Backroads

Adventures in East Texas

Humans likely inhabited the area around present Caddo lake as long ago as Pleistocene times (12,000-13,500 years ago).  The first people were the nomadic hunter gatherers.  The were here for the abundance of game and plant life and fresh water.  These were the early ancestors of the Caddo Indians for whom the lake was named.

Early Caddo culture emerged (A.D.800-1200) along the banks of the Mississippi River and spread northward up the Red and Sabine and Neches Rivers. 

When the white settlers came to Texas to settle in the Neches River Flood Plain, the found Caddo settlements that had already been abandoned for 500 years.  When the westward expansion of settlers began, the Caddo culture was at it's peak.  Many settlements were in the great bend of the Red River area.

The arrival of new cultures and diseases and problems that they brought with them had a detrimental affect on the native Caddoans.  The last great villages like Sha'chahdinah or Timber Hill (between the current Caddo Lake and Jefferson, near the Big Cypress Bayou) were dying.  These Kadahadacho

The ancestors of the Caddo Indians were agriculturalists whose distinctive way of life and material culture emerged by A.D. 900, as revealed in archaeological sites in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. When members of Hernando de Soto's expedition entered the region in 1542, thriving Caddo communities were distributed along the Brazos, Trinity, Neches, Sabine, Red, and Ouachita rivers. These communities played important economic and diplomatic roles during the seventeenth and eighteenth century colonial era.

...on a steam paddle wheeler...

Before the Civil War, cotton was King in east Texas.  Even north-east Texas had access to sea ports through which the enormous bales of snow white cash crop flowed.  One of the greatest loading docks for the cotton bales no longer exists.  The whispy hairs of Spanish moss draped on Cypress limbs, continues to whisper the story of Port Caddo in a corner of north east Texas, right across the border from Louisianna. 

Though Port Caddo no longer physically exists, we set off on an adventure to see if we could re-create the feel of those time past when steam powered paddle wheelers escorted the marvelous cloth-to-be all the way down to Galveston and then own.

Drive out I-20 for about    miles and you come to the old town of Marshall.  Marshall is the exit to the mysterious backwaters of Caddo Lake and Port Caddo.  It also seemed a dandy place for me and my wife, Connie to spend the night before embarking on our steam boat cruise.

(The photo on the right is from a collection of Post Cards at     .)  More pictures of Steam-powered paddle wheeler escorting Cotton down the Red River can be seen here.

A visit to the T.C.Lindsey General Store

The notice was sudden.  On the spur of the moment, my wife and I decided to take a weekend out of town.  I had been trying to get her out to Caddo Lake near Marshall for some time.  Marshall is a grand old town steeped in southern and Texas history. But Marshall itself was not the focus of our adventure.  Marshall was just a place from which we could orient our travels.

Traveling east from Dallas, the spring flowers were just beginning to show their blooms.  After a night's rest in Marshall and a quick early morning drive through the Historic District, I pointed Ole Blue toward the backroads.

A short hop down I-20 to Waskom, and we exit the Interstate. Waskom, established in 1850, was originally known as Powellton. It's name was changed to Waskom Station in 1872 to honor man who was instrumental in bringing Southern Pacific Railroad through community. Waskom was cotton country until the Waskom Gas Field discovery in 1924.

But Waskom was but a detour not a stop.  North of Waskom and east of Marshall, at the intersections of Farm Roads 134 and 1998, the road takes makes an "s" curve through the remnants of an old cotton producing community. Railroad tracks slice across the road and we enter the community.  On the right, the remains of an old cotton gin loom.  One can only look and imagine the the site alive with activity preparing the fruit of the farming industry for shipment east to the processing centers to be made into cloth. Today, the Gin lies limp and rusting, a mere remnant of its past.  This is the sleepy burg of Jonesville.

Across the street from the old gin, stands an old white clapboard building that has no sign to tell the visitor what lies inside.  I think the square white building is, in fact, the place I seek, and I circle the parking lot twice. There are no visible signs of life esxcept for the three old dogs, laying in the shaded, damp mud of the parking lot on the north side of the building. They scarcely raise an ear or open an eye to see who transpasses on their grounds. A quick check of the front door, reveals that this is indeed the T.C.Lindsey & Co., General Store (903-687-3382), and that it won't be open til 10:00 AM.

So a quick drive a little further out from town, and we encounter the home of Dr. Samuel Floyd Vaughn, which dates back to the l840s.  The beautifully restored  home started out as a two room dog-trot cabin. Over the years, it was added to, until it reached the two story state that you see today.  Next door, the small  medical office of Dr Vaughn is also restored.  Though on private property, there is a  historical marker out front indicating the history of the dwelling. 

Jonesville was originally called Border (and later, Concord), started out here in the 1840s. It boasted a post office from 1847 to 1849 when the name was changed to Jonesville, after the owner of the first trading post.  Later (1868) Jonesville moved about a mile South to be nearer to the (then called) Southern Pacific Railroad tracks that are visible today in current-day Jonesville. By 1884, there was a gristmill/cotton gin (the remains as you enter town), two general stores, two churches and a saloon.  One of the stores, the Lindsey Trading Post was established by the Vaughn family who owned and operated the store until the 1990s.  The T.C.Lindsey General Store has been in continous operation since