 With
Denison now in its 118th years, a wealth of history has been created
along the way. A fascinating fragment of Denison's past belongs
to another town that had hoped it would be the gateway to North Texas -
Red River City.
The significant events that occurred in early 1853 set the stage for the creation of Red River City, fourteen years later. The Southern Overland Stage Line was established, giving passenger and mail service from St. Louis, Missouri to San Francisco. Ben Colbert also built his first ferry boat and began operating on Red River. Colbert was born in Mississippi, the son of a Chickasaw Indian Chief, his mother was French. Being the son of a chief meant thousands of acres of land as his birthright. However, for unknown reasons, Ben and the Mississippi tribe migrated to the Oklahoma Territory in the late 1850s, a move that could be termed very fortuitous for Ben. The news of the stage line and its route fell right into COlbert's hand. Being the son of a chief helped in procuring the land from the Chickasaw Indian Nation, free of charge. With the help of slave labor, the ferry landings were graded into the north and south banks of the Red River. From 1853 to 1865, the young French Indian entrepreneur raked in a thousand dollars a year, mostly from the stage line.... 1865 brought the end of the disastrous Civil War. With the war's end, the nation was on the move. The phrase, "Go West, young man, go west." was taken literally. Not only did large parties of the population "Go West," but also converged on Texas. The war had created a shortage of beef in the north and before long herds of cattle thundered up the "Texas trail", crossing the Red River at a natural rock chute called Rock Bluff, located between Preston and Colbert's Ferry; and traveled on to the rail yards in Kansas City. Convoys of wagon trains carrying settlers to the new land passed through the area constantly. "Chickasaw Ben" was right in the middle of the traffic. Sometime around 1867, Ben, Jim and Frank Colbert, and a partner, Charles Gooding, set up a store on the Texas side of the river, 200 yards south of the ferry landing, approximately one mile east of present day Hwy. 75 North. The store, called "The First Chance, Last Chance," got its name simply because if you headed north, this was your last chance, headed south, your first chance. The basic inventory was mainstay grocery items, dry goods, and whiskey. With the influx of settlers on the Texas side, most using the land for farming, even more stores arrived at the location within a year. Farmers had found an outlet for their eggs, milk and butter, and later when the crops came in, bushels of fruits and vegetables could be sold easily. So, as a matter of convenience, and not careful planning, North Texas gave birth to what would be known as Red River City. The wild, infant town was populated almost instantly by some of the most undesireable renegades, killers, and just plain bad hombres known to civilization, but this wasn't true civilization. To curb the violence and provide some semblance of law and order, a police force made up of ex-Confederate soldiers was employed. This quieted Red River City to some degree, but night life in Red River City was not recommended for the faint of heart. 1870 brought consistent rumors that railroads were coming. The Missouri, Kansas and Texas would come from the north, and the Houston and Texas Central headed in from the south. The common consensus among the drizens of Red River City was their location would be the natural stopping place for both railroads. A railroad town was almost assured of prosperity, but two railroads! The sky would be the limit! Little did the citizens know, but several MKT officials and a small survey crew had quietly crossed the river on Colbert's ferry and surveyed a site four miles south of theirs. The men had been guests at Colbert's smart, and...furnished home on the Oklahoma side for several days and nights. The construction of both railroads inches along slowly at first, but gained momentum as they drew closer to the Red River. In mid 1872, extra men to make up a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week schedule tp rush completion. A letter written in 1872 by Ben Colbert's Scottish-born ferryman, John Malcolm, told about his two years of service with Colbert, and how the coming of the railroad had increased traffic. "With the heavy migration, brings long hours. We ferry anywhere from 25 to 200 wagons a day. The round trip takes 25 to 50 minuted depending on the current o the river and if the teams don't give us trouble. We will add another ferry that will run parallel to this one soon." Malcolm also related the toll fees to his correspondent. "$1.00 for a two-horse wagon, $1.25 for a four-horse wagon, $1.50 for a 6-horse, 25c for a man and horse and 10c a head for loose cattle and horses." A bit of quick calculation indicates that Ben Colbert was in the five figure income bracket. Optimism would be the word to best describe the prevailing feeling of the Red River City population in early in 1872. So sure of their future were they, the town built a post office, an all-wooden structure. The irony of this is, it was the town's only permanent structure. The rest were tents with a wooden facade. Another strange irony was the post office was built before filing with the U.S. Postal Service for approval. The bubble was officially burst when words came that Denison Town Co. would hold a public auction September 23, 1872 at a site six miles south of Red River City. The news plus the news just received from the U.S. Postal Department denying the request for a post office deflated their hopes. The post offices so close with the same name would be too confusing.... Through the panic, two distinctive different schools of thought became apparent. One group quickly changed the town's name to Denison City, in honor of M.K.T. official George Denison, refiled with the U.S. Postal Department and patiently awaited the answer. The other faction knocked down their tents, packed their wagons and headed south to the auction. By Christmas Eve 1872, the Katy Railroad in Denison was completed. The bridge spanning the river was ready to be tested. Late that afternoon a construction train arrived at the bridge. Then on Christmas day a train carrying two pullman cars, packed standing-room-only, with Katy dignitaries, and other locally important types who wanted to make the first trip. Evidentally, all on board trusted the bridges engineers' prowess with a slide ruler. Two "guests" on the maiden voyage that didn't share in the revelry were two famous men, Indian Chiefs Santana and Big Tree, on their way to Huntsville prison. Chances are, if they had been asked their collective opinion of the white man's bridge, train and track, the answer would have been unprintable. On the Texas side of the bridge, a welcoming committee was awaiting with its own unprintable words. (Theirs were vocal: After the disappointments of 1872, and furled with frustration, the citizens of Red RIver City greeted the train with a shower of rocks, catcalls, curses, and a few glancing blows of boards and sticks. All this commotion didn't stop the train, but it did train, but it did the Red River City denizen a world of good to vent the spleen. On Christmas night night, Pat Tobin, engineer on the M.K.T.'s first passenger train, steamed across the bridge and up the hill into Denison without incident. As Denison grew, Red River City foundered. (The Houston and Texas Central had opted to use Denison as its terminus.) A devastating flood in 1873 pretty much wiped Red River City out. Ben Colbert felt the squeeze from the railroad competition himself. To combat it he added a toll bridge in 1874. With the ferry boat and the bridge, "Chickasaw Ben" could offer options in travel, but the operation was not the success it once had been. Today, very little evidence can be found that would indicate that a small city, a ferry boat, a toll bridge, and Colbert's house did exist. Only Colbert's tombstone survives with the epitaph: B.F. Colbert Born December 18, 1836 Died March 11, 1893 Calvin Mauldin, "Red River City Hoped To Be North Texas Gateway," Denison Herald, September 23, 1990.  Red River City History Elaine Nall Bay ©2015 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |