Grayson County TXGenWeb

Old Warren
County Seat

The principal settlements in the late 1830s in what was to become Grayson county were on Iron Ore Creek and Preston Bend on the Choctaw, at Warren and below Warren on the river. Warren was considered the principal settlement given its commercial advantages and being the principal trading post for Indians on both sides of the river. It had several stores of whom the merchants were Daniel Montague, William Henderson, and William and Slater Baker. (J.J. Wilbarger. Indian Depredations in Texas. c1890, pg. 390-391)
The first sermon heard by the pioneers of Grayson County was delivered by a Methodist minister by the name of John Denton, well known to the Dugan family and from Arkansas. Upon arriving in Texas, he located in Clarksville but occasionally visited court held at Warren. During one of these occasions he accepted a request from Mrs. Dugan to preach at the school house in Warren. This was the last sermon heard by these pioneers for several years. (J.J. Wilbarger, Indian Depredations in Texas, c1890, pg.395)

Early County Seat
Old Warren was the county seat of the original Fannin County. It had been established as an Indian trading post by Abel Warren, who came from Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and was fortified in pioneer fashion against Indian attacks.
A hill just west of where Ambrose now stands was known as Indian Mountain, because if was t heir lookout when they raided the Warren Flats area. Piles of stone still mark the site of Old Warren, which in later years was known as Kitchen's Fort.
At Warren was organized on November 3, 184 0, the 13th Masonic lodge in Texas.
A wedding that left its imprint on early Grayson history occurred in 1837. Col. Coffee of Preston married Sophia Suttonfield at Old Washington, Texas, and the newlyweds traveled 600 miles by horseback to Col. Coffee's trading post on Red River.
In 1843 Co. Coffee built Glen Eden which remained Grayson's most colorful home until it was dismantled and moved from the Lake Texoma basin. Glen Eden through its early years was an oasis of hospitality in the wild frontier country with its guests including many men now famous in history, such as Robert E. Lee, Sam Houston, Albert Sidney Johnston, Fitzhugh Lee and others.
When the Indians learned that the newly created Fannin County belonged to Texas instead of the United States, they launched a series of depredations, the beginning of a four-year war between the settlers and the Red Skins. Samuel Washburn was the first white man killed at the out break of these disorders, and the first expedition of white men to drive out the Indians started from Coffee's Trading Post, headed by Col. Coffee.
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Early Military Road
Col. William G. Cooke was sent with a force of men in 1839 to lay out a military road from the Brazos River to Red River. After encountering severe hardships, in which the men were forced to subsist on dog and horse meat, he succeeded in establishing Ft. Johnston, between Coffee's Trading Post and Basin Springs, and a supply post at Coffee Bend, which became known as Ft. Preston.
Chief among the hardships braved by founders of Grayson County was recurring violence by Indians. Rangers were dispatched at intervals to the areas and Red Skins tracked down after raids frequently bit the dust. During the era of the Republic, Texans frequently braved the ire of the United States to Cross Red River to head off Indian bands reported headed this way on marauding trips. One scouting party found a group of 40 warriors living at Shawneetown, at the mouth of the Shawnee Creek north of Denison. These Indians seemed friendly enough.
An expedition that attracted attention throughout Texas and the United States started on April 25, 1843, from the Preston area to punish Mexicans for treatment suffered by Texans at trading posts in the Southwest. Maj. Jacob Snively, with the permission of the Texas government, commanded the 177 men who were victorious against the Mexicans near Santa Fe, New Mexico, countering a force of United States soldier.
A monument marking the starting point of the Snively expedition was erected at Preston by the Texas Historical Society and was removed during construction of the Denison Dam.

First Indian Battle
The first battle with Indians in what now is Grayson County is said to have occurred in 1843 just south of where Sherman now stands. A party of white men, headed by Daniel Montague, a Fannin County surveyor, tracked down a band of Indians that had been robbing settlers, and killed most of them. The site of this fight has been known as Montague's Grove since.
It was during the year 1843, also, that the seat of Fannin County was moved from Old Warren to Bois d'Arc, now Bonham.
A year later the Virginia point community was established near what now is the Grayson-Fannin line, north of Bells. Establishment of a Methodist Church was the beginning of this community, founded by settlers from Virginia. By the spring of 1845, a large population had gathered around the Coffee Trading Post, and the town of Preston was laid off. Several buildings were erected and mercantile firms moved across the river from Ft. Washita. Boats moved up the river regularly as far as Ft. Towson and at times as far as Preston, bringing supplies for settlers throughout the Red River area.