Freestone County, Texas History FREESTONE COUNTY (A brief history taken from East Texas — Its History and Its Makers Volume II Edition By Thomas C. Richardson - 1940) Limestone County had been in existence four years when the people of the Eastern half decided that Springfield was too far away as a county seat, and their section deserved the dignity of a county organization of its own. The legislature therefore created this county in 1850 (naming it Freestone from the typical rock formation), and its Citizens perfected their county government in the following year. The few settlers who located here prior to the Revolution were forced to retire to the settlements for safety, and the first permanent settlers began to appear during the latter years of the Republic. Troy was established about 1847, and was for some years the principal town in the county. It was listed among the river ports of the Trinity as Pine Bluff. Other settlements followed in rapid succession, such as Butler, and Mound Prairie about 1850, when the county was cut off from Limestone. Fairfield, near the Mound Prairie settlement, was named as the county seat, and has retained that honor ever since, not without the rivalry of younger league, after it became a railroad town in 1906. There was a high proportion of slave owners among the immigrants who poured into the new county, the number of negroes rising from 290 in 1851 to 2,167 in 1855. There was only one store in 1851, and twelve in 1855. By that year there were seven post offices, Avant, Butler, Cotton Gin, Fairfield, Flowerdale, Keechi, and Troy. Next to Fairfield, Cotton Gin is the oldest existing town. In 1854 the editor of the Leon Pioneer, in the adjoining county, was saying: “No county between the Trinity and the Brazos has increased in population and wealth during the last three years as Freestone, or can boast of a more intelligent and enterprising population.” Despite the large slave population Freestone did not turn so strongly to cotton as some of her neighbors. Isolated from grain and meat producing regions by distance, and the cost of bringing in food supplies, Freestone plantations developed a self-sufficing, balanced farming system. Cattle, horses and hogs were raised in considerab1e numbers from the first; and before the end of the decade sheep were well established. They grew wheat, corn, potatoes primarily for home supplies, but had a surplus to sell their less foresighted neighbors during the economic distress of 1856 to 1858. The county was so outstanding in its prosperity through self-sufficiency that the Texas State Gazette (Austin) gave it frequent complimentary notice. Perhaps this “publicity”, for which every town and county seeks so assiduously, was responsible for the overwhelming rush of refugee planters who left Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana ahead of the Union armies, in hope of saving their chattel property. This forced migration brought many thousands into Texas after 1862, and Freestone seems to have drawn more than her share, as her slave population almost doubled between 1860 and l861, when there were 5,613, valued at more than $4,000,000. This form of wealth was of course wiped out at the stroke of a pen in 1865, and the great number of negroes turned loose in the country was the source of a great deal of trouble. Freestone was placed under military rule with Limestone during the troublous times of Reconstruction, but after the negroes settled down to farming again instead of looking for salvation by the Union League, the county again began to prosper this time with the emphasis on cotton. In 1902 the cotton crop was 37,000 bales, the yields up to that time (according to a Fairfield citizen writing in the “Texas Almanac”) having ranged from a third to two-thirds of a bale on upland and half to a bale on bottom lands. Then the boll weevil came, and the 1903 crop did not exceed 3,000 bales. It was a hard blow, but Freestone took a new hitch in her belt, and in time regained most of her cotton production after learning how to combat the boll weevil Freestone was barely touched by the Houston & Texas Central Railroad which built through the Longbotham community on the northwest border of the county in 1871, and located “Tehuacana station.” The following year Colonel L.R. Wortham laid out a town site and built a store on land donated by R.B. Longbotham, son of the original settler who came here in 18k8, after which the name of the town was changed to Wortham. It had a try for the courthouse in 1891, but lost to Fairfield. The International-Great Northern skirted the county to the southward about the same time, and Wortham remained the only railroad town in the county until 1905, when the Trinity & Brazos Valley built through the western side of the county, and made a junction at the old town of Brewer, which was renamed Teague. Freestone and Donie found themselves railroad towns, but Woodland and Cade were missed and were superseded by Kirvin and Streetman, respectively. Fairfield bestirred herself to secure better mail and freight service to league, ten miles away, and the first automobile test run (1908) on the route made it in an hour. Twenty years later Highway 75 was opened through Fairfield from Houston to Dallas and bus and truck lines made a railroad unnecessary. Teague vainly sought the county seat in 1918. The Wortham oil field was brought in l924, following the Mexia boom which brought martial law to the two counties for the second time - 1922- to curb the lawless element which followed the easy money spots. Of the daring frontiersmen who came into this section prior to the Texas revolution, and for a few years afterward, few records or memories have been preserved. The “Saline” attracted a settler named Prayther as early as 1830, and several families gathered around him during the next two years. As far as is known no permanent settlements were made until the ‘forties, when the Indian frontier had been pushed back. The cotton gin (probably the first in the county) erected by Mr. Wills gave that town its name in l848 or soon afterward. Dew was formerly known as Avant Prairie (for M.S. Avant, who came to Texas in l834), and was the outgrowth of Harrison Chapel. In 1882 it was said that “Fairfield ... has about 600 inhabitants, is the social and trade center ... and is noted for the intelligence and hospitality of its citizens. Fairfield Methodist College is located there ... also private schools in many parts of the county, one at Cotton Gin being a chartered institution,” and 81+ public free schools were open for a scholastic population of 2,510. There were two sawmills, a flouring mill, and numerous gins and corn mills. “Stock raising,” says the report, “is always combined with agriculture,” and it is noted that “Bermuda grass is being set on the light sandy soils with satisfactory success.” This grass was the beginning of “improved pastures” in East Texas as it remains the principal standby. In 1890 the school population had increased to 4,50l, for which the state tuition funds were $18,004, and 93 teachers were employed, the average length of term was less than four months. Not yet could the free public schools supplant the private schools for those who desired more than the bare “Three R’s.” Freestone County lies at an altitude of about 425 to 500 feet, with a general southeastern slope to the Trinity River. The area is 882 square miles, and lies mostly in the so-called Post Oak belt which divides the black prairies from the piney woods. The rainfall averages about 36-inches, and is generally well distributed, favorable for year-round pastures through a combination of clovers and winter grasses with the warm-season grasses and cultivated forage. There were 3,402 farms in 1935, which is more than three times the number in 1890. They harvested more than 110,000 acres of crops, besides having 8,644 horses and mules, 22,327 cattle, l3,646 hogs. This is 3,000 more hogs than were reported for 1890, 1 ,400 more horses and mules, but nearly 3,400 fewer cattle. Since the eradication of the fever tick, however, the weight of beef cattle and the productivity of dairy cattle have been raised more than enough to offset the decrease in numbers. The last census reported only 735 sheep in the county, whereas there were 1,229 in 1890 and 3,096 in 1882. Freestone County is now well supplied with all-weather roads, two U.S. Highways (75 and 84) and two State Highways (14 and 22) crossing the county, while U.S. Hwy. 79 runs parallel with the southern boundary just outside the county. Changes brought by the railroads and the highways are rewriting the man, and many of the old community centers no longer have post offices of their own, such as Morehead, Blacks and Stonewall, which were on the map. in l874. The names of Troy and Stonewall are now appropriated by villages in Bell and Gillespie counties, respectively. The original H. & T.C. Railroad is in the far-reaching Southern Pacific system, and the T. & B.V. is now a part of the great Burlington-Rock Island. Both operate the most modern types of high- speed articulated passenger trains between Dallas and Houston, passing through Freestone County stations. Through the booming Wortham oil field of the 1920’s has simmered down to a dribble, Freestone has since found other production, and in 1938 is credited with 75,142 barrels. May, 1939, allocation was for 97 barrels daily from ten wells. A well brought in 1936 near the village of Young encourages the hope of an extension of the Cayuga field to the Freestone side of the river, while Red Lake, Long Lake and Buffalo (just outside the County) holds out hope of increased “pay” in the southeastern part of the county. There are evidence of growth both in country and town, and the 1930 census figures are possibly far under what 1940 will show, especially in Fairfield, which has been largely modernized in recent years. For what they are worth, the 1930 population figures are; The County .... 22,589; Teague 3,509 Wortham 1,404 Fairfield 850 Streetman 509 Kirvin 238 Donie 200 Freestone .... 100 Dew, Steward’s Mill and Young were estimated at less than one-hundred. Historic Sites: One mile East of Fairfield was the Fairfield Female College “Erected in 1858 by the Freestone School Assn. Opened in 1859 with Dr. Henry Lee Graves as President, Chartered February 8, 1860.” Woodland College for Boys “Established in 1863; enrollment more than 300 students; Col. L.R. Wortham donated ten acres of land for use as Campus, Church and Cemetery. Charter Trustees: Col. L.R. Wortham, Thomas Lamb, Dr. Reuben Anderson, Oliver Carter, John I. Winn, D.L. Carter, Noland Womack, T.L. Sessions, G.A. Sessions. Prof. Hellery Mosely was its only President. Mattie, Mary and Thomas Dixon were its teachers. The College became a Grade School at the close of the Civil War. Discontinued in 1905 and moved to Kirvin.” Near Kirvin