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.
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