Captain W. W. Withenbury's 1838–1842 "Red River Reminiscences"

20. To Fort Towson Landing

The Reminiscences  127 unclaimed goods at her warehouse in Roland. Anne Monkhouse (35, born in England) is listed in the 1850 Red River County census with five children and an overseer (for her agricultural operations). Her headstone in the Old Rowland Cemetery indicates that she was born in 1818 and died in 1863. 13. Thought to cure snake bites and with other curative effects. For an early scientific perspective on snakeroot, see Jacob Bigelow’s 1817 American Medical Botany. 14. The navigation columns in the Shreveport newspapers indicate that snakeroot was an important export commodity from the Upper Red River. 15. John H. Davis had a headright immediately west of Bryarly, with Texas General Land Office records indicating that he came to Texas in 1837. A letter by Edward West, sheriff of Red River County, dated Clarksvillle, July 20, 1841, in volume 2 of the Texas Treasury Papers mentions John H. Davis at Roland. A succession notice by William W. Davis in the December 2, 1843, Clarksville Northern Standard indicates that John Davis had died. Roland Bryarly published a succession notice for John and William in the May 27, 1846, Northern Standard indicating that he was administrator of all of their properties. 16. The Superintendent of Schools continues to report snakeroot gathering as a primary economic activity in the 1899 Report of the United States Indian Inspector for the Indian Territory. 17. These were Davis, Bryarly, and Monkhouse. 18. The troops at Fort Towson. 20  To Fort Towson Landing • Most of this letter is concerned with people and events in the vicinity of Jonesboro; but the beginning of the letter reverts back to the previous night when the Relief was tied up four miles below Jonesboro and to an event on the way to Jonesboro. At the end of the letter, the Relief dropped off freight at the Fort Towson landing on Red River in the 128  Red River Reminiscences Indian Territory and had gone a short distance upstream, but failed by a mile and a half to reach its intended destination at the mouth of the Kiamichi River. Jonesboro1 was in northwest Red River County about 12 river miles from the mouth of the Kiamichi River. It had been a keelboat landing and was an important steamboat landing until the early 1840s, with a Texas trade and a Fort Towson trade secured by a road that ran directly northwest from Jonesboro to the fort. Settlement began in 1815 and increased substantially in the 1820s. Jonesboro became the county seat of Miller County in 1832 when the county was on the south side of Red River in Texas. George Wright, James Johnston, and William Harrison were among the merchants. The town was incorporated in 1837, but in a state of decline by the early 1840s, exacerbated by the great flood on the Red River in early 1843, which shifted the river a mile to the north. Although the settlement never recovered, Jonesboro continued to be shown on maps and mentioned occasionally in newspaper accounts of boat movements through the early 1870s. The site is presently occupied by the town of Davenport. Fort Towson2 was six miles from the Red River on the east side of Gates Creek, which enters the Kiamichi shortly before the Kiamichi enters the Red. Gates Creek and the Kiamichi were not navigable for steamboats. The fort’s landing was to the south and slightly east on the Red, about three river miles from the mouth of the Kiamichi and, according to the next letter, had two log warehouses. It had The Reminiscences  129 been a keelboat landing and was among the most important steamboat landings on the Upper Red River until the fort was abandoned in 1851, after which the landing was mentioned occasionally through 1859 in newspaper accounts of boat movements.  I find that I hurried a little too much in reaching Jonesboro with the Relief at dark on the 19th of January, 1842. It would hardly seem that I hurried very much, however, as we only made four miles in the whole day; but I mean that I hurried with my narrative and left unrecorded one or two little incidents which seem to me now to be necessary to complete the tale of that tiresome day’s travel. As I have already stated, we lay all the preceding night tied to a snag in the middle of the river, and we were...