Texas Almanac, 1990-1991 Page: 39
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HISTORY 39
rants were discovering the rolling hills northwest of
an Antonio. Because of repressive conditions in Ger-
many during the early 1800s, there was great interest
in emigration to the United States, and Texas was one
of the prime spots attracting German settlers. The
Adelsverein, a German association organized to pro-
mote emigration to Texas, brought several thousand
Germans into Central Texas in 1844-1846 under the
leadership of Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels and John
O. Meusebach. New Braunfels, in present Comal Coun-
ty, and Fredericksburg, in present Gillespie County,
were their two primary settlements.In an effort to protect new settlers and travelers
from marauding Indians, the U.S. Army established
Fort Martin Scott about two miles southeast of Freder-
icksburg in 1848. However, the frontier leapfrogged the
fort so quickly that the post was active for only a short
time and was occupied only sporadically after 1852.
Gillespie County was created and organized in
1848, becoming the first county in the West Central
Texas region. Fredericksburg was named the county
seat, and by 1855 a courthouse had been built. The pop-
ulation of Fredericksburg had reached 754 by 1850; by
1900, it stood at 1,800.The Way West
The discovery of gold at John A. Sutter's sawmill
near Sacramento, Calif., in January 1848, opened a
new era in both Texas and California. Adventurers
from all walks of life streamed west - Forty-Niners
all, united by a common dream of quick riches.
Many of the Forty-Niners came through Texas on
their westward trek. Leaving the settled areas of
Northeast Texas, they encountered Plains Indians who
saw their passage as a violation of the Indians' home-
land, with predictable results. In April 1849, Capt. Ran-
dolph Barnes Marcy, 5th Infantry, U. S. Army, left Fort
Smith, Ark., with 80 men and officers in a wagon train
to follow a course along the Canadian River on the way
to Santa Fe. His orders were to examine and report on
the terrain, to conciliate Indians encountered along
the way and to protect the adventurers swarming
across the plains toward California.
On his return, guided part of the way by famed
Delaware scout Black Beaver, Marcy chose a route
that sent him and his men east along the Pecos River
to a ford later known as Emigrants' Crossing, about 20
miles downstream from present-day Pecos. He crossed
the sand hills near Monahans and passed the sites of
Odessa, Midland and Big Spring. Crossing the Brazos
near present-day Newcastle in Young County, the
troops skirted the site of Montague and left Texas at
the bustling town of Preston on the Red River. The
route became known as Marcy's Road.
The significance of Marcy's 1849 expedition is not
that new territory was explored. The area had been
known to Indians, the Spanish and some Anglos for
years. But Marcy wrote about what he saw in vivid
terms. His report was published in newspapers, where
hundreds of people read about the frontier of Texas.
Ten years after his expedition, Marcy published a trav-
el guide for immigrants moving west. Entitled The
Prairie Traveler, A Hand-Book for Overland Expe-
ditions, the book was a treasure trove of practical
information and advice on virtually everything the
traveler on the frontier would encounter: how to orga-
nize the group that would be traveling together and the
optimum size of that group, what provisions and equip-
ment to take, how to prevent scurvy, how far to march
each day, how to pick campsites and how to find water
by reading natural signs. He described how to repair
wagons and how to ford rivers, how to select horses
and mules and how to treat rattlesnake bites, how to
deal with Indians and how to hunt bison and mountain
sheep. At the back of the book he gave detailed itinera-
ries of each available route, listing possible campsites
along the way and the distances between them, with
helpful notes about available grass and water and
where to watch for hostile Indians. In short, it was a
wagon-train Bible. Marcy's report and guide book
helped attract settlers into West Central Texas.
Unfortunately for some of Marcy's readers, 1849
was an uncommonly rainy year in West Texas. Marcy
reported exactly what he saw on his survey trip: abun-
dant water supplies all along the way. Many who came
trusting in adequate water suffered greatly when
"normal" years ensued.
As the settlers pushed westward, they shoved the
Indians in front of them, some of whom had already
been pushed out of their original homelands farther
east. In the 1820s, the United States had removed Indi-
ans from east of the Mississippi to the edge of the
Great Plains and the South Plains. A treaty had been
negotiated with the Comanches and the Kiowas to
share their lands with the Eastern Indians. Cherokees,
Creeks, Seminoles, Kickapoos, Delawares and others
had been forced into Indian Territory, which later be-
came Oklahoma. The U.S. Army was now faced with
the dilemma of protecting the settlers from the Indi-
ans, who were protecting themselves and their vital
hunting grounds from the settlers. Indian attacks in-creased as settlers edged up the Brazos Valley. Prop-
erty was destroyed or stolen; people were killed or
captured; cattle and horses were taken to trade with
the Comancheros. The Comancheros were New Mex-
icans who traded arms and ammunition to the Coman-
ches and other Plains Indians from the late 1700s to the
late 1800s in return for livestock and other goods, thus
providing a profit motive for the Indian raids.
Enraged citizens peppered Austin and Washington
with protests and petitions. It was claimed that in one
year's time, 200 Texans had been killed, captured or
wounded by Indians.
To protect settlers and travelers, the U.S. Army
constructed a series of forts along the increasingly
hazardous Texas frontier. Brevet Maj. Gen. William G.
Belknap was ordered by Gen. Winfield Scott, the com-
mander-in-chief, to locate sites for forts close to Mar-
cy's route at several spots: at the crossing of the Red
River, on the Brazos River, the Colorado River, the Big
Spring, the Pecos River and at Guadalupe Pass.
Belknap left Fort Washita, Okla., in May 1851, with an
advance party composed of four commissioned offi-
cers and 90 enlisted men, with Black Beaver as guide.
Accompanying the group was Capt. Marcy himself.
Belknap's party arrived at the Brazos on June 13
about 10 miles below the Marcy crossing. On June 24,
after careful reconnaissance, Belknap selected a site
fotr Fort Belknap a little east of the 99th meridian in
Young County. He then changed plans for all of the
sites of the frontier posts, because, he said, he had
reached the western limit of sufficient wood and wa-
ter. And he added, in perhaps one of the worst jobs of
prophecy on record, that "on account of the scarcity of
timber and water it is not probable that white set-
tlements will be made for a century, if ever." The
other sites selected by Belknap were on Pecan Bayou
to the south and one on the Concho River, the better to
stop Indians both from raiding in to Mexico and from
attacking frontier settlements in Texas. He also sug-
gested the government supply beef and corn to friend-
ly Indians in the vicinity of each fort.
The army's high command agreed with Belknap's
changes, and by the end of October, seven companies
of troops were in residence at Fort Belknap. There was
water, but it was brackish and undrinkable. In order to
assure sufficient potable water, Fort Belknap was
moved to a spot two miles downstream on the Red
Fork of the Brazos.
In November 1851, the army shifted responsibility
for establishing the protective line of forts from Belk-
nap to Brevet Maj. Gen. Persifor F. Smith of the 8th
Military Department.
Smith made a galloping survey of Northwest Texas
and changed Belknap's carefully considered plan of
frontier defense. He decided that there should be a fort
on the Clear Fork of the Brazos, another at the head-
waters of the Concho and a third at the headwaters of
either the San Saba or the Llano. And in a decision
more fiscally practical than militarily wise, Smith de-
clared that the cavalry would be stationed, not at these
new forts on the western frontier, but at the inner line
of forts - Worth, Graham, Croghan and Martin Scott
- because grass was more abundant there, and the
horses could forage at less expense. That these inner
forts were far from the areas where the cavalry was
most needed seemed not to have any effect on Smith's
decision. The outer line of defense would be manned
by foot soldiers.
Rejecting suggestions that the water of the Clear
Fork was not potable, Smith ordered five companies of
5th Infantry, commanded by Maj. J. J. Abercrombie, to
establish "The Post on the Clear Fork of the Brazos," as
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Kingston, Mike. Texas Almanac, 1990-1991, book, 1989; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth162512/m1/41/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.