Before I leave the information about Fort Davis and the other forts that were established for the common defense along the western frontier, I came across some additional information on Fort Davis.
Governor John Connally helped establish 1 to 10 Travel Trails at the 3rd Annual Governor’s Tourist Development Conference. It would be a 608-mile Trek that passed through counties that include Brown, Coke, Comanche, Eastland, Erath, Jack, Jones, Mason, McCullough, Menard, Palo Pinto, Runnels, San Saba, Achleicher, Shackleford, Taylor, Throckmorton, Tom Greene and Young counties.
The question is, “How did it miss Stephens County?” Forts listed on the trail include Fort Richardson in Jacksboro, Fort Belknap in Young County (near Newcastle), Fort Griffin, north of Albany, in Schackelford County. Fort Phantom Hill, north of Abilene and Fort Chadbourne, in Coke County.
Fort Richardson, located at the southern end of Depot St. in downtown Jacksboro, was built in 1867, as the most northerly in a chain of military posts occupied by the U.S. Cavalry to halt the raids made by the Comanche and Kiowa Indians in small groups. They were involved in stealing horses or cattle from the ranchers on the western frontier.
In the 1870s, Fort Richardson was occupied by General Ranald McKenzie and was the largest post in the U.S. from 1870 to 1873. Later, Fort Richardson was abandoned.
Fort Griffin was established in 1867, to replace Fort Belknap, which was established as early as 1851and was abandoned by 1867. Troops at Fort Griffin played an active role in campaigns against the Comanche and Kiowa Indians on the Staked Plains of the Texas Panhandle. Fort Griffin was abandoned by 1881.
Fort Davis was nominated for a listing in the National Register of Historic Places, in Stephens County.
Archaeologists from the Texas Historical Commission surveyed the site and determined it had National Historic significance.
Fort Davis, located in the northwestern part of Stephens County, along the banks of the Clear Fork River, was never a military fort protected by soldiers, but was established in 1864 and used by individual families who lived miles from any neighbors. The fort was named for Jefferson Davis, who headed the Confederacy. Fort Davis was occupied for more than two years by approximately 25 families, who had settled along the Clear Fork of the Brazos River.
The families came together “to fort up” whenever there were marauding Comanche or Kiowa Indians, which occurred often during the Civil War years when the soldiers were all called up to the defense on the front lines.
Archaeologists from Austin - Dr. Jim Bruseth, Dr. Nancy Kenmotsu, Dr. Tim Pertula and Bill Martin uncovered artifacts from the pioneers, who lived there as well as Indian artifacts from that period. Albany and Breckenridge residents helped with the dig. A backhoe dug trenches in the area of Fort Davis, historic site in Stephens County. They were able to establish the perimeters of the fort and discovered valuable artifacts in the process.
First, the area was photographed with low-altitude aerial photographs. To search the fort area for artifacts, the ground was plowed, then left idle for a hard rain to uncover bits of metal, pottery, tools, window glass, combs, mirrors and even Jews’ Harps, known to come from the 19th century rural homes in Texas.
The area was carefully marked in grids, searched with all artifacts collected and tagged, as to their position in the grid when found. Finally, the backhoe trenches were excavated in order to determine the perimeters of the fort. This finding determined the perimeters of the actual size and site of Fort Davis, which was different than what was formerly thoughts the location of the fort.
At the time, Gov. Ann Richards and local officials designated April 11-17, as Archeology Awareness Week. The archeologists’ findings at that location underlies the importance of archeology to the state and local areas. Fort Davis is now owned by Harold Law, John Rex Jones and A.V. Jones of Albany, who provided the necessary funds for the archaeological survey.
