The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, July 1966 - April, 1967 Page: 445
728 p. : maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Red River County, Texas, in the z92o's
The breakup of the plantation system and land depletion created
a restlessness in the Old South. Railroads were being built to
improve transportation The new settlers found soil and climate
suited to the crops they already knew, which determined the
immediate future of Texas as a one-crop country, a cotton state.9
Immigrants poured into the state in such numbers that the popu-
lation increased 37g per cent from 1870 to the end of the cen-
tury. The population of Red River County tripled during the
same period and reached its peak of 35,829 persons in 1920.10
As a result of this immigration, the population of Red River
County was primarily Anglo-Saxon and Celtic."1 A study of the
Ninth Census of the United States for 1870, revealed that of all
native-born Americans in the county, only i 16 were from states
outside the South. Most of the settlers from the North were mer-
chants in or near Clarksville-the county seat-or professional men
such as doctors and teachers, although there were some farmers
who had been born in the Midwest. In most cases, only one mem-
ber of the family, usually the husband, was born in the North,
while the wife was from Kentucky or Tennessee, and the children
were native Texans. Frequently an older person, possibly a grand-
parent, was a native of one of the South Atlantic states, the next
generation was born in Tennessee or one of the gulf states, and the
children were born in Texas.12 As Barnes F. Lathrop suggests in
his study of Migration into East Texas, z835-1860, "Virginia and
the Carolinas were grandparent states, Georgia and Kentucky
were, in Pickwickian biology, junior grandparent states, Ten-
nessee and Alabama were parent states; Mississippi, Missouri,
Arkansas, and Louisiana were elder sister states."'" This popu-
lation trend is further borne out by a survey of the language
characteristics of certain East Texas counties, including Red River
County. Less than 1 per cent of the native-born grandparents
"James L. Rock and W. I. Smith, Texas Guide for z878 (St. Louis, 1878), 156.
'Texas Almanac (1929), 483.
10Texas Almanac (1947), 123, 131.
11Texas Almanac (1929), 43-
12U. S. Ninth Census, 1870 (MSS., Returns of Schedule No. 1, for Red River
County, Texas, microfilm, Dallas Historical Society, Hall of State, Dallas). The
original manuscript returns are in Record Group No. 29, National Archives, Wash-
ington, D. C.
"Lathrop, Migration into East Texas, z835-r86o, p. 35.445
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, July 1966 - April, 1967, periodical, 1967; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101199/m1/471/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.