The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
"TRAMMEL'S TRACE AND PRESTON ROAD"
Excerpt notes on a talk made before
the Society on January 22nd, 1959,
by Mrs. Larry Nabholtz
When I first heard of Trammel's Trace it was in an abstract
on a piece of property in Cass County, and wanting to know who
Trammel was, and where I might find out something more about him
and the Trail, I went to the Library in the Capitol Building in
Austin, asking for material available there, but they had nothing
to show me or let me read, and suggested I pursue the hint that
I had already and put into writing my findings, dates, areas, etc.,
and they would have it prepared in printed form and made part of
the file on Texas Trails. I have talked with Trammels in Dallas
and been referred to other Trammels and no one has been able to
tell me who the Trammel was for whom the trail is named. I have
found his name was Nicholas Trammel who used this old Indian trail
and he is supposed to have run stolen horses from Arkansas to
Texas as early as 1813 and who from 1820 to 1830 operated a ferry
on the Old Santonio Road crossing of the Trinity River.. In terms
* of the present place names, the trail began at the mouth of the
Cadron Creek on the Arkansas River near Conway, and ran via Hot
Springs to Fulton on the Red River. From Fulton it continued
southwestward across Bowie County, Texas to the Epperson's Ferry
crossing on the Sulphur River, then westward to the site of an
Indian Village near present Hughes Springs. Now it is out of
Hughes Springs that the property my son was buying that I saw the
mention of Trammel's Trace. From Hughes Spring the trace turned
southeast to cross Cypress Bayou two miles west of Jefferson made
an arc around the later site of Marshall to the eastward and
turned southwest again to .cross the. Sabine River north of Tatum
and follow part of the boundary line between Panola and Rusk
Counties and then turn south to Nacogodoches.
This trail has been called a contraband trail, and long ago
used by the Indians. Epperson's Ferry across the Sulphur River
in Southern Bowie County was constructed by Mark Epperson some-
time before 1837 at a natural crossing of the river which had been
used by Indians, early explorers and travelers over Trammel's
Trace. The ferry was eventually supplanted by a wooden bridge and
then in 1924 by a modern bridge.
As settlement progressed, numerous new routes were added to
these pre colonial trails, but when the Republic was born all
that part .of the country west of Trammel's Trace and north of the
Old San Antonio Road was trackless and almost unknown except to
the few daring hunters, traders and soldiers whose vocations led
them far beyond the settlements. In the older settled East Texas
regions roads were improved by digging down river banks, clearing
a winding way through the forests and cutting the stumps low
enough for wagons to pass over.
The last trip I made into Hughes Spring, I was told by old
timers in Linden, Texas, to look up Mr. Putnam. Well, I found Mr.
- 1 -