When the first settlers came to Upshur County, over a hundred years ago, they brought their Negro slaves with them, and they have been here ever since.
It would have been almost impossible to develop the country, clear the ground, build the log houses, and perform the other hard, physical labor incident to a new country. After they were set free, most of them remained with their former masters or somewhere nearby. They have made wonderful advancements in their educational and moral status and are generally recognized as law-abiding citizens. There are Negroes in all parts of the county, but the greatest colored population is in the eastern part of the county. They have a number of good schools in the county, with three fully accredited high schools with from ten to fifteen teachers. Ernest Ford, Thomas J. Downs, and F. R. Pierson, principals of these high schools, hold degrees from state institutions, and are recognized as leading educators. They have, in all, fourteen schools in the county with 71 teachers.
The Negroes and whites of Upshur County have always worked together in harmony, and we predict that they always will.
Hidden Treasures
After Texas had gained her independence, Mexico had hopes of recapturing Texas, but they did not attempt, openly, to reconquer the infant republic at that time. The Mexicans endeavored to keep the Indians in a turmoil all the time, as they would give the Texans trouble. The story goes that the Mexican agents with plenty of gold and silver came to Texas to try to get the Indians to revolt against Texas.
The Cherokee Indians were a powerful tribe and highly civilized. Many of them lived right here in Upshur County and other parts of East Texas. These agents succeeded in stirring up the Indians to hostility by promising them plenty of money and land when the whites were driven out of the country. President Lamar sent General Rusk and Albert Sydney Johnson against them and defeated them on the Neches River. Chief Bowls was killed in the battle. The Indians began to retreat toward Oklahoma and had to pass through Upshur County. When they got to Little Cypress bottom, they scattered into the swamps and underbrush of the creek. The Mexican agents with most of their money still with them, feared they would be captured, therefore when they came to a deep hole of water in Cypress Creek, they threw all the money they had into this hole of water. This gold and silver was heavy and impeded their progress, and also they did not want the Texans to get this money, should they be captured. It is supposed that today, lying peacefully in the bottom of Little Cypress, somewhere, is a large amount of gold and silver. Word got around, finally, that the Mexicans had thrown the money into the Cypress, so several years after, two Irishmen, who had fought the Indians, came in and during one dry summer set up two boilers at different holes along the Cypress and pumped all the water out, but, as the story goes, never found any money.
Gilmer
No story of Upshur County is complete unless there is woven into it, the establishment and building of Gilmer, nor is the story of Gilmer complete unless it presents, likewise, a picture of Upshur County, for upon the development of the county has the growth of Gilmer depended—a growth that in the early days was slow and uncertain, but in the last few years has been rather phenominal.
At 4:50 o’clock Wednesday afternoon, May 7, 1931, the Mudge Oil Company brought in the J. D. Richardson well at East Mountain for an estimated production of 30,000 barrels of oil per day. It shocked this county from an easy going corn and cotton farming area to the prospects of great wealth. It meant that over night, people flocked to the county, and eventually to the county seat by the thousands. They came to buy, and they came to sell oil leases and royalty.
Town site lots for business houses were scarce. The county’s assessed valuation jumped from about $8,000,000 to over $25,000,000, and as a result, the county, long burdened with debts, accumulated during many long past lean years, again could issue script that was accepted at fact value anywhere. The old obligations were wiped off, and a beautiful concrete, steel and brick courthouse was built and furnished at a cost of $200,000 and every penny of it was paid in cash!