Morris County, Texas

... ... ... is a part of Texas history. Join: Texas Project Discuss: Texas

• Texas Space Page
• leader of this project is: Mary Richardson.

History/Timeline

• Morris County was formed 1875 from Titus County and organized 1875. It was named for the legislator-jurist W.W. Morris a judge and planter from Henderson, Rusk County, Texas.^[1][2]

1542 Luis de Moscoso Alvarado crossed the area of Morris County, this territory is earliest explored areas in the state. ^[2]

1830s:Morris County area was settled by European-American planters and farmers, who brought enslaved African Americans with them or purchased others to work as laborers on the cotton plantations they developed. Cotton was most important, but farmers also cultivated other commodity crops before the American Civil War. ^[3]

Eastern Texas was the region of the state with the highest number and proportion of slaves.^[2]

1700s -Caddo Indians occupied the area for centuries before the arrival of Europeans, but disease and threats from other tribes forced them to leave in the last years of the eighteenth century. ^[2]

While this area of NE Texas was considered part of Arkansas, a pitched battle is reported near Dangerfield between Capt London Dangerfield and Indians. ^[2]

1719 founding of Le Poste des Cadodaquious in Bowie County. French occupied the fort for more than 50 years. ^[2]

mid 1700s Acadians lived near the site of Dangerfield after their expulsion from British territory, (before they joined other Acadians in S Louisiana.

1820s bands of Shawnee, Delaware, and Kickapoo Indians lived in this area a few years, abandoning settlements by mid-30s. ^[2]

1820 - area was organized as Miller County, Arkansas.

mid 1830s -Anglo settlement of the area that was to become Morris County began.

1835 -Mansell W. Matthews, led his entire church congregation from Kentucky to Texas. They settled along the banks of Boggy Creek in the W part of the county.

Five counties have included all or part of its territory.

1836 area became Red River County of the Republic of Texas.

Jan 1841 the Congress of the republic formed Paschal County for judicial and other purposes and designated Daingerfield county seat.

1842 (The act establishing Paschal County was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court 1842 as it did not give the county with representation in the legislature.

Part of what was to become Morris County became part of Red River County, and the rest of the area was part of Bowie County.

1846 - First Legislature of the state of Texas established Titus County,including all of Morris county.

Mar 13, 1875 - Morris County was formed from Titus County on March 13, 1875, and probably named for William W. Morris.

1875 - The county was organized with Daingerfield as the county seat. Periodic unsuccessful attempts have been made to make another town county seat.^[2]

1880 - 75% of the 29,160 improved acres was devoted in roughly equal portions to crops, corn and cotton. Most of the county's farmers owned some livestock. The census of 1880 recorded 1,738 milk cows, 2,842 other cattle, 13,555 hogs, and 882 sheep. ^[2]

1882 Ashley W. Spaight, commissioner of statistics said the county was not "well adapted to livestock."

1877 --The Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas railway came within a half-mile of the Daingerfield.

1879: A disastrous fire destroys most of town, prompting relocation of town to the railroad

1904 Population reaches 699

1900-1920 3,342 African Americans constituted 40% of the county's population of 8,220. Morris County is one of the smallest counties, but the county's agricultural resources were untapped. < 18% of its land was cultivated.^[2]

1920-30- Great depression -Morris County was hard hit, which began for agriculture in the 1920s and continued through the 1930s.^[2]

Late 1930s County farmers reported $85,000 in sales of growing flowers and plants, mostly to a large seedling operation near Omaha.^[2]

World War II added change to the county's economy. The county had sizable deposits of iron ore in the area , and some crude mining operations had been done During World War II, the war effort needed large quantities of Iron, the Federal Government tapped these deposits through the US Defense Plant Corporation with the construction of a blast furnace in 1943. ^[2]

1943 - Federal US Defense Plant corp construction of blast furnace in Morris county.^[2]

post World War II -Lone Star Steel and the United States Navy Ordnance Aerophysics Lab open shortly.

1950s, 60s The combination of diversified agriculture and manufacturing provided a more broadly based prosperity. Around the steel mill and the town of Lone Star where "ramshackle farmsteads were replaced with tidy brick homes and worn cropland was replanted as forest."

21st Century - Morris County still is rural and agricultural based county, African Americans comprise a significant minority in the county.

1981 Morris County ranked twenty-ninth among the state's 254 counties in per capita income—the highest among the sixteen counties in the NE corner of the state.

Post war years - increasing mechanization, and diversified operations caused a decline in # of farms. During this period the size of the average farm increased to 195 acres. Farm tenancy disappeared, as more than 90% of farmers owned all or part of the land they farmed. During this period livestock production became the principal economic basis for agriculture ^[2]

Government Offices

Morris County has had two courthouses:1882 and 1973

1st Courthouse, 1882

1882 Morris county courthouse Painting .

2nd Courthouse, 1973 - 1 story, unimpressive. Architect - Pierce, Pace & Associates, Style - Modern

1973 Courthouse.

Note Daingerfield based law firm of Nix, Patterson and Roach purchased the historic 1882 courthouse and renovated it for their law offices. The exterior restoration was completed around 2001. this 150 yr old building is standing proudly again.

Restored 1882 Courthouse in 2001.

Geography

Size total area of 259 square miles (670 km2), of which 252 square miles (650 km2) is land and 6.7 square miles (17 km2) (2.6%) is water. It is the fifth-smallest county in Texas by land area and fourth-smallest by total area.^[4]

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcm19

Location- NE Texas, one county removed from the state's N boundary and one county removed from the state's E boundary.

County Seat -Daingerfield, the county seat and largest town, is fifty miles southwest of Texarkana and 125 miles northeast of Dallas

County's center lies at 33°07' north latitude and 94°44' west longitude.

Transportation - U.S. Hwy 67crosses the N part of the county from E to W. U.S. Hwy 30 crosses NW part. U.S. Hwy 259 crosses N and S.

2 Railroads -St. Louis and Southwestern and the Louisiana and Arkansas, constructed in late 1870s as the Texas and St. Louis and the East Line and Red River.

Size -256 square miles of East Texas timberlands,

Vegetation -heavily forested with softwoods and hardwoods, pine, cypress, and oak.

Terrain - gently rolling in N to hilly in S

Elevation 250 to 600 feet above sea level.

Rivers - northern 1/3 of the county is drained by Sulphur River, rest drained by Cypress Creek.

Soil - light colored, acidic, and sandy to loamy, generally with a deep reddish subsoil.

Prime farmland --Between 21- 30 % of land in the county is prime farmland.

Mineral resources -- clay, lignite coal, industrial sand, and iron ore.

Other 1989 Pine and hardwood production was 21,836,928 cubic feet.

Temperatures high of 95°F in July to low of 30° in January.

Rainfall --- forty-six inches a year

Growing season averages 236 days https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcm19

Adjacent counties

• Bowie County (north)

adj. counties

• Cass County (east)
• Marion County (southeast)
• Upshur County (south)
• Camp County (southwest)
• Titus County (west)
• Red River County (northwest)

Formed From

• 1875--Morris County was created 6 March 1875 from Titus County.

Protected areas

• Lone Star Steel and the United States Navy Ordnance Aerophysics Lab
• Federal US Defense Plant corp construction of blast furnace

Demographics

In 2000, there were 13,048 people residing in the county with a population density of 51 people/sq. mi. The racial makeup of the county was 71.71% White, 24.13% Black or African American, 0.53% Native American, 0.18% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 2.28% from other races, and 1.12% from two or more races. 3.66% of the population were Hispanic. The median income for a household in the county was $29,011, and the median income for a family was $35,326. Males had a median income of $30,917 versus $20,270 for females. The per capita income for the county was $15,612. About 14.90% of families and 18.30% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.40% of those under age 18 and 12.90% of those age 65 or over. ^[5]

School Districts:

• Daingerfield-Lone Star ISD (small portion in Titus County)
• Hughes Springs ISD (mostly in Cass County)
• Pewitt CISD (small portions in Titus and Cass counties)

Junior College

• Northeast Texas Community College,(main campus inSE Titus County), has a small satellite campus in Naples.^[2]

• Dry county - does not sell liquor

Highways:

• I-30
• US 67
• US 259
• SH 11
• SH 49
• SH 77
• FM 130
• FM 144
• FM 161
• FM 250
• SH 338

Politics:
The County was democratic. Democratic presidential candidates carried the county in every election from 1872 through 1968. 1972 - The area's sympathies shifted in 1972 to vote for Republican Richard Nixon carried the county. Though Democrats carried almost every election in the county from 1976 through 2000, when Al Gore won most of the local votes, Nixon's win in 1972 and Ronald Reagan's in 1984 marked a gradual trend away from the area's traditional leanings. By 2004, when George W. Bush won the county with a solid majority, the Republicans were in ascendance.^[2]

Cities

• Daingerfield (county seat)
• Hughes Springs (mostly in Cass County)
• Lone Star
• Omaha

Town

• Naples

• Cason
• Jenkins

County Resources

• Morris county Genealogy TxGene

Census

1880 --- 5,032 —

1890 --- 6,580 30.8%

1900 --- 8,220 24.9%

1910 --- 10,439 27.0%

1920 --- 10,289 −1.4%

1930 --- 10,028 −2.5%

1940 --- 9,810 −2.2%

1950 --- 9,433 −3.8%

1960 --- 12,576 33.3%

1970 --- 12,310 −2.1%

1980 --- 14,629 18.8%

1990 --- 13,200 −9.8%

2000 --- 13,048 −1.2%

2010 --- 12,934 −0.9%

Est. 2015 --- 12,516

Notables

Ernest Wallace, historian of the South Plains

Land Grants

Cemeteries

• Blevins Cemetery
• Veal Switch Cemetery, Hughes Springs
• Naples Cemetery
• Wheatville Cemetery
• Omaha Cemetery
• Loving Cemetery

• Cemeteries of Morris County
• FindaGrave Cemeteries

Sources

1. ↑ https://texasalmanac.com/index.php?q=topics/government/morris-county
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16} https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcm19
3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_County,_Texas
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_County,_Texas
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_County,_Texas

• [https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcm19
• http://www.co.morris.tx.us
• Morris county Cemeteries
• FamilySearch Genealogy
• Cemeteries of Morris County
• FindaGrave Cemeteries