THE HISTORY OF MOUNT VERNON BY B. F. HICKS

Franklin County is the 8th smallest county of the 254 counties in the State of Texas. The county is long and narrow with a north-south configuration. The county is old by Texas standards. The Cherokee Trace runs along the eastern boundary of the county; a Caddo Indian highway which led from the southern regions of the Caddo Confederacy (26 tribes with a common language or at least related tongues) at Nacogdoches to the Oklahoma area northwest of Clarksville.

Accounts by French traders and travelers in the 1700's report that the highway was wide enough for four horsemen to ride abreast through the thick forest. Except for small pocket prairies and the large open prairie at Daphne (and probably some large prairies in the area near present-day Hagansport), the county would have been covered in virgin forest with the north half of the county in a region known as the postoak savannah and the southern half of the county at the northernmost end of the pine forests of southeast Texas. The last black bear reported killed was killed in 1877. The land was rich with a wide variety of game and native plants.

The county is bounded on the north by the Sulphur River. Cypress Bayou, the headwaters for the Cypress watershed, runs along the southern section of the county. Lake Cypress Springs, Lake Bob Sandlin, Lake 'o the Pines, and finally Caddo Lake share these common waters. The north and northwest sections lie in the post oak belt while to the south the piney woods begin. The area of 293 square miles is slightly rolling; soils vary from rich alluvium along the streams to sandy clays in the uplands; other soils range from light sand to black wax clay.

The average elevation in the county is 350 feet; average mean temperature is 65 degrees; average rainfall is 46.44 inches. Native timbers include pine, oaks, gum, ash, walnut and pecan. There are deposits of iron, lignite, brick clay, natural gas and oil.

The Cherokee Indians traveled the north-south highway running along the eastern edge of the county in the early 1830's when they were expelled from their native lands in the eastern states and a decade later they traveled the same route when the Republic of Texas under President Mirabeau Lamar expelled them to Oklahoma. Historically, locals call the trail the Cherokee Trace and it is truly a part of the Cherokee Trail of Tears. An East-West Indian Trade Route passes through the county and parallels present day U.S. Highway 67; this route - the Choctaw Trail.

Sam Houston and Davey Crockett both traveled the Cherokee Trace as they entered Texas and this area was home to very early settlement. Soon after the area opened to settlement after the Texas Revolution we see surveyors laying off land along the intersection of the Cherokee Trace and the Choctaw Trail and the last Indian Massacre in the eastern half of the State of Texas was on April 10, 1841, just east of the town of Mt. Vernon. Settlers from a 70 mile radius gathered together and attacked most of the Indians within 100 miles, effectively driving the few remaining Indians out of the eastern half of the State.

William Hughes, Charles Stewart, Charles Black, and other local men joined in the posses that pursued the Indians.

Ambrose Ripley, who lost 8 children in the raid, petitioned the Congress of the Republic for his losses in "the defense of the frontiers of the republic." Hard to believe today, but we were a frontier although by the time of the Civil War, the forests were being rapidly cleared and the land plowed for cotton and corn and the southern economy of the old south was reaching its western boundary in this area.

It is believed that Luis de Moscoso traveled through this county in 1542. The first permanent settlers were probably the Greggs who arrived near Sulphur Bluff in Hopkins County about 1818 from Indiana and then married with the Clifton family and soon ventured into present-day Franklin County. A Gregg home built about 1837 is still standing and is perhaps the oldest extent structure in the county.

By 1848 both Gray Rock (at the intersection of the Indian roads - by now Anglo roads) and Mt. Vernon (a few miles west on the Choctaw trail and near good spring water - the Fannin Springs) had been awarded Post Offices.

Franklin County was first a part of Red River County, one of the 16 original counties in the Republic of Texas. In 1846 Titus County was formed out of Red River, including present day Morris, Titus, Franklin and part of Camp County. In 1875, Franklin County was carved out of Titus County.

The county was named after a judge of the Republic of Texas period, Benjamin C. Franklin.

County records in Franklin County go back to 1836; when the county was organized, clerks were sent to transcribe the land records relating to Franklin County land in both Red River and Titus Counties. Invaluable genealogical records are preserved in our county as a result of this. When the Titus County courthouse burned in 1895, the records were lost for all time except for those copied in Franklin County. Records of early ownership and heirship are set out in records available today in our courthouse.

County population was strong with a strong influx from Tennessee (Virginia and North Carolina stock) and second influx from South Carolina (via Alabama and Mississippi). By 1850 there were perhaps 2,000 people in the county and that number had doubled by 1860; all families suffered during the Civil War and half the resident adult male population died or was killed in the hardships of that time. A migration after the war saw the county population double and by 1900 the U.S. Census records 7,000 people in the county. The population grew until 1920 when it began a downward pattern with the trends to population shifting during the urbanization of America. It was not until after the dam was closed on Lake Cypress Springs in 1972 that the county again saw a population growth and the population did not approach the 1900 population again until the 1980 census was taken.

In 1876 the East Line and in 1887 the Red River Railroads were built through the southern part of the county. The Cotton-Belt line acquired right-of-way through the center of the county and through Mt. Vernon in 1881. There was also a line serving Mt. Vernon to Paris which operated until the 1930's. Settlements increased to 6,481 in 1890 and to 9,331 in 1910.

The County was an agricultural county with small farm holdings scattered over the county; there have been over 15 communities with post offices in the 293 squares miles of Franklin County. There were 26 white and 8 colored schools in 1910; today there is one. There are 44 documented cemeteries in the county representing communities that have long been abandoned. In a day and age when a man could support his family with "40 acres and a mule" this county was representative of that post-Civil War southern lifestyle.

The major cash crops from the Civil War through the 1920's were cotton and corn, although there were over half a million peach trees in production by 1915. Other cash crops included wheat, oats and sweet potatoes. The county was the top county in the state in cane syrup production (primarily ribbon cane) for a number of years through the 1940's with mills set up to "boil down" the juice from the cane which flourished in the many creek valleys throughout the county. Today, agriculture is more dependent on beef and dairy cattle and, most recently, poultry production.

A few of the original landholdings remain intact and our county is proud to have over 10 farms in the Texas Land Heritage Program of family farms continuously operated by one family for more than a century. At least two of these farms (Aikin/Hughes and English/Galt) date from Republic of Texas land grant holdings. A study of the county land grants also reveals land granted through the Spanish and Mexican governments before the Texas Revolution.

The town of Mt. Vernon was incorporated as a city in 1910. The earliest home still standing in the town of Mt. Vernon dates from 1870; there are two ante-bellum homes in the county. Over 40 Pre-World War I homes are marked with attractive signs provided by the Franklin County Historical Commission and an active effort is underway to preserve the county's heritage. Come and tour the county and experience the charm of the southern heritage Franklin County offers.

We have 18 official state historic markers in Franklin County, with four in Mt. Vernon and the rest in the county, marking communities, homes, or other historic sites.

The town was approved for a post office in April 1848 and at that time the town was laid out in lots and blocks. Stephen and Rebecca Keith gave 24 acres of land for the town. The original town of Mt. Vernon was probably more of a trading area down near the Fannin Springs - a spring on the east side of the intersection of Holbrook and Rutherford Streets; when the 24 acre donation was made the town moved "up" to its present location, about 8 blocks to the north and the early settlement at the springs was soon abandoned.

The name Mt. Vernon was actually used from about 1848 for the area which is now the center of town - the public square, although the official post office names were "Keith" and then "Lone Star" and finally solely Mt. Vernon. A stagecoach stop out at the northeast corner of the intersection of present-day Interstate 30 and State Highway 37 was named Lone Star and that stagecoach stop was eventually abandoned with the growth of the town. A century and a half later, the town again grows toward that stagecoach stop area.

The county was carved out of Titus County in 1875. Mt. Vernon was elected county seat in a contested election which saw Mt. Vernon supporters ferrying voters across the flooded White Oak Creek to get them to the polls. A courthouse was built in the center of the town square in 1877. The courthouse was torn down in 1912 and the present courthouse was erected on the north side of the square. The present courthouse was built at a cost of $55,000.00 and is well maintained. The courthouse is built in a southern Georgian colonial style and the district courtroom has recently been restored and is used for public concerts and meetings as well as continuing to serve as the official courtroom for district court sessions.

Mt. Vernon has the distinction of being the smallest (in population) city in the state of Texas approved as an official Texas Main Street City. The city's Main Street Board is actively seeking more restoration and revitalization for the town.

Come and tour the county and experience the charm of the southern heritage Mt. Vernon and Franklin County offer.

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