Antebellum Jefferson, Texas: Everyday Life in an East Texas Town

3. Foundations

28 Headrights Land was given away through headright grants by the Republic of Texas to encourage settlement. Most grants were for 640 acres to unmarried men and 1,280 acres to men with families. In most cases, a conditional headright certificate was issued to qualified applicants, land was selected, a survey was conducted, an unconditional certificate was issued after a residency of three years, and a final patent on the land was provided some years later. These materials were filed with the Texas General Land Office. The vast majority of headrights were acquired for farming or were sold by their owners to other persons who used the land for farming. Land naturally appreciated gradually in value over time; but in the early circumstances when it was given away for free, the only ways in which an immediate appreciation of value could be secured were through land clearing and other farm improvements or through the founding of a town. Starting a town with lots that could be sold individually provided the best means of making money, but the number of opportunities for town formation was small. Many were envisioned that were never realized. To understand the inception of Jefferson, it is necessary to review the land acquisitions of Allen Urquhart and Daniel Alley, who are considered the town’s co-founders, with the former accounting for the eastern portion in which the port was located and the latter account3 . FounDations 29 Foundations ing for the western portion that was largely devoted to residential development . It is also necessary to understand the activities of Stephen Smith, from whom Alley acquired his contribution to Jefferson by purchase . According to General Land Office records, Allen Urquhart arrived in Texas on April 11, 1837, and appeared before the Board of Land Commissioners for Red River County in Clarksville on August 3, 1838, to claim a headright of 1,280 acres, which he was granted conditionally . Urquhart was to eventually choose two 640-acre pieces of land, one that became the nucleus of Jefferson and the other that became the nucleus of Daingerfield 30 miles to the northwest, where he spent his life. A survey for the land that was to become Daingerfield was conducted by William Hamilton, the deputy surveyor for Red River County, on June 10, 1839, and filed with the county surveyor, J. T. Harmon , in Clarksville on February 26, 1840. Urquhart began to pay taxes on this land in 1840, as indicated by the Red River County tax rolls. He appeared before the Board of Land Commissioners of Paschal County (a short-lived judicial district) in Daingerfield on August 23, 1841, and was granted an unconditional headright certificate on the 1,280 acres, having lived in the Republic of Texas for three years and performed all of the duties of a citizen. A patent on this land was granted to Urquhart by the State of Texas on April 14, 1851. It appears from this sequence that Daingerfield began to be settled after June 1839, achieving formal existence in January 1841 when the Texas Legislature stipulated that a town to be known as Dangerfield would be selected as the seat of Paschal County. Urquhart appeared before the Board of Land Commissioners in Daingerfield in August, and the town acquired a post office in December. The survey of the 640 acres that was eventually to become Jefferson was not conducted until November 19, 1841, more than two years after the Daingerfield land survey and shortly after the grant of the unconditional headright. The 1841 survey, which was conducted by Urquhart himself as deputy surveyor of Paschal County, describes the land as situated “on the North Bank of Ferry lake at Jefferson.” Ferry Lake was the old name for Caddo Lake, which was considered to 30 Antebellum Jefferson, Texas extend far up Big Cypress Bayou in all early records. The use of the name “Jefferson” is important because it shows that Urquhart envisioned this portion of his headright as a town from the earliest time. The inset map that accompanies the survey notes shows a northwestsoutheast tending trail crossing Cypress Bayou through the survey (Fig. 3-1). This indicates that a road from Daingerfield to Shreveport with a ferry crossing at Cypress Bayou was in existence by at least November 1841. The ferry was operated by Berry Durham. The 1841 survey was filed with the county surveyor, Levi Jordan, apparently shortly thereafter (the...