The Alto Herald and The Wells News 'N Views (Alto, Tex.), Vol. 90, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 24, 1985 Page: 5 of 8
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Thursday, October m, ini—the alto herald or alto, texab-page five
Mayfield Talks Roads At Heritage Meeting i
'“Indian Trails and Roads in
Cherokee County up to 1880“ was
the program topic for Bernard
Mayfield at the first meeting of the
season for the Cherokee County
Heritage Association held Oct. 7.
The meeting was opened by the
President, Ruby Lee Stevens,
reading selections from Psalms 16
and Fayrene Curtis leading in
prayer.
Edith Rose introduced Mayfield.
She said he graduated from
Jacksonville High School in 1947 as
co-valedictorian and then attended
Lon Morris College and Sam
Houston University, where he
received his bachelor and masters
degrees in history. Mrs. Rose said
he has many talents, including
wood carving and chiselling
arrowheads. He is a housepainter
by profession.
Mayfield said that before he
began he wanted to present
background information to explain
the evolution' of roads. The notion
that the area was a trackless
wilderness is a fallacy. The dif-
ferent types of people who resided
in this area through the hundreds of
years have had different transpor-
tation needs, he said.
After the Europeans introduced
horses to America, the Indians
learned that horses were not gods,
but beasts of burden. Footpaths
were then widened to bridle paths,
perhaps wide enough to accom-
modate a sled dragged behind a
single horse. Even the Cherokee In-
dians, who came to the section in
1829 used horse drawn conveyan-
ces. When the Indians were driven
out in 1830 and white settlers began
to take possession of this section in
1844, the roads had to again be
widened to accommodate wagons
and coaches.
“I’ll begin by tracing the routes of
Duplichain Contractors, Inc.
irigJiiL Excavation rfMjk
\Y//~»rL- r
Driveways — Land Clearing
Ponds ““ Water Lines — Septic Systems
Gravel — Fill Dirt — Sand
ail:
Greg Duplichain
409/858-4100 Day
409/858-4631 Night
At the
“Y”
Hwy. 294 & 21
Alto, Texas
RUSK MEAT & LOCKER
300 EAST FOURTH STREET - RUSK - 683-2451
OPEN 8:30 A.M. TO S:30 P.M. MON. - FRI. - CLOSED SATURDAY
Rusk Meat & Locker
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All fresh meet is now peeked in 5
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Call In Orders Welcome!
We have a complete line of Hickory Smoked
Meat.
We Process Deer1
the Indian trails I've dwwveiou
that existed in this section before
the coming of the white pioneers,
and explain how these routes so
carefully chosen along the high
ground were upgraded to road
standards and continued to be of
service, some even to the present
time," he said.
Early roads and trails in
Cherokee County included an In-
dian trail which was the old San An-
tonio Road or the El Camino de
Real from St. Augustine, Fla. to
California, with a spur from San
Antonio to Mexico City and should
be called the Indian National High-
way. Hernando de Soto tramped its
eastern territories along the Gulf of
Mexico to the Mississippi River and
Francisco de Coronado He ex-
plored the western trail looking for
the golden cities of Cibola. That
part of the road in Cherokee County
and East Texas is called the San
Antonio Road because the first
Spanish missionaries followed the
road from Mexico through San An-
tonio to the Tejas Indian villages
along the Neches and Angelina
Rivers
Three separate routes of the road
crossed Cherokee County. That in-
cluded the upper San Antonio Road
crossing the Neches at Leonard
Williams Ferry, traveling through
Alto and crossing the Angelina at
Joseph Durst Ferry, just south of
the present State Highway 21 to
Nacogdoches. The middle road
made off from the upper road at
Lacy’s Fort and crossed the
Angelina at Tuchetts Ferry. The
Lower San Antonio Road crossed
the Neches south of Duren Lake and
exited the county at John Durst
Crossing, 24 miles south of High-
way 2i. it is believed that LaSalle,
beating his way north from the lost
colony on Matagorda Bay, was
traveling this route when he was
killed on Larrison Creek about two
miles south of Alto in 1687
The upper road was the most
popular route It became the
southern boundary of the Cherokee
Indian Territory according to the
Houston-Bowles Treaty of 1836
Actually, the road was a buffer zone
between white settlements in
Nacogdoches County and the Indian
ground and early towns of Lochian-
zie, Linwood, and Alto grew along
the route. Nacogdoches-Neches
Saline Road traversed present
Cherokee County from the John
Durst crossing on the Angelina
River northwest along the high
ground between the Angelina and
Neches River to the great salt mar-
shes on the Neches River in the
present Smith County. County set-
tlement began at the Saline in the
late 1829s and 75 miles of the Saline
Road to Nacogdoches was well used
by the whites and Indians. When
Bowles led the Cherokees out of the
area in 1839, he retreated along the
road to Van Zant County where he
was killed at the Battle of the
Neches.
Farts of the road are still being
used. Linwood cut-off FM 241,
stretches from Dial ville to
Jacksonville and from US 175 to
Killough Creek south of Larissa
The present road parallels the
Saline Road about 300 yards to the
west. In places where the road was
abandoned, traces are still visible
North of Killough Creek, where the
road makes off to a monument site,
the road seems to dip off 8-10 feet
before it disappears. The Caddo
Trace led from Striker Village in
Jose Sanchez survey to N^ohes
Saline Mayfield said he discovered
Cherokee County Roads
Bernard Mayfield displays a map of early Cherokee County Roads during a presentation last week to the
Cherokee County Heritage Association. From left are Mrs. Mayfield. Mayfield. Kdith Rose, program chair-
man, and Ruby Lee Stevens, president of the organization The heritage group meets on the first Monday
evening of the month at 6:30 p.ni. for dinner and a program at the Southern Gourmet Restaurant in Husk.
Membership is open to Cherokee County residents interested in the history and heritage of the area.
-staff photo
a trail in early research, but there
was no name for it The first attem
pted settlement in Northeast
Cherokee County was made on this
road just south of New Summerfield
in November of 1834, by Will F.
Williams and George May. but In-
dians forced them out Militia com-
panies from Saline district traveled
to Saline during the Cherokee War
along the route, and McKees and
Newton came to Larissa along the
road I discovered the work of T.C
Richardson and learned the road
was traveled by early Caddoans
from Shreveport to the Trinity
River and on to the pioneers
beyond In Cherokee County the
road became the Jacksonville to
Salem Road crossing Mud Creek at
Glasses Crossing north of U S 79
and passed south of McDonald
Cemetery at New Summerfield to
cross Striker Creek where T.P.L.
guest house is located
Cherokee Trail led from
Nacogdoches to cross Angelina
Road at Cherokee Crossing below
Atoy FM 343, paralleled Mud
Creek’s west banks, and exited into
present Smith County over the west
fork of Mud Creek about 200 yards
south of the county line. When
David Rush (brother of General
Thomas Rusk) used the ferry at the
Angelina Crossing to H.G. Hatchett
in 1850, it became Hatchett Ferry
Road. In addition to Atoy, other set-
tlements along the road included
Lowes Chape, Afton Grove (Key’s
Creek) and Mixon
The Fort Houston Road started at
Hatchetts ferry on the Angelina and
ran west to intersect Neches Saline
Road three miles south of Rusk at
Cook's Fort and on to Duty Crossing
(Commons Ferry) on the Neches
River just south of the present State
Railroad and on to Fort Houston
north of Palestine in Anderson
County The road is gone now but
Sulphur Springs near Atoy, Cook's
Fort and Pine Town were early set-
tlements on the road
The Moon Copes Crossing Road
from Rusk to Fort Houston followed
Indian trails from Chief Little
Bean's Village at UaKiand Chun.ii
to Mount Comfort Church north of
Maydelle around the foot of Moore
Mountain across Gent Mountain,
west to cross Gum Creek at George
M Doherty's mill, the settlement of
Pine Grove, through Tillman's
Chapel at Rocky Point crossing on
the Neches The road was upgraded
from the trail to road standards by
Commissioners Court in January
1847 and became the road from
Rusk to Neches after 1872
Stage routes included Henderson
to Rusk stage by way of Knoxville
and met the Tyler to Henderson
there It came to Rusk through
Griffen, Lone Star, Myrtle Springs,
across the bridge on Mud Creek
near Ponta
The Tyler to Rusk Stage came
through Larissa down Nacogdoches
Saline Road Old Jacksonville was
about 14 miles west of Old Saline
Road, so a jug was created in the
road from near Old Jacksonville to
connect with Main Saline Road
about two miles south of present
Jacksonville, and then from below
Dialville a new road was cut to link
with Rusk, which was about three
miles east of the Main Saline Road
Jack Moore and Mayfield named
the road the Rusk Spur of the new
Saline Road, as it entered Rusk
from the north
The Rusk to Palestine stage
twisted by Mount Hope through
Pine Town south of State Railroad
to cross the Neches at Cannon
Ferry
VSC Meeting
Set Oct. 31
The Volunteer Services Council
for Rusk State Hospital will meet
Thursday, Oct. 31, at noon in the
Social Room of the Day Treatment
Center
Members can make luncheon
reservations by contacting the
Volunteer Services office by Mon-
day, according to Chairman Ken
Smith
The Rusk to Crockett stage went
through Bulah community, crossed
the Neches at Bonners Ferry near
Farm Road 294. crossing to
Elkhart The first telegraph line
was erected in 1854 and followed the
line from Rusk to Crockett
The Nacogdoches to Rusk stage
followed Hatchett Ferry Road
across Falcom Creek to Rusk H G
Hatchett built a stage coach inn
near Atoy
Mayfield said some useful secon-
dary information came to light as
he was doing this road research He
said he soon began to learn where
most of the early settlers lived
throughout the county. The way he
came to this knowledge was that
before the county had a road tax.
the citizens had to maintain the
roads in their area and every year
the commissioners court appointed
several road overseers, or foremen,
along each road The overseer
notified the head of each I ausehold
and the able bodied members
residing there as to when the roads
were to be worked The list of road
hands were written each session in
the commissioners records One
example is the road from Rusk to
Hatchett Ferry in 1857 (which was
bsetween the census of 1850 and
I860).
The road list for the Rusk to
David Rusk crossing, by way of the
bridge over Falcon Creek, included
hands I N Hicks. William O Hicks,
J W' Manus, L.E White, T Lusk,
John Smith, Lewis, George and
John Waggoner. John Scarbrough,
James Wherry. I A McEwen, John
Astin, Sam Gauge, Green
Washington. E A Hatchett and
George Burton
Many secondary roads, too many
to mention Mayfield said, there are
many secondary roads The map
will appear in the New Cherokee
County History Book All roads
were being constantly improved
and rerouted as to population shifts
about the county The reason many
of the towns died out was due to the
roming of the railroad and building
of new roads that by-passed the old
towns
Iwihn Opt 30th Toer of Serving Cherokee County I Sinning Owr 30tii Yoor of Swing Cherokee County I Roghwiiwg Or 30th V—r of Serving Cherokee Countyl M^msk>§ Oor 30th Toor of Senrieg Chorohoo Cooofyl Ujmimt Of 3tth Toor •tSorv
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The Alto Herald and The Wells News 'N Views (Alto, Tex.), Vol. 90, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 24, 1985, newspaper, October 24, 1985; Alto, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth846730/m1/5/?q=%22~1~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Stella Hill Memorial Library.