Jefferson-Quitman Road
Gilmer, Upshur County, Texas
Marker Inscription
One of three pioneer roads that crossed Upshur County and aided in development of Texas. Was heavily used by freighters and settlers heading westward, and by those exporting cotton, hides and produce to the inland port at Jefferson. Was crossed at this point by Cherokee Trace (so named for Indians who used it to travel between their home reservation in Arkansas and their lands near Nacogdoches. The Mt. Gilead Primitive Baptist Church was organized near here in July 1848. Church land and cemetery were given by pioneer merchant Leonidas Cartwright.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
One of three pioneer roads crossing Upshur County, the Jefferson–Quitman Road carried freighters and westbound settlers, along with cotton, hides, and produce bound for the busy inland port at Jefferson. Here it crossed the Cherokee Trace, the older path the Cherokee used traveling between reservation lands in Arkansas and their grounds near Nacogdoches. Nearby, the Mt. Gilead Primitive Baptist Church was organized in 1848 on land given by merchant Leonidas Cartwright.
Why it matters
The crossroads marks how Native trails and pioneer freight roads together opened East Texas to trade and westward settlement.
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Related people
- · Leonidas Cartwright
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cherokee Trace
Gilmer, TX
Around 1821, Cherokee people living near Nacogdoches blazed a trail north toward their kin in Arkansas, guided by a scout who set his course by dragging buffalo skins behind his horse while others marked the trees and planted Cherokee roses still seen along the route. Sam Houston, David Crockett, and thousands of settlers followed this road into Texas. The Cherokee were expelled from Texas in 1839 after Houston left the presidency, their chief killed in a two-day battle on the Neches River.
Tarver's Ferry
Gilmer, TX
At a strategic crossing of Big Cypress Creek, this pioneer ferry carried settlers pressing west into the Texas interior, many arriving through the busy river port of Jefferson and stopping for provisions at nearby Coffeeville. James L. Tarver, who lived on the Coffeeville Road, likely worked the ferry in the 1860s. Long before wagons and oxen came this way, the Caddo people forded the stream at the very same spot, until a bridge built by 1867 finally rendered the ferry obsolete.
Caddo Trace
Daingerfield, TX
The Caddo Trace was an ancient hunting and trade path worn by the Caddo people who lived in the northeast corner of what became Texas. Like many Indigenous routes, it was later taken over by newcomers, becoming part of stage and mail lines after 1840 and a road for teamsters and marching soldiers. It touched or crossed the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Trammel's traces, and modern state highways still trace its course.
Cherokee Trace
Longview, TX
In 1821 Cherokee people blazed this trace from the Nacogdoches area to their reservation on Arkansas's White River, slashing trees, clearing a path, planting Cherokee roses, and marking springs as camps. The trail became a thoroughfare for Sam Houston, David Crockett, other soldiers of the Texas Revolution, and thousands of immigrants. After Texas forces drove the Cherokees from the state in 1839, the very people who made the road departed over it into exile.