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The Cutoff
and Mistletoe
by Bob Bowman |
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There
is an old Texas saying that goes something like this, "Every time
the Legislature meets, keep a close watch on your wallet and your
wife."
In the case of Trinity County--a lovely East
Texas landscape dotted with pine trees and bordered by two rivers--the
Legislature grabbed more than the county's wallets and wives.
On two occasions, in 1858 and 1877, the Legislature took away portions
of the county's territory and attached them to neighboring counties.
The first raid occurred in 1858 when 32 residents of a portion of
the county--bordered on the west by Houston County and on the south
by the Trinity River--petitioned the Legislature to place the land
in Walker County.
The settlers said a sizable stream between them and the first Trinity
County seat of Sumpter, which had been established four years earlier,
was impassable much of the year, necessitating a trip of 50 miles
to circumvent the flooded area and reach Sumpter. The distance from
Huntsville, Walker's
county seat, was only 15 miles, they said.
Agreeing that the settlers had been inconvenienced by geography, the
Legislature on January 20, 1858, detached the land from Trinity County
and attached it to northern Walker county. The area soon became known
as Kittrell's Cutoff for Pleasant W. Kittrell, a pioneer physician
who lived in Walker County and became a friend of Sam Houston and
a member of the Legislature in 1858.
The isolation of Kittrell's Cutoff made it attractive to whiskey runners,
gamblers and others who had little respect for Texas laws. Gunfighter
John Wesley Hardin, the son of a Methodist minister at Sumpter, fled
into the cutoff after killing three union soldiers in 1868.
Texas Rangers were often called into the cutoff to apprehend criminals
who intimidated lawmen from Trinity and Walker counties. In 1903 Ranger
Bill McDonald was sent by state officials to bring the law to the
cutoff and observed: "Kittrell's Cutoff was probably one of the most
lawless places you could find anywhere." McDonald had so much trouble
that he wrote to his superiors that the territory was "hopeless."
In
the 1870s, the Texas Legislature took another swath of Trinity County
lands. This time it was a triangular-shaped piece of the county called
Mistletoe.
The territory and its tax base belonged to Trinity County until March
11, 1875, when the Legislature annexed it to neighboring Polk County.
Trinity County's officials were not pleased; the lost land meant the
loss of $4,500 in property taxes.
In the fall of 1876, Trinity County attorney James Hill was dispatched
to Livingston to remind the Polk County commissioners court that when
the annexation took place, it was understood that Polk County would
pay Trinity County the pro rata share of the county's debt that would
have been paid by taxpayers in Mistletoe.
Polk County worked out an arrangement to pay $620, but the commissioners
court changed their mind and refused to pay the debt.
Trinity County sued Polk County, accusing the county of taking their
territory "by force of arms," and asked a district court to make Polk
County pay the $620 with interest or return Mistletoe to Trinity County
with any collected taxes.
When the district court concluded that Trinity County's claim was
not supported by existing law, Trinity County appealed the decision
to the Texas Supreme Court. Five years later, the high court upheld
the district court's decision--and left Mistletoe in Polk County.
The section of land would eventually see the founding of Corrigan
when the Houston East and West Texas Railroad ran its tracks from
Houston to Shreveport in
the l880s. |
All
Things Historical
>
July 24, 2006 Column.
Published with permission
A weekly column syndicated in over 40 East Texas newspapers
(Distributed by the East Texas Historical Association. Bob Bowman
of Lufkin is a past president of the Association and the author of
more than 30 books about East Texas.) |
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