Freestone County, Texas Towns Towns of Troy, Pine Bluff, and Board Pile by Eric Bonner Wood Now only a ghost town, Troy was located about the middle of Freestone County near the banks of the Trinity River. Troy was founded in 1847 by M. Bateman near a crossing point on the Trinity River. Most of the early settlers came through Troy going into the county. Troy itself was half a mile inland to prevent flooding. In 1847, the first steamboat, the Reliance, under the command of Captain Thomas Webb came up the Trinity River to the river banks near Troy. *1* In March 1848, the Reliance under Captain Webb brought down 973 bales of cotton, 479 hides, and 41 bales of furs. *2* Pine Bluff was founded only a few months after Troy as the river port city. *5* Steamboats and flat boats going up and down the Trinity River stopped at the Pine Bluff docks which lay just below the settlement. According to old mileage charts, it was 575 miles upriver to the docks at Pine Bluff. *3* Pine Bluff was considered by many as the furtherest one could travel up the Trinity in HIGH water times. *4* They would stop and off load their cargo onto wagons to travel up by Stewards Mill towards settlements northward such as Corsciana. For travelers coming overland from the east, Cook's Ferry nearby offered a cable across the river. Pine Bluff was named for its pine tree bluff. That does not sound significant, but it is. Pine Bluff is the western edge of the great Long Leaf Pine forest, where it just barely extends across the Trinity River there. Basically this is the last point to get pine trees. Pine trees do not grow in the river bottoms like oaks, thus only appearing on the bluff above. Around Fairfield and other point west, oaks and cedars are found, but pine trees cannot survive because of a lack of rain fall. In the early 1850s, Troy was the largest town in the county. After Freestone County was created in 1850, Troy received some votes to become the county seat, but ultimately Poland (renamed to Fairfield) became the county seat. Troy's post office was the first in the county starting on Nov 4, 1850 with William L. Adams as postmaster and was discontinued after the civil war on Nov 5, 1866. Troy had the first Masonic lodge in the county called "Pine Bluff Lodge #85-A", established on January 23, 1852, that later moved to Rocky Spring. Early leading families in Troy were those of Macaja/Micajah Bateman [#132], General Bradberry, Joell Clapp, John Claypool, Benjamin Franklin Edwards, Goins, Dan Potter, Prater, Robert Malone Tyus, Berryman P. Hammett, and L. Walker. The two leading trading firms were those of Bragg & Clough and the McLain firm. [My best guess for the residents of Troy in the 1850 Limestone census seems to be #104 to #133.] Freestone County is the transition point from trees to prairie. The early Anglo settlers found the first openings/prairies and started farming there. (The absence of trees was later determined to have been due to the coal deposits under the surface). Boards and logs were required for the early homes. The large trees along the Trinity River provided timber after a sawmill was built in the 1850s and thus the small community of Boardpile began, taking its name from the piles of boards stacked around. Troy appears in the list of post offices in Texas furnished by the postmaster of Galveston in December 1, 1856 to Dr. Braham that published in "Braman's Information About Texas" printed in Philadelphia in 1857. Troy declined after a new ferry at Magnolia in Anderson County began. Also, the Trinity River did not prove a reliable way for transit, with travelers having to sometimes wait months for the river to rise. By 1860, the census shows Troy had shrunk to only 49 people. Most of its population moved to Butler. By 1890, Troy and Pine Bluff had been totally abandoned. My father, Forrest Edwards "Buddy" Wood Jr, remembers looking for stray cattle from horseback amongst the ruins of Troy in the 1950s. All that was left then was the Edwards/Troy cemetery under a stand of trees and some stone/cement building foundations barely visible under the tall grass. Other nearby known cemeteries are Tyus and Hammett. All of these cemeteries were abandoned and are very poorly maintained. Troy has disappeared by 1918 and is not listed on the soil map of the county in 1918. *1* = One account lists the size of steamboat "Reliance" as 130 feet long and 26 feet wide, but this may not be accurate since sometimes there was multiple boats with the same name even plying the same river. *2* = Telegraph and Texas Register (see April 11, June 1, and June 8). *3* = River Mileages: Magnolia = 512; Blackshear's = 522; Bonner's Ferry (Cherokee Co.) = 535; Sulphur = 538; Parker's Bluff = 543; WEST POINT = 558; PINE BLUFF = 575; Jackson's Bluff = 595. Many of the Galveston papers from 1867 to 1869 post the mileages. For instance, The Galveston Tri-Weekly News (of Galveston, Texas) - December 31, 1869 - Page: 4. *4* = According to an 1893 interview with the veteran ship Captain Joseph Boddecker of Galveston, he first began steamboating on the Trinity in 1855 on the "Grapeshot", which was a 1,200 bale boat. Pine Bluff, about 600 miles from Galveston, was considered the head of navigation during high water and boats seldom went beyond that point and Magnolia. (Galveston's Daily News in Apr 23, 1893). *5* = The Northern Standard (of Clarksville, Red River Co., Texas) June 24, 1848 Page: 4 PINE BLUFFS A TOWN with the above name, has been laid off upon the west bank of the Trinity river, a high and beautiful bluff, immediately above the south line of Mercer’s Colony, and below all rafts and obstructions to the navigation of the Trinity. Navigation to this point is undoubted: a boat having been within 20 miles of it February last, and the river being uninterruptedly good to the Bluffs. The Town and the county immediately around, abound with bold springs of purest water. The health of the place is believed to be good – there being neither swamps nor stagnant water about, and the families who resided at the place last year having good health. North, West, and South, of the Bluffs, for a great distance, is as rich farming land as there is in the world. GOOD ROADS, which will not have to cross either swamps or boggy land, can be had to the place from any desirable direction. As a point for SHIPMENT OF PRODUCE it has great advantages, there being no bluffs on the west bank of the Trinity, below the obstructions to Navigation, and high enough as a deposit for the produce of the Upper Trinity Country, combining the accessibility and other advantages of this point. As a point for Mercantile establishment at the present time, it is unequalled in the Upper Trinity region, as the country which should properly trade at this point immense. The Richland, Chambers Creek and Navasoto County all lies adjacent. At least 500 bales of Cotton will be shipped from this point the coming winter, and much more would be, but for the difficulty in procuring seed. We offer to donate lots to Merchants and Mechan??? who will settle at this point and improve them. All persons who may desire to settle at a new place, having every prospect of rapid rise, are invited to examine the locality and purchase lots, which will be sold low. A good ferry boat is constantly kept at the place. W. NICKS ANDERSON, For Charles Fenton Mercer & Associates (n5 tf) *6* = The Star State Patriot (of Marshall, Harrison County, Texas) Sept 9 & 25, 1852 - Page: 2 A friend has kindly furnished us a letter on Freestone County, from which we take a brief extract - in order to show the credence given to Gen. Pierce's letter of denial to the New Boston Abolition sentiments, alleged to have been uttered by him. Troy, Freestone Co., Texas. September the 4th, 1852 We are in receipt of papers furnishing the most reliable poof of Gen. [Franklin] Pierce's Freesoil traits. It is now pretty certain, since Gen. Pierce is the Northern man, and not like little Kinderhook Van, but void of Southern principals, that even this portion of Texas will go for Gen. Scott, unless there can be brought to bear more substantial proof to do away with this New-Boston affair, than anything yet brought to light. After all their efforts to this end, it amounts to a puerile attempt at bluff, with general denials, without saying what should have been said on the occasion, and seemingly leaving the imaginative democracy to supply the omissions as occasions may require, to suit their own views, what he should, or rather what they would he should have said. TROUPE. [Notes to help understanding: Free-soil is an anti-slavery movement and political party. Franklin Pierce would later become the president of the United States in 1853 by defeating the Whig party’s candidate of General Winfield Scott. A focal battle ground of the abolitionist and slavery owners would be in Kansas during Pierce’s presidency. “Kinderhook Van” is a reference to Martin Van Buren, a former U.S. president, born in Kinderhook, NY.]