Bowie County

Slavery built the county's early economy. The Handbook of Texas counts 1,641 Black and 1,271 White residents in 1850, and in 1860 there were 2,651 enslaved people and 2,401 Whites. Slaveholders paid tax in 1859 on 2,269 enslaved people valued at $1,167,139, about 64 percent of taxable property. Voters chose secession 208 to 15 in February 1861. After federal troops arrived in July 1867, never more than twelve at a time, the Freedmen's Bureau agent William G. Kirkman was murdered following clashes with Cullen Baker's gang; the official ruling named no killer.

What the plaque says

Bowie County Original text (1936): In 1836 a part of Red River County. Created December 17, 1840; organized February 1, 1841. Named in honor of James Bowie, 1785-1836; member of Long's Expedition, defender of Texas liberty, a martyr of the Alamo. Old Boston, 1841, Texarkana and New Boston have served as county seat. Replacement text (1971): Named for James Bowie (1799-1836), who fought for Texas freedom from 1819, when he joined the Long Expedition, to 1836-- when he died in defense of the Alamo. Inhabited before 1800 by agricultural Indians, charted 1819 for Anglo-American settlement, this was Red River County land when Texas Republic was founded in 1836. Bowie County was created Dec. 18, 1840; organized Feb. 1, 1841. County seats: DeKalb, Old Boston, Texarkana, and Boston. Forceful citizens joined in beginning railroad construction in 1857. economy is based on agriculture, lumber, manufacturing. Erected by the State of Texas - 1971

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Atlanta State Park — 19 mi
  A shoreline park on Wright Patman Lake, leased from the Army in 1954, where Caddo ancestors farmed the Sulphur River and wagon traces such as the Bobo Ferry trace still cross the woods.
• Museum of Regional History — 21 mi
  Texarkana's oldest museum, in an 1879 brick building on State Line Avenue, with Caddo pottery, one of Scott Joplin's pianos and a research library of city directories and photographs.

More markers nearby

• New Boston — 1.2 mi
• Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church — 4.6 mi
• Old Boston — 4.8 mi
• Site of the Texas Home of Richard Ellis — 5.8 mi