The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 366

366

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

PUBLIC MEETING
In pursuance of a general notice a meeting of the citizens of
Cooke County was held the 1st day of October 1862. The follow-
ing proceedings were recorded to wit-On motion, Col. W. C.
Young" was called to the chair, and J. M. Peery appointed secre-
tary. Col. Young being requested to state the object of the meet-
ing, arose and addressed the audience as follows:
FELLOW CITIZENS. The information having been received by the
people of Cooke County that a vile and secret organization existed in
their midst, having for its objects the overthrow of the government
both State and Confederate, the seizure and destruction of property,
both public and private; the perfecting of an alliance with the invad-
ing armies, both civilized and uncivilized now gathering upon our
borders, and the indiscriminate slaughter of ourselves, our wives and
children, it becomes our duty to adopt some plan to stay these impend-
ing evils, and marshal our strength in self defense.
How wisely and well these plans were laid is now sufficiently devel-
3aWilliam Cocke Young was born in Davidson County, Tennessee, on May 12, 1812.
He came to Texas during the days of the republic, settling first near Pecan Point in
present Red River County in 1837. He was the first sheriff of Red River County
and served as district attorney for the Seventh Judicial District by appointment of
President Sam Houston.
Young was a member of General E. H. Tarrant's expedition that routed the last
Indian settlement in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 1841. He was a delegate to the
convention at Austin in 1845 which accepted the terms of the annexation of
Texas to the United States. During the Mexican War he raised and commanded a
regiment of 1,ooo Red River volunteers.
In 1851, Young moved to Grayson County, where he practiced law and occupied
land formerly embraced in Shawneetown adjoining the present city of Denison.
He served a term as United States Marshal. He moved from Grayson County to
Cooke County in 1858, having established a new plantation home in the Sivil's
Bend area of the Red River.
Upon the secession of Texas, Young was called by President Jefferson Davis to
Montgomery, Alabama, first capital of the Confederacy, for consultations. On
return to Texas he organized, in May, 1861, what was to become the 1Ith Texas
Cavalry, composed of companies from Grayson, Cooke, Collin, Denton, and seven
other north and northeast Texas counties.
Young was home in Cooke County on leave from his regiment because of poor
health in the fall of 1862 and participated in moves to apprehend and punish
members of the "Peace Party Conspiracy." It was from his river plantation that
he went to rescue James Dixon only to meet his own death at the hands of
unknown persons in the "brakes" of the Red River. Young County subsequently
was named in his honor. Lucas and Hall, A History of Grayson County, Texas, 67;
Landrum, Grayson County, An Illustrated History of Grayson County, Texas, 64;
U. S. Eighth Census, 186o (Returns of Schedule 1, Free Inhabitants, for Cooke
County, Texas, microfilm, Dallas Public Library).