The old Cherokee Trace trail made by the Indians from Arkansas to Nacogdoches County was one of the first roads made through Upshur County. It came into the county near Simpsonville and crossed the southern border near East Mountain and forded the Sabine near where Longview’s city water plant stands now. Other early roads were the Red Rock Road which crossed the Sabine at a ferry near Big Sandy, and went east through what is now Gladewater, Longview, and on into Jefferson. Another old road went from Newsom, Camp County, through Coffeeville and on to Jefferson. It was over these roads that the people from North and West Texas went to Jefferson to trade.
When the United States bought Louisiana from France in 1803, a dispute arose between the United States and Spain over the boundary line of new territory north and east of the Sabine River. They made it a “Neutral Ground,” not to be occupied by either country until satisfactory settlement could be made. This “Neutral Ground,” having no laws, was soon overrun by free-booters, desperados, and outlaws. Upshur County was probably occupied by these characters at that time.
In 1824, the Republic of Mexico made a land grant to Hayden Edwards, and Upshur County was included in this grant. Edwards never settled very many people here and the grant was eventually taken from him, but there is a Hayden Edwards Survey in the county now. About the year 1835, the first land grants were made to settlers in this county. After the removal of the Cherokee Indians, in 1839, the country was settled almost over night, and in a few years all the free land was patented.
According to Thrall’s history of Texas, John Cotton was the first white man to settle within the boundary of what is now Upshur, Camp, and Gregg Counties. These three counties were originally united and known as Upshur County. Isaac Moody was the second settler, and about 1838, O. T. Boulware opened a store and trading post on John Cotton’s farm. This was the first business enterprise in the county.
Captain William Hart
Captain William H. Hart moved to this county in 1843. As a land surveyor, the Indians made a deal with him to locate a public highway from Gilmer to Marshall. With his brother-in-law, David Lee, he set out in a one-horse carry-all, blazing the way through the almost trackless woods. They had a tent in which they lived until they could clear ground and build a log house. This was located on the Cherokee Trace about a mile north of the present city limits of Gilmer, on what is now known at the Walter Barnwell farm.
Captain Hart had left the mountains of his native eastern Tennessee to follow his sweetheart, Miss Evaline Kelsey, to Marshall, Texas, where her father, Dr. W. H. Kelsey, was a physician, merchant, and Methodist preacher. So much like his native hills did he find the country, it was easy for him to quickly feel at home and to love his new surroundings.
It was from the Kelsey family that the creek and community west of Gilmer received its name. As more people moved in, the Hart home became headquarters and the meeting place for the new settlers, and it is claimed that for a time, it was used as the county’s courthouse. Here Judge O. M. Roberts, who later became governor of Texas, and District Attorney Dave Arden held court. Among the legal attendants were General Sam Houston and John Reagan. Occasionally, court would be suspended so all could go on a hunt. Leading the chase would be a Mr. Lee, a noted bear hunter.
In 1856, Hart represented his district in the State Legislature. He traveled to Austin on horseback. The legislator’s pay was so small that Mrs. Hart always had to send him money from the farm to pay his expenses at the capital. Hart also served as magistrate, or justice of the peace. Walter Boyd, patriarch of the entire Boyd clan in Gilmer, bought his marriage license from Hart, when he married here. In later years, one of Boyd’s grandsons, J. Walter Marshall, married one of Hart’s granddaughters, Mae Hart.
In November, 1865, the late Rev. W. H. McClelland, and his family, arrived in Upshur County to make his home in the pioneer community. They made the trip from St. Louis to New Orleans by steamboat, and thence to Marshall by train. The family secured a wagon and drove to Upshur County, where the Rev. McClelland settled on a farm seven miles southeast of Gilmer.