Just a bit of history...

Marshall, Texas, where my origin began…just a bit of history

[I will be breaking down the history story to gather all of the essential parts of learning where my origin is from]

 

American settlers began to arrive in large numbers during the 1830s.

 

Map showing approximately the area, known as Comancheria, occupied by the various Comanche tribes prior to 1850. It's made using "Reynolds's Political Map of the United States" (1856) from Library of Congress collection (public domain).

 

The settlement of the area was well under way by the time of the Texas Revolution in 1836. A dozen Americans received land grants there from Mexican authorities in the fall of 1835. After the revolution the area filled up so rapidly that the Congress of the Republic of Texas officially established Harrison County in 1839. - I guess this sort of explains why my Great, Great Grandfather Isom Lewis, Ellen Evans Payne’s Father was researched and found listed on the “US Native American Enrollment Form for the Five Civilized Tribes, 1898 – 1914”.

 

 

It was drawn from Shelby County, organized in 1842, and named for Texas revolutionary leader Jonas Harrison. Marshall, founded in 1841, became the county seat in 1842. The original county boundaries were reduced by the establishment of Panola and Upshur counties in 1846. Since then, with the exception of a small adjustment with Marion County during Reconstruction, they have remained unchanged. Harrison County was settled predominantly by natives of the southern United States who duplicated the slaveholding, cotton-plantation society they had known before moving to Texas. – I was Googling maps of Marshall, Texas in the 1800’s and came across this map below. Unfortunately, I was on my phone was it was done so downloading the entire map was out of the questions. I had to crop it and then download it. What amazed me was the name in the territories were the name of the slave owners. So, of course I cropped the portion with my Great Grandfather, John Womack’s plantation.

 

 

1860 Census show that that John Womack, my Great, Great Grandfather was a slave at the age of 5 years.

 

By 1850 the county had more slaves than any other in the state, a distinction that it maintained through the next decade. The census of 1860 enumerated 8,784 slaves (59 percent of the total population), 145 planters who owned at least twenty bondsmen, and a cotton crop of 21,440 bales. Harrison County was among the richest and most productive in antebellum Texas.

In 1861 Harrison County's citizens overwhelmingly supported secession (separation). The area escaped invasion during the Civil War, but hundreds of its men fought, and the majority of its people were called upon to make at least some material sacrifice. Defeat brought military occupation, the end of slavery, and Reconstruction.  -  I found the printable text of the book “Grass Roots Reconstruction in Texas, 1865-1880” by Randolph B. Campbell.

 

White citizens bitterly resented federal authority, especially when it meant enfranchisement of the black majority and a Republican Party county government that continued even after the Democratic Party regained control statewide in 1874. African Americans found that freedom did not bring significant economic or educational opportunities. - H.B. Pemberton Sr. founded one of the first black public schools to be accredited by the state of Texas, Harrison County.

Harrison County was "redeemed"-returned to white Democratic rule-in 1878 when residents formed the Citizen's Party of Harrison County and appealed to voters with the argument that Republican government was too expensive. Amidst charges of fraud and coercion, Citizen's party candidates won the election on a technicality involving the placement of a key ballot box and took firm control of local government. The county has remained politically conservative since Reconstruction. Until 1900 its black voters returned Republican majorities in national elections, but the Citizen's party controlled county offices. Once black voters were disenfranchised, the county voted solidly Democratic in all elections until 1948. At that point, with the national Democratic Party tending toward liberal policies, Harrison County began to support conservative Southerners such as Strom Thurmond in 1948 and George Wallace in 1968, and it began to vote Republican. Dwight D. Eisenhower twice carried the area easily. Lyndon B. Johnson (in spite of the fact that his wife came from the county) barely defeated Barry Goldwater there in 1964, and Republican candidates won in 1980, 1984, and 1988. The county voted Democratic in the 1992 election.

As in antebellum times Harrison County remained overwhelmingly agricultural and rural from 1880 to 1930. During these fifty years, while the population grew slowly from 25,171 to 48,397, the number of farms rose from 2,748 to an all-time high of 6,802. Cotton continued as the main crop, although it was 1930 before production in a census year surpassed the 21,440-bale crop reported in 1860. Production in 1930 was 33,755 bales. The county also retained its black majority through these years. Blacks constituted more than 60 percent of the total population in every census from 1880 to 1930.