HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Jonathan Doan

Vernon, Wilbarger County, Texas

Marker Inscription

(May 20, 1837- November 6, 1902) Frontier trader and merchant; a Quaker, peaceable on troubled frontiers. With nephew C. F. Doan, came from Ohio and entered hides trade in Indian Territory, 1874-75. In April 1878 opened trading post at Western Cattle Trail crossing on Red River (12 mi. NE). C. F. Doan moved down that fall to run post. Jonathan Doan continued to trade on frontier. Doan's store and the family were famous and respected among the Indian, the cattlemen, and the frontiersmen. Recorded - 1972

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

A Quaker trader known for keeping peace on a violent frontier, Jonathan Doan came from Ohio into the hides trade of Indian Territory in the mid-1870s. In 1878 he opened a trading post at the Western Cattle Trail's Red River crossing — the famous Doan's Store — soon run by his nephew C. F. Doan. Respected by Indians, cattlemen, and frontiersmen alike, the Doans became fixtures of the great trail-driving era.

Why it matters

Doan's crossing was a vital landmark on the Western Cattle Trail, and his story shows the trader's role in the commerce of the closing frontier.

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Related people

  • · Jonathan Doan
  • · C. F. Doan

Related events

  • · Western Cattle Trail

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Early Wilbarger County

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Organized in 1858 on the rolling plains of North Texas, Wilbarger County took its name from early settlers, including surveyor Josiah Wilbarger, famous for surviving a scalping. The land here was frontier in the fullest sense: the Doan brothers' adobe house marked the Red River crossing of the Western Cattle Trail, where great herds forded on their way north. The county seat of Vernon, once called Eagle Flat, gained a railroad in 1886 as the open range gave way to towns and rails.

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