DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Way up in Hopkins County, the story of Sulphur Bluff starts the way a lot of good Texas stories start — with a family showing up somewhere nobody else had quite gotten around to yet. The first known settlers in the area were the family of John Gregg.
And we know they were there early, genuinely early, because their cemetery — sitting about two miles north of here — has a marker dated 1837. That's Republic of Texas era, friends. The country wasn't even called Texas yet in the way we mean it today.
It was its own republic, still finding its footing, and the Greggs were already putting down roots and, eventually, putting up headstones. That'll tell you something about commitment to a place. Now, hard on the heels of the Greggs came two brothers out of Indiana — Hezekiah and Robert Hargrave.
Say those names slow. Hezekiah and Robert Hargrave. They had a good eye for land, because they picked a high bluff about three miles north, right above the Sulphur River.
And that wasn't just pretty scenery — that elevation offered protection from Indians and put them square in the middle of abundant game. These were men who thought about survival the way some men think about comfort. But here's where the story gets a particular kind of interesting, and it's all on account of Robert Hargrave.
The marker calls him a mechanical genius, and I am not going to argue with the marker. This man didn't just build a life out here on the edge of things — he built a wood and iron shop. He built a blacksmith shop.
And then, as if to settle the question of whether he was serious, he built a grist mill. Now a grist mill is a useful thing anywhere, but out here it became something closer to a landmark in its own right — drawing customers from Caddo Mills, fifty miles away. Fifty miles.
On dirt roads, on horseback, hauling grain, because Robert Hargrave's mill was worth the trip. The community kept building itself up. A post office came in 1849.
An early school followed in 1852. From a single family's cemetery dated 1837 to a school with children spelling out their lessons — that's Sulphur Bluff finding its shape, one determined family, one mechanical genius, and one very busy grist mill at a time.
What the marker says
First known settlers in area were family of John Gregg. Their cemetery (2 mi. N) has marker dated 1837, from Republic of Texas era. Other early settlers were the brothers Hezekiah and Robert Hargrave, from Indiana. They built brush-roofed log homes (3 mi. N), on high bluff above Sulphur River, offering protection from Indians and providing abundant game. Robert Hargrave, a mechanical genius, built a wood and iron shop, a blacksmith shop, and a grist mill that drew customers from Caddo Mills, 50 miles away. A post office was built 1849; early school was founded 1852.