Fry's Gap
Cherokee County, Cherokee County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Fry's Gap A gap in a ridge near Gum Creek headwaters made a natural trail for early travelers, including Kickapoo Indians. The Fry family settled along the creek in the 1840s. Early industry in the Fry's Gap Community included Joseph Fry's grist mill and blacksmith shop, as well as Rhome Ragsdale's brickyard, kiln, paint factory, cotton gin and corn mill. When the Texas & New Orleans Railway came through in 1902, it used the old trail for the line. The depot at Fry's Gap soon became a shipping point for produce, lumber and oilfield supplies. Fry's Gap was also winter home to the J. Doug Morgan traveling tent show in the 1920s. Fry's Gap faded, but descendants of its early settlers remain. (2002)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A natural gap in a ridge near the headwaters of Gum Creek long guided travelers, including the Kickapoo, before the Fry family settled the creek in the 1840s. A small industrial hamlet grew up around Joseph Fry's grist mill and blacksmith shop and Rhome Ragsdale's brickyard, kiln, and cotton gin, and when the Texas & New Orleans Railway laid its line along the old trail in 1902, the depot became a shipping point for produce, lumber, and oilfield supplies. The community even hosted a traveling tent show each winter in the 1920s before fading away.
Why it matters
Fry's Gap shows how a single easy passage through the land could draw Indian trails, pioneer mills, and finally a railroad, then vanish once the tracks moved trade elsewhere.
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Related people
- · Joseph Fry
- · Rhome Ragsdale
Themes & tags
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