Fort Davis “forted up” for 125 residents

When Camp Cooper closed in Feb. 1861, Union troops were withdrawn from the entire Frontier Defense system, which served several families in this area of the Western Frontier along the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, in what is now northern Shacklelford County, southern Throckmorton County and northwestern Stephens County.

The devastating Elm Creek raid made by a combined group of an estimated 500 to 1,000 Comanche and Kiowa Indians in Oct. of 1864, changed how people on the frontier thought. The combined tribes burned 13 ranch homes, savagely killed and scalped 12 people and kidnapped two women and five children on the raid. Charles Goodnight said, “The Indians likely ran off an estimated 10,000 head of cattle from the 13 ranches that they burned.” Several families decided to follow the lead of other small groups and gather in a common location for protection against further hostilities from the Comanche or Kiowa Indians. There were probably an estimated 100 such places along the western frontier that “forted up” at some point during the Civil War years and on into the mid-1870s.

On Oct. 20, 1864, a stronghold named Fort Davis was established just across the Shackelford County line into Stephens County. It was only one of several such places that folks “forted up” for protection against the raiding Comanche or Kiowa Indians and other renegades along the western frontier.

The post was located on the eastern side of the Clear Fork, about 15 miles downriver from what had been Camp Cooper. Fort Davis measured 300x325 feet and had a center trail that ran down through the middle from east to west. About 20 picket-style houses were built with mud floors which were constructed to form a loose stockade and housed about 125 people, which included women and children. Sam and Susan Newcomb’s house had two rooms with a fireplace at each end and plank floors and he put in two outside doors where most of those early picket houses had only one door.

After the Elm Creek incident, Samuel Pierce Newcomb and his wife, Susan Emily (Reynolds) Newcomb and the Barber Watkins Reynolds family, which also include Susan’s two brothers, George T. and William D. Reynolds, all moved to Fort Davis. Additionally, the Matthews families also moved to Fort Davis and over the years, there would be more than a half dozen weddings uniting the Reynolds and Matthews families, who both established several substantial ranches in the area. Among those who also moved to Fort Davis included Tryall E. Jackson and family, J.G. Irwin and family, Joe A. Browning and his brother James Nathan Browning, who later became the lieutenant governor of Texas from 1898 to 1900. Other families who “forted up’ at Fort Davis included John Hittson, Jim Thorpe (a blacksmith), J. M. Frans, Mich and Al Anderson, the Sutherlin family, Arch Ratliff, Mich and Marion McCarty, Elgy Christenson and a free black woman called Aunt Maria and a man named January. Later, John Selman lived at the fort and then teamed up with John Larn, who were both accused of altering brands on cattle. Selman went on to kill famed lawman, John Wesley Hardin

A picket stockade fence surrounded most of the fort, except for a section that never was completed. A large stone ranch house was built earlier and was taken over by Alex Clark, which served to anchor one corner of the fort and provided a lookout post along that section of the fort. It also provided a more protected place for the women and children in case of an attack. Although a major attack never materialized, inhabitants did have several confrontations with the hostile Comanche and Kiowa Indians and renegades in the area.

In 1865, Samuel Newcomb opened a school in a structure designated for that purpose, which was located in the northeastern corner of the fort. Initially, Newcomb had 16 to 18 students from the families of the small fort. The schoolhouse was also used for Sunday worship, as in most rural areas. Newcomb kept a daily journal that year of 1864-1865 and it gives great insight into the daily activities in the fort and the scramble for supplies, the constant patrols sent out to recapture missing horses and cattle taken by raiding Comanche or Kiowa Indians. Patrols were sent out on a regular basis by the men in the fort, which rotated equitably for each man to take his turn protecting their cattle, horses, women and children. There also is a record of celebrations, weddings and an occasional death, which could be caused by any number of mundane infections or colds that developed into pneumonia or from accidents that materialized into serious life and death situations because they were too far from the nearest doctor or they waited too late to send for a doctor. All those similar events happened all along the western frontier. Newcomb’s wife, Susan, also kept a diary, but hers told more of the details of how she felt and the worries about Indian raids and illnesses that could kill a person without a doctor within a hundred miles. She also was known for making buckskin gloves, which the men liked for all the rough ranching duties and building the picket houses and fences. The women liked the softness of the rawhide for their fashionable gloves.

Supplies for the approximate 125 inhabitants had to be freighted in by wagon from Weatherford, located more than 40 miles to the east of Picketville, which was a dangerous and treacherous journey of several weeks, over poor roads and the constant threat of Comanche or Kiowa Indian attacks. The trip to get flour and meal was taken by three to four men and an 80- mile roundtrip journey to Weatherford, in Parker County, and would take three to five weeks. Salt was a bit easier to obtain from W. H. Ledbetter and the Ledbetter Salt Works that operated on Hubbard Creek, in Stephens County. Phillip Reynolds was killed by Indians at Ledbetter’s, which was more vulnerable to Indian attacks since it was further southwest from Fort Davis and more isolated.

Originally, the flag of the Confederacy flew over Fort Davis, but it was destroyed by lightning and never replaced. The residents had a special ceremony when they raised the Confederate flag, which had been made by one of the women at Fort Davis, Miss Mira Sutherlin. It was raised on March 2, 1865, Texas Independence Day.

Fort Davis was abandoned by 1867, when Union troops returned to the area to establish Fort Griffin, on the Clear Fork, about 10 miles upriver, in Shackelford County. A site much preferred to the unsatisfactory one further upstream, where Camp Cooper had been located much earlier, before the Civil War.

Today, the site of Fort Davis is owned jointly by H.G. Law and the A. V. Jones Company of Albany. The stone structure there has been restored by Joe Carlton as a hunting lodge.

The tombstone of Sam Newcomb is still visible near the site. He died in 1870 of measles.

Owl’s Head Fort was located on the northern side of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River somewhere near the mouth of Hubbard Creek. Not much is known of this ‘Fort’ or how many it served during the “forting up” days. It is recorded that several who stayed at this site initially went on to Fort Davis for better protection.

The Stone Ranch Fort was built in 1856, in Throckmorton County, on the southern side of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River and east of Walnut Creek.

There were two locations for Fort Clark, one of the locations were on the Young County/Stephens County line, located on the northern side of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, west of Eliasville. The knowledge about the other location of Fort Clark has disappeared altogether.

Next week, I will take us to the original small village of Picketville begun in 1854 or earlier. During the restless years of Indian and renegades traversing the western frontier, it was necessary to “fort up” and this small settlement was initially known as Fort Picketville.