DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Butterfield Overland Mail Route through Grayson County. Now settle in, because this is a story about distance — and I mean real distance. Before the middle of the nineteenth century, if you wanted to get a letter from the eastern United States out to the western states and territories, that letter was going around Cape Horn or through Panama.
Think about that. Your mail was taking a sea voyage. Congress had had enough of it by 1857, and authorized the postmaster to contract a new overland mail service.
The man who won the southern route was John Butterfield, and he agreed to convey mail twice weekly — twenty-five days per run. Twenty-five days, twice a week, by stagecoach. They called it the Oxbow Trail, and you can see why when you look at the shape of it.
It originated at St. Louis, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee, those two branches merging down at Fort Smith, Arkansas. Then it pressed on through Indian Territory — what would later become Oklahoma — swung across northern Texas, pushed through Tucson, Arizona, and finally reached Los Angeles and San Francisco, California.
Start to finish, from St. Louis, that was two thousand seven hundred and ninety-five miles. Two thousand seven hundred and ninety-five miles of prairie, river crossings, and whatever else the continent had in mind for you that particular week.
Now here's where Grayson County enters the picture, and it didn't happen by accident. The trail crossed the Red River at Colbert's Ferry and came right into Sherman. It could have entered Texas near Preston, just eight miles upriver — but the citizens of Sherman are credited with especially courting the mail route to come their way instead.
That kind of civic hustle has consequences. Sherman became a distribution point in 1858, bringing mail service to Texas settlements. A whole county, suddenly connected.
The first through passenger on the Butterfield Trail was a man named Waterman L. Ormsby, representing The New York Herald, and he made the trip in September of 1858. He described Sherman as — and I want to get his words right here — 'a pleasant little village of about six hundred inhabitants.' High praise from a New York man, I'd say.
But it's what he wrote about the ride across Grayson County that really sticks. He said, quote, 'our course lay across a fine rolling prairie, covered with fine grass,' and then — and this is the part worth hearing out loud under a night sky — 'the beautiful moonlight lit up the vast prairies making its sameness appear like the boundless sea and its hills like the rolling waves.' A man rattling across Texas in a stagecoach, and he's writing poetry. Can't say I blame him.
The southern route was terminated in March of 1861, and just like that, the oxbow closed. But here's the thing about two thousand seven hundred and ninety-five miles of wagon wheels pressing into the earth — the land remembers. The course of the trail is still visible in a number of locations in Grayson County today.
You just have to know what you're lookin' for.
What the marker says
In the mid-19th century, mail traffic between the eastern United States and the western states and territories was accomplished via Panama and Cape Horn. In 1857, Congress authorized the postmaster to contract a new overland mail service. The successful bidder for the southern route was John Butterfield, who agreed to convey mail twice weekly in 25 days per run. The "Oxbow Trail" originated at St. Louis, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee, then merged at Fort Smith, Arkansas. The stagecoaches traveled through Indian Territory (later Oklahoma) and across northern Texas to Tucson, Arizona, and on to Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, traveling 2,795 miles from St. Louis. The trail entered Grayson County by crossing the Red River at Colbert's Ferry and proceeding into Sherman. It crossed the county toward Gainesville in Cooke County en route to Franklin (later El Paso). The citizens of Sherman are credited with especially courting the mail route to use Colbert's Ferry instead of entering Texas near Preston (8 mi. upriver). Sherman became a distribution point in 1858, bringing mail service to Texas settlements. Waterman L. Ormsby of "The New York Herald" was the first through passenger on the Butterfield Trail in September 1858. He described Sherman as "a pleasant little village of about six hundred inhabitants," and chronicled the remainder of his trip across Grayson County, writing "our course lay across a fine rolling prairie, covered with fine grass, ...the beautiful moonlight lit up the vast prairies making its sameness appear like the boundless sea and its hills like the rolling waves." The southern route was terminated in March 1861. The course of the trail is still visible in a number of locations in Grayson County. (1999)