Cherokee County
Rusk, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Cherokee County has a rich and varied history. Spanish and French explorers of the seventeenth century found Tejas and Hasinai Indians living in this area, and Spanish missions were established in the region. Driven out of the United States, the Cherokee Indians migrated to this area about 1822, and were here at the time of early Anglo-American colonization in the 1820s and 1830s. Under the administration of Republic of Texas President Mirabeau B.Lamar, the Cherokee were expelled from area in 1839. Following formal creation of Cherokee County from Nacogdoches County in 1846, settlement of the area increased rapidly. Family farms and towns soon sprung up throughout the county. The building of roads and the advancement of railroads and river navigation contributed further to settlement. The chief economic base of the county from its beginning, agriculture remained a vital force as industrialization and business interests developed. The establishment of schools and churches formed the basis for the area's social history. Cherokee County has been the birthplace of two Texas governors, one governor of Wyoming and one Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When Spanish and French explorers reached this region in the seventeenth century, they found Tejas and Hasinai peoples living here, and the Spanish planted missions among them. The Cherokee, driven from the United States, migrated to the area around 1822 and were present during early Anglo colonization before President Mirabeau B. Lamar's administration expelled them in 1839. Formally created from Nacogdoches County in 1846, Cherokee County filled quickly with farms and towns and has since produced two Texas governors, a Wyoming governor, and a Texas House speaker.
Why it matters
The county's layered past — Caddoan peoples, Spanish missions, Cherokee removal, and Anglo settlement — compresses the full sweep of contact and displacement in East Texas.
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Related people
- · Mirabeau B. Lamar
Related events
- · Expulsion of the Cherokee (1839)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cook's Fort
Rusk, TX
Named for early Nacogdoches settler Joseph T. Cook, this site grew up around a frontier fort built by a military company under Captain Black—a stronghold, the marker notes, that was never attacked. James Cook added a store and blacksmith shop, and a village of some 250 people had gathered here by 1846. After the county seat was established at nearby Rusk, the residents moved away and the settlement faded.
Little Bean's Cherokee Village
Rusk, TX
In the winter of 1819–1820, Chief John Bowles led about sixty Cherokee families from Arkansas into East Texas, and near this site a leader named Little Bean founded a small settlement. The community lived here for two decades until 1839, when the Republic of Texas forced the Cherokee to remove to Indian Territory in present Oklahoma; Little Bean, who died that year, is believed to be buried nearby, and the land was later opened to Anglo settlers.
Henry Cemetery
Gallatin, TX
Henry Cemetery grew from the graves of a remarkable migration: Woodson Henry and roughly thirty-five Muskogee (Creek) families who left Chambers County, Alabama, for Texas in the 1830s. The burial ground was founded in 1852 when Ezekiel Henry laid his daughter to rest, and it soon held the whole extended family. A section in the northeast corner holds African American burials, including Peter Johnson, a formerly enslaved man given Jinkins family property upon his emancipation, and a World War I veteran, Aaron Quarll.
Chief Bowles' Last Homesite
Alto vicinity, TX
In 1836 Sam Houston negotiated a treaty recognizing the Cherokees' right to the East Texas lands they occupied, where their leading figure was Duwali — known also as Bowl or Chief Bowles. But after the Texas Revolution the Senate of the new Republic voided the treaty, and in 1839 President Mirabeau B. Lamar ordered the Cherokee expelled. Learning of the order near this site, Bowles rallied his people to resist and was killed at the Battle of the Neches on July 16, 1839.