TRA - About Agency Structure

TRA Territories - Seventeen Counties

Tarrant County is in north central Texas. Fort Worth is the county seat. The Trinity River is the major watercourse and there are four natural regions--Blackland Prairie, Eastern Cross Timbers, Grand Prairie, and Western Cross Timbers. Indians who inhabited the area were Tonkawas, Hasinai, Caddo and by the late 1700s Comanche, Kiowas, and Wichitas. In August 1841, General Edward H. Tarrant ordered a military outpost built near Village Creek. In 1849 Bvt. Maj.
Ripley Arnold chose a site at the confluence of the Clear Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River. He named the post Camp Worth in honor of Gen. William Jenkins Worth, who won fame in the Mexican War, and later, the camp was officially named Fort Worth. On December 20, 1849, the county was founded and named after Tarrant, who was instrumental in providing security for the settlers. It was formally organized in August 1850, when the first elections were held. In the 1870s cattle were being driven through the county on the way north, and this provided opportunities for area merchants. The trail drivers needed supplies and entertainment, and Tarrant County was willing and able to provide both.

	Dallas County comprises 902 square miles and is located in North Central Texas. The county is primarily flat, heavy Blackland Prairie with the Elm Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River meeting near downtown Dallas. The Trinity River and its tributaries drain the county. Indians in the region were the Anadarkos, a Caddoan group, who settled in villages along the Trinity River. In 1819 or 1820 sixty Cherokee warriors and their families arrived from Arkansas under the
leadership of Chief Bowl. After a three-year battle with prairie tribes, during which the Cherokees lost a third of their warriors, the Cherokees withdrew. By 1840 American explorers had begun to enter the area. The first to remain was John Neely Bryan, who arrived in November 1841 with his dog and a Cherokee friend, Ned. The area was an ideal place to settle because of its rich soil and ample water. The location on the Trinity was even more valuable because at the time it was thought that the river was navigable from the Gulf of Mexico. Dallas County was officially formed in March 1846, and probably named for George Mifflin Dallas, vice president of the United States under James K. Polk.

Kaufman County is located in northeast Texas and divided between two large rivers, the Trinity and the Sabine. Terrell, the county’s largest town, is thirty miles east of Dallas. Various Indians, Caddoes and Cherokees prominent among them, inhabited the territory that is today Kaufman long before American settlers arrived. William P. King and a group of forty pioneers from Holly Springs, Mississippi, started the first Kaufman County settlement in 1840. The group
built a fort and named it King’s Fort in honor of their leader. In July 1846, after the annexation of Texas by the United States, King patented a survey with the new state government. Kaufman County was established in February 1848, and named for David Spangler Kaufman, a diplomat and member of the Congress of the Republic of Texas, the legislature of the state of Texas, and the Congress of the United States. King’s Fort was renamed Kaufman and became the county seat in March 1851, after four elections.

	Henderson County is located in East Texas between the Neches and Trinity Rivers. Athens, the largest city and county seat, is near the geographical center of the county and was named with the hope that it would be a center of learning. In 1836 Cherokees, Shawnees, Delawares, and Kickapoos inhabited the region. The first community, Buffalo, developed. The town was at a ferry crossing on the Trinity River in the northwestern part of the county, near the site of present-day Seven
Points. Henderson County was established by the Texas Legislature in April 1846, and named in honor of James Pinckney Henderson, first governor of the state of Texas. The eastern third of the county, along the Neches River, is part of the East Texas Timberlands. Pottery found buried amid fossil remains of extinct horses and camels in the 1920s and 1930s indicated that an aboriginal culture existed along the Trinity River thousands of years ago.

Ellis County is located in north central Texas. Waxahachie, the largest town and county seat, is located thirty miles south of Dallas. Ellis County comprises 939 square miles of the Blackland prairie. The area is well drained by many streams that flow into the Trinity River, which forms the eastern boundary of the county. Tonkawa Indians were the earliest inhabitants of the future county, though parties of Wacos, Bidais, Anadarkos, and Kickapoos often hunted in the area. American settlers began to move into the region in the middle of the
*nineteenth century. The state* legislature officially established Ellis County in December 1849 and probably named the county for Richard Ellis, president of the Convention of 1836.

	Navarro County was established in April 1846 and named in honor of Jose Antonio Navarro, a Texas patriot. Navarro County is located in north central Texas, with the Trinity River forming its northeast boundary. The center of the county lies forty miles south of Dallas. The County covers 1,068 square miles of level and rolling Blacklands and has some woodland areas. The predominant Indian tribes in the Navarro County area were the Kickapoos, and Comanches. One of the first white groups to settle the area, the
families of John Silas, and Ben Parker, built a fort near the site of present Groesbeck on the Navasota River in 1833. On May 19, 1836 Kiowa attacked the fort and Comanche Indians and the settlers were either killed or taken captive including Cynthia Ann Parker. The County seat was later moved and named Corsicana by Jose Antonio Navarro in honor of the Isle of Corsica, his father’s birthplace. Oil was discovered in 1894 and Navarro County is the longest continuously producing county in Texas.

Anderson County is located in East Texas between the Trinity and Neches rivers. Palestine, the county’s largest town and its county seat, is 108 miles southeast of Dallas and 153 miles north of Houston. The county is partly in the Texas Claypan area and partly in the East Texas Timberlands of the Southern Coastal Plains. The territory was home to the Comanche, Waco, Tawakonis, Kickapoo, and Kichai Indians. In the 1840s, settlement of the
*area had sufficient inhabitants to form a new county. The First Legislature of the state of Texas* formed Anderson County in March 1846. The county was named Anderson in honor of Kenneth Lewis Anderson, a prominent member of Congress and the last vice president of the Republic of Texas.

	Freestone County is located in east central Texas in the center of a group of counties once known as the Trinity Star. The town of Mound Prairie, in the center of the county, was chosen to be the county seat, and its name was changed to Fairfield. Fairfield is located about eighty miles southeast of Dallas. During the early years of the republic period the area was considered Indian land, and therefore dangerous, and very few whites ventured
*into it until the Indian Treaty of 1843. Inhabited by Caddoan Indians; in the* 1830s these included the Kichais, and the Tawakonis. After the Indian Treaty of 1843, the population of Limestone County was rapidly expanding. In 1848 a few isolated settlers appeared in the southern and central sections and sometime around 1847 the steamboat Roliance made its way up the Trinity River. Others soon followed, bringing supplies for the many settlers moving into the area. This rapid growth prompted the division of Limestone County by the Texas legislature in 1850 thereby forming what is now Freestone County.

Leon County is east of Waco in the Claypan area of eastern Central Texas. Buffalo is the largest community, with Centerville the county seat. The first seat, Leona, on the southern boundary near the Old San Antonio Road, was picked in 1846. Centerville became the seat in 1851 as a result of a state requirement that county offices be as close to the center of a county as possible. Archeological finds suggest that Leon County was home to humans as early as 4000 B.C. During the seventeenth century, when the first Europeans arrived,
the Deadose Indians, a band of the Bidais that spoke a Caddoan language, inhabited the present-day Leon County area. By the 1850s, large numbers of settlers established farms in the county, attracted by fertile lands and relative safety from Indian attack. The First Texas Legislature officially formed Leon County in 1846. The naming of the county is the subject of much controversy. Some maintain it was named for Martin De Leon, founder of Victoria. However, many residents insist that the name (“lion” in Spanish) came from the nickname of a yellow wolf of the region commonly called the leon.

	Houston County, the first county established by the Republic of Texas, is east of Waco in the East Texas Timberlands region. Crockett is the county seat and largest town. Andrew E. Gossett, who named it for his father’s friend and former Tennessee neighbor, David Crockett, donated Land for the county seat. The first East Texas Spanish mission, San Francisco de los Tejas, was established in the northeastern section of the county in 1690. In was abandoned in 1963 because
of Indian hostilities. In 1837 the boundaries of Houston County were laid out and its government was organized. It was named for President Sam Houston, who signed the order establishing the county on June 12, 1837. During the early years of the county’s existence, there were frequent hostile encounters between settlers and Indians. Many early families constructed forts and blockhouses for protection, but sporadic attacks continued until the early 1850s.

Trinity County is in the East Texas Timberlands region. Groveton, the county seat of government, is near the center of the county and ninety air miles north of Houston. Trinity County covers 692 square miles of rolling to hilly terrain that extends diagonally from the Trinity River northeast to the Neches River. Various Caddoan and Atakapan Indians inhabited the region. Various tribes, including the Alabama, Kickapoo, Tantabogue, and Coushatta, settled in the area in the nineteenth century. The Indian population controlled the land until after the Texas
Revolution, and the area seems to have attracted few European settlers until the 1840s. In February 1850, the Texas legislature established Trinity County. The county’s name is from the Trinity River, which forms its southeastern boundary. By the late 1850s, Trinity County was a thriving frontier area that profited from the steamboat traffic on the Trinity River. In 1854 Sumpter, was declared county seat, and a small courthouse and jail were built. The town of Groveton situated close to a large lumber mill prospered and was named county seat in 1882. The county was a haven for confederate deserters and criminals during the Civil War. Well-known outlaws included John Wesly Harden who grew up in Trinity County. In the 1960s the Trinity River was dammed to form Lake Livingston, which immersed part of the county and now provides recreation for the area’s inhabitants and tourists.

	Madison County is located in central East Texas. Madisonville, the county seat and largest town is about 100 miles northwest of Houston. Today, about one-fifth of the area is timbered, but early reports describe it as two-thirds timber and one-third prairie. A Spanish settlement was established in Madison County in 1774, on the banks of the Trinity at the crossing of two Spanish roads. The settlement comprised a group of families whose reasons for the selection of the site were its
central location on the highway from Bexar to Natchitoches, the agricultural promise of the region, the fact that it was buffered from hostile Indians by the presence of friendly tribes, and the opportunity to conduct missionary work among the local tribes. The formation of Madison County was approved in January 1853, and named after the nation’s fourth president, James Madison. Madison County reported to have been “wild and wooly” before and after the Civil War and was referred to as the “free State of Madison.” Between 1854 and 1873 the county lost three courthouses to fire and a fourth burned down in 1967.

Walker County is located in southeast Texas. Huntsville, the county seat, is near the center of the county sixty miles north ofHouston. Forests blanket Seventy percent of Walker County. The Cenis and Bidais Indians were among the earliest known residents of the area that is now Walker County. The Huntsville area became an important site for intertribal trade. In the early 1830s colonists from the United States arrived in the area and a trading post was established on the site
that eventually became Huntsville. The area was initially named for Robert J. Walker of Mississippi, who introduced in the United States Congress the resolution for the annexation of Texas; because he was a Unionist during the Civil War, however, in 1863 the state legislature changed the honoree to Samuel H. Walker. Today, two public agencies, the state prison system and the National Forest Service own a large portion of the county.

	San Jacinto County is in southeastern Texas on the Trinity River. Shepherd, the largest town, is fifty miles north of Houston. The original inhabitants of San Jacinto County probably belonged to either the Atakapa or the Patiri Indian tribes. Anglo-American settlement began in the lower Trinity River region during the 1820s. The Texas legislature established San Jacinto County with Coldspring as the county seat in August
1870. The county was named in honor of the battle of San Jacinto, which ended the Texas Revolution. The lumber industry has been instrumental in the economic development of San Jacinto County. Most of the land lies within the East Texas pine timber areas. Recreation areas include Lake Livingston State Recreation Area and Wolf Creek Park, and hunting is plentiful in the county. San Jacinto County is known for the beauty of the Sam Houston National Forest and its timberland amid rolling hills.

Polk County is in the East Texas Timberlands region on the east bank of the Trinity River. The county seat, Livingston, is located seventy-six miles northeast of Houston. The Hasinai Indians, a loose alliance of Caddo descent, inhabited Polk County. The Alabama and Coushatta Indians crossed into the Big Thicket, which covered much of the region, from Louisiana in the late eighteenth century. The Big Thicket discouraged early
settlement. Polk County, named after President James K. Polk, was one of twenty-three counties formed by the first state legislature of Texas in 1846. The new county filled rapidly with American settlers between 1835 and 1860. The first communities were concentrated on the Trinity River, but others quickly appeared along the primary creeks. Polk County remains predominantly rural, but timber rather than agriculture has become the main enterprise.

	Liberty County, bisected by the Trinity River, is halfway between Beaumont and Houston. This part of Southeast Texas is in the Coastal Prairie. Karankawa Indians, including Coapites and related groups, were the sole occupants of the future Liberty County until the 1740s. After Mexico won her independence from Spain, more American settlers came in response to promised grants of land. A new Atascosito District developed in Mexican Texas when settlers established an independent colony in 1826. The Law
of April 6, 1830, which prohibited further American immigration, pushed the settlers too far. When the Mexican government failed to recognize titles given by the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company, settlers in the coastal area petitioned the commander-in-chief of Coahuila and Texas for land titles and organization of a local government. In 1831 the Land Commissioner organized a municipality known as Villa de la Santisima Trinidad de la Libertad, which embraced most of Southeast Texas. The new seat of government, called Liberty by the Anglo-Americans, was born. Prospecting for oil began about 1901 and by 1990, oilfields in Liberty County had cumulatively produced almost 496 million barrels of oil, as well as significant amounts of natural gas.

Chambers County named for Thomas Jefferson Chambers, an early, influential land owner, is a rural county less than twenty miles east of Houston in the Coastal Prairie region of Southeast Texas. The county encompasses 616 square miles of level terrain that slopes toward Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, its southern and southwestern boundaries. Karankawa, Coapite, and Copane Indians lived in the area when the first expeditions traveled the lower Trinity River. A Colony of French exiles from Napoleon’s Grand Army, planning to free Napoleon and put
his brother Joseph on the French throne attempted to establish themselves near the present site of Anahuac in 1818, but were driven out by the Spanish. Anahuac is named after the ancient Aztec capital. Chambers County was formed in 1858 from Liberty and Jefferson counties, and organized the same year with Wallisville as its county seat. American settlement began in 1821 at the invitation of the Mexican government. Early settlers, largely from southern and western Louisiana settled at the future site of Wallisville.