Connecting the Republic — The Central National Road of Texas
As a young nation, the Republic of Texas faced many trials. One such challenge was how to deal with increasing immigration to the country from the United States, which brought thousands of new settlers into the Republic. Facilitating all that movement required useful transportation options linking existing military and other roads within Texas to its eastern neighbor. To that end, on February 5, 1844, the 8th Congress of the Republic of Texas passed “An Act To open and establish a National Road.”[1]
This road was to run from a point on the Trinity River “beginning at or within, fifteen miles below the mouth of the Elm Fork of said stream” to the Red River “opposite the mouth of the Kiamisha.”[2] This route was specifically chosen to open up the territory in the north and northeast of Texas for robust settlement by linking the region to other population and commerce centers in Texas and the United States. A manuscript map, in multiple pieces, of the Central National Road of the Republic of Texas can be found within the Texas General Land Office Archives.
The “Act To open and establish a National Road” named five men to serve on a commission: Jason Wilson, William M. Williams, John Yearey, Rowland W. Box, and James Bradshaw. Each of these men hailed from counties that would be impacted by the construction of the road.[3] These commissioners were given the task to “view, mark, and lay out, a road to be called ‘The Central National Road of the Republic of Texas.’” George W. Stell, of Lamar County, was appointed by the act to be the surveyor in charge to “measure said road agreeable to the provisions of this act, and the directions of said commissioners.”
Once the commissioners had decided on the specific route, the act directed Stell to survey and measure the road, beginning at the Trinity River. He was instructed to “erect mile-posts of good size, and number the same,” and “also note all water-courses over which said road shall pass, giving their width and general course.” Stell was ordered to create maps of the surveyed route and deliver these maps and the field notes of the route to the commissioners, with an additional copy to be deposited with the General Land Office.
The field notes, hand-written by Stell, are only four and a half pages, and there are five accompanying plats showing the course of the road.[4] One of the first things that stands out with these documents is Stell’s challenging penmanship. The writing on the maps themselves is particularly poor; however, with persistence, the documents are legible and the work appears to be solid and efficient. It’s possible these notes were written in the field, so perhaps some forgiveness should be applied to the author’s somewhat chaotic handwriting.
The field notes begin on April 26, 1844 — only 81 days after the passage of the act and the appointment of the commissioners. This suggests the commissioners moved swiftly with scouting out the course of the road. The notes begin “on a cedar on the east bank of the Trinity (said by surveyor lines to be 5 miles below the mouth of the Elm Fork).” The course is meticulously noted, and the road follows a route that runs from a cedar tree on the Trinity, probably at John Neely Bryan’s river crossing,[5] northeasterly to the Red River opposite the mouth of the Kiamichi River, passing through present-day Dallas, Rockwall, Collin, Hunt, Fannin, Delta, Lamar, and Red River counties. The survey and field notes were completed on May 26, 1844, meaning Stell took exactly 30 days to survey the road. Once the route was surveyed, contractors were hired by the commissioners to clear the road.[6]
The accompanying maps detail the course of the road. As instructed in the original act, Stell marked each milepost with poles made from cedar, mulberry, and locust, and indicated the type of timber that made up each post. The last milepost laid was marked mile 129, giving the total length of the road from beginning to end. Also, as instructed, Stell did a thorough job of noting all the various watercourses the road would cross. Over 50 crossings are noted on the surveying sketches of the road, most of these small creeks. Some of the largest waterways the road crossed were: the East Fork of the Trinity River, the Caddo and Cowleech forks of the Sabine River, and the South Sulphur and Sulphur rivers. The only town marked on the map, other than Dallas which is noted at the start of the route, is Paris, in Lamar County.
As was common in the cash-poor Republic of Texas, land was the method in which the commissioners, the surveyor, and all other associated hands were paid for their efforts. The act specified that George Stell would receive 1280 acres for his surveying work, while all assistant surveyors and hands would receive 640 acres each. Each appointed commissioner was also granted 640 acres for their work. For all lands granted to the commissioners, surveyor and workers, work had to be certified as completed before the General Land Office was permitted to issue a patent — or final title — on any land claims.
An additional benefit was bestowed upon those who worked on the road: for six months after the determination of the course of the road, no land grants could be located within five miles of the road except for those who worked on the planning and construction of the road. These land claims are shown on one of the plats included with Stell’s field notes. They were located between the 42nd milepost and the 48th milepost, putting the chosen land in present-day Hunt County around the “Caddo Forks,” west of Greenville (although both Hunt County and Greenville did not exist until 1846). Most of these lands, however, were eventually abandoned, most likely due to a conflict with Mercer’s Colony.[7]
Once completed, the National Road achieved its goal of linking the southern population centers of the Republic with its northeastern territory and Arkansas. It effectively created an international highway between San Antonio and St. Louis, MO, by linking an existing series of military roads. Despite all the work that was done, however, the road never achieved the importance or traffic envisioned by the Republic of Texas. With the continued westward movement of the Texas frontier and the development of other towns, many other routes achieved the prominence hoped for with the Central National Road.[8]
The original field notes and maps of the Central National Road, written and drawn by George W. Stell, are part of the permanent collection of Archives at the Texas General Land Office and are assigned the unique map number 65469. The field notes and plats have been digitized and are available to view and download online through the GLO’s maps and sketches database.
[1] H.P.N. Gammel, The Laws of Texas 1822–1897, Volume II (Austin: The Gammel Book Company, 1898), pp. 1013–1016, (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6726/m1/1017/: accessed October 23, 2019), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.
[2] This references the Kiamichi River, a tributary of the Red River.
[3] Jason Wilson and William M. Williams were from Lamar County, John Yearey was from Fannin County, Rowland W. Box was from Harrison County, and James Bradshaw was from Nacogdoches County.
[4] George W. Stell, [Field notes, sketch and legislation regarding the National Road from Dallas at the mouth of the Elm Fork of the Trinity to the mouth of Kiamechi on Red River], 1844, Map #65469, Map Collection, Archives and Records Program, Texas General Land Office, Austin, TX.
[5] Handbook of Texas Online, “Central National Road,” accessed October 23, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/erc01. Uploaded on June 12, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
[6] The Act specified that the road was to be at least 30 feet wide and all stumps should be cut to within 12 inches of the ground.
[7] J.W. Williams, “The National Road of the Republic of Texas”, The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 47, №3 (1944), pp. 207–224, (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146054/m1/238/: accessed October 23, 2019), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.
[8] Handbook of Texas Online, “Central National Road,” accessed June 05, 2018, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/erc01.
