History
Abel Morgan
Star and Wreath Born in North Carolina December 23, 1792. Arrived at Bexar in late December, 1835, as private Thomas Smith in Captain J. O. Blair's Company. Discharged and later enlisted in Captain Ira Westover's Company, Colonel Fannin's Command. Escaped the Goliad Massacre "at which time I was saved for a nurse." Died October 12, 1873. Erected by the State of texas, 1962
History
Amy Settlement
In 1875 brothers David, Harrison, Madison, and Addison Hobbs left Mississippi and settled here in what was then known as the Big Creek Thicket. A settlement named Hobbs Thicket emerged and in the early 1880s the 2-room Hobbs Thicket Schoolhouse was built. Although travel over the area's muddy roads was difficult, Hobbs Thicket grew and in 1894 local store owner Robert A.
Transport
Cooper Rail Depot
Built in 1913, this Spanish Revival style brick depot for the Texas Midland Railroad serviced the town of Cooper and Delta County. While the railroad dealt mainly in freight, the depot focused on facilitating passenger service, functioning as a stop along the 130-mile route of the line between Paris and Ennis.
History
Delta County
Formed from Lamar and Hopkins counties. Created July 29, 1870. Organized October 6, 1870. The name describes its position and triangular shape. Cooper, the county seat
Transport
DeSpain Bridge
(Site 4.2 miles Southwest) Located where the Bonham-Jefferson Road crossed the South Sulphur River, this pioneer bridge served the area's rich cotton trade for some 20 years. It was constructed before 1850 by landowner Brig DeSpain and his neighbors to provide access to the county seat -- Tarrant -- in Hopkins County.
History
East Texas Normal College, Original Site of
Founded 1889 by W. L. Mayo (1861 - 1917), a teacher educated in Kentucky, Virginia and Indiana, who came to Pecan Gap, Texas in 1886. He was a native of Kentucky. He attracted a strong faculty to college on this site. A young teacher he soon married was a capable business manager. A high board fence enclosed campus here.
History
Erected in the Centennial Year to Commemorate Founding of Delta County
Named for shape, resembling Greek letter /\, and for evident origin of its land -- sedimentation at fork of North and South Sulphur Rivers. The first (1820-30) political activity here was oversight by the Sulphur Forks Indian Commission (of the United States) of the Caddo, Delaware, Quapaw, and Seminole inhabitants.
History
First National Bank
Oldest bank in Delta County. Founded 1889 as private firm operating in a grocery store. Chartered as a national bank 1891. Erected this building 1909. Guaranty State Bank merged with First National 1925. This bank has had continued growth. The founder, Wm. J.
History
Giles Academy
Early settlers, who came to this area from Giles County, Tenn., founded an academy at this site in 1859. Hired fellow-Tennessean Thomas Hart Benton Hockaday (1835 - 1918) as the first teacher, and named the new school in memory of their southern Tennessee homeland.
History
Hiram Rattan
(homesite 3/10 mi.; grave 4/10 mi. north) Delta County pioneer, born 1805. Settled in Texas, 1835, on brother Larkin Rattan's 1,000-acre land grant; later became site for city of Paris. Both Rattan families moved to Delta County in 1839. Hiram obtained two third-class land grants for producing grain and livestock. Larkin later joined the California Gold Rush, then returned to his native Illinois.
History
Littleton Rattan
A native of Illinois and a veteran of the 132 Black Hawk War, Littelton Ratta (b. 1809) came to Texas with family members in 1839. He established a farm at this site in Delta County and also served as a Texas Ranger in three area militia companies in the Republic of Texas era. Later, during the Mexican War, he served under legendary Ranger Jack Hays.
History
Old Klondike Cemetery
John Hunt (1814 - 1853) and Nancy Allard (1813 - 1911) came to Texas from Missouri in 1849. Married in 1850, they gave land for a grave site when a neighbor child, Eliza Armstrong, died in 1852. John Hunt was the second person buried at the site. Joel J.
History
Pioneer Smith Brothers
Tall, strong men who helped to carve Delta County out of Texas frontier. Benjamin, Charles, Gilford and Mira J. Smith came to Texas from Arkansas before or during the 1840s. They obtained from heirs title to the Moses Williams land grant, patented 1849, and surveyed by Major George W. Stell. After 1853 several generations of the Smith family lived here.
Civic & Local
Texas Livery Stable
Had animal-drawn vehicles and saddle horses for hire. Served doctors on calls; people arriving on or meeting trains; lawyers attending court;"drummers" (salesmen) on local rounds; land seekers; hunters and fishermen; young men courting; ladies out visiting. Usually housed in a good frame or brick building; stalls, harness rooms, office might cover a block. Pasture was nearby.
History
Thomas A. Lambeth
Joined Confederate Army at 16; was captain in escort of General John B. Magruder, Commandant, District of Texas. Became sheriff of Delta County in 1879. During his six years as sheriff, the jail was set on fire 25 times, but no prisoner escaped. He shot only one man. Broke up horse thief relay stations and rid county of cattle rustlers.
History
Thomas Wilson Stegall
(July 28, 1832 - April 25, 1900) First promoter of Lake Creek community, Stegall was born in North Carolina. He served as a private in the Confederate Army, 1863 - 1865. He and wife Lucinda had eight children. They lived in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi, then moved to Delta County, Texas, in 1873. A Baptist preacher, Stegall was known for his kind deeds.
History
Union Cemetery, Old
(0.75 mi. S) This graveyard served the farm and ranch communities of Gough, Yowell, and Antioch. The earliest recorded burial is that of W. H. Henderson in 1859. The cemetery contains more than 90 marked graves mostly arranged in family plots. Buried here are many of the area's earliest settlers and their descendants and at least three veterans of the Civil War: T. J. Hollon, Hiram G. Wynn, and T.
History
Wilson, John William
(October 3, 1841 - September 8, 1920) Beloved Methodist minister of early Delta County. Lived and farmed on land surrounding this site. Born in Tennessee. Enlisted in Missouri Infantry in 1862 to serve in Confederate Army during Civil War. Sustained severe wound in left leg at Battle of Corinth, October, 1862, and was left for dead. To survive, he ate grains of corn scattered over field.
History
Yates and Methodist Protestant Cemeteries
George Yates (1807-1886), his wife Mary Polly Wallace Yates (1809-1886), and their family migrated to Texas in 1846. They settled in an area of the newly-formed Hopkins County that would later become part of Delta County. George Yates raised livestock on the 976 acres of land he owned. Mary Yates, the 15-year-old daughter of George and Polly Yates, died in 1855.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
