Site of the Town of Swartwout
Goodrich, Polk County, Texas
Marker Inscription
86 blocks and 2 public squares were laid out here in 1838 with James Morgan, Arthur Garner and Thomas Bradley as proprietors. Named in honor of Samuel Swartwout (1783-1856), New York speculator and politician who advanced funds in 1836 to the Texas government. Important steamboat landing before the Civil War. Ferry crossing until 1930. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Laid out in 1838 with 86 blocks and two public squares, the town of Swartwout was platted along the Trinity River during the days of the Republic of Texas. It honored Samuel Swartwout, a New York speculator and politician who had advanced funds to the Texas government in 1836. A busy steamboat landing before the Civil War, the site kept a ferry crossing running until 1930 before fading away entirely.
Why it matters
Swartwout's rise and disappearance trace the river-commerce economy of early Texas, when steamboat landings—not railroads—determined which towns would live or vanish.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1838, Texas was an independent nation. The Republic of Texas had won its independence in 1836, but it was short of money, its people were spread thin, and settlement was still mostly near the rivers. Without a good network of roads, rivers served as highways for goods, people, and news.
Town building was a speculative business in those years. Investors laid out streets and lots on paper and hoped settlers and trade would follow. Some of those towns grew into cities. Many more stayed small or disappeared, depending on whether the traffic came.
In the decades before the Civil War, steamboats made river landings especially valuable. A spot where boats could tie up, load cotton, and unload supplies could thrive. Swartwout was founded in exactly this hopeful, risky moment.
People & events
The town was laid out in 1838 with 86 blocks and two public squares, a big plan for a frontier community. The proprietors were James Morgan, Arthur Garner, and Thomas Bradley. Planning two public squares suggests they imagined a real town center, with civic life and commerce around it.
They named the town for Samuel Swartwout (1783–1856), a New York speculator and politician. In 1836, the year Texas fought for independence, he had advanced money to the Texas government. Naming a town after a financial backer was a way to honor him and maybe to draw more support from the East. Swartwout's later career was stormy. As Collector of the Port of New York, he became notorious for a large shortfall in the accounts under his control. Still, in 1836, he was a friend Texas needed.
For years, the town lived up to some of its promise. Before the Civil War it was an important steamboat landing, where river traffic linked the area to wider markets. Long after the steamboats stopped, people still crossed the river here: a ferry ran at the site until 1930. In 1936, during the celebration of a century of Texas independence, the State of Texas placed a marker at the spot.
Its place in the American story
Swartwout tells a story repeated all over the young American West: towns rose or fell with transportation. River landings were lifelines before railroads, and many promising communities faded once traffic moved elsewhere. Today countless ghost towns are all that remain of plans that once looked as solid as Swartwout's 86 blocks.
The town's name also points to the money behind the Texas Revolution and the early Republic. Texas independence depended in part on loans and support from investors in the United States. The town shows how closely the new nation was tied, financially and politically, to people in the East.
The ferry crossing that lasted until 1930 shows something else. Even after a town fades, the geography that created it can keep serving travelers for generations. Rivers, crossings, and landings shaped where Americans went long after the people who platted the town were gone.
If you visit
There isn't much left of the town of Swartwout, and that's part of the point. A visit here is an exercise in imagination: picture the streets and squares laid out in 1838, steamboats tying up at the landing, and a ferry carrying wagons and travelers across the water.
Take a moment to notice the land and the river. These features drew the town's founders, and they are a reminder that in early Texas, location on the water was everything. The marker itself dates from the 1936 Centennial, so it is a historical artifact in its own right, reflecting how Texans of that era chose to remember their beginnings.
This stop fits well on an East Texas back-roads drive through the Piney Woods. Ghost-town hunters and anyone curious about the Republic of Texas will find it rewarding. Please respect any nearby private property as you explore.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Samuel Swartwout
- · James Morgan
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Early Roads in Polk County
Livingston, TX
Long before roads were surveyed, the Creeks, Alabamas, Coushattas, and Kickapoos of this region laced it with trails for trade and travel, including Long King's Trace and the Coushatta Trace reaching toward Mexico. After Anglo settlement began in the 1820s, these Native paths hardened into stagecoach roads, while Trinity River boats served some twenty landings along Polk County's riverfront. Roads and river together carried the county's produce and people for generations.
Isaac Jones
Point Blank, TX
Isaac Jones was a self-reliant pioneer who moved to the Trinity River country in 1834, taking up a Mexican land grant on the river's west bank while Texas was still under Mexican rule. He served briefly in the army of the young Texas Republic between 1836 and 1838 and later ran a ferry at Jones Bluff, a vital river crossing for travelers and goods.
Moscow
Moscow, TX
Settled by David Green during the days of the Republic of Texas, this Polk County town opened its first post office as Green's in 1847, renamed Moscow in 1853, and incorporated in 1856 as a stage stop on the Nacogdoches-Liberty Road. Proud of its schools, Moscow ran a free school system as early as 1851 and hosted early industries from a cannery to a factory making architectural pillars. Its arrival as a railroad town in 1881 brought the tiny Moscow, Camden & San Augustine, one of the shortest railroads in Texas.
Waverly Cemetery
New Waverly, TX
Set on land purchased in 1853, this cemetery holds the pioneer settlers of Waverly, including men who died of cholera on the journey from Alabama and were later reinterred here by their families. The nearby Waverly Institute set aside acreage for burials, and before the Civil War the town was a thriving cultural and educational center. When the railroad bypassed it in the 1880s and New Waverly rose instead, the old town faded—but its cemetery endures.