Bailey Inglish
Bonham, Fannin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(ca. 1797-1867) In 1837, Bailey Inglish moved his family to this area from western Arkansas, where he had been an influential leader of pioneer settlers. Here he was active in the formation of Fannin County, serving on the land board and later as chief justice. To guard against repeated Indian raids, he built a fort on his land for area residents. The settlement that developed, first know as Bois d'Arc, became Bonham. Inglish was instrumental in its early growth through active public service and donations of land for town lots, a cemetery, and a female seminary. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1837, Bailey Inglish moved his family from western Arkansas to this part of the young Republic of Texas, where he helped organize Fannin County and served on its land board and later as chief justice. To shield settlers from repeated Indian raids he built a fort on his land, and the settlement that grew up around it—first called Bois d'Arc—became Bonham. Through public service and gifts of land for town lots, a cemetery, and a female seminary, he shaped the community's early growth.
Why it matters
Inglish embodies the founder-settlers who built the institutions of North Texas on a contested frontier during the Republic era.
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Nearby & related markers
Inglish Cemetery
Bonham, TX
The county's oldest burial ground holds the story of its frontier beginnings: Bailey Inglish donated a plot near old Fort Inglish, and among the pioneers laid to rest here are victims of an 1838 Indian attack, the 1836 colonizers who first claimed Fannin County, and veterans of the Texas Revolution.
Vicinity of Fort Inglish
Bonham, TX
In 1837 Bailey Inglish, a former Arkansas sheriff, led a train of oxcart settlers to a Republic of Texas land grant and built a log stockade and blockhouse for defense. The fortified settlement became the seed of the town, which fended off frontier raids—one 1841 fight saw two boys taken and later returned. First called Bois d'Arc, the town was renamed in 1843 for Alamo defender James Butler Bonham.
Carson Cemetery
Ector, TX
Local tradition holds that this Fannin County cemetery took its name from John Carson, who once owned the neighboring land, and that its earliest graves date to an 1842 Indian raid on the nearby home of Dr. W. M. Hunter. The three victims were Minerva Hunter, her young daughter Elizabeth, and an enslaved or hired African American woman whose name has been lost to record. Cemetery trustees secured title by 1878 and later added land, and Minerva Hunter's grave was finally marked in 1942, a century after her death.
Fort Warren
Savoy, TX
Built in 1836 by Arkansas Indian trader Abel Warren to guard his trading post, Fort Warren was among the earliest settlements in Fannin County, its bois d'arc walls anchored by two-story corner guardhouses. Kiowa, Tonkawa, Caddo, Wichita, and other peoples came to exchange furs for knives, paint, and trade goods, and during the Civil War the post served as a supply center funneling provisions to Confederate troops and Indian refugees in the Territory to the north.