Cass County

In 1860 Cass County held 8,411 people, and the Handbook of Texas counts 3,475 of them, about 41 percent, as enslaved, up from 943 in 1847. The 1859 tax rolls listed 4,697 enslaved people valued at 2,387,500 dollars; Marion County was cut off in 1860. Cotton rose from 1,573 bales in 1849 to 9,968 in 1859. In February 1861 voters approved secession, 423 to 32. After the war, Freedmen's Bureau agents in Marshall reported abuse of freed people in the county, though no troops or agent were stationed there. The Texas and Pacific arrived in 1873.

What the plaque says

Cass County Formed from Bowie County land. Created April 25, 1846; organized July 13, 1846. Named in honor of Gen. Lewis Cass (1782-1866), United States soldier and statesman, a strong advocate of annexation of Texas. Important river port city of Jefferson was county seat until Marion County was carved out of Cass in 1860; Linden, near center of county, then became county seat. During wave of sectional patriotism in 1861, the name "Cass" was changed to "Davis", in honor of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate states. The original name was restored in 1871. Erected by the State of Texas - 1971

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Atlanta State Park — 12 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.
• Excelsior House Hotel — 22 mi
  A brick-and-timber hotel at 211 West Austin that began as a river captain's boarding house in 1858 and was revived by a garden club in 1959, and still takes guests with rosewood furniture.
• Jefferson Historical Museum — 22 mi
  A four-floor museum in Jefferson's 1888-90 federal post office and courthouse, with rooms for African-American history, Jewish heritage, the Caddo and Diamond Bessie, bought by the historical society in 1965 for $8,100.
• Daingerfield State Park — 24 mi
  A pine-and-hardwood park built in 1935-39 by a white and a Black Civilian Conservation Corps company, with a dammed lake, Bass Lodge and a 2.4-mile loop trail around the water.

More markers nearby

• Civilian Conservation Corps at Linden — 6.8 mi
• Bessie Coleman — 7.3 mi
• Atlanta-Miller Grade School — 7.4 mi
• Methodist Episcopal Church of Douglassville — 10 mi