective planters and farmers, the expansion of American”settlement” across far Northeast Texas came rapidly. Carving out a living on this land was never easy, but many were able to do so. Understanding when and how they left their imprints on the land can help with understanding what its future can be.
With all this in mind, we have been developing a set of geographical and historical information from old maps and many other sources so as to view it by using an interactive Google map, the “Historic East Texas” Google map. To do so, we have used the Google maps “MyMaps” feature , which is a powerful tool for developing and presenting geographical and other information. The usual Google maps underlie the customized “MyMaps” on this website, and all features of Google maps are available, including switching among base maps such as satellite and topographical views.
This Google map has several “layers” that can be viewed together or individually. When the Google map page is first linked to, one or more layers will likely already be open. You can choose different layers by using the legend on the left side of the map. Below is a section showing how to access the various layers.
Old Roads of Northeast Texas
The Historic Northeast Texas Google map has a layer that shows some of the known pre-Civil War roads, trails, and “traces” of Northeast Texas, focusing on the far northeastern area that includes Red River and Bowie Counties but extending down to the south as far as Henderson. It also includes another layer giving extensive information on locations related to these roads, such as head right survey notes identifying road crossings or related features.
Many sources have been used to develop the “old roads” map. For pre-Civil War roads, surveyor notes from head right and other grants are often the most reliable sources (nearly all are available online from the Texas General Land Office in a searchable land grant data base containing over 800,000 records). Old maps also often have very useful information in that they may show accurately that a road went from place to another, although still only providing a general route. Historical documents also are important and sometimes the only source of information available, particularly for the history of communities and other places. The Handbook of Texas Online (https://tshaonline.org/handbook), developed and maintained by the Texas State Historical Association provides a wealth of information on the history of people and places.
Bowie and Red River Counties
Other layers of the Historic East Texas map relate primarily to Red River and Bowie Counties. One layer shows the “Century Roads” in Red River and Bowie counties. These are those roads shown on maps from a century or more ago, particularly the 1918 Bowie County Soil Map, which is the earliest map we are aware of that shows all of Bowie County with detailed roads. Other layers on our Google map show named places, including communities, cemeteries and historical markers in Red River and Bowie counties, with notes on most of the places. There is also a layer with historic places in other nearby counties, although this is less developed.
Generally, roads and place markers are color coded, with yellow/orange colors indicating pre-Civil War times, red being those roads and places known to have been in existence at some point between the Civil War and roughly 1920, and blue indicating those coming after 1920. In the “Century Roads” layer, green is used to show roads shown on pre-1925 maps but no longer shown in maps or otherwise known to exist.
As for icons and symbols, generally, stars are used for communities or other places of historical interest, shields are used for historical markers, and a “tree” icon for cemeteries. Squares indicate that a location is identified in land survey notes—usually used here for old roads, mostly from pre-Civil War surveys. Black colored squares indicate survey information from Gary Pinkerton, whose work and book on Trammel’s Trace have inspired and contributed to much of what’s here, including land survey notes.
This is very much a work in progress, and some sections are far from complete. Some information is undoubtedly inaccurate, so corrections, suggestions and more information are welcome.
Sources and Links
We have used many sources to develop these webpages and maps. Some of the more useful are listed below with, in most cases, some descriptive information. Most of these are available online. Additional sources are referenced in other pages on this site.
1906 USGS Topographical Map–New Boston. This detailed map shows roads and places from just north of New Boston to a bit south of the Sulphur River and west to east from near Malta to past Hooks. Although the published date is 1909, the map notes that the surveys were performed in 1906, so we use that date here. This is the oldest detailed map of this area showing roads we have found to this point.
1906 USGS Topographical Map–Texarkana. Similar to above but going from west of Leary to just east of the Texas-Arkansas state line.
1918 Bowie County Soil Map. This very detailed map shows not only soil types but also roads, communities, schools, churches and indications of structures. Publication was in 1918, but surveys were likely performed a year or two before that date.
1940 Bowie County Highway Map.
University of North Texas Portal to Texas History. This digital archive contains well over 1 million documents, including thousands of maps related to Texas history.
Handbook of Texas Online. The most comprehensive source for articles on Texas history.
Gunnar Brune’s Springs of Texas. This is a comprehensive source on the locations of and viability of springs as of 1976 along with considerable historical information, although some of this information may need to be checked against other sources. It is available online through Google Books and is organized by county. The springs for a specific county, like Bowie County, can be found by a search on the Google Book page linked to here.
Wright Patman’s “Postmasters of Bowie County”. Wright Patman was not only a very influential United States Congressman, serving 24 terms, but he was also a student of local history and particularly proud of his congressional support for U. S. Post Offices. This small book, available online, is a good source for the history of Bowie County communities.
Postmasters of Red River County, by Jim Wheat.
Cemeteries of Bowie County, by Gloria Mayfield, last updated in 2009.
Find A Grave website. An invaluable source for cemetery censuses. The link here is for Bowie County.
The Red River Valley in Arkansas: Gateway to the Southwest by Robin Cole Jett. Although the title indicates a focus on Arkansas, this is really a history of the Red River Great Bend Region overall, and is the first book to read as an introduction to the area. The author also has an excellent website, the Red River Historian, and her blog which addresses her historical travels and adventures along the Red River.
Skipper Steely‘s books on the history of northeast Texas. These include, among many other books of his, those that address primarily the Anglo-American influx in the early part of the 19th Century: Red River Pioneers: Anglo-American Activities in Northeast Texas, Southeast Oklahoma and Southwest Arkansas (original by Rex Strickland, this version edited and annotated by Skipper Steely), Forty Seven Years: A New Look At Early Texas History 1830-1877,Jonesborough: A Texas Memory (Steely Mini-History Series (with Neilson Rogers), Six Months From Tennessee, The Great Bend of the Red River: History of the Indian, French, and Spanish Living along the Red River of the Natchitoches (with Morris Britton). All of these are available from booksellers, including Amazon, which has these on Kindle Books.
Captain W.W. Withenbury’s 1838-1842 Red River Reminiscences is a book containing a very entertaining set of letters, annotated by Jacques Bagur, written many years later by this steamboat captain about his journeys up and down the Red River, including several stops at landings in northeast Texas including what is now Bowie County. The complete book is not available online, but can be ordered from several sites, including the one linked to here. It can be searched at this site so as to see small excerpts.
The Clarksville Standard. This early newspaper, also known as the Northern Standard, first published on August 20, 1842, is an invaluable source of information on Red River County. Most issues are available at the UNT Portal through the link here.
Texas General Land Office Land Grant Search. This can be searched for individual names or also by county.