Inventory of the county archives of Texas : Gregg County, no. 92 Page: 4
179 p. : map, plans ; 27 cm.View a full description of this book.
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4(First
entry, p. 57) Historical Sketch
With such a history, the first group of Cherokees, numbering 60
warriors, crossed the Sabine. into the Spanish province of Texas in the
winter of 1819-20; others came later. Soon after their arrival in Texas,
the Cherokees began to petition the Spanish Government for title to the
land between the Trinity and Sabine Rivers, north of the San AntonioNacogdoches
road. After the Mexican Revolution of 1821 they continued
to press their claims at Mexico City. But again they were faced with
the problem of the Anglo-American. The land claimed by the Cherokees
was granted in 1825 to Frost Thorn, an American, under an empresario
contract. Adjoining lands had been granted to Hayden Edwards, also an
American empresario. The Indians, however, neither gave up their claims,
nor left the lands; and, since Edwards and Thorn both failed as colonizers,
the Cherokees remained for a time comparatively undisturbed, still
trying to substantiate their claims to the lands they occupied. When
the Texas Revolution started, the Texans promised the Cherokees title
to their lands if they would either remain neutral during the ensuing
war, or help the colonists against the Mexican forces. They remained
neutral; but when the war was over, the promised title was not forthcoming.
Instead, when Mirabeau B. Lamar became President of the new
republic, he decreed their expulsion. The Cherokee Trace, later to become
one of the most important routes across Gregg County, was the path
of the fleeing Indians. It crossed Gregg County territory near the
present site of Longview.4
Almost colliding with the Cherokees as they left were hundreds of
land-hungry Anglo-Americans, rushing in to5take possession of the upper
East Texas region the Indians had vacated,
The first white man to set foot in East Texas, according to Jose'
Maria Sanchez, nineteenth century diarist, was Lucas Vasquez de Allon,
who explored the Sabinxe in 1520, marched across the entire province, and
died at the hands of the Indians in 1524.6 But, as the records indicate,
Allon was not the forerunner of any large movement of white settlers into
upper East Texas, for neither the Spaniards nor the Mexicans settled
the region to any considerable degree. It is assumed that the country
was unattractive to them, or that the Indians who constituted an effective
block to Anglo-American penetration had affected the Spaniards and
4. Winkler, "The Cerokees, Qarterly, VII (1903-4), 96-130; Anna
Muckleroy, "The Indian Policy of the Republic of Texas," Southwestern
Historical Quartel, XV (1921-22), 240, 253; John H. Reagan,
"Ecpulsion of the Cherokees," Southwestern Historical Quarterly,
I (1897-98), 38-46.
5. Ellie Hopkins, "History ofL ongview Dates Back for Sixty-four Years,'
Longview (Tex.) I)aily News, Feb. 4, 1934, hereinafter cited as Hopkins,
"History of Longview."
6. Jose Maria Sanchez, "A Trip to Texas in 1828," Southwestern Historical
Quarterly, XXIX (1925-26), 261, hereinafter cited as Sanchez,
"A Trip," Quarterly.
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Historical Records Survey. Texas. Inventory of the county archives of Texas : Gregg County, no. 92, book, August 1940; San Antonio, Tex.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth25249/m1/11/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.