Elias White arrived 1846 

This is also our history,  will be injecting our Texas family history and events into this time line story.  Events pertaining to Elias White's family and descendants, will be in bold blue, italic. 

1541 - 1949

1541 - Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto stops in Texarkana at a site in what is now Spring Lake Park. He squashed a mutiny by hanging one of his men from and Oak tree about 100 yards west of the springs. He would continue south to Mississippi, where he would die a short time later at the age of 45. De Soto Had landed in Florida in 1539 with 55- men looking for the "Kingdom of Gold".

1541 - Spanish explorers Hernando de Soto and Luis de Moscoso de Alverado first encounter Cadd Indian tribes while exploring what is now Southwestern Arkansas and Northeast Texas.

1687 - French explorer Rene Robert Cavalier Sieur de la Salle arrives in East Texas with French settlers who begin setting up trading posts and trade with the Caddo.

1719 - Fort Saint Louis de La Harpe established near the intersection of the Red and Sulphur Rivers by French Explorer Benard de La Harpe.

1720 - French settlers are now trading regularly with the Caddo Indians at trading posts throughout the region. This relationship would continue for another 80 years.

1722 - French explorer Benard de La Harpe travels down the Arkansas River and starts a settlement that he would name Little Rock.

1763 - Treaty of Paris cedes all French claims to Texas and Louisiana to Spain.

1770 - De Mezieres visits the Caddo Indians on the upper Red River and calls the area "the master key to new Spain".

1770 - April 21 - Caddos agree with de Mezieres to cede all their land to the King of Spain.

1803 - White immigration begins increasing in this region, and during the next three decades the Caddo Indian are gradually pushed from the land.

1806 - The Freeman - Curtis expedition, under orders from Thomas Jefferson, visits and attempts to claim this land as part of the Louisiana Purchase. They are turned back by Spanish soldiers eight miles north of where New Boston now sits at a site known as Spanish Bluffs.

1810 - 1825 The first arrivals to this place were lowland farmers and mountaineers from Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas, mainly from the Appalachian Mountains. They were poor or middle class and not slave owners.

1816 - Lost Prairie, the first permanent settlement in the area is established by Ben Milam on the Red River when he opened a store and land office.

1818 - Settlers start moving into the Rondo area in what would one day become Miller County, located about four miles from what one day would become Texarkana. They brought slaves and belongings along the National Post Road that routed settlers from the East Coast to the western territories. Many of these early settlers thought when they crossed the Red River they were in Spanish land, which is where they wanted to be because of generous enticements. They were unhappy when they learned they were homesteading in Arkansas.

1819 - Moses Austin sends his son, Stephen F. Austin, to Lone Prairie, a town in what is now Miller County, to start a farm. This was a backup plan for Moses, in case his plan to populate Texas with Americans did not work. After establishing the farm, Stephen went to New Orleans and studied law. After returning to Lone Prairie, Stephen was named judge of the first Arkansas Judicial District. He was known as a fair and intelligent judge, but he was more interested in helping his father settle Americans seeking land in Texas.

1820 - April 1, The Congress of the Territory of Arkansas creates Miller County from a part of Hempstead County. But the boundaries of the county were questionable, particularly to the west, where part of Miller County was believed to be in what was then Mexico (now Texas). After Texas gained its independence from Mexico, many Miller County residents preferred to be in the United States. In February 1838, Arkansas' first elected governor, James S. Conway, recommended Miller County be abolished and added to Sevier County. This didn't happen, but later in the year the assembly voted to abolish Miller County and add it to Lafayette County. It remained this way through the Civil War and Reconstruction. 1821 - Texas became a Mexican state.

1821 - Stephen F. Austin seeks out Maj. Gen. Arthur Goodall Wavell in Mexico to participate in his plan to colonize Texas.

1821 - Before this year, Spring Bank, one of the earliest settlements in Miller County, was known as factory Bluff. But when the Indian agency, which was located high on a bluff overlooking the Red River moved downstream to Louisiana, the name was changed.

1826 - Arthur Wavell gets a grant to start a colony along the red River in east Texas, but many obstacles prevented it from ever being established.

1832 - Jesse Cowley donated land for Cowley School, the first school in the north-central part of Bowie County. It located about three miles north- northeast of where New Boston now sits. In 1919 the original building as replaced by a $1, 4000 two-room school that would allow for two teachers.

1832 - Anthony L. Ghio was born in Italy. He would purchase the third lot sold in Texarkana in 1873 for $350.00.

1834 - John Coffey is operating a ferry across the Red River at Spring Bank in Miller County. Members of the Blanton family operated the ferry until 1964.

1835 - By treaty, the Caddo Indians relinquish all their land to the United States and agree to move farther into East Texas and away from the white settlements that are beginning to spring up in the area. They would be devastated by poverty and European diseases such as small pox and measles. Their population would fall from 18,000 to 5,000. The following year, white settlers in Texas had vanquished most of the Indian tribes in this region. The Caddos initially hung around, hunting buffalo on the Texas plains. Then they were placed on a reservation on the Brazos River for four years before they fled in 1859 to Indian Territory in Oklahoma to avoid annihilation.

1835 - While the first settlers were poor, non-slaveholders, about this time the mix began to shift. Settlers from the lower South now began coming to this area, bringing with then higher culture and black slaves. They soon initiated the growing of a plant that would be king - cotton.

1835 - By now there are five post offices located in Miller County, at Jonesborough, Mill Creek, McKinneyville, Spanish Bluffs, and Sulphur Fork. 1835 - Alexander Clarence Owen of Virginia and James Saunders Trigg of Tennessee settle in RONDO. Owen sets aside land to build a town and cemetery.

1835 - Cullen Baker is born in Tennessee. Seven years later his family moves to a farm in what is now Cass County, Texas. The family was good, but Cullen Baker was not. He was known for needless violence and psychopathic murders. He joined the Confederate Army in 1862, but he left after finding out his family had been robbed by runaway slaves. He then commanded a gang of deserters and outlaws and became known as the Swamp Fox of the Sulphur River. After string of killings, the United States put a $3000 bounty on his head. But they couldn't lay a hand on him. His violent legacy continued until Jan. 6, 1869. See that date.

1836 - March. Five citizens of Pecan Point, north of what is now the town of Hooks attend the Texas Constitutional Convention, and give a decidedly Bowie county influence. All five sign the Texas Declaration of Independence, which Collin McKinney helped draft. Richard Ellis, a local attorney and judge, was president of the convention. Texas becomes a republic, freeing itself from Mexico.

1836 - April 21, Texans route the Mexican army on the battlefield of San Jacinto and capture Santa Anna. The republic of Texas is born.

1836 - Arkansas becomes the 25th state.

1836 - First Methodist Church services in Miller County are held in Spring Bank.

1838 - February, Arkansas General Assembly makes it a misdemeanor for Miller County residents to hold office in the Republic of Texas. But nobody in Miller County would enforce the law.

1840 - Eli H. Moores comes from South Carolina and settles in what would be Texarkana.

1840 - Dec. 7, Bowie County comes into existence by an act of Congress of the Republic of Texas. It was named in honor of Alamo hero James Bowie. Popular lore says Bowie carved the wooden model of famous knife while camping in what would become his namesake county.

1841 - After years of boundary disputes, an agreement between the Untied States and Texas solidifies the current boundaries of Bowie County, and the boundary between Texas and Arkansas. But it wasn't until

1843 - seven years after the republic of Texas won its independents from Mexico - that all boundary disputes were resolved.

1841 - June, Election moves Bowie County seat from DeKalb to Boston, Texas. This Boston existed before New Boston and is now Old Boston. The courthouse was a log cabin in the city square. During its glory days, two Texas governors, W. T. Lanham and Hardin Runnels, called Boston home. By the 1860's, several thousand people lived in Boston and it supported five private schools.

1844 - Joseph Ferguson comes to Bowie County and operates a small sawmill on the Arkansas side of Texarkana. His son William and grandson John were both prominent players in the lumber business.

1845 - Tax Poll - Benjamin White arrives Bowie County Texas from South Carolina.

1846 - Tax List - Benjamin White - 1 Horse $40, -10 cows $50. (son of Elias)

1846 -Tax List - L L White, 1 Poll.  (Possibly son of Elias & Anne White)

1846 - Tax List - Wm S Tapp 640 acres Wm S Tapp HRS, 2 slaves $800, 5 Horses $150. (bro of Charles Tapp)

1846 - Tax List - Raimes, J H - 6 horses $270, 12 Cows $150. (father of Sarah & Mary, wives of Wm White)

1846 - Tax List - James P Alford - 343 acres $275, E. A. Ury HRS, 1 slave $400, 3 horses $140.

1846 - Tax List - B D Alford - 320 acres, $320, B D Alford HRS, 1 lot Boston, 3 slaves $900.

1846 - Texas joins the United States, and an American Victory in the Mexican War effectively ends hostilities with Mexico.

1846 - Elias White arrives in Bowie County with his family, from Union County South Carolina, he son Ben may have in 1845. 

1846/1850 - Nathan White son of Elias & Anne dies before 1850 census.

1847 - Tax List - Elias bought 697 acres from Wm Hale HRS, had 2 Slaves, total value $500.

1847 - Elias purchases 682 Acres of land from J C Moore, Block#2. (Redwater Bowie Co TX area today)

1847/50's - Elias purchases 125 Acres Block #4, from JS & EG Herring, (Redwater Bowie Co TX area today)

1847 - Tax List - Benjamin White on Poll Tax list.  (son of Elias)

1847 - Tax List - L L White on Poll Tax list. (possible son of Elias & Anne)

1847 - Tax List - Samuel Harland on Poll Tax list. (son in law Elias White)

1847 - Tax List - Charles Tapp - has 1658 acres Chas Tapp HRS, 1 horse $60. (son in law of Elias White)

1847 - Tax List - Wm Tapp (by Chas) 876 Acres Wm Tapp HRS, 5 slaves $1800, 5 Horses $150. (bro of Chas Tapp)

1847 - Tax List - J H Raims - 1582 acres  Willis Pitman HRS, Cass Co TX.

1848 - Tax List - Elias White - 697 acres $176 - Nancy Hale HRS, 2 slaves $600.
          Tax List - Elias White - 161 acres $45   - Nancy Hale HRS, 1 Horse $34.
          Tax List - Elias White - 819 acres $209 - J S Herring HRS.

1848 - Tax List - Robert White - 1 poll - 1 horse $30.

1848 - Tax List - Benj White for 1847 - 1 poll.

1848 - L L White - land not listed, 1 negro, 1 house not other info transcribed.

1848 - Tax List - Charles Tapp - 320 acres $160 - D Miller HRS, 1 horse $75.
           Tax List - Charles Tapp - 720 acres $540 - C Collom HRS, 4 slaves $1800, 2 hor, 17 cows.
                           (Wm Tapp Estate now deceased)

1848 - Tax List - Charles Tapp has 720 acres value of $540, of C Collom HRS.

1848 - Tax List - Samuel Harland - 1 poll.

1848 - Tax List - Leroy Alford 1 horse $50, -2 cows $14.

1848 - Tax List - J E Rames - as agent for Harriet Rames.
                          1500 acres $375, Nancy Dycus, 6 horses $180.
                           531  acres $132, H B Curbow HRS, 52 cows $210.

1849 - Tax List - Elias White - 697 acres $168, Mrs Hale HRS, 2 slaves $800.

1849 - Tax List - Robert White - 1 poll, 1 horse $30.

1849 - Tax List - J G White - 1 poll, 1 horse $10.

1849 - Tax List - Benj White - 1 Lot in Boston $50, -2 horses $150, -10 cows.
                         
1849 - Tax List - Charles Tapp - 320 acres $161, Wm ?Lumm? HRS, 4 slaves $1600.
                                               - 640 acres $320, D White HRS, 3 horses $200.
                                               -  60  acres $  30, Unkn HRS, -23 cows $100. Total=$2792.

1849 - Tax List - Saml Harland - 200 acres $50, Mrs Hail (Hale) HRS.

1849 - Tax List - J H Ramen (Rames) 1500 acres $750 N Dycus -
                                                          as agent for Mrs Rames.
                                                          215 acres $555, C McKinney HRS, 7 horses $150.
                                                          531 acres $133, H B Curbow HRS, 75 cows $200.

1849 - Holly Springs Church is built in Miller County. This log church was later replaced by a frame house in 1893. Three Confederate soldiers who died during the first year of the Civil war were buried in a rock-covered grave at the adjacent cemetery. In 1984, the rocks were remade into the base of a monument to honor the unknown soldiers and other veterans. 1

1849 - Texarkana's name was foretold when Dr. Josiah Fort erected a sign north of what is now the Bringle Lake area bearing the unique title. He thought the railroad would come out to him, but it didn't. This is not the only time Texarkana's name was used during its pre-history. See 1869.

1850 - Tax List - Robert White - 1 poll.

1850 - Tax List - John G White - 1 poll, 1 horse $50, 6 cows $100, 1 wagon.

1850 - Tax List - Ben White - 1 lot boston $50, 2 horses $150, 10 cows $50.

  1850 - Tax List - Jas P Alford - B. D. 320 acres J H Collom ...?

1850 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 320 acres - J H Collom HRS.

1850 - Tax List - Chas Tapp - 320 acres $160, D Miller HRS, 4 slaves $1000.
                                           - 640 acres $320, D White HRS, 4 horses $280.
                                           -   60 acres $ 30, A P Milton HRS, 30 cows $100.

1850 - Tax List - Chas Tapp - 640 acres $320, W Tapp HRS - Cass Co.
                                              320  do $160, C Drake HRS,      do
                                              320  do $160, H McMann HRS  do
                                            1111  do $505, C Tapp HRS        Bastrop Co
                                              370  do $185, C Tapp HRS         do
                                              177  do $  80, C Stewart HRS     do  

1850 - Elias and Anne White recorded on 1850 Census of Bowie Co TX.

1850 - Elias White recorded on 1860 US Agricultural Census.

1851 - Tax List - Elias White - 1597 acres $400, P Herring HRS, 2 slaves $600, 3 horses $100.

1851 - Tax List - Robert White - 1 poll, 2 horses $100.

1851 - Tax List - J G White - 1 poll, 1 horse $50, 8 cows $20.

1851 - Tax List - Sam Harland 100 acres $25, J S Herring HRS.

1851 - Tax List - Chas Tapp - 640 acres $320, Durant White HRS, 4 slaves $200.
                                             320 acres $160, S W P Miller HRS, 4 horses $300.
                                               60 acres $  30, A G Milton HRS, 25 cows $150.
                                             320 acres $160, H McManning HRS.

1851 - Tax List - Harriett Rames - 1800 acres $1500, N. Dycus HRS, 10 horses $400.
                                                      218 acres $  218, N. Dycus HRS, 16 cows $100.

1851 - Elias White purchases 1000 Acres from JS & Elizabeth Herring, (Redwater Bowie Co TX area today)

1852 - Tax List - Elias White - 1597 acres $400, Herring & N Hail HRS, 1 slave $500, 3 horses.

1852 - Tax List - Robert White - 2 horses $100.

1852 - Tax List - Jno G White - 1 horse $50, 8 cows $120.

1852 - Tax List - Benj White - 320 acres $160, near Sulphur River, 7 slaves $2800,
                                              3 horses $100, 50 cows $250.

1852 - Tax List - Saml Harland - 100 acres $100.

1852 - Tax List - Chas Tapp - 640 acres $320, D White HRS, 4 slaves $2000.
                                             320 acres $160, Land Warrant, 5 horses $300.
                                               60 acres $  30, A G Milton HRS, 28 cows $150.

1852 - Tax List - Chas Tapp - 640 acres $320 W. Tapp HRS,        Cass Co.
                                             320 acres $160, B Drake HRS,        Cass Co.
                                             320 acres $160, H McManase HRS, Cass Co.
                                           1111 acres $505, C Tapp HRS,           Bastrop Co.
                                             177 acres $  80, C Start HRS,           Bastrop Co.

1852 - Tax List - Harriet Rhames - 218 acres $218, unkn HRS, 10 horses $400.
                                                    1500 acres $1500, Nancy Dycus HRS, 20 cows $100.

1853 - Tax List - Elias White - 1497 acres $375, J S Herring HRS & N Hail (Nancy Ann Hale).
                                               near Elliott Creek, 1 slave $350, 4 horses $140, 20 cows $100.

1853 - Tax List - Robert White - 2 horses $100.

1853 - Tax List - Benjamin White - 320 acres $160, 1 lot in Boston $50, 4 horses $240.

1853 - Tax List - John White - 1 poll.

1853 - Tax List - S Harland - 100 acres $25, PT.JS Herring HRS - near Herring Creek.

1853 - Tax List - Lee Alford - 640 acres $325, Collom HRS - near Big Creek,
                                              1 horse, 16 cows $80.

1853 - Tax List - Chas Tap - 640 acres $320, D White HRS, 4 slaves $2000.
                                           320 acres $160, Land Warrant, 5 horses $300.
                                             50 acres $  50, A G Milton HRS, 25 cows $150.

1853 - Tax List - Chas Tap - 640 acres $320, W Tap HRS   Cass Co.
                                          1111 acres $505, C Tap HRS    Bastrop Co.
                                            370 acres $185, C Tap HRS    Bastrop Co.
                                            177 acres $  80, C Stewart      Bastrop Co.  

1853 - Tax List - Harriett Rhames - 850 acres $215, N Dycus HRS, Harbor Creek, 5 horses.
                                                      218 acres $   54, unkn HRS.

1854 - Tax List - Elias White - 1497 acres $748, Herring & Hail HRS - near Herring Creek.
                                               2 slaves $500, 4 horses $120, 24 cows $4120.

1854 - Tax List - Robert White - 3 horses $150.

1854 - Tax List - Benj White - 320 acres $160, 1 lot Boston, 7 horses $350.

1854 - Tax List - John White - 1 poll.

1854 - Tax List - Saml Harland - 100 acres $50, J S Herring HRS - near Herring Creek.

1854 - Tax List - Chas Tapp - 640 acres $1280, D K White DRS, 1 lot Boston, 5 slaves $3000.
                                             320 acres $  640, D Miller HRS, 5 horses $350.
                                               60 acres $  120, A G Milton HRS, near Mud Creek, 25 cows $100.

1854 - Tax List - Chas Tapp - 640 acres $  320, Wm Tapp HRS, Cass Co.
                                            1111 acres $ 556, Chas Tapp HRS, Bastrop Co.
                                              371 acres $ 185, Chas Tapp HRS, Bastrop Co.
                                              177 acres $   89, C Stuart HRS     Bastrop Co., west of Colorado.

1854 - Tax List - Mose Day - 850 acres $215, N Dycus HRS, west of 97 mile post, 11 horses.
                          (new husband of Harriet Rames, now in charge of her estate.)
                                             218 acres $  54, C McKinney HRS, near Red River, 20 cows $100.

1854 - Tax List - Mose Day - 1600 acres $400, W Pitman HRS, Cass Co.
                          (new husband of Harriet Rames, now in charge of her estate, above.)

1855 - Tax List - Elias White - 878 acres $439, N Hale HRS, near Herring Creek, 2 slaves $500.
                                              619 acres $  30, J S Herring HRS, 4 horses $120, 24 cows $120.

1855 - Tax List - Robert White - 3 horses, $150.

1855 - Tax List - B White - 320 acres $160, unkn HRS, 13 horses $390, 20 cows $100..

1855 - Tax List - John G White - 5 horses $200, 20 cows $100.

1855 - Tax List - Susan Harlan - 100 acres $50, J S Herring HRS, near Herring Creek. 1 Poll.

1855 - Tax List - Patrick Creed - 1 poll.

1855 - Tax List - Lerroy Alford - 700 acres $700, Jacob Collum HRS, Lumgum Creek, 25 cows $150.

1855 - Tax List - Chas Tapp - 640 acres $1280, D K White DRS, 6 slaves $3100.
                                             320 acres $  640, D Miller HRS, 5 horses $350.
                                               60 acres $  120, A G Milton HRS, 35 cows $100.

1855 - Tax List - Chas Tapp - 640 acres $  320, Wm Tapp HRS, Cass Co.
                                            1111 acres $ 550, Chas Tapp HRS, Bastrop Co.
                                              371 acres $ 185, Chas Tapp HRS, Bastrop Co.
                                              177 acres $   88, C Stuart HRS     Bastrop Co., west of Colorado.

1855 - Tax List - Mose Day - 850 acres $425, N Dycus HRS, west of 97 mile post, 10 horses.
                          (new husband of Harriet Rames, now in charge of her estate.)
                                             218 acres $ 109, C McKinney HRS, near Red River, 22 cows $110.

1855 - Tax List - Moses Day - 1500 acres $750, W Pitman HRS, Cass Co.
                          (new husband of Harriet Rames, now in charge of her estate, above.)
                                               177 acres $  88, Geo McAdams HRS, Cass Co.

1855 - Polly Nix White, dies 1855 Bowie County TX, wife of Benjamin White.

1855 - U. S. government sets up the Brazos Indian reservation where the Caddo and other tribes are placed.

1856 - Tax List - Elias White - 878 acres $439, N Hale HRS, 2 slaves $500, 4 horses $120.
                                              619 acres $309, J S Herring HRS, 24 cows $120.

1856 - Tax List - Robert White - 3 horses $150.

1856 - Tax List - B. White - 320 acres $160, unkn HRS, near Sulpur River.
                                           13 horses $370, 20 cows $200.

1856 - Tax List - John G White - 320 acres $160, prescription???, 5 horses $200, 20 cows.

1856 - Tax List - Susan Creed - 100 acres $50, J S Herring.

1856 - Tax List - Patrict Creed - 1 poll.

1856 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 700 acres $700, J Collom HRS, near Lumgum Creek, 2 horses $200.

1856 - Tax List - Chas Tapp - 320 acres $320, Miller HRS
                                             640 acres $640, D White HRS
                                               60 acres $  60, A G Milton HRS

1856 - Tax List - Chas Tapp - 640 acres $  320, Wm Tapp HRS, Cass Co.
                                            1111 acres $ 550, Chas Tapp HRS, Bastrop Co.
                                              371 acres $ 185, Chas Tapp HRS, Bastrop Co.
                                              177 acres $   88, C Stuart HRS     Bastrop Co., west of Colorado.

1856 - Tax List - Moses Day - 218 acres $109, C McKinney HRS, 1 slave #300.
                                              690 acres $345, N Dycus HRS, 6 horses $280.

1857 - Tax List - Elias White - 857 acres $437, Ann Hayle HRS, Herring Creek, 2 slaves $500, 3 horses $115.
                                               619 acres $309, J S Herring HRS, Herring Creek, 24 cows $120.

1857 - Tax List - Robert White - 2 horses $100.

1857 - Tax List - Benj White - 320 acres $160, Pre-emption, Sulphur, 1 lot Boston, 12 horses $300.

1857 - Tax List - J G White - 330 acres $160, Pre-emption, Suphur, 5 horses $200, 40 cows $200.

1857 - Tax List - Susan Creed - 100 acres $50, J B Herring HRS, Herring Creek.

1857 - Tax List - Patrick Creed - poll tax .50, state tax .50, co tax .13.

1857 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 700 acres $700, J H Collom HRS, Langhams Crk., 3 horses $250.

1857 - Tax List - W J Murphy - Poll Tax.

1857 - Tax List - Charles Tapp - 640 acres $640, D White HRS, Tapps Creek,7 negroes $3000.
                                                 320 acres $320, D Miller HRS, Tapps Creek, 5 horses $250.
                                                   60 acres $  60, A G Milton HRS, Tapps Crk, 30 cows $180.

1857 - Tax List - Charles Tapp - 640 acres $  320, Wm Tapp HRS, BLY Bayou,    Cass Co.
                                               1111 acres $ 1000, Chas Tapp HRS, Walnut Crk,   Bastrop Co.
                                                 370 acres $ 370, Chas Tapp HRS, Colorado River Bastrop Co.
                                                 177 acres $ 177, C Stuart HRS,  Bastrop Co., west of Colorado.

1857 - Tax List - Moses Day - 790 acres $340, N Dycus HRS, Harberts Crk.
                                              218 acres $109, Collin McKinney HRS, Red River, 7 horses, 20 cows.

1857 - Tax List - Moses Day - 1312 acres $656, W Pitman HRS, Sulphur River, Cass Co.
                                               377 acres $100, H Rames HRS, Sulphur River, Cass Co.
                                               288 acres $144, M Morris HRS, Sabine River, Hunt Co.
                                               165 acres $  82, W Akin HRS, Trinity River, Collin Co.

1857 - Tax List - Anna McCloskey - 300 acres $50, J Barkman HRS, Barkman Creek.

1857 - Construction begins on the El Paso and Pacific railroad line, near what would become Texarkana. More that 50 miles were graded before the Civil war began. Work resumed in 1869. 1857 - Martha C. Runnels, wife of Texas legislator Howell W. Runnels, acts as the First Lady of Texas for Gov. Hardin Richard Runnels, her bachelor brother-in-law, until 1859. She is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery.

1857 - Hester White Bobo daughter of Elias and Anne departs this life, leaving 3 children and husband Jeremiah Bobo.

1858 - Tax List - Elias White - 857 acres $437, Ann Hayle HRS, Herring Creek, 2 slaves $500, 3 horses $115.
                                               619 acres $309, J S Herring HRS, Herring Creek, 24 cows $120.

1858 - Tax List - Robert White - 2 horses $100.

1858 - Tax List - Benj White - 320 acres $160, Pre-emption, Sulphur, 1 lot Boston, 12 horses $300.

1858 - Tax List - J G White - 330 acres $160, Pre-emption, Suphur, 8 horses $320, 40 cows $200.

1858 - Tax List - Susan Creed - 100 acres $50, J B Herring HRS, Herring Creek.

1858 - Tax List - Patrick Creed - 210 acres $210, J S Herring, Herring Crk, (Susan White's land)

1858 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 700 acres $700, J H Collom HRS, 4 horses $275, 25 cows $150.

1858 - Tax List - Charles Tapp - 640 acres $640, D White HRS, Tapps Creek,7 negroes $3000.
                                                 320 acres $320, D Miller HRS, Tapps Creek, 5 horses $250.
                                                   60 acres $  60, A G Milton HRS, Tapps Crk, 30 cows $180.

1858 - Tax List - Charles Tapp - 640 acres $  320, Wm Tapp HRS, BLY Bayou,    Cass Co.
                                               1111 acres $ 1000, Chas Tapp HRS, Walnut Crk,   Bastrop Co.
                                                 370 acres $ 370, Chas Tapp HRS, Colorado River Bastrop Co.
                                                 177 acres $ 177, C Stuart HRS,  Bastrop Co., west of Colorado.

1858 - Tax List - Moses Day - 699 acres $300, N Dikas HRS, Harbarb Crk.
                                              250 acres $100, C McKinney HRS, Barkman Crk, 1 negro $300.

1858 - Tax List - Moses Day - 1312 acres $656, W Pitman HRS, Sulphur River, Cass Co.
                                               377 acres $100, H Rames HRS, Sulphur River, Cass Co.
                                               288 acres $144, M Morris HRS, Sabine River, Hunt Co.
                                               165 acres $  82, W Akin HRS, Trinity River, Collin Co.

1858 - Tax List - Wm Raimes - Poll tax .50, state tax .50, co tax .25.  (stepson of Moses Day - Harriet Rames)

1858 - Tax List - Wm Raimes - 100 acres $50, W Pitman HRS, Sulphur River, Cass Co.

1858 - Benjamin White son of Elias & Anne departs this life having had 8 children.

1858 - Post office is established in RONDO, Arkansas.                                            

1859 - Tax List - Elias White - 1253 acres $1253, J S Herring HRS, 4 negroes $1800, 3 horses $200.

1859 - Robert White, Elias's son has departed this life. (1859)

1859 - Benjamin White, Elias's son has departed this life. (1858)

1859 - Tax List - J G White - 330 acres $160, Pre-emption, Suphur, 8 horses $320, 40 cows $200.
1859 - Tax List - J G White - Estate Ben J White 120 acres $120, Pre-emption, Sulphur River.

1859 - Charles Y Tapp, son in law of Elias White, has departed this life. (1858)

1859 - Tax List - Mrs. Charles Tapp (wife Mary Caroline White Tapp)
1859 - Tax List - Mrs. Charles Tapp - 640 acres $640, D White HRS, Tapps Creek,7 negroes $3000.
                                                         320 acres $320, D Miller HRS, Tapps Creek, 5 horses $250.
                                                         60 acres $  60, A G Milton HRS, Tapps Crk, 45 cows $225.

1859 - Tax List - Mrs. Charles Tapp - 640 acres $  320, Wm Tapp HRS, BLY Bayou,     Cass Co.
                                                        1111 acres $ 1000, Chas Tapp HRS, Walnut Crk,   Bastrop Co.
                                                         370 acres $ 370, Chas Tapp HRS, Colorado River  Bastrop Co.
                                                         177 acres $ 177, C Stuart HRS,  Bastrop Co., west of Colorado R.

1859 - Tax List - Patrick Creed - 210 acres $210, J S Herring, Herring Crk, (Susan White's land)

1859 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 800 acres $600, J C Collom HRS, Landhams Cr, 5 horses.
1859 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - agent Mrs Kemp, 150 acres, J C Collom HRS.

1859 - Tax List - Moses Day - 790 acres $340, N Dycus HRS, Harberts Crk.
                                              218 acres $109, Collin McKinney HRS, Red River, 7 horses, 20 cows.

1859 - Tax List - Moses Day - 1312 acres $656, W Pitman HRS, Sulphur River, Cass Co.
                                               377 acres $100, H Rames HRS, Sulphur River, Cass Co.
                                               288 acres $144, M Morris HRS, Sabine River, Hunt Co.
                                               165 acres $  82, W Akin HRS, Trinity River, Collin Co.

1859 - Tax List - B C White - 1 poll (unknown person)

1859 - A group of white settlers decide to rid Texas of all remaining Indian tribes - forcing about 300 Caddo Indians to march to Oklahoma. A white man who helped them make their "escape" is killed for assisting them.

1860 - Tax List - Elias White - 878 acres $1756, N Hail HRS, 4 negroes $1800.
                                              408 acres  $816, J S Herring HRS.

1860 - Tax List - J G White - 320 acres $160, Pre-emption, Sulphur, 18 horses $900, 60 cows $360.
                                             Proctor HRS, 1 lot Boston.
                                             administrator B White, Unkn HRS, 174 acres $348.

1860 - Tax List - Patrick Creed - 210 acres $210, J S Herring, Herring Crk, (Susan White's land)

1860 - Tax List - Caroline Tapp - 640 acres $640, D White HRS, Tapps Creek,7 negroes $3000.
                                                   320 acres $320, D Miller HRS, Tapps Creek, 5 horses $250.
                                                     60 acres $  60, A G Milton HRS, Tapps Crk, 45 cows $225.

1860 - Tax List - Caroline Tapp - 640 acres $  320, Wm Tapp HRS, BLY Bayou,     Cass Co.
                                                 1111 acres $ 1000, Chas Tapp HRS, Walnut Crk,   Bastrop Co.
                                                   370 acres $ 370, Chas Tapp HRS, Colorado River  Bastrop Co.
                                                   177 acres $ 177, C Stuart HRS,  Bastrop Co., west of Colorado R.

1860 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 700 acres $700, J H Collom HRS, Langhams Crk.,
                                                 1 negro $1000, 6 horses $300, 20 cows $180.

1860 - Tax List - Lozen Landrum - 1 poll. (future husband [1864] of Laura Jane White, dau of Elias).

1860 - Tax List - J J McCloskey - 465 acres $930, John Barkman HRS.

1860 - Tax List - B Kruse - 160 acres $400, J J Canon HRS.

1857 - Tax List - Moses Day - 790 acres $340, N Dycus HRS, Harberts Crk.
                                              218 acres $109, Collin McKinney HRS, Red River, 7 horses, 20 cows.

1857 - Tax List - Moses Day - 1312 acres $656, W Pitman HRS, Sulphur River, Cass Co.
                                               377 acres $100, H Rames HRS, Sulphur River, Cass Co.
                                               288 acres $144, M Morris HRS, Sabine River, Hunt Co.
                                               165 acres $  82, W Akin HRS, Trinity River, Collin Co.

1860 - Tax List - Wm Rames - 1 horse $75.  (stepson of Moses Day)

1860 - Tax List - H P Murphy - 1 poll.

1860 - Tax List - Wiley J Murphey - 1 poll.

1860 - Tax List - B G White - 1 poll. (unknown relationship)

1860 - Tax List - B C White - 1 poll. (unknown relationship)

1860 - Elias and Anne White recorded on 1850 Census of Bowie Co TX.

1860 - Elias White recorded on 1860 US Agricultural Census.

1861 - Tax List - Elias White - 875 acres $1317, N Hale HRS.
                                              808 acres $  610, Herring HRS.

1861 - Tax List - John G White - NO RECORD, is he away in the Civil War? Reappears 1862.

1861 - Tax List - Wm White - 1 poll tax.

1861 - Tax List - Caroline Tapp - 640 acres $640, D White HRS, Tapps Creek,7 negroes $3000.
                                                   320 acres $320, D Miller HRS, Tapps Creek, 5 horses $250.
                                                    60 acres $  60, A G Milton HRS, Tapps Crk, 30 cows $180.

1861 - Tax List - Caroline Tapp - 640 acres $  320, Wm Tapp HRS, BLY Bayou,    Cass Co.
                                                 1111 acres $ 1000, Chas Tapp HRS, Walnut Crk,   Bastrop Co.
                                                   370 acres $ 370, Chas Tapp HRS, Colorado River Bastrop Co.
                                                   177 acres $ 177, C Stuart HRS,  Bastrop Co., west of Colorado.

1861 - Tax List - Patrick Creed - 210 acres $210, J S Herring, Herring Crk, (Susan White's land)

1861 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 700 acres $700, J H Collom HRS, Langhams Crk.,
                                                  1 negro $800, 7 horses $400, 30 cows $150.

1861 - Tax List - L. Landrum - poll tax.

1861 - Tax List - Moses Day - 690 acres, N Dycus HRS.

1861 - Tax List - NO RAMES.

1861 - Tax List - J J McCluskey - 465 acres, J J Barkman HRS.

1861 - Tax List - B G White 1 poll tax, (unknown relationship)

1861 - Tax List - H P Murphy - poll tax.

1861 - Bowie County musters its men in New Boston. All are mounted on horseback. 1864 - A Texas division of the Confederacy guarded the Spring Bank crossing in Miller County against Federals who might try to invade Texas. The camp was called Camp Sumpter.

1862 - Tax List - Elias White - 878 acres $1756, N Hail HRS, 5 negroes $1500, 3 horses $100,
                                              408 acres  $816, J S Herring HRS, 25 cows $75.

1862 - Tax List - Patrick Creed - 210 acres $210, J S Herring, Herring Crk, 1 horse $100.

1862 - Tax List - J G White - 320 acres, Pre-emption, 20 horses $100, 50 cows $300.
                                            106 acres, Sterling Smith HRS.
                                            guardian-Ben White Estate, 320 acres, Pre-emption & Proctor, 1 lot Boston.

1862 - Tax List - Caroline Smith - 640 acres, Duran White HRS, 9 negroes $5000, 8 horses $450.
                                                    300 acres, A. G. Milton HRS, 55 cows $250.
                                                      60 acres, A. G. Milton HRS.

1862 - Tax List - Caroline Smith - 1111 acres $ 1000, Chas Tapp HRS, Walnut Crk,   Bastrop Co.
                                                      370 acres $ 370, Chas Tapp HRS, Colorado River Bastrop Co.
                                                      177 acres $ 177, C Stuart HRS,  Bastrop Co., west of Colorado.

1862 - Tax List - William White - 103 acres, Sterling Smith HRS, 5 horses $25.
                                                   160 acres, Pre-emption, 16 cows $80.
                                                   guardian, 499 acres, ?Boobs -
                                                   guardian, 250 acres, Darias -

1862 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 700 acres $700, J H Collom HRS, Langhams Crk.,
                                                  1 negro $800, 7 horses $400, 30 cows $150.

1862 - Tax List - NO LANDRUM - Serving in Civil War.

1862 - Tax List - Heirs of Raims (Rames) Wm White Guardian, (John Howard Rames)
                          536 acres, Willis Pitman HRS, Davis Co. (became Cass)
                          320 acres, Howard Raims HRS, Davis Co. (became Cass)
                          [Mr Rames died abt 1851, wife Harriet Dec 1859, Wm White married
                          their daughters 1st Sarah 1852, and 2nd Mary 1864.]

1862 - Tax List - B Kruse - 160 acres $190, J P Carson HRS, 1 horse $60, 15 cows $75.

1862 - Tax List - M I Cruse - 80 acres $120.

1863 - Tax List - Elias White - 878 & 408 acres, 5 negroes $1500, 3 horses $300, 25 cows $75.

1863 - Tax List - Wm White - 103 acres, Sterling Smith HRS
                                             106 acres, Pre-emption.

1863 - Tax List - John G White - 320 acres Pre-emption, 20 horses $2200.
                                                  166 acres Sterling Smith HRS, 50 cows $300.
                                            agt 320 acres Proctor HRS, 1 lot Boston. (B White estate) GET.

1863 - Tax List - Caroline Smith - 640 acres, Duran White HRS, 9 negroes $5000, 8 horses $450.
                                                    300 acres, A. G. Milton HRS, 55 cows $250.
                                                      60 acres, A. G. Milton HRS.

1863 - Tax List - Caroline Smith - 1111 acres $ 1000, Chas Tapp HRS, Walnut Crk,   Bastrop Co.
                                                      370 acres $ 370, Chas Tapp HRS, Colorado River Bastrop Co.
                                                      177 acres $ 177, C Stuart HRS,  Bastrop Co., west of Colorado.

1863 - Tax List - Patrick Creed - 210 acres $210, J S Herring, Herring Crk, 1 horse $100.

1863 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 800 acres $700, J H Collom HRS, Langhams Crk.,
                                                  1 negro $800, 7 horses $400, 30 cows $150.

1863 - Tax List - Howard Raims Heirs
                           Wm White Guardian, Howard Raims HRS, 320 & 556 acres Davis Co.

1863 - Tax List - H F Cruse - 1 poll.

1863 - Tax List - H T Cruse - 80 acres.

1863 - Tax List - B H Kruse - 160 acres.

1863 - Tax List - J J McCluskey - 460 acres John Barkman HRS.

1863 - Tax List - NO LANDRUM

1863 - Tax List - NO RAMES

1863 - John G White son of Elias & Anne departs this life having had 6 children and wife Mary Whitus White.

1864 - Tax List - Elias White - 878 & 408 acres, 6 negroes $2500, 2 horses $400, 25 Cows $250, 8 sheep $80.

1864 - Tax List - Wm White - 160 acres, pre-emption, 103 acres, Sterling Smith HRS.

1864 - Tax List - John G White - 320 acres Pre-emption, 20 horses $1600,
                                                  166 acres Sterling Smith HRS, 60 cows $600.
                                            agt 320 acres Proctor HRS, 1 lot Boston. (B White estate) GET.

1864 - Tax List - Caroline Smith - 1000 acres, Wm Tapp HRS $2500, 4 negroes $2000, 3 horses $400.
                                                    guardian of monor heirs    7 negroes $3500.

1864 - Tax List - Patrick Creed - 210 acres $210, J S Herring, Herring Crk, 2 horses $100, 17 cows $170.

1864 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 800 acres $700, J H Collom HRS, Langhams Crk.,
                                                  20 negroes $12000, 13 horses $2000, 35 cows $150.

1864 - Tax List - NO LANDRUM in Cass Co.

1864 - Tax List - NO RAMES in Cass Co.

1864 - Tax List - Anne McCloskey  -  200 acres J Barkman.
                             JbJ  McCloskey - 460 acres, J Barkman.     

1864 - Anna Gibbs White , Elias's wife, departs this life, abt 1864 Redwater TX Bowie Co.

1864 - General Banks leads Union troops up the Red River as far as Shreveport, La., about 70 miles south of here. He is turned back there by generals Sterling Price and Richard Taylor. It was the only serious threat on Bowie County, and many of the forces under Price and Taylor were from Bowie and Miller Counties.

1864 - Fall: Archives from the state capitol are moved by Confederate soldiers and stored for awhile in a store in Rondo, Ark., as Union soldiers advanced on Little Rock. In this way, Rondo lays claim to once being the temporary state capital. Confederate Gen. Albert Pike moves his wife and children to Rondo during the Union occupation of Little Rock.

1864 - Gus Moore comes to the place that would become Texarkana. Four families were already here: The Garrett Family, Eli Moores, near the future New Boston Road, John Nix of the future Ninth Street, and Mr. Wooten in what would become the Spring Lake Park area.

1865 - End of Civil War, end of Slavery.

1865 - Tax List - Elias White - 878 & 408 acres, 2 horses $60, 12 cows $48.

1865 - Tax List - M C White - 1 poll.  (could be Marion Columbus White s/o Ben & Polly)
                          M C White - heirs of B. White - 267 acres.
                          (Marion is now old enough to handle this parents estate administration)

1865 - Tax List - Mary White adm J G - 320 acres J G White HRS, 5 horses $150.
                                                             103 acres S Smith HRS, 6 cows $24.
                                                               60 acres Wheeler HRS.
                                                               53 acres B White HRS.

1865 - Tax List -  Caroline Smith - Heirs of C Tapp - 1113, 370, 177 acres, Bastrop Co, 640 acres Davis Co. (Cass)

1865 - J J McCloskey - 400 acres, J J Barkman HRS.

1865 - William M White son of Elias & Anne is killed by his sister's husband Lozen Landrum.

1866 - Tax List - Elias White - 878 & 408 acres, 5 horses $40.

1866 - Tax List - M C Smith - 640, 320, 60 acres, 4 horses $12, 26 cows $104.

1866 - Tax List - M C Smith - guardian C. Tapp
                                              Heirs of C Tapp - 1113, 370, 177 acres, Bastrop Co, 640 acres Davis Co. (Cass)

1866 - Tax List - Patrick Creed - 210 acres $210, J S Herring, Herring Crk, 2 horses $50, 5 cows $20.

1866 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 800 acres $700, J H Collom HRS, Langhams Crk., 5 horses $250, 25 cows $100.

1866 - Tax List - M C White - 1 poll, 9 cows $36. (son of Ben & Polly, Marion Columbus White)
                          M C White - guardian heirs B. White, B White HRS, 267 acres $134.

1866 - Tax List - Mary White adm J G White - J G HRS, 320 acres $160, 5 horses $150.
                                                                       S Smith HRS, 103 acres $51, 6 cows $24.
                                                                       V Wheeler HRS, 60 acres $30.
                                                                       B White HRS, 53 acres $27, 1 lot Boston.

1866 - Tax List - NO LANDRUM.

1866 - Tax List - J B Barkman agt/Ann McCloskey - John Barkman HRS, 200 acres.

1866 - Tax List - Cotton White - Jack Pre-emption, 160 acres, 1horse $50, 4 cows $16. (No relation)

1867 - Tax List - Elias White 878 acres, N Hale HRS, $439.

1867 - Tax List - Patrick Creed - 210 acres $210, J S Herring, Herring Crk, 2 horses $50, 12 cows $48.

1867 - Tax List - M C Smith - 640 acres $320, D. White HRS, 4 horses $120. (Mary Caroline White Tapp Smith)
                                              320 acres $320, D. Miller HRS, 28 cows $154.

1867 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 800 acres $700, J H Collom HRS, Langhams Crk.,
                                                7 horses $550, 25 cows $100.

1867 - Tax List - M C White - 9 cows $36. (Marion Columbus White)
                          M C White -  B White HRS - 267 acres, $134.                        

1867 - Tax List - Mary White - adm J G White - 320 acres $160, 6 horses $15, 8 cows $54.
                                                                         103 acres.
                                                                         53 acres.
                                                                         60 acres.

1867 - Tax List - J J McCluskey - 460 acres, 1 horse $40, 12 cows $70, 10 Sheep $15.
                          J B McCluskey - 1 poll.

1867 - Tax List - Moses Day - 690 acres N Dycus HRS.                                           

1868 - Tax List - Elias White - 878 acres $439, N Hale HRS, 1 horse, $15.
                                               408 acres $204, J S Herring HRS, 4 cows $16.

1868 - Tax List - Marion White - 320 acres $160, B White HRS, 1 horse $40, 9 cows $36.

1868 - Tax List - William White - 1 horse $50, 5 cows. (William P White son of Ben & Polly White)

1868 - Tax List - Mary White - 320 acres, J G White HRS
                                               103 acres, S Smith HRS, 10 horses $300, 11 cows $44.
                                        adm/Nancy White, Thos Rice HRS, 320 acres $320.

1868 - Tax List - Henry Kruse - 80 acres $80, Proctor HRS, 2 horses $60, 4 cows $16.

1868 - Tax List - Isabella McCloskey - 460 acres, Jno Barkman HRS, 7 cows $44.

1868 - Tax List - B M Kruse - 160 acres $80, J J Carson HRS, 1 horse $30, 5 cows $20.

1868 - Tax List - M P Murphy - 2 horses $100.

1868 - Tax List - NO LANDRUM

1868 - Tax List - NO RAMES

1868 - Tax List - NO TAPP

1868 - Elias gives 286 Acres of land to daughter Susan for care she provided to him.

1868 - Nov. 24: Composer Scott Joplin is born in what would become Texarkana. His family lived in the 600 block of Hazel Street. He attended Orr School, located the 800 block of Laurel Street. He played piano at local clubs and dance halls in town. He left town when he was about 17. 1868 - Arkansas is readmitted into the Union following the Civil War.

1869 - Tax List - Elias White - 878 acres $439, N Hale HRS, 1 horse, $25.
                                               408 acres $204, J S Herring HRS, 4 cows $20.

1869 - Tax List - Patrick Creed - 210 acres $210, J S Herring, Herring Crk, 2 horses $50, 14 cows $80.

1869 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 800 acres $700, J H Collom HRS, Langhams Crk.,
                                                10 horses $500, 40 cows $200.

1869 - Tax List - Mrs Mary C Smith - 320 acres $160, 5 horses $250, 38 cows $190.
                                                           60 acres.
                                                          640 acres.

1869 - Tax List - Mrs Mary C Smith heirs - 1113 acres, C Tapp HRS, Walnut Crk, Bastrop Co.
                                                                    320 acres, C Tapp HRS, Colorado River Bastrop Co.
                                                                    640 acres, Davis Co  (from Wm Tapp estate Cass)

1869 - Tax List - W P White - 320 acres $160, Benj. White HRS, 1 horse $50.

1869 - Tax List - M C White - 1 horse $40, 10 cows $50.

1869 - Tax List - Mrs Mary White - 320 acres $320, John White HRS.
                                                        60 acres $30, V Wheeler HRS.
                                                      103 acres $52, S Smith HRS.
                                                      320 acres $160, Thos Price HRS, 6 horses $250, 11 cows $55.

1869 - Tax List - Annice McCluskey - 210 acres, J Barkman HRS.

1869 - Samuel D Bobo departs this life, nephew of Elias White, son of Solomon & Elizabeth [White] Bobo.

1869 - Jan. 6; Cullen Baker, the Swamp Fox of the Sulphur, has his whiskey drugged by his father-in-law and passes out. He is then shot repeatedly. The regions most notorious outlaw is dead at age 34.

1869 - Railroad magnate John C. Fremont tells audiences in England of a thriving city in a bountiful region bordering three states. This was optimistic invention, of course, but some historians see this as an indicator that Texarkana was once planned for the point where Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana meet.

1869 - A man named Swindle from Louisiana cooked up concoction that was purported to have medicinal value and called "Texarkana Bitters". The real credit for naming this spot this the name Texarkana has been given to railroad surveyor Col. Gus Knobel, who nailed a sign reading Texarkana to a tree stump where Union Station would be.

1870 - Tax List - Elias White - 408 & 878 acres, 1 horse $15, 5 cows $30.

1870 - Tax List - Mrs Susan Creed 210 acres, 2 horses $60, 14 cows, $70.

1870 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 800 acres $700, J H Collom HRS, Langhams Crk.,
                                                10 horses $500, 30 cows $150.

1870 - Tax List - Mrs Mary C Smith - 320 acres, 6 horses $425, 37 cows $175.
                                                           60 acres.
                                                          640 acres.

1870 - Tax List - Mrs Caroline Smith - 160 acres, pre-emption, 2 horses $100, 12 cows $50.
                                                         1113 acres, C Tapp HRS, Walnut Crk, Bastrop Co.
                                                           370 acres, C Tapp HRS, Colorado River Bastrop Co.
                             guardian C Tapp    640 acres, Davis Co  (from Wm Tapp estate Cass)

1870 - Tax List - Thomas White - 1 horse $30, 2 cows $10.  (son of Ben and Polly White)

1870 - Tax List - Marion White - 1 horse $50, 6 cows $90.   (son of Ben and Polly White)

1870 - Tax List - W P White - 320 acres, N Proctor HRS, 1 horse $50, 3 cows $15. (son of Ben and Polly White)

1870 - Tax List - Mrs Mary White - 320 acres, John White HRS, 5 horses $300.
                                                        60 acres, V C Wheeler HRS, 15 cows $75.
                                                       103 acres, S Smith HRS.
                  adm Nancy Whitehurst  320 acres, F Price HRS.  (Whitehurst shortened to Whitus)

1870 - Tax List - J B McCloskey - 1 horse $40.
                       - Mrs Isabella 80 acres, L Proctor HRS $60, 2 horses $150, 9 Cows $75.

1870 - Aug. 31: Steamer "Texarkana" sank on the Red River. It was part of a line of steamboats operated by Calvin Monroe Hervey in Miller County from New Orleans to Fulton, Ark. In 1885, Hervey was appointed by the governor to represent Arkansas in the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition. Hervey also owned a plantation on the Red River he named Texarkana.

1870 - Texas is readmitted into the Union following the Civil War.

1871 - Precinct #3 only:

1871 - Tax List - Elias White - Not Listed - Precincts 1 & 2 missing.

1871 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 800 acres, 13 horses $615, 50 cows $275.

1871 - Tax List - Mrs Mary C Smith - 320 acres, 5 horses $200, 30 cows $150.
                                                           60 acres.
                                                          640 acres.

1871 - Tax List - Mrs M C Smith - 177, 1113, 370 1/2 acres, Bastrop Co.

1871 - Tax List - Mrs Mary White - 320, 103, 60, 160 acres, 7 horses $35, 20 cows $100.

1871 - Tax List - M C White - 2 horses, $150, 5 cows $55.

1871 - Precincts 1 & 2 missing.

1871 - March 3: Texas & Pacific Railroad is chartered by the federal government to build a military and post road and from Marshal to Texarkana. A yellow fever epidemic broke out during construction of the rail bed, and rainstorms caused much delay and damage.

1872 - Tax List - Elias White - 400 acres $200, J S Herring HRS.
                                              858 acres $660, Ann H Hale HRS.

1872 - Tax List - Mrs Susan Creed - 210 acres, 2 horses $70, 20 cows $100.

1872 - Tax List - J D Landrum - 1 poll. (Laura Jane White Landrum daughter of Elias & Anne???)

1872 - Tax List - Mrs M C Smith - 320 acres, 4 horses $200, 36 cows $180.
                                                      60 acres.
                                                    640 acres.

1872 - Tax List - Mrs Caroline Smith - 1113 acres, C Tapp HRS, Walnut Crk, Bastrop Co.
                                                             379 1/3 acres, C Tapp HRS, Colorado River Bastrop Co.
                                                             177 acres, Bastrop Co.
                                                             640 acres, Cass Co Wm Tapp HRS.  (from Wm Tapp estate)

1872 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 800 acres, 15 horses $600, 49 cows $245.

1872 - Tax List - Thos M White - 52 acres Saml Proctor HRS, 1 horse $30, 10 cows $158.

1872 - Tax List - W P White - 125 acres $250, John A Reed HRS, 1 horse $30, 10 cows $158.

1872 - Tax List - M C White - 80 acres S D Bobo HRS.
                                            160 acres, Saml Proctor HRS, 1 horse $50, 6 cows $30.

1872 - Tax List - Mrs M White - 320 acres, 103 Acres J White HRS, 6 horses $200, 15 cows $75.
                                         agt - Jno White, 1 horse $75, 9 cows $45.
                                      heirs - P Whitas? (Whitus), 160 acres Thos Price HRS.
                                                (these are heirs of Peter & Nancy Whitus, formerly Whitehurst)

1872 - Tax List - F E McCloskey - 200 acres $200, J S Herring HRS, 2 horses $60.

1872 - Tax List - Jemme? - 1 horse $50.

1872 - Tax List - J H - 2 horses $70, 2 cows $20.

1872 - Tax List - Mrs J - 2 horses $80, 10 cows $90.

1872 - Tax List - E H - 1 poll.

1872 - Plans were being made to lay railroad track from Fulton, Ark., to Shreveport , La., to connect with an existing track that connected to Marshall, Texas. But Shreveport didn't want the track to Fulton to be built because officials thought it would detract from the robust river boat traffic there. The alternative plan routed the Cairo & Fulton lines from Fulton, west across the Red River to the state line, where it would meet the Texas & Pacific line coming east. Texarkana would be born of this decision.

1872 - Railroad builders ask town fathers in nearby Rondo, Ark., to finance routing the tracks through their town. They balked at the idea, thinking the rails would come there anyway. They didn't and the importance of Rondo began to diminish while the significance of Texarkana would grow.

1872 - February 17: Earliest land title recorded in the business district was recorded on this date. It was filed with the Bowie County clerk on March 20.

1873 - Tax List - Elias White - 400 acres $500, J S Herring HRS.
                        (JW White?) - 858 acres $1200, Annie H Hale. (Believe the JW White is a mistake?)

1873 - Tax List - Mrs Susan Creed - 210 acres, 2 horses $70, 20 cows $100.
                                                       160 acres, Eliz. Stewart HRS.

1873 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 800 acres, 15 horses $600, 61 cows...

1873 - Tax List - Marion C - 80 acres $120, S Bobo HRS, 3 horses $125, 7 cows $35.
                                   agt  - Benj White 160 acres $240, Proctor HRS

1873 - Tax List - Thos M - 52 acres $65, Proctor HRS, 1 horse $25, 12 cows $240.

1873 - Tax List - B F White - 9 cows $54. (son of Ben & Polly White)

1873 - Tax List - Wm P White - 125 acres $200, 1 horse $35, 12 cows $72.

1873 - Tax List - Mrs Mary White - 320 acres $480, John White HRS, 7 horses $250, 19 cows $135.
                                                      103 acres $120, S. Smith HRS.

1873 - Tax List - J J Nettles - 1 horse $40.

1873 - Tax List - Francis E McCloskey -
                                    agt Bobo Heirs - 200 acres $300, John Herring HRS.
                                                   E H & Jerome.
1873 - Tax List - Wm Kruse - 144 acres $342, Bingham HRS, 1 horse $20, 14 cows $70.         

1873 - Tax List - Eli Boon - 1 poll.

1873 - Elias gives 100 acres then donates another 110 acres to Susan for the care she provided to him in his final years.

1873 - Elias White purchases 35 6/10 acres from Anne H Hale Survey.

1973 - Elias White gives 140 acres to W H Tilson, for pay as his Attorney.

1873 - Elias White dies 2 Aug 1873, was blind and living with dau. Susan, is buried at Creed Cemetery Redwater Tx.

1873 - The Red River is finally cleared of log jams and debris and steamboat traffic begins. Spring Bank in Miller County is a shipping point for the area.

1873 - Lumbermen, railroad builder and philanthropist William Buchanan comes to the area before it officially exists as a city.

1873 - Texarkana, Texas, Fire Department was created. The Arkansas- side Fire Department was created the following year. For the next 18 years these would be volunteer organizations. By 1890, the Arkansas side claims 1,000 feet of hose, an engine-house and an alarm system. By 1892, the Texas side has a steam engine pulled by horses.

1873 - George M. Clark started town's first business, a combination drug and grocery store. Whiskey was part of his stock.

1873 - Dec. 8: Texas and Pacific Railroad sells lots here. J. W. Davis buys the first one for $350.00. The McCartney Hotel now sits on the land that he bought.

1873 - Dec. 11: Spencer Rice Collom, a Hooks, Texas Farmer, sells the first bale of cotton for 12 cents a pound.

1873 - Dec. 18: A group meets on the Texas side to organize a town. A man named Wosson was named city chairman. He was later elected mayor.

1873 - Dec. 28: Texas and Pacific Railroad reaches Texarkana only hours before the company's building charter would expire at the end of the year. Linking the two rail lines created a line that ran from St. Louis in the north into Texas in the south. The two lines would one day become part of the great Missouri-Pacific Railroad system.

1874 - Tax List - Mrs Susan Creed - 210 acres, J S Herring HRS.
                                                       160 acres, Eliz Stewart HRS.
                                                       286 acres, Ann H Hale, 2 horses $50, 20 cows $100.

1874 - Tax List - Mrs M C Smith - 320 acres, 3 horses $150, 35 cows $175.
                                                      60 acres.
                                                    640 acres.

1874 - Tax List - Mrs Caroline Smith - 1113 acres, C Tapp HRS, Walnut Crk, Bastrop Co.
                                                             370 1/3 acres, C Tapp HRS, Colorado River Bastrop Co.
                                                             177 acres, Bastrop Co.
                                                             300 acres, Cass Co Wm Tapp HRS.  (from Wm Tapp estate)

1874 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 800 acres, 9 horses $270, 50 cows #300, 6 mules $240.

1874 - Tax List - Mrs Mary White - 320 acres, John White HRS, 4 horses $175, 10 cows $160.
                                                      103 acres, S Smith HRS.
                                                      160 acres, Thos Price HRS.

1874 - Tax List - M C White - 80 acres Saml Bobo HRS, 4 horses $150, 10 cows $60.

1874 - Tax List - T M White - 100 acres J S Herring, 5 horses $15, 5 cows $18.

1874 - Tax List - W P White - 125 acres, Jon A Read HRS, 25 cows $158.

1874 - Tax List - B F White - 2 horses $100, 12 cows $72. (son of Ben & Polly White)

1874 - Tax List - W L Tapp - 1 poll.  (Wm Lewis Tapp, son of Charles & Mary Tapp Smith)

1874 - Tax List - J J Nettles - 1 poll, 1 horse $50.

1874 - Tax List - J P Landrum - 1 poll. (Unknown relation)

1874 - January: Anthony L. Ghio opens the first store building at what would be the intersection of Main and Broad Streets. He sold whiskey and cigars. He later opened the cities first opera house and was elected mayor three times. He and a partner, L. B. Fish, built the first road to what would become Spring Lake Park.

1874 - Completion of the Cairo and Fulton bridge over the Red River marks the establishment of continuous service between Dallas and St. Louis.

1874 - June 12: The city of Texarkana, Texas, is granted a charter. Captain O. T. Lyon was elected Mayor.

1874 - September: First school opens in Texarkana in connection with the first Catholic Church. 1874: Gate City News publishes its first issue.

1874 - T. Boas and W. H. McCartney build the Marquand Hotel, the city's first, near the current site of Union Station.

1874 - Miller County, formerly a part of Lafayette County, is reorganized by the Arkansas General Assembly as its own entity. At that time, the population was about 1,000. The boundaries that were established by this act are the same boundaries that exist today.

1874 - J. M. Benefield starts the Benefield Hotel on Broad Street and Texas Avenue.

1874 - Methodist church organized at Sixth and Olive streets with 13 members. It is the first Protestant church in town and later becomes First Methodist Church, State Line Avenue and Fourth Street.

1874 - Mount Sinai Congregational Temple was founded by a Jewish Confederacy veteran. The current temple, dedicated in 1948, is at 1319 Walnut Street.

1874 - Rose Hill Cemetery founded as "city cemetery".   (Precinct #1)

1875 - Tax List - Mrs Susan Creed - 210 acres, J S Herring HRS.   (Precinct #1)
                                                       160 acres, Eliz Stewart HRS.
                                                       286 acres, Ann H Hale, 2 horses $50, 20 cows $100.

1875 - Tax List - E F Harland - 1 horse $40.  (son of Susan White Harland Creed)  (Precinct #1)

1875 - Tax List - Mrs M C Smith - 320 acres, D Miller HRS, 4 horses $200, 40 cows $200.  (Precinct #3)
                                                      60 acres, A G Melton HRS, 20 hogs $32.
                                                    540 acres, D H White HRS.

1875 - Tax List - Mrs Caroline Smith -   1660 acres Bastrop Co.  (Precinct #3)
                                                             300 acres, Cass Co Wm Tapp HRS.

1875 - Tax List - Leroy Alford - 800 acres, 19 horses $570, 46 cows $320, 18 hogs $6.  (Precinct #1)

1875 - Tax List - T M White - 100 acres, J S Herring, 1 horse $40.  (Precinct #1)

1875 - Tax List - M C White - 200 acres, J S Herring, 3 horses $125.   (Precinct #3)
                                               80 acres, Saml Bobo HRS, 6 cows $30.

1875 - Tax List - Wm P White - 125 acres, J A Reed HRS, 1 horse $40, 12 cows $60.  (Precinct #1)
1875 - Tax List - W P White    - 125 acres, 1 horse $45, 14 cows $100.  (Precinct #3)

1875 - Tax List - B F White - 100 acres, D H White HRS, 1 horse $80, 12 cows $60.  (Precinct #3)

1875 - Tax List - Ely Boon - 1 poll.  (Precinct #1)

1875 - Tax List - F E McCloskey - 120 acres, J S Herring, 1 horses $15, 1 cow $5, 2 hogs $6.  (Precinct #1)

1875 - Tax List - Jas P Landrum - 1 poll. (Precinct #3)   [no known relation]

1875 - Tax List - John Lawler - 1 horse $50, 5 cows $25, 8 hogs $16. (Precinct #4)   [no known relation]

1875 - Miller County begins operations in a rented courthouse with a $54,000. debt.

1875 - Ingersoll is established in Bowie County. It is named for Robert Green Ingersoll, a famous agnostic of the day, by mill workers who were contemptuous of religion. Residents voted to rename the town Redwater.

1875 - N. J. Flint is hired as the first city marshal.

1875 - Hake's Bank, Texarkana's first, opens its doors in a small wooden building where the Texarkana Historical Museum now sits.

1875 - May 11: Act is passed in the Texas Legislature forcing trains to stop 30 minutes on the Texas side of town. This came about because the Texas & Pacific Railway earlier promised to build a depot on the state line, and instead wanted to stop their trains only on the Arkansas side of town, thus creating an Arkansas railroad town. However, the passage of this act was a great inconvenience and forced the railroad to reconsider and ultimately build the depot on the State Line in 1875.

1875 - City Institutes dog tax: $1 on each mail, $2 on each female.

1875 - Home of Eli Moores is built near what is now the intersection of New Boston Road and Waterall Street.

1875 - Mount Zion Baptist Church opens on Elm Street. It is Texarkana's first black church.

1875 - Col. W. J. Allen starts the Texarkana News, the towns second newspaper.

1876 - J. S. Ragland went into business on Broad Street selling books, magazines, tablets, tables and chairs. Ragland office equipment operated in some form until the 1990's.

1876 - J. W. Davis erects the Cosmopolitan on Front Street. It had no electricity or running water.

1876 - Oct. 30: A group meets to organize St. James Episcopal Church. A wooden chapel is built in 1878 costing less than $1,500. In 1927, the sanctuary currently in use was built on Olive Street.

1877 - A. L. Ghio and Captain F. M. Henry build te first opera house in Texarkana. Within a year Ghio was also developing Spring Lake Park.

1877 - Oct. 23: W. B. Weeks, newspaperman arrives in town. He later became president of the Texarkana Pioneer Association for 22 years.

1877 - August 4: Fifteen former Mount Pisgah Baptist Church members form First Baptist church in Texarkana. On Oct. 12, 1877, the lot at Fourth and Pine streets was purchased. A church was built the following year. The church and charter are now located on Moores Lane in North Texarkana.

1877 - Thomas L. L. Temple, 18, comes to Texarkana and makes a fortune in the timber business. He later becomes a charter member of the United States Chamber of Commerce.

1877 - William G. Wadley arrives in town and builds a planing mill at the current site of Buhrman-Pharr Hardware Co. and a saw mill on State Line Avenue. He built the first logging railroad in the vicinity: it was 25 miles long.

1878 - Susan White Harlan Creed daughter of Elias & Anne departs this life having had 10 children, & cared for father, and other family.

1879 - Oct. 1: Commercial National Bank becomes the city's second Bank.

1879 - St. Agnes Academy, which later became Sacred Heart Academy, was established. It ceased operation in the 1960's.

1879 - The store that became Buhrman-Pharr Hardware Co. in 1908 was established. It still exists today.

1879 - Bank that would one day become the Texarkana Historical Museum is built. It is likely the first brick building in town.

1879 - Rehkopf Mattress Co. is established. It went out of business in 1973, the year of the city's Centennial.

1879 - Texarkana tries to wrestle county seat from Boston and fails.

1880 - Twenty-one local citizens meet and petition to incorporate the city of Texarkana, Ark. But they were not without detractors. A counter petition was signed by 15 citizens who opposed the town government being organized.

1880 - Aug. 10: The city of Texarkana Arkansas is granted a charter by Miller County Judge H. W. Edwards. Br. H. W. Beidler was elected Major.

1880 - Sept. 30: P. T. Barnums circus, The Greatest Show on Earth, plays Texarkana.

1880 - Nov. 12: The city government of Texarkana, Ark. Is founded. 1880 - Citizens Bank opens.

1880 - Texarkana's population is 3,223.

1880 - Cotton Belt railroad builds a line from Big Sandy, Texas, to Texarkana. Two years later, it would extend the line to Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

1880 - Miller County Population hits 10,000.

1880 - The "Great Raft" on the Red River was finally broken by army engineers using explosives. This opened the way for heavy steamboats traffic into this region.

1881 - Jan. 11: More that 200 immigrants pour through Texarkana during the coming two weeks, bound for other destinations.

1881 - May 21: Arkansas gives permission for the Texas and St. Louis Railway to build a narrow gauge railroad from Texarkana to the Arkansas-Missouri border. Texarkana receives the new railroad line in December 1882.

1881 - July 11: Gate City railway Co. is chartered. It never functions, but represents the city's first effort at providing street transportation. 1881 - W. L. Whitaker arrives in Texarkana and enters the logging business. In order to reach more timber, he organized the Texarkana Northern railway in 1885. In 1889 Whitaker sells this line to Kansas City, Nevada and Fort Smith railroad and by 1893 the company has tracks extended for Texarkana to Kansas City.

1881 - A group of businessmen meet to rid the town of "rascals". They left the meeting and headed to Front Street, where they "ordered every known bad character to summarily leave the city", according to a newspaper report. " We know it was not strictly in accordance with revised status, but under the protection of the law, matters for years past have gone from bad to worse."

1881 - During one two - week period, Iron Mountain railroad brings 2,400 immigrants to Texarkana.

1881 - Aug. 11: Texarkana Street railway Co. was chartered.

1881 - Dec. 25: From a newspaper report: A bad case of smallpox has been seen on the streets yesterday, mingling with the crowd. He was arrested and taken out of the corporation and quarantined in an outhouse. The people are afraid the decease will be epidemic.

1881 - Dec. 30: From Newspaper report: John Smith, a laborer, comes to town to make some purchases, and while standing in front of a saloon, a cowboy, named Tom Barry, began a tirade of abuse. Smith turned to defend himself, when Barry shot Smith, mortally wounding him. The citizens seized Barry and placed a rope around his neck, but the city marshal succeeded in preventing the lynching and took him to jail.

1882 - Sept. 3: Southwestern Telephone and Telegraph Exchange of New York was granted a franchise by Texarkana, Texas and Texarkana, Ark., to establish and run a telephone exchange. It located an office at 219 E. Broad St. and built a magneto exchange that required large crank-type telephones and batteries.

1882 - Ben Collins moves here from Kentucky and teams with George W. Fouke to build one of the largest Sawmills in North Texas. The also built a railroad line from Texarkana to Shreveport.

1882 - July 12: At least 28 people die when the Paragon Saloon collapsed in a storm and caught fire. It is still the city's worse disaster. Victims were buried in the Rose Hill Cemetery.

1882 - A business that would become F. W. Offenhauser Insurance Agency was founded. By 1889 it had taken over the building that would one day become the Texarkana Historical Museum.

1882 - Texarkana Tittle and Abstract Co. is founded.

1882 - Dec. 15: Groundwork begins on a new Texas-St. Louis passenger depot on State Line Avenue. The building will be about 40-by 300-feet.

1883 - Hake's Bank is absorbed by First National Bank. It was forced to close in 1895.

1883 - Central Christian Church conducts services in a public school building. The city bought the church's property in 1931 to build the downtown post office. In 1932, the church dedicated a new sanctuary at Ninth and Walnut streets.

1883 - Canaan Baptist church is established on Laurel Street.

1883 - St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church is started.

1884 - Texas Central School, located in the 600 block of Spruce Street, is constructed for students in grades one through seven. 1884 - The "Ace of Clubs House", as it is commonly known, is built at Fifth and Pine streets. The house is now part of the Texarkana Museum System.

1885 - Texarkana and Northern railroad build a logging line that later would become part of the Kansas City Southern system. Texarkana would soon become a hub for railroad transportation with more than 30 passenger trains stopping in Texarkana during its heyday. Trains were often three car affairs with express, mail and passenger cars pulled by wood burning locomotives. Passengers were not very comfortable and if the engines ran out of fuel, rail crews were sent to cut more until the trail reached the next woodpile.

1885 - Texarkana now claims at least 25 saloons. Above J. W. Rea's Saloon were offices of three doctors. Physicians above, pharmacy below?

1885 - Voters in Bowie County decide to move the county seat to Texarkana in a bitter election. Another election was held in 1890, and by a slim margin voted to move the county seat back to Bowie Counties center, which survey had determined was a mile south of where New Boston had sprung up along the railroad track. (See 1890 note)

1885 - H. W. Dillard was principal of a black school on the Texas side of town. School name is not known.

1885 - Scott Joplin leaves Texarkana to conquer the music world.

1885 - Dr. J. H. Wooten, Jack H. Wooten, and F. G. Wooten established a daily newspaper that was later purchased by the Daily Texarkanian.

1886 - A mule car line begins providing street transportation. The company was later given permission to electrify its line but never did.

1886 - Oct. 18: St. Louis, Arkansas, and Texas Railway (formerly the Texas and St. Louis Railway), convert from a narrow gauge line to a standard gauge because of competitive pressures.

1887 - Texarkana National Bank, the city's first permanent bank, organized. It had 23 stockholders and $100,000 in capital stock. In 1914 it moved to Broad Street and State Line Avenue. In 1924 it built an eight-story office building. In the 1990's, it would be absorbed by Hibernia National Bank.

1887 - First public school opens in Texarkana. Ninety students attended classes the first week. That had grown to 276 by years end.

1887 - St. James African Methodist Church is begun. 1887 - Timber king T. L. L. Temple settles here.

1887 - County seat is moved to Texarkana amid great controversy and courthouse established in the 200 block of Broad Streets. It didn't stay there long. Two years later a fire destroyed the building.

1887 - Baseball comes to the city. The Dixon boys played on a field where the Miller County Courthouse now stands.

1888 - First police force is established on the Texas side.

1888 - Newspaper reports that 18 of Texarkana's 23 saloons are located on Broad Street.

1888 - The town of "Boggy" is built on the banks of the Boggy Creek around a large sawmill.

1888 - A Methodist Church made by knotless pine as built in Dalby Springs to house a congregation that had existed for almost 50 years. At the turn of the century, Dalby Springs became a summer health resort, as people would seek out and drink from the red water springs to get relief (they hoped) from Kidney and stomach trouble.

1888 - May: Samuel Jackson Morris arrives in Bowie County with wife fanny Eddins Morris, and infant son. He is one of the earliest settlers of the Old Boston Community. He was organizer of Farmers State bank and its president in 1925 - 1926.

1888 - The first black physician arrives in Texarkana. His name is Shedd. The second to arrive was Dr. Mathew E. Stevens who practiced from 1891 - 1911.

1888 - Interstate College is opened in the section of town that today is known as College Hill. for which, of course, its name is derived.

1889 - New York Banker William R. Grim arrives in Texarkana. Later donates land for athletic field that will be named after him, (Texas Highs Grim Stadium).

1889 - Jan. 21: Fire guts Bowie County Courthouse in Texarkana and virtually all records are destroyed. Soon afterwards, county residents outside the city petitioned for an election to relocate the courthouse. The election was held in 1890 and the county residents, by a slim majority, voted to move the courthouse back to the county's center.

1889 - Texarkana Gas and Electric Co. was organized. It built the first electric light service in Texarkana.

1889 - Miles Chapel CME Church is organized. 1889 - First railroad depot built in Texarkana burns down. A first Union Station, and later a second, the one still standing, would follow.

1890 - Jan. 8: America's first quadruplets were born to Earnest T. Page and Nannie E. Page of Redwater in Bowie County. Page would go on to establish The Citizen's Bank in 1913, which would later become Guaranty State Bank.

1890 - September: Texarkana Gas and Electric Railway Co. is organized. It later forfeits the franchise.

1890 - Union Station is built at the junction of State Line Avenue and the rail yards. This building predates the Union Station that is still standing on Front Street.

1890 - For the only time in its history, the population of the Arkansas side is greater than the population of the Texas side, 3,528 to 2,852.

1890 - J. F. Shaw pulls his Seventh Day Baptist congregation out of Texarkana and established a colony in Fouke, Ark. He is credited with being the towns founder. The town was incorporated in 1911 and Shaw was its first mayor. The group left Texarkana because they felt they were being persecuted for claiming Saturday as the Sabbath. Prior to this, Shaw was the first pastor of First Baptist Church at Fourth and Pine streets in Texarkana. He became disenchanted and converted to Seventh Day Baptist.

1890 - Angry Texarkanians dump county records in a heap on the site where a new county courthouse would be built a year later. Along with gaining the county seat and courthouse in the election, the newly established county seat also claimed the predecessor's name, Boston. The former Boston, three miles tot he south, would soon be renamed Old Boston. And of course, New Boston was still growing a mile to the north along the railroad tracks. That's how there came to be three Bostons. Ultimately, New Boston would get the courthouse in the 1980's, after the one built in 1891 burned down.

1890 - D. E. Holiday is appointed the first police chief on the Arkansas side.

1891 - Jan. 12: St Louis, Arkansas, and Texas Railway is incorporated into the St. Louis Southwestern railway (Cotton Belt Route). It served Texarkana under this name for 82 years.

1891 - Bowie County Courthouse, a two story brick building, is constructed in Boston, Texas, in geographic center of the county. It had previously been at three other locations. It burned down on Aug. 12, 1989, and a new Courthouse was built in New Boston, along the Interstate.

1891 - Cornerstone is established for a new post office to straddle State Line Avenue and serve both sides of the city. 1892 - Red Lick Methodist Episcopal Church, South, lists 70 members on its register. In 1992, a historical marker was dedicated at the church.

1893 - Post Office - Federal Courthouse is built on State Line Avenue. It is replaced 40 years later with the structure that exists today.

1893 - Courthouse (not the current one) built in Miller County at a cost of $80,000. It was demolished in 1939 to make way for the building that now stands. That building cost $500,000.

1893 - Emma Francis Foster White is born, 5 Oct 1893 Maud Bowie County TX, wife of Newton Johnson White. 

1894 - Newton Johnson White is born, 24 Dec 1894 Maud Bowie County TX.

1894 - Land was purchased for the first public school in Texarkana, Ark.

1894 - First Presbyterian Church was organized from both Texas and Arkansas. Ten years later the Arkansas members with drew to organize First Presbyterian Church, Arkansas, with 187 charter members.

1895 - State Bank of Texarkana is organized. In 1920 it consolidated with another financial institution and became State First National Bank. And in the 1990's was absorbed by Regions Bank.

1895 - Calvin Monroe Hervey, who managed a large plantation in Lost Prairie, dies. 

1896 - Allen Monument Co. founded.

1896 - April 15: Free mail delivery service is established in Texarkana. William H. Mathew Sr. becomes one of five letter carriers.

1897 - Set. 11: Trail service between Kansas City and Port Arthur, Texas, begins. Three years later the line goes into bankruptcy and is reorganized as the Kansas City Southern railroad.

1898 - E. C. East goes into the mortuary business. East Funeral Home still exists today.

1898 - First bicycle arrives in the city.

1898 - Timber baron William Garrett Wadley moves to Shreveport. He had been in Texarkana since 1887.

1899 - Orr School, one of the oldest black schools on the Arkansas side, burns down.

1899 - Laura Jane White Landrum daughter of Elias & Anne departs this life having had 3 children.

1900 - Towns first hospital, Texarkana Sanitarium, is opened. It is housed in the Mann Home on Pine Street and incorporated by Dr. Spencer A. Collom, Dr. Geo. C. Abell, and Dr. Thomas F. Kittrell. It was enlarged in 1908 and 1917 and a nurse's home was built.

1901 - Tennison Brother Metal fabrication founded.

1902 - Spencer and Crouch become the first operators of electric street railway service in the city. The mule car system had by now been abandoned.

1902 - U. S. mail gets redistributed from a railroad car in the cities bustling rail yard. In 40 years, it would become one of the largest distribution terminals in the nation.

1902 - June: two and a half miles of electric railways had now been built on Texas side streets.

1902 - June 15: Texarkana loses to the Corsicana Oilers 51 - 3 in a game that set many Texas League records. C. D. DeWitt gave up 37 hits, including 16 home runs.

1902 - Both sides of the town dispense with all-volunteer fire departments, hire fire chiefs and drivers.

1902 - Rialto Building, now known as the Medical Arts Building, was erected. It is still standing at 317 State Line Ave. It was one of the first buildings to have electricity. In 1943 Dr. E. L. Beck converted it into a medical building.

1902 - International Creosoting and Construction, later Moss-American, founded. 

1902 - Wilbur Smith, who in the 1970's, 80's, and 90's would become the towns greatest ambassador and historian is born.

1902 - Oak Street Baptist Church is established. 1902 - March 12: Texarkana Telephone Co., an independent competitor, constructs a modern common battery exchange. Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Co.. is called the "old phone" by locals. TTC is the "new phone". Southwestern had long distance service, TCC had local only service.

1903 - Dec. 13: First Church of Christ Scientist holds initial meeting. After several moves, in 1957 it moves to location at 2724 County Avenue. In 1999, Seventh Day Baptist Church established a church at this location.

1903 - J. K. Wadley brings six "Merry Oldsmobile's" to Texarkana from Detroit. These were not the first automobiles here, but certainly some of the earliest.

1903 - Oct. 9: New Long Distance Telephone is organized to augment Texarkana Telephone Company.

1903 - Martha Ann White Alford daughter of Elias & Anne departs this life having had 7 children.

1904 - April 10 - Beech Street Baptist Church is organized with 83 charter members. The meeting was held at 3 p.m. at Miller County Courthouse.

1904 - Board of Trade organized. This would later become the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce.

1904 - Aug. 12: Cotton Belt passenger train derails south of Texarkana near International Creosote Plants.

1904 - November: Cotton Belt Hospital opens with 150 beds on a 35 acre site on one of the highest spots in Texarkana.

1904 - Texarkana Independent and Texarkana Democrat are sold, merged and become "Daily" Texarkanian.

1905 - April 29: A wood framed Beech Street Baptist Church burns down. It is rebuilt immediately with a $50,000 structure of classic Grecian style completed in October 1906. Three other fires would damage church structures during the next 25 years.

1905 - May: Holiness Church of Christ is founded here. It would later become First Church of the Nazarene. In 1972 a new church was built at Richmond and Robinson Roads.

1905 - Timberlake Hardware on Main Street in downtown Texarkana opens. It closed early in the 1990's. 1905 - W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Co. founded.

1907 - The Daily Texarkanian reports: "Broad Street will soon be a regular blaze of light with the electric signs that have already been erected and that are soon to be lit up. They are all large, handmade affairs and give Broad Street a decided city appearance.

1907 - Oct 12: J. Q. Mahaffey, long time editor of the Texarkana Gazette is born.

1907 - Dr. Garland Uriah Jamison Sr. arrives in Texarkana. He and partners would establish a medical clinic, a sanitarium, a nurses training facility and a drug store.

1908 - Texarkana Gas and Electric Co. brings first natural gas to town by installing a pipeline to the Caddo Field in Northeast Louisiana and East Texas. TG&EC had earlier absorbed Texarkana GasLight Co., and early franchise holder.

1908 - May 31: Local newspaper reports the birth of a double headed calf that had two nostrils, two mouths, two tongues, and two sets of teeth, and was joined together about where the eyes ought to be.

1909 - July 27: Arkansas-side City Council refuses to ratify the selection of J. J. Hussey as joint fire Chief, saying they did not think the Texas side was acting fair in the matter and that appeared they "wanted everything their own way". Hussey was eventually appointed and served until the two departments were separated. But from 1909 until 1934, one fire department protected both sides of town. 1

1909 - Texarkana gets its first fire truck, kept at the old Texas Central Fire Station. A car for the fire chief, also a first, was purchased a year earlier.

1909 - Salvation Army Church holds first services.

1909 - The National Humane Alliance gives Texarkana the Herman Lee Ensign Fountain as a gift. It now sits at Seventh Street and State Line Avenue. It initially was placed in front of the downtown post office as a watering trough for horses and dogs and to improve scenery. It was moved after towns people objected to it because it collected refuse and attracted flies. In 1926 it was moved because automobiles had mostly replaced horse drawn vehicles.

1909 - Texarkana Courier was started by J. W. Stuart. He was the first editor to erect a modern newspaper building.

1909 - Texarkana Telephone Co. is placed in receivership. After 2 and one half years, obligations were liquidated and in 1912 it was reorganized under new leadership. During this period, New Long Distance Co. was purchased by TTC. Both were at Third and State Line in the Offenhauser building, now the Texarkana Museum.

1910 - 1919 1909 (or 1910) - President William Taft makes a stop in Texarkana during a train tour. He makes a short address from the observation platform of the presidential car.

1910 - Population of Texarkana reaches 18,000, nearly doubling during the prior decade.

1910 - C. E. Palmer establishes the Four States Press, after buying the Texarkana Courier an absorbing it into this publication.

1910 - Construction completed on the Texas Viaduct.

1911 - Construction gets under way on a new high school on the Texas side. This is currently the site of the Pine Street Middle School Campus.

1912 - Texas High - Arkansas High play first football game. THS wins, 46 - 0. 1912 - Texarkana Gas & Electric Co., the Shreveport Gas & Electric, and Caddo Gas & Oil Co. merge to form Southwestern Gas & Electric Co., and provided services to Texarkana, Shreveport, and Bossier, La.

1912 - Texarkana, Texas Fire Department purchases the city's first motor driven fire fighting apparatus.

1913 - May: Because the public was generally dissatisfied with the operation of two telephone companies in Texarkana, the Texarkana Texas City Council passed an ordinance allowing the Texarkana Telephone Company to take over the exchange owned by Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company. In March 1914, the Arkansas side council did the same thing. The sale and merger was finally completed in 1915.

1913 - Morris Sheppard is elected to the U. S. Senate. He would serve 28 years, until his death. He had spent the previous 13 years on Congress.

1913 - Trigg Street train station is torn down. This early depot was located where Seventh Street underpass now is located.

1914 - George Strong poses for famous photograph taken in front of downtown post office. He is standing on one side of the State Line, holding a donkey standing on the other side of the State Line. The caption reads: The man in Texas and his ass in Arkansas. Millions of post cards were sold, peaking when troop trains passed through during WWI.

1914 - Texarkana Negro Business League was formed. It lasted 30 years.

1914 - Sept. 22: Group from Hooks, Texas, begin exploratory mission work in Texarkana. Services for what would later become First Lutheran Church are held with in a month. There were 15 members.

1914 - Conor Hotel, for Blacks, closes down.

1915 - April 30 - Texarkana Telephone Co. buys Southwestern Telegraph Co. and merges the two interests, keeping the former name. The system is now headquartered at Third and Wood Streets and has one common battery system.

1916 - Sept. 14: Mecheal Meagher Hospital opens in Texakrana, under-written by an $80,000 bequest from the estate of its namesake, who was killed in a violent mugging in San Antonio. It would later become St. Micheal Hospital and in 1999 it was renamed Christus Saint Micheal Health care System.

1916 - Doddridge, Arkansas, in Miller County burns down. Much of what is known about the town's history is lost in the blaze. 1917 - April Texarkana Rotary Club is organized.

1917 - February. Texarkana Lions Club is chartered.

1917 - May: Young Men's Business League merges with Board of Trade to become the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce.

1917 - Jamison Sanitarium is founded.

1918 - October: Otis Henry, a local man who fought in World War I with many other local men, is gassed at Vincey. His mother erects a magnificent Italian marble monument at Rose Hill cemetery.

1918 - Nov. 18: Shrieking whistles about 2 a.m. signal the end of World War I, and the "war to end all wars". The streets soon became crowded with residents, bearing fireworks and firearms to celebrate the signing of the Armistice. By evening, every resident, it seemed, had jammed onto Broad Street for a peace demonstration.

1919 - Jan. 16: Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution, written by Sen. Morris Sheppard, is ratified. This the Prohibition Amendment that outlawed the manufacturer, sale or transportation of liqueur. It would be repealed in 1933 when the 21st amendment was ratified. * Sheppard was reared in Texarkana and at the time of his death was the dean of the U. S. Senate. He was also an author of the Sheppard-Towner Act, the principles of which have been incorporated into what is now Social Security. He is also credited with helping get Red River Army Ammunition Plant to the area.

1919 - Jamison Sanitarium opens. It served as a hospital for blacks until 1963 when it closed.

1919 - Texarkana tries to wrestle the county seat from Boston and fails. 1920 - April 1: Walsh Lumpkin Drug Company founded. The Company was the first to supply insulin to the Four States Area. 1920 - May 11: Texarkana Telephone Co. expands, changes, its name to two states Telephone Company. In 1950, the company is acquired by General Telephone Co. of the southwest.

1920 - A barber shop is used as the first Church of Christ meeting place. In 1922 it moved to a hall on East Broad Street and in 1929 it moved to a Pine Street location. In 1968 it moved to its current location at 12th and Walnut Streets.

1921 - First radio broadcast was heard in Texarkana.

1921 - Sept. 2: Article appears in the Daily Texarkana: C. E. De Witt, Chief Special Agent, Automobile theft situation existed here. Mr. DeWitt stated that thee are twice as many cars stolen each month in Texarkana, Texas, than in any other city of its size in the state.

1922 - Bryce's Cafeteria opens downtown. After a long and famous run, it moves toa location along Interstate 30 in the early 1990's.

1923 - Thomas Monroe White dies, 15 Sept 1923, Maud Bowie County TX, buried at Center Ridge Cemetery in Maud TX.

1923 - October 23: Texarkana celebrates the 50th, or Golden Anniversary. Governors from both states meet at Third Street and State Line Avenue to shake hands during the celebration.

1923 - Martin Patterson opens The Art Shop, a photographic and framing business. The business is still family owned, but has evolved into Patterson's Camera Shop, Studio, & Imaging Center.

1924 - March 11: City breaks ground for the Hotel Grim. Construction was complete in 1926 at a cost of $600,000. The hotel has been vacant all of the 1990's, in spite of continuing efforts to revive it.

1924 - Lillie Barber becomes one of the first female sheriffs in the county when she replaces her husband, Lish Barber, after he died in a grocery store shootout on College Hill. Convicted of Barbers murder was a former Texarkana, Arkansas police chief.

1924 - Nov. 10: Mass meeting held to discuss establishing a public library.

1924 - Arkansas high beats Texas High School for the first time in football, 3-0

1924 - Saenger - Paramount Theater is built. 1924 - City gets Spring Lake Park, which until then was private property.

1925 - The Hotel Grim is completed. It had 188 rooms and was elegant.

1925 - Election to move Bowie County seat back to Texarkana fails.

1925 - Howard Carver has the first Coca - Cola Co. car in Texarkana.

1925 - KFYA, Texarkana's first radio station, starts broadcasting. The first words broadcast locally over radio airwaves were accidental. While setting up the equipment, the voice of one of the other workers was transmitted out asking other workers, "Where the hell have you been?"

1925 - December. Texarkana's first public library opens with 1,400 books on corner of Seventh Street and State Line Avenue.

1925 - C. E. Palmer starts the Texarkana Journal to supplement his morning newspaper, The Four States Press. He is later bought out and his papers merged with other papers to become the Texarkana Gazette.

1925 - William Buchanan dies. At the time of his death he owned seven sawmills and had almost 5,000 employees.

1926 - Union Station is torn down. It will be replaced on the same location by the building that is now standing.

1926 - Texarkana Municipal Airport opens at its current location. It averages two private flights a week. Later, it was named Webb Field for most of its existence, after Howard Webb, its longtime manager. It was proceeded by an airstrip at Spring Lake Park that was operational during the early to mid 1920's.

1926 - Texarkana tries to wrestle the county seat from Boston and fails.

1927 - First classes held at Texarkana College, located at 16th and Pine streets. 109 students enrolled. It was part of the Texas side public school system until 1957. H. W. Stilwell was both superintendent of schools and president of the college.

1928 - Sept. 27 - Vitaphone brings the first talking movies to Texarkana at the Saenger Theater.

1929 - Dec. 10 - Dan Blocker is born in Bowie County, son of Shack and Mary Blocker. He weighs in at 14 pounds, the largest baby, at that time, ever born in the county. The would grow to be 6 feet 3 inches tall and weigh 300 pounds. He turned down a chance to play pro football to pursue a career in acting. He went on to star in the television series, "Banaza", playing Hoss Cartwright. He died in 1972 of complications from gall bladder surgery. He was 43 years old. Ratings slipped for Bananza, and the series was cancelled in 1973.

1929 - Jamison Building is constructed on corner of Third and Oak streets. It opened in 1930 and for many years served as a center for black social life.

1929 - Union Station is built by four railroads at a cost of $1 million.

1929 - Wright Patman is elected to he U. s. House of Representatives. He would stay 47 years until his death. His influence, along with that ofU. S. Sen. Morris Sheppard, would secure Red River Army Depot and Lone Star Ammunition Plant to the area in 1941.

1930 - 1939 1930's - Texarkana is often called Little Chicago during this period because crime was so prevalent and uncontrolled.

1930 - May 12: Opening of new Union Station, called one of the first terminals in the southwest, is a gala affair.

1930 - May 12: H. Ross Perot was born, son of Gabriel Ross Perot a Texarkana Cotton buyer. He becomes one of the richest Texans, initially on his development and ownership of Electronic Data Processing Systems. He becomes a political player in the 1990's, mounting one of the most successful third party presidential campaigns in history and establishing the Reform Party.

1930 - July 27: Oil flows from a well 13 miles east of Texarkana in Miller County. Buyers and speculators have been in town for a week in anticipation. Well's depth is about 3,000 feet.

1930 - W. A. McCartney Sr. erects the modern - era McCartney Hotel (which now stands vacant downtown). It was the first with air-conditioning. McCartney arrived in 1874 and started a more modest McCartney Hotel.

1930 - Boston's status as county seat becomes secure, because Texas aw prohibits elections to move centrally located county seats that have been established for 40 or more years. This knocked Texarkana out of the picture for good. However, the law did not prevent a courthouse from being built in New Boston in 1986, after the 1891 courthouse burned down. The law allowed for a courthouse to be re-established with-in a four mile radius.

1931 - U. S. Congress designates a Confederate burial plot at Rondo Cemetery a national shrine. Eighty - five soldiers camped nearby during the Civil war were lost to an outbreak of measles. Their remains were moved to the cemetery after the war.

1932 - June 26: Tri-motored Ford aircraft landed at Texarkana Airport for the first air mail flight to the city.

1932 - Cowley School, the first built in north central Bowie county, burns down in a suspicious fire. Suspect was arrested and jailed but never brought to trial. From here on, students are bused to New Boston.

1932 - Southwestern Electric Power Co. is providing 6,345 customers in Texarkana with 11.3 million kilowatt hours of power. By 1972 those t5hose figures had grown to 24,000 customers and 429 million kilowatt hours. In 1998 there were 1.3 billion-kilowatt hours and 33,846 customers in Texarkana proper, Nash, and Wake Village.

1933 - C. E. Palmer and several associates buy the Texarkana Gazette and Texarkana Daily News. He continues as publisher until his death in July 1957.

1933 - Sept. 30: Federal building that now straddles State Line Avenue in downtown Texarkana is first occupied.

1933 - Dec. 5: The 18th Amendment written by Sen. Morris Sheppard who was reared and maintained a home in Texarkana, is repealed. Even in defeat, Sheppard continued to defend the amendment, remaining true to his convictions.

1934 - Cities decide to ditch joint fire chief. Each city would now have their own. 

1934 - March 24: Texas side passes a law making "walkashows, walkathons, marathon dances, long distance dances" unlawful whether an admission price is charged or not.

1934 - East Texas Motor Freight begins operations with pickup trucks. Interstate operations began the following year and by 1939, they were transporting goods to five states.

1934 - Electric street cars see their last days. 1934 - KCMC radio is established in studio inside the Hotel Grim.

1935 - Joe Eldridge and C. E. Mitchell secured a franchise to run buses I the city, serving all routes formerly served by electric street cars. They started Texarkana Bus Co. with seven buses.

1936 - Texarkana Jaycees charter with 21 members. 1936 - The summer streetcar to Spring Lake Park and the popular Spring Lake Park Theater cease operation.

1937 - A group of women led by Geneva M. Russell from a Civic Art and Social Club with the goal of building a public library for Negroes in Texarkana. As more money was raised, a Public Library for Negroes in Texarkana was established at 317 Oak St. and was later accepted as a Community Chest agency. This library was later merged with the Public Library on State Line Avenue.

1937 - Texarkana dedicates World War 1 memorial at Morris Sheppard Park, adjacent to the federal building downtown. On April 14, a time capsule was buried at the site to be opened in 50 years.

1938 - Martha Olivia Harris White dies, wife of Thomas Monroe White, 8 Dec 1938, Maud Bowie County TX, she is buried at Center Ridge Cemetery Maud TX.

1938 - Bowie County Courthouse is renovated. It would be destroyed by fire in the 1980's.

1939 - The Noon Optimist Club was founded in Texarkana. 1939 - Jan. 1: Fifteen buses are now operating in the city, covering 29 miles of routes. In 1938 the fare was a nickel.

1940 - 1949 1940 - Popluation of Texarkana was at 29,000, but it would soon increase dramatically. By the middle of World War II, only a few years later, it was estimated as high as 55,000.

1940 - June: Texarkana Stockyards, which opened earlier in the year, is sold to the Jarboe family.

1940 - First Baptist Church is demolished at Fourth and Pine Streets. The new building is finished two years later. The church moved to Moores Lane in the 1980's. Downtown First Baptist Church now worships at the Pine Street address.

1941 - July 30: Work order issued for the creation of red River Ordnance Depot, 18 miles west of Texarkana. It was activated Nov. 19 of the same year. Ammunition arrived exactly one week later. On aril 17, 1942, the last of 702 ammunition Igloos was completed. It grew into the nations largest ordnance establishment, with more than 6,200 personnel during World War II. During the Korean War, more than 11,573 civilians were employed there.

1941 - August: Lone Star Army Plant, adjacent to Red River Ordnance Depot, was established. Before the conclusion of World War II as many as 10,430 people were employed there. Initial cost of construction and equipment in $33.3 million. The first line went into operation May 26, 1942.

1943 - Jehovah's Witnesses move to their first Kingdom Hall. The congregation was first organized in the 1930's.

1944 - June 12: Texarkana hosts the national opening of the Fifth War Loan drive for financing World War II. KCMC Radio broadcast two programs that carried over half of the United States. Hollywood producer Orsen Welles wrote and directed a radio program broadcast from the Paramount Theater. Dignitaries from both states and the nation were on hand, along with a bevy of Hollywood stars and U, S, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morganthau Jr. The event was also dubbed "Civilian D-Day".

1945 - Retail sales in the city hit $28.5 million. Sales dropped to $6 million by the end of the Korean War.

1945 - Aug. 15 - The day after President Harry Truman announces the surrender of Japan, merrymakers throng the downtown area from 6 p.m. well into the night. Businesses were closed the next day in celebration.

1945 - Four States Fair was held next to Spring Lake Park.

1945 - Nov. 5: Lone Star Army Plant and red River Ordnance Depot consolidate into Red River Arsenal: However, Lone Star keeps its separate identity.

1946 - Phantom Killer lays siege on Texarkana, and during a six week spree he shoots six people, five to death, and batters two others, turning the community into "The Town That Dreaded Sundown", and drawing national attention. He was never captured.

1946 - Feb, 22 - 23: Jimmy Hollis, 24 and Mary Jean Larey,. 19, are parked on a dirt road off Richmond Road, (then a county road), about 1.5 miles northwest of the Beverly neighborhood. An unidentified man with a pistol walks up and orders the couple out of the car. He beats and robs Hollis and attempts to rape the woman, using the firearm to sexually assault her. Miss Larey escapes. Hollis is left unconscious but later recovers.

1946 - March 24: Richard Griffin, 29, and Polly Ann Moore, 17, are found shot to death with a .32 Caliber Colt pistol in their 1941 Oldsmobile sedan parked on a dirt road off South Robinson Road, near where it intersects with U. S. Highway 67. Official reports would later say Miss Moores was raped.

1946 - April 14: Paul Martin, 16, and Betty Jo Booker, 15, are found shot to death, about a mile and a half apart, in a wooded area north of Spring Lake Park. Both were shot with a .32 caliber Colt pistol. The victims car was found about 400 yards north of the main park entrance, and about 1.5 miles from Martin's body. Official reports would later say Miss Booker was raped. Texas ranger "Lone Wolf" Gonzaulles is dispatched to town to head up the "Phantom Killer" investigation, one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of all times. He arrested 400 people while in town, but the Phantom Killer was never brought to justice. Gonzaullas had a reputation as a maverick lawman. Five more Rangers are sent here. One is already on the scene.

1946 - April 16: For the first time, The Texarkana daily News uses phrase "Phantom Killer" to label the at-large and unidentified man the town linked tot he four murders.

1946 - May 4: Virgil Starks, 36, a Miller County farmer living near the Homan community about 10 miles northeast of Texarkana on U. S. Highway 67, is sitting in his living room reading a newspaper near the window when he is shot through the back of the head with a .22 caliber pistol. His wife, Kate Starks, attempts to call police but is shot twice in the face. When the gunman attempts to enter her home, she manages to flee across the highway to a neighbors house. Her husband dies. She survives but cannot identify the gunman.

1946 - June 10: Life magazine published a two-page photo spread titled: "Texarkana Terror", illustrating how the town was tight in the grip of mass terror. The cause was "a Phantom murderer" who killed men and women in pairs at three-week intervals. Article said wives refused to go out after dark and "the movie house, featuring " Mid-night Manhunt, The Haunted Mine, and The Phantom Speaks" were largely empty.

1946 - June 28: police arrest a 21 year old woman who they believe was the companion of the prime suspect, after linking her to a car stolen the night of the Griffin-Moore murders, which they recovered on this date. She would later marry the suspect and could not be compelled to testily against him.

1946 - October: Betty Joe Booker's saxophone is found by two men repairing a fence on Morris Lane, about 140 yards from where her body was found, thus ending months of searching for the missing instrument, once thought to have been removed by the murderer.

1946 - Following war's end, Red River Ordnance Depot stores more than 58,000 military vehicles, possibly the largest number ever assembled at one installation.

1946 - Texarkana Bears formed and play the following year in the Big States (baseball) League. Texarkana's last professional sports team folds in 1949.

1947 - Dr. George W. Thompson begins practicing medicine here this year. He was the only black physician in practice at the time of his death in 1982. He was also the first black to serve on the Texas-side city council.

1948 - KCMC Radio constructs one of the tallest transmission towers in the nation.

1948 - A bond issue is approved by Texas-side voters authorizing the purchase of land for a new campus for Texarkana College and the construction of new buildings. The college moved from 16th and Pine Streets to its current location on Robinson Road three years later.

1949 - First Pentecostal Church moves from a tent ministry to a building on Lumpkin Street. In 1960, land was purchased for a church at 812 W. 29th St.

...They came and labored upon this land and touched our lives, as our story of life continues...