The school term was from three to six months in the year, and was usually divided into the winter and summer terms. About thirty-five years ago, Upshur County had its first county superintendent, Mr. A. F. Shepperd, and since that time, the schools have come into their own. Today, visitors are proudly permitted to inspect the schools. Upshur County compares very favorably with other counties of the state in its educational facilities. The stranger, driving across the county, is struck with the beauty and size of some of the school plants with modern brick buildings and attractive grounds.
The county has 18 white schools, all of which are accredited; nine high schools, affiliated with the state university; 143 white teachers, most of whom hold bachelor’s degrees, while some hold master’s degrees; 14 colored schools, with 71 teachers. The colored people have three high schools and eight accredited elementary schools.
County Board of Education
Upshur County at present has a fine school system, a live county superintendent, and an interested County Board of Education, which meets regularly in the county superintendent’s office. This board is composed of some of the leading school men of the county. They organize and adopt policies to be followed in the schools in the county under the guidance of the county superintendent; classify all the schools of the county, designate receiving schools for students whose grades are not taught in their home school; arrange a transportation set-up for all students in the county living more than two and one-half miles from the home school, and for students attending various high schools; appoint local trustees where vacancies exist; pass on all sales of school properties; hear all appeals on questions or controversies appealed from the county superintendent’s decision; advise and counsel with the county superintendent on all school problems; and pass on all transfers protested by local trustees.
Indians
One hundred years ago, there were only three white families living in Upshur County. John Cotton was the first settler and he settled somewhere on Lily Creek in 1835. In 1836, Isaac Moody settled somewhere near West Mountain, on the old Cherokee Trace and in 1838, O. T. Boulware settled near John Cotton where he established a trading post where he could trade with the Cherokee Indians.
The Caddo Indians were the original Indians of East Texas, but in 1820, the Cherokee Indians were expelled from Alabama and one tribe of them settled in East Texas. They were perhaps the most enlightened Indians living in the United States, having a highly developed tribal government, an alphabet, a rude literature, and some knowledge of property rights. These Indians never got permission from the Mexican government to settle in Texas, but did get a treaty from the Texas government, during the presidency of Sam Houston, giving them the right to their lands in East Texas. From 1820, to June and July, 1830, you may think of this vast section of East Texas extending from near Clarksville in Red River County to Nacogdoches as almost a complete wilderness, occupied, except for a squatter here and there, only by Indians and wild animals. As long as Houston was president of Texas, he kept the Indians quiet, as he had once been a member of their tribe. But in January, 1839, Lamar became president of Texas, and like most politicians, his policies were opposite to Houston’s. He started a movement to move the Indians out of East Texas. Lamar was partly justified in this, however, as the Indians were being agitated by hired Mexicans to make raids on the whites. Also, the people in the surrounding counties wanted the land occupied by the Cherokees. In June, 1839, a Mr. Lacy and John H. Reagan came to East Texas to notify the Cherokees that on account of their frequent raids upon the whites, and their continued intrigues with the Mexican agents, they must leave East Texas and go back to the United States. John H. Reagan wrote:
“When we reached the residence of Chief Bowls, he invited us to a fine spring near his house where we were seated, and Lamar’s message was read to him.”
Legend tells us that there was an Indian village where Gilmer now stands, and how do we know that they were not at the spring in Roosevelt Park? Chief Bowls told Lacy and Reagan that they would not move without war, so General Rusk, Albert Sydney Johnson, and others were sent against them. They met the Indians on the Neches River in a two-day battle. Chief Bowls, who was then 83 years old, remained on the field of battle, on horseback, wearing a handsome sword and sash which had been given to him by President Houston. He was killed, but the Indians continued fighting and retreating up the Cherokee Trace, until they got to the swamps of Little Cypress bottom where they scattered and made their ways individually or in small groups into Oklahoma.