Historic Walker County

C H A P T E R
AN ERA OF GROWTH, 1846-1860
B Y J E F F R E Y L . L I T T L E J O H N A N D A N T H O N Y L A N E
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N E W S E T T L E M E N T S E M E R G E
As Walker County developed during the antebellum era, hundreds of Anglo Americans
migrated to the region looking for land and a chance to improve their lot in life. Coming
primarily from the southern United States, many Anglo pioneers brought enslaved African
Americans with them. Together, these two groups drove a population boom, which saw the county’s
residential numbers grow from 3,964 in 1850 to 8,191 in 1860. This dramatic demographic
expansion was accompanied by other corresponding signs of development, including a 213 percent
rise in improved farmland, a 207 percent rise in corn production, and a 1,272 percent rise in
cotton production. 12
During this era of growth, Walker County’s local officials helped establish order in the
frontier communities taking shape in the area. The county’s first administrators included Milton Estill
as chief justice, Isaac McGary as county clerk, and William Reeves as sheriff. These officials worked
with the county’s four commissioners to develop a budget, determine tax rates, and provide for
road construction.
Indeed, the size and scale of Texas created transportation challenges throughout the antebellum
period. Many roads were little more that dirt paths cut through forest glens or across rolling prairies.
When it rained in the spring, muddy conditions brought travel and trade to a standstill. And, moving
by stagecoach proved tiring and expensive.
These transportation difficulties meant that many river towns grew up on navigable waterways
that penetrated into the Texas interior. One of the earliest of these sites, Carolina, developed at the
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A cotton plant, the basis of Walker
County’s early economic development.
FROM THE EDITOR’S COLLECTION.
C h a p t e r I I ✦ 9