User:Narthring/Preston, Texas final

Preston, Texas also known as Preston Bend was a prominent town located on the Red River in North Texas. It grew up in the late 1800s at the intersection of several military and trade roads and was an important crossing on the Shawnee cattle trail. Preston lost prominence after the MK&T railroad passed the town to the east, leading to a decline in traveler and cattle drive traffic. The former town site, located near Pottsboro, Grayson County, Texas, is now submerged beneath under the waters of Lake Texoma.

Geography
Preston was located in Texas on its border with the Indian Territory (later the state of Oklahoma) in the Red River valley on a river bend just downstream from the river's confluence with the Washita River. The area was also known as Washita Bend or Coffee Bend. This area is located few miles east of the Cross Timbers on the upper Red River above the former Great Raft logjam. A rock bluff overlooked the Red River from on the Texas side of the river, 100-110 feet above the river's low water mark. This bluff at Preston marked the ford of an old Indian trail on the Red River. This ford was later used as the Red River crossing point of the Shawnee Cattle Trail. Later the bluff also marked the return route of Captain Randolph B. Marcy's expedition from Santa Fe to Fort Smith in 1849. The Oklahoma side of the river was a relatively flat sand-covered plain and terraces sloping gently to the river.

Early roads and trails
Preston developed at the junction between the Indian Territory's Texas Road, leading north, and the Preston Road, leading south farther into Texas. The Preston Road was originally 100 miles long, from Preston to the Trinity River at Dallas. Later, in 1840-1841 Colonel William G. Cooke created the military road from Coffee's trading house on the Red River to Austin.

Preston was also the location where one branch of the California Trail crossed into Texas.

Early Settlement
Before European settlement the general area of Preston had been occupied by the Caddo Indians, with the Commanches and Kiowa farther to the west. One of the first American settlers in the area was John Hart, who cultivated land at the bend possibly before 1826. He left the area just after 1830 after being attacked by Indians during a trapping expedition on the Washita River.

During the 1830s the United States relocated the Five Civilized Tribes from the Southeastern United States to the Indian Territory, on the north side of the Red River. As the first official United States expedition to the area the Dodge-Leavenworth Expedition explored the region in 1834. Above Preston on the Red River Leavenworth Camp, situated just west of the mouth of the Washita River was a base for this expedition. George Catlin made some of his famous Indian paintings from this camp.

In the fall of 1838 John Hart returned to the Washita Bend area with two partners. They cleared and fenced 17 acres and built three cabins. In 1838 the partnership dissolved and Hart took sole possession of the land. He leased the land to a tenant.

Holland Coffee and the trading post
Holland Coffee and Silas Cheek Colville created Coffee, Colville and Company to establish a trading post on the Red River. After three attempts to establish a trading post on the Red River farther upstream they succeeded in establishing one in the Washita Bend area. They occupied the area of Washita Bend after John Hart's tenant was killed by Indians. Hart later sued Coffee for the land, but lost. In 1837 Holland Coffee had been elected to the Texas legislature and negotiated a peace treaty between the Republic of Texas and the Waco, Tawakoni, Kichai and Towash(Pawnee) Indians on September 2, 1838 at a Shawnee village near the mouth of the Washita River.

The town of Preston grew up around the trading post established by Coffee and Colville.

Fort Preston
The Republic of Texas commissioned Colonel Cook to make a supply post in the area, known as Fort Preston after Captain William Gilwater Preston, a member of the military road expedition of 1840-1841. There is some doubt that the town was named after him and the origin of the name of the town is obscure. . In 1840 Cook was in charge of a company of men there. Coffee and other settlers were thinking about leaving the area before Cooke arrived. The village around Fort Preston grew up to be known as Preston, Texas. Fort Preston was established 80 yards west of the eastern bend in the river, on a bluff about 40-50 feet above the river. Some of the buildings at Fort Preston were made of bricks made in the area.

Later the United States Army operated a depot to supply the Fifth Infantry from here. The Army depot operated from 1851 to 1853. The Preston Supply Depot was under the command of Lt. Thomas C. English and later by Bvt. Maj. W. F. Wood. Albert Sidney Johnston and the Second Cavalry came through Preston in 1855.

Glen Eden
When Holland Coffee married Sophia Suttonfield Aughinbaugh in 1839 they resided at his trading post in a 100 foot square log stockade on the Red River. The stockade enclosed several huts and cabins. In 1843 Coffee began building Glen Eden as a proper house for his wife two miles west of his trading post. It was completed in 1845. Holland Coffee was killed on October 1, 1846. Sophia later married several more times and Glen Eden became the most famous residence in the area.

The town
Preston developed in the area around Coffee's trading house and was a considerable town in 1845 when William H. Hunt completed its town plat survey. The municipal government was established in 1851 with Tom Jackson as the first mayor.

Buildings
Masonic lodge established in 1852.

A post office was established in 1856. and later a post office operated from 1880 to 1914.

Had general stores.

Preston had stores and a blacksmith shop.

Cattle crossing
As the cattle business developed in Texas and cattle trails to processing facilities in Kanas became necessary the Shawnee trail developed through the Preston area.

The crossing had been an important wagon crossing before 1850, with over 1000 wagons crossing there in a year.

Ferrys
Log raft ferry service available at the trading post in 1839.

Six miles west of Colberts was Thompson's Ferry, ran by James George Thompson, first chief justice in Grayson County. Thompson's home became the first post office and courthouse in the county.

Holland Coffee, George Butts, and Sloan Love operated ferries in the area.

Rock Bluff Ferry operated near mouth of Washita River close to Preston. In the late 1830s James Tyson operated the ferry at the rock bluff. His ferry was little more than a log raft. Later two partners owned this ferry, Jim Shannon and Bud Randolph.

In about 1853 Ben Colbert opened up his ferry downstream to cash in on the California gold rush.

Hopes for expansion
Supplying the military posts in the area was difficult. Idea to expand the army depot by steamboat was considered. Abandoned in 1853 because of the difficulties of navigating the upper Red River and the logjam. Later after the destruction of the Great Raft steamboats on the Red River were finally able to navigate up the river to Preston. Preston had a steamboat landing.

In 1853 Congress funded an exploration of the best route west of the Mississippi for a transcontinental railroad. In February 1854 an expedition of 75 men led by Capt. John Pope surveyed a route along the 32nd parallel from New Mexico to Preston, Texas. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis favored this path, though tabled until after the Civil War. This route was afterwards abandoned. After the Civil War the Transcontinental Railroad was surveyed and constructed farther to the north.

Decline of Preston
In 1847 the Texas legislature ordered a road to be built from Preston to Sherman.

Butterfield trail
The Butterfield Overland Mail stage route, serving between Saint Louis, Missouri to San Franciso, California, began operation in 1857. The line ran across the Indian Territory from Fort Smith, Arkansas to the Red River at Colbert's Ferry, a few miles east of Preston. The stage line had decided to bypass Preston as the traditional crossing on the Red River. Colbert's ferry became a more popular crossing over the Red River as Sherman And McKinney developed. In 1857 Sherman was very small, made up of only two or three small stores. Much of the brick and material came from older buildings at Preston. By 1871 14 stage lines operating through Sherman.

MK&T Railroad
After the Civil War the peace treaty between the United States and the Five Civilized Tribes allowed for a railroad to be built north and south across the Indian Territory. This railroad, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, crossed the Red River near Colbert's Ferry to the east of Preston in 1871. By this time Preston had began to decline and was largely abandoned.

20th century
Remained a rural community.

in the 1900s Preston had a public school system, 2 churches, a cotton gin, and a cemetery on the hill overlooking the town.

in the 1930s the town had about 20 residents.

New Preston developed more centrally within the bend.

Lake Texoma
United States Army Corps of Engineers bought all the land in the area in the late 1930s for Lake Texoma.

After filling Lake Texoma only the Preston cemetery is left.

Today
Population was 325 in 2000.