Jack County
Jacksboro, Jack County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Created 1856. Organized 1857. Named for W. H. and P. C. Jack, brothers and patriots in the Texas Revolution. Butterfield Overland Mail, 1858-1861, had 3 stage stops in county. In 1861, Jack County voted against secession, 76-14. Most men fought in frontier units. Some were Confederates; others joined Federal army. Fort Richardson was established in 1867. In 1871 near Jacksboro, Kiowas massacred Warren Wagon Train teamsters. General of the Army W. T. Sherman, then at the fort, sent General Ranald S. MacKenzie, commander, to arrest the Indians. Chiefs Satanta and Big Tree were convicted in first non-tribal trials of Plains Indians in North Texas. By 1875 MacKenzie's raiders had opened West Texas for settlement. A Corn Club founded in Jacksboro by County Agent Tom Marks on September 8, 1907, was the forerunner of the International 4-H Clubs. Fort Richardson, with 7 original buildings standing, is now a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. Museum is open the year round. Other attractions include circular high school building and old limestones on square, Jacksboro. Recreation centers about lakes, parks, campgrounds. Economy is based on agriculture, oil, cattle, sheep, and goats. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Created in 1856 and named for Texas Revolution patriots W. H. and P. C. Jack, Jack County sat squarely on the violent post-Civil War frontier. Its citizens voted overwhelmingly against secession in 1861, and after the war Fort Richardson (1867) anchored the U.S. Army's campaigns against the Plains tribes. The 1871 Kiowa raid on the Warren Wagon Train prompted General Sherman to send Colonel Ranald MacKenzie after the raiders; the resulting trial of chiefs Satanta and Big Tree was among the first prosecutions of Plains Indians in a civilian court. The county was also, improbably, home to a 1907 corn club that helped seed the national 4-H movement.
Why it matters
Jack County distills the frontier drama of Reconstruction-era Texas — a Unionist stronghold, an army post, and the courtroom reckoning that marked a turning point in the Indian Wars of the Southern Plains.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · W. T. Sherman
- · Ranald S. MacKenzie
- · Satanta
- · Big Tree
Related events
- · Warren Wagon Train Raid
- · Butterfield Overland Mail
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Winn Hill Cemetery
Jacksboro vicinity, TX
Winn Hill Cemetery sits along the old Butterfield Overland Mail route that crossed this area from 1858 to 1861. It takes its name from William H. Wynne, killed by Indians nearby in 1863, and grew alongside a rural school and church that formed the Winn Hill community in the 1870s. The earliest documented burial dates to 1884, and the graveyard is now the community's last physical trace.
Town of Antelope
Antelope, TX
Antelope took its name from the springs where pronghorn watered and where the Kiowa once camped. Platted in 1875 along the Henrietta–Graham mail route, it grew into a bustling supply stop for cattle drives heading north, boasting a spa built around its mineral wells, a hotel, school, and 400 residents by 1887. Ranching and later oil kept the community alive well into the twentieth century.
Site of Cottonwood Spring
Olney, TX
A lone cottonwood and a dependable spring made this spot a vital oasis on the nineteenth-century Texas frontier, its ground still scarred by wagon ruts. In 1849 Captain Randolph B. Marcy camped here while mapping a road for California gold-seekers, and over the next decade the spring watered soldiers establishing Fort Belknap, surveyors scouting Indian reservations, and the Butterfield Overland Mail. Rangers and cavalry under "Rip" Ford and Earl Van Dorn also staged here before riding north to fight Comanche raiders.
Palo Pinto County
Palo Pinto, TX
Created in 1856 and organized in 1857, Palo Pinto County takes its Spanish name — "spotted oak" — from the mottled bark of a common regional tree. Its abundant water and game had long made it a favored Indian locality before Anglo-American settlers, including legendary cattlemen and trailblazers Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, arrived in the 1850s. The 1880 discovery of mineral water and the coming of the Texas & Pacific Railroad drew a wave of new settlers.