Daingerfield, C. S. A.

The Fifth Congress of the Republic authorized Paschal County on January 28, 1841, after residents petitioned because Boston, the Bowie County seat, was too far away. The county took in ground now in Cass, Franklin, Marion, Morris and Titus counties, with Daingerfield as its seat. The Texas Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1842, yet people kept holding court at Daingerfield for four more years as the Southern Division of Red River County. The Handbook of Texas dates the town's naming as Paschal county seat to 1844.

What the plaque says

Daingerfield, C. S. A. Civil War center for manufacturing, supply and travel. Place of enrollment of several Confederate army units. Local industries supporting the war effort included 3 tanyards-- sidelines of the beef slaughtering trade that helped feed troops and civilians. The tanyards made leather for soldiers' boots and shoes and for Cavalry saddles, bridles and harness. On nearby rivers or ponds were 3 sawmills, one grist (corn meal) mill and a distillery. Foundries in the area were predecessors of the 20th century Lone Star Steel Company. An "old" town before the Civil War. Founded about 1830 at a spring where Capt. London Daingerfield was killed by Indians. The square was laid off in 1841 when this was designated seat of justice for judicial county of Paschal. Courts continued to be held here, though Paschal was abolished in 1842. One noted 1842 trial was for a group that included Stephen Peters (one of the men who had platted the town square), accused of murdering Robert Potter. Potter, formerly secretary of the navy and one of the authors of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas, had been killed in the Regulator-Moderator Feud, a political power struggle in East Texas. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Daingerfield State Park — 2.4 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.
• Lake Bob Sandlin State Park — 22 mi
  A 1987 state park on a 9,000-acre reservoir, where a Republic of Texas stockade called Fort Sherman stood in 1838 and the Caddo lived from A.D. 800 to 1860, now with fishing piers, trails and cabins.
• Jefferson Historical Museum — 29 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.
• Excelsior House Hotel — 29 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.

More markers nearby

• Morris County — steps away
• Site of Chapel Hill College — steps away
• Rocky Branch — 5.7 mi
• Chalybeate Springs — 5.9 mi