Clarksville and Red River County

By Red River County Historical Society

Red River County and Clarksville are actually older than the state of Texas itself. Once known as the Red River District, the area represented all or part of 39 present-day Texas counties. Some of the area’s earliest Anglo settlements could be found along the Red River as early as 1816 and included Pecan Point, the Burkham Settlement, and Jonesboro, followed by the settling of Clarksville in 1833. Many of Texas’s earliest pioneers passed through the county, including Sam Houston, who spent his first night in Texas in Jonesboro at James and Isabella Clark’s home; and Davy Crockett, who spent time at Whiterock at John Stiles’s home before he perished at the Battle of the Alamo. Today Red River County is known as the “Gateway to Texas.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781439624661

Red River County Historical Society

The Red River County Historical Society was founded in 1961 with the purpose of preserving the rich history of the county. Since that time, the society has been instrumental in saving many renowned landmarks, preserving vintage photographs, and leading the way in historical tourism.

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INTRODUCTION

Clarksville and Red River County have a very proud history. Archeological evidence indicates that Native Americans occupied parts of Red River County lands as early as 1500 B.C. At the time of the first European contact, Caddo Indians, an agricultural people with a highly developed culture, occupied this area. During the 1820s, bands of Shawnee, Delaware, and Kickapoo Indians immigrated into what is now Red River County, settling along the banks of the creeks that still bear their names. Some of the earliest Anglo settlements were along the Red River, which included Pecan Point, Burkham Settlement, and Jonesboro. Claiborne Wright first settled at Pecan Point around 1816. Court was first held in this district at Jonesboro, which was then considered to be a part of Miller County, Arkansas. Court was later held at LaGrange, which was located near the present-day community of Madras.

In 1833, James and Isabella Clark left the mosquito-infested community of Jonesboro for the prairie and settled near a spring in a small skirt of timber, which was to become present day Clarksville. The area was still in dispute over who was to govern it. Although many of the early settlers seem to have regarded the area as a part of the United States, when the United States government refused to issue them land titles, they turned to the Mexican government to obtain valid land titles. They still continued to send representatives to the Arkansas Legislature. Richard Ellis, Samuel P. Carson, Robert Hamilton, Collin McKinney, and Albert H. Latimer represented Red River settlements at the Constitutional Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos in 1836. Red River County was formally delineated by an act signed by President Sam Houston on December 14, 1837, during the First Congress of the Republic of Texas.

From the late 1830s until the War Between the States, Clarksville was the most important trading center in Northeast Texas. Steamboats brought goods from New Orleans by way of the Red River and delivered them to Rowland’s Landing, which is 15 miles to the north. They were then hauled overland by wagon. During the 1850s, new steam sawmills and cotton gins added to the town’s importance.

The first courthouse in Clarksville, a modest frame structure, was erected around 1840 in the center of the downtown square. The funds to build this building were raised by Isabella Clark Gordon, who sold the lots around the square in order to build the courthouse. In 1850, it was replaced by a larger red brick structure, and a brick jailhouse was built in 1852 on the 200 block on the north side of what is now West Main Street. Within a few years of the town’s founding, numerous mercantile establishments opened on and around the square, and by the eve of the War Between the States, Clarksville’s population had grown to around 900 people.

Clarksville’s downtown square is typical of those throughout the southern part of the United States. Most of the buildings on the north side of the square were built in the 1870s and 1880s. When the old red brick courthouse was torn down, the look of the center of the square was changed. Several things stood in the center before the Confederate monument was erected in 1912, including a bandstand and a water well. The brick streets were put down around 1918. Of course, several large fires have plagued the square. Fire has twice destroyed the entire south side of the square. A fire in the late 1890s consumed half of the east side of the square. In the 1940s, a fire devastated the north half of the west side of the square, and in the 1950s, a fire engulfed the middle portion of the south side of the square.

Clarksville has been designated an official Texas Main Street City, as well as a National Main Street City and a Preserve American Community.

The Red River County Historical Society hopes that this photographic history will give a glimpse into the past of Clarksville and Red River County.

One

HISTORIC CLARKSVILLE SQUARE

This is the earliest known photograph of downtown Clarksville and was taken in 1863 looking east on Main Street. Of note is the rail fence around the Red River County courthouse, which was then located in the center of the square. There is snow on the ground, and horses are tied to the fence all around the courthouse. The area east of the square on East Main Street was known as greasy row. (Courtesy of Eugene W. Bowers collection.)

On the west side of the Clarksville Square, the Donoho Hotel was built in 1842 by Captain William Donoho. This hotel was a noted stagecoach stop from 1842 until 1876, when the Texas and Pacific Railroad came to Clarksville. This photograph dates from the 1860s. The stagecoach that traveled between Clarksville and Little