Jonathan Doan

After the Fort Worth and Denver bypassed Doans in 1885, the store's business followed the rails. Jonathan Doan's nephew and partner Corwin, whose firm was C. F. Doan and Company, opened a branch store in Vernon, and a 1906 biography says the two houses supplied a seventy-mile circle and outfitted trail expeditions. Corwin had traded near Fort Sill since 1874. Accounts disagree on who opened the Red River post first: one dates Jonathan's opening to April 1878, while the biography has Corwin settling there that October. Jonathan is buried in Vernon.

What the plaque says

Jonathan Doan (May 20, 1837- November 6, 1902) Frontier trader and merchant; a Quaker, peaceable on troubled frontiers. With nephew C. F. Doan, came from Ohio and entered hides trade in Indian Territory, 1874-75. In April 1878 opened trading post at Western Cattle Trail crossing on Red River (12 mi. NE). C. F. Doan moved down that fall to run post. Jonathan Doan continued to trade on frontier. Doan's store and the family were famous and respected among the Indian, the cattlemen, and the frontiersmen. Recorded - 1972

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Red River Valley Museum — 5.1 mi
  Vernon's museum on College Drive, with rooms on the Waggoner ranch empire, Doan's Crossing and early Vernon, and the largest known collection of Electra Waggoner Biggs's art.
• Doan's Crossing — 14 mi
  A store, an adobe house and a granite marker of ranch brands at the Red River ford where the Western Trail herds left Texas, kept alive by a May picnic held since 1884.

More markers nearby

• Thaddeus Edgar Johnson — 2.8 mi
• Early Wilbarger County — 2.9 mi
• Wilbarger County — 5.0 mi
• Red River Valley Museum — 5.1 mi