CHAPTER TWO

"Listen to the Echoes"

A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSK COUNTY

Rusk County is located in the valleys of Sabine and Angelina rivers ­It was originally a part of Nacogdoches County, but was made a separate county in 1843 and named for General Thomas Jefferson Rusk, Secretary of War in Sam Houston's cabinet.   The county was laid off in 1843 on land belonging to General James W. Smith, and the town of Henderson was named for James Pinckney Henderson, General Rusk's law partner and later first governor of Texas after the annexation.

The county is one of the oldest settled parts of the state, having land grants going back to Spanish rule.  It was also the home of the Cherokee Indians, who were finally driven out in 1839. The Cherokee Indian, which means "Uplander", were the largest and most important Indian tribe originally east of the Alleghenies and perhaps the highest in culture north of Mexico. The first white man to encounter them were those of De Sota's expedition in 1540. Pushed down in Delaware in 1820, they organized a regular civilized government, including a Legislature, which paid members and adopted a code of Laws. In 1827 they took the name of the "Cherokee Nation" and formed a constitution. more than any other tribe, the Cherokee Nation furnished the crystallizing thread of United States Government policy and action in Indian affairs and they never joined the Confederacy. Before Great Britain rule was ended, they allied themselves against England. They eventually met every test of practicality, of Christian profession, and conduct of industry and productiveness of outgoing friendliness to the whites of "progress" in domestic order and education.

All tribes used tobacco, and for smoking, employed pipes with small bowls of pottery, stone or wood with short stems of wood or cane. best stone pipes were those of the Cherokees who frequently carved their pipe bowls in animal effigies.

Basket making reached. a high development among the tribes, especially the Cherokees and from earliest times, these Southern tribes have been farmed for their textiles. These woven from various fibers, Opossum hair and Buffalo wool, were used as garments, belts and sashes. Garters and pouches were also made by them. They made magnificent feather robes or mantles, each selected feather being individually fast­ened to a woven fabric foundation. The whole forming a robe of extra­ordinary warmth and lightness.

One of their great men, Seqoie, invented their alphabet, considered second only to the European systems in the various schemes of symbolic through representation.

The first American land grants were given to Elliot and Williams families who staked their claims near Lawsonville, which is famous to­day as the burial place of Dr. Albert Miles, the noted physician of Tulane University. Other groups early in this era, settled near Camden and Mt. Enterprise. Several soldiers of the Texas revolution were from Rusk County: Robert Smith, Henry Chapman and James Walling.

                 After the Texas Revolution, many settlers poured in from the Southern states, so that by 1843 there were sufficient population to form a separate county. Before the Civil war, towns had grown up at Henderson, Mt. Enterprise, Harmony Hill, Camden, Millville, Lawsonville, New Salem, Bellview, Glenfawn, Pine Hill, Minden and Concord. Some of the places having gotten their names from famous men of that time. The town site of Henderson, which was named for James Pinckney Henderson, was donated by his friend, William B. Ochiltree, on condition that it bear the name of  enderson. 

Mt. Enterprise got its name from a mountain near its site, plus the energy displayed in Developing

the resources of that section by the Vinson brothers, who settled there in 1832.

No amount of research, it seems, has accounted for the name of Harmony Hill., of which more is said in this book. It was the home of a large tribe of Indians and was settled by Daniel Martin. A large number of the Martin family and relatives still live in and around there today.

Laneville is said to have been so-called because four lanes con­verged on its sides. Tatum is named for Albert Tatum, son of a pioneer family and early settlers. New Salem was named for Oscar Wilson, in honor of his old home in Victoria County. Overton was so-called for Frank Overton, an^- early settler. Ellie Glen is credited with having killed a fawn on the location of Glenfawn, a small settlement in Rusk County. Reklaw was named by the Cherokees in honor of Margaret L. Walker, Reklaw being Walker spelled backwards. 

Many plantations came into existence, and much wealth in the form of slaves, which were brought into this country during the Civil war. Rusk County sent more soldiers to the Confederacy than any other county of comparable size.

In 1876 the people of Texas drew up a new constitution based on white rule, and peace was again restored to the state. Conditions grew better slowly, though real prosperity was never fully regained.

Even a short history of Rusk County. would be incomplete without the history of its railroads. In 1872 the first railroad was built in the county - "The International & Great Northern", but Henderson was left off the route. Later, a branch line, "The Henderson & Overton" was built by local capital. The first train pulled into town in 1877. 

             Henderson built another railroad in 1909 - "The Timpson & Henderson" and was known as the "Ragley Road". The station was located on the site of the present auditorium, and the trains switched grandly across East Street carrying freight which was interchanged with the I&GN. The Timp­son & Henderson went broke in 1922.  Prior to these railroads, one had been built to connect Henderson-with the Gulf, called the Galveston, Houston & Henderson Railroad, which was the third railroad chartered in Texas. It was never completed because of the War between the States. The present Gulf Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad which extends from Longview to Beaumont, began as a lumber road and was built out of Long­view, passing through Camden and which reached Tatum in 1887, was known as "The High Dry & Windy".

Rusk County was not quite two years old when the matter of schools came to the front. Both the educated and the uneducated residents want­ed their children to have advantages which many had missed. The the first  Schoolhouse was furnished by James W. Flanagan, and it served its purpose for many years until it was blown down by a cyclone in 1866. There was a separate girls department in the Rusk County Academy, occupying a build­ing for five days a week. The Academy stood on the west side of north St., and the school on the east side.

 Private schools were established during the period before the Civil war, including colleges. Rock Hill Institute and Alexander Institute.  About 1880 the public school system of Texas was set up, and gradually the number of private schools decreased. The early schools had many important teachers, one of whom was George Garrison, who later became the first teacher of History at the University of Texas.  General Webster Flanagan, a famous general during the Civil war, saw the first session of Rusk County's Commissioner's Court in 1843, held under a tree in southeast Henderson on what is now known as Ragley Street. Most of the county officials were seated on fallen logs. Soon after however, hewn logs figured in the construction of a courthouse which was built on the south end of block 14, which is the offset in the square just west of Haden and Boucher's Drug Store.

          This structure must have been in use ten years later, for the Com­missioner's Court at the May term in 1854 allowed five hundred ($500.00) dollars for the construction of a new courthouse. The new building which burned down in 1878, was a frame house, square in design, two stories, and was located in the center of the public square.     

        The county developed into an agricultural county and remained such until 1930 when the oil boom began. The population of the county was nearly as a result of the oil, and the appearance of much of the country is greatly changed.

                The Texas Almanac (1949-50) describes Rusk County as an oil, agricultural and industrial county. A fully developed farming area twenty-­five years ago, discovery of oil revolutionalized the county's economy, standard of living and way of life in general. High-density population, largely urban or rural dwelling industrial workers in oil fields. About twenty per cent (20%) of the population are Negroes. In the piney woods area, rolling terrain with low hills, altitude 300-370, and annual rainfall 44.32 inches mean annual temperature of 66. 

Second^-ranking oil producing county in the state, with 42,588,612 barrels in 1948. The area in square miles 944, the population in 1940 was 51,023.

Rusk County has had many old homes and historical landmarks, one of  the most beautiful colonial homes in Rusk County was that of D. B. Leverette, a member of a pioneer family. Leverette's home is on the site of the original log cabin bought by his grandfather, J. D. Leverette in 1852. The log house was remodeled shortly before the Civil war and served as a home until recently. 

Some of the famous landmark still standing is in the county to­day. A monument of General Thomas Jefferson Rusk on the public square and Judge Morris' monument. Pillsbury vault, burial place of Timothy Pillsbury, early settler and Senator from Rusk county. The Tutt vault, and the Joiner well, which was the discovery well in the new field. The old courthouse was recently torn down to make room for the modern one which occupies a space west of the original site.

                  Miller schoolhouse, long since torn down, originally stood on a small stream north of the later site and east of the Gladney home, and was first known as the Gladney school, but was rebuilt about 1893 on a rocky hill across from the present home of Jeff Pepper. The first teacher of whom we have a record was John Holland, a Baptist preacher, who later lived in Tyler. The early teachers were Pitt Craig, Miss Nettie Crain, Miss Stone, who was the sister of Reagan Stone, and who is now Mrs. Joe Langhorne, Willis Menefee, Bob West, and Egbert Jimmerson and John Prothro. It was under Prothro's teaching that the writer. began his education. His term at Miller in 1906-07 was probably the last for the school. Early pupils of this school were the children of John Pepper. James Mack Brown, Horatio Brown, The Frees, Cornelius, Miles, Birdsong, Clark and Turlington families and many other old settlers. Nothing remains of this historic spot dear to the memory of many. 

                     Jack Brown, a native of London, England and the great grandfather  of the writer, settled on Panther Creek in the early 70's on a farm that joined that of Berry Adams. Mr. Adams' daughter, Dillie, was born there in 1860 and later became the wife of Gil S. Jones. Mr. Brown was a silversmith of no mean ability, and many old settlers have jewelry wrought by his hands. Mystery shrouds the history of Brown. Research reveals that he grew up in London, the son of a family who operated a counting house (private bank) and possibly of the Royalty.   

Legend has it that his father had plans for the son to succeed him in his business, but the call of adventure was too great. He left home, spent some years in the British Admiralty, finally coming to the United States, where he met and married his wife on a trip down-the Mississippi, ending up in East Texas where he spent the remainder of his life.