|
Jefferson-Quitman Road |
Jefferson Road, built through the area in 1853 for use by local farmers hauling their cotton to Jefferson.
Historical Marker Text
Jefferson-Quitman Road
One of three pioneer roads that crossed Upshur County and aided in development of Texas. Was heavily used by freighters and settlers heading westward, and by those exporting cotton, hides and produce to the inland port at Jefferson. Was crossed at this point by Cherokee Trace (so named for Indians who used it to travel between their home reservation in Arkansas and their lands near Nacogdoches. The Mt. Gilead Primitive Baptist Church was organized near here in July 1848. Church land and cemetery were given by pioneer merchant Leonidas Cartwright.
| Samuel Martin Flournoy "In 1852, as commissioner of the Second Precinct in Wood County, he, with two associates, used slave labor to build a road from Quitman to the Upshur county line. They met another crew who had constructed a similar road from Jefferson. The Jefferson Road, as it was called, was the first of its kind in Northeast Texas." |