Fort Picketville early county settlement

Fort Picketville was located in Stephens County and was the first known settlement in what would become Stephens County. According to historical records, it was founded in about 1854 or earlier and was originally located on Duck Creek, which would be re-named Gunsolus Creek, to honor one of the earliest settlers at Picketville, Dr. Peter Gunsolus.

Fort Picketville was located about two miles north of the present-day site of Breckenridge, which became the County Seat after Picketville had served in that capacity from 1858 to 1864.

The settlement fortifications were established by the earliest pioneers during the 1850s and 1860s, for collective defense against the combined Comanche and Kiowa Indian raids.

By some accounts, Picketville was named after Bill Pickett or for the type of houses he and other early pioneers devised for the earliest cabins, which were built with picket posts and filled in by chunked mud and weeds and when dried, the house became airtight and warm from the cold weather outside or the blistering heat during the summer months. The houses all had mud floors initially, which could be improved by heavy buffalo rugs or large wooden planks laid on the floors or large paved limestone rocks cut and laid for floors. Buffalo hides also served as door or window coverings before the paned glass was installed much later.

Picketville maintained a school, which served as a community center and church for the surrounding ranchers and farmers and protection when the need arose to “fort up” in the early years.

Once Breckenridge emerged as the County Seat, Picketville was largely abandoned by 1876. However, several years ago, Harvey Green and I were able to explore the former Picketville site with his metal detector and found several gun parts, ceramic remnants of cups and saucers, rusted spurs, a variety of spent bullet casings and other items, which he placed in two shadow boxes and then donated them to the Swenson Memorial Museum, as remnants of the old Picketville site. After assembling the variety of pieces, it appeared obvious that the pioneers had to defend their homes on more than one occasion, due to the variety and numbers of spent bullet cartridges found. Some of the spent cartridges were from pistols and some from rifles, which would indicate a battle ensued at some point.

Fort Muggainsville was established in southwestern Stephens County and into the southeastern part of the Shackelford County area, which served the area of the Compton Ranch and others in that vicinity.

The Lynch and Green Ranches also offered protection for their workers and their families as they “forted Up” in Shackelford County and on the Allen Ranch in northern Eastland County.

Other nearby “forted up’ areas included Fort Graham, actually known as Fort Thornton, from 1849 to 1853. It was located on the eastern bank of the Brazos River, at Little Bear Creek, later known as Lake Whitney (1953- 1982).

Camp Wolters, better known now as Lake Mineral Wells State Park, from 1925 -1946 and re-established in 1951-1975. It became the home of Bell Helicopter and still holds disaster Relief Trailers that can be disbursed in a natural disaster in Texas or other neighboring states.

Fort Griffin was originally organized as Camp Wilson until 1867 when it was re-named Fort Griffin and served from 1867 to 1881 and is currently being restored. Originally, it was a Federal outpost that was to replace Fort Belknap in this area and is located about a half-mile from the southern bank of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River and about two and a half miles north of present-day Albany.

The area just below the historic Fort Griffin, to the north, was better known as “The Flats,” also known as “Griffin,” where the criminal element could hide out in the more than 20 Saloons and Dance Halls and over 20 Cat Houses. It also was known for the notable gambling by Doc Holliday, Bat and Jim Masterson and visits by Wyatt Earp.

The Western Trail also had many cattle drives through that area and “The Flats” accommodated the cowboys on those long cattle drives and also teams of drivers for the wagons loaded down with buffalo hides that traveled that same route. This area is being slowly restored by some folks in Albany.