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Local author Martha Sue Stroud called Red River County the "Gateway
to Texas," which is a pretty apt description. North of Clarksville
lies Jonesboro, the site of a prominent ferry crossing and steamboat
port. The town, which had a hotel, a blacksmith shop, and several
warehouses, developed in 1816 and served as the Miller County, Arkansas
seat for a while. Famous men like Sam Houston, Davy Crockett, Benjamin
Milam and Stephen F. Austin entered the state here, where they then
picked up the Trammel Trace (the northern road to Nacodogches)
- maybe to find more action? In any case, county historians like to
argue that Jonesboro should be considered the first permanent settlement
of Anglo-Americans in New Spain. Unfortunately for them, state historians
dismiss its importance because Jonesboro wasn't considered a legal
part of Texas until 1836, and still give Stephen F. Austin's colony
the nod. Those sticklers. |
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Jonesboro
Grave: This tombstone is the only original remnant of Jonesboro. A
farmer found it in his field nearby as he was plowing. It commemorates
Jane Chandler Gill, an English woman who died in 1816, shortly after
making the Red River crossing. |
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Jonesboro
Marker at the Jonesboro roadside park reminds the reader that "Near
Here at the old Jonesboro Crossing Sam Houston an envoy of President
Andrew Jackson first set foot on Texas soil December 2, 1832." |
Poor Jonesboro,
wiped out by a flash flood in the 1840s, is not even a ghost town
anymore. Only an old tombstone reminds one of what used to be there.
The site is now a roadside park on FM 410, near Kiomatia,
Red River County.
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© Robin
Jett
July 2003
Robin
Jett publishes Red River Historian, a newsletter about
the history of the Red River Valley - both Texas and Oklahoma. She
can be reached at robin@redriverhistorian.com |
Jonesboro, Texas Forum
Subject: Jonesborough on the Red River.
You wrote a great story but, there is so much more you could and should
say about Jonesborough.......
Fort Towson, the second oldest Fort in Oklahoma, was strategicly located
to help protect Jonesborough....along with protect the Indians...
it is North of Jonesborough a short distance. It is fun going to Fort
Towson, just west of the town of Fort Towson is a cemetery, you park
your car in the cemetery, go over the wall with stairs provided into
another GHOST TOWN.
Fort Towson is located down the hill from the Indian Village. It is
being excavated and there is a museum on site.
Fort Towson and Jonesborough are one story, separated by a river,
you can't talk about one without talking about the other...in my opinion.
If one goes to Jonesborough, he should then go to Fort Towson. To
understand the story.
The people did not call that Texas back in those days...it was Arkansas
to them. The Mexican's always said the Sabine was the boundary line.......for
Texas.
There was a Masonic Lodge located in Jonesborough, Sam Houston attended
a Masonic Meeting there......check the records, should be located
in the Masonic Lodge in Clarksville,
Texas.......or the Grand Lodge at Waco,
Texas.
Bowman, a citizen of Jonesborough, hearing of the Alamo's
need, saddled his horse, and rode to his destiny, 06 March 1836. The
Historical Marker at Jonesborough, reads so.......
If you take a tall ladder with you, you can stand on the ladder and
see the Red River.......without getting up high, you do not even know
there is a river there.
Trammel's Trace actually runs from Fulton, Arkansas to Nacogdoches,
but it Y's at the Sulphur River and follows an old trail to Jonesborough.
It actually y's twice.
On the highway going to Jonesborough is another Historical marker
telling of the Indians living in the area.
More Later...... - Sincerely, James Dixon Graves Jr. Lone Star,
Texas, February 24, 2008 |
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