DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the voice carrying it down the road. Delta County, Texas. And already, right there in the name, there's a story worth slowing down for.
Named for a shape, the marker says. The land here resembles the Greek letter, that triangle, that delta, and the land itself was built by sedimentation at the fork of the North and South Sulphur Rivers. Two rivers meeting, dropping their cargo, building something up over time.
That's the ground you're standing on. The first political activity recorded here runs from 1820 to 1830, and it was the Sulphur Forks Indian Commission of the United States overseeing the Caddo, Delaware, Quapaw, and Seminole inhabitants of the region. Four peoples, one federal commission, one fork in a river.
After Texas independence in 1836, this delta country fell under the jurisdictions of Red River County, then Lamar, then Hopkins. Jurisdictions coming and going like weather. Meanwhile, families were arriving.
Wagon trains rolling in from Kentucky, Tennessee, other states, other parts of Texas, settling here as early as the 1830s. People putting down roots in land that rivers had been piling up for ages. By 1868, those people had had enough of belonging to somebody else's county.
They petitioned for their own. And in 1870, the Legislature of Texas complied. Now a county needs a seat, and this one got a new town, placed deliberately in the geographic center, and named for Leroy Cooper, chairman of the House Committee on Counties and Boundaries.
Governor E.J. Davis got to work appointing commissioners to organize the whole enterprise: Joel Blackwell, John P. Boyd, James Hamilton, J.W.
Iglehart, and Thomas J. Lane. To supervise the sale of lots in the new town of Cooper, a man named Erastus Blackwell was appointed sheriff.
Then came October 6, 1870. The organizing election. When the votes were counted, Charles S.
Nidever was named Chief Justice. The commissioners elected were John P. Boyd, J.F.
Alexander, Alfred Allen, and J.M. Bledsoe. A county born from the shape of its own land, carrying the name of the man who helped draw its lines.
That's Delta County, and that marker was put up in 1970, the centennial year of the very Legislature vote that made it real.
What the marker says
Named for shape, resembling Greek letter /\, and for evident origin of its land -- sedimentation at fork of North and South Sulphur Rivers. The first (1820-30) political activity here was oversight by the Sulphur Forks Indian Commission (of the United States) of the Caddo, Delaware, Quapaw, and Seminole inhabitants. After Texas independence in 1836, the Delta came under jurisdictions of Red River, Lamar, and Hopkins counties. Families and wagon trains from Kentucky, Tennessee, and other states--and from other parts of Texas--settled here as early as the 1830s. The people of the Delta in 1868 petitioned for creation of the county; in 1870 the Legislature of Texas complied. The county seat, a new town to be in the geographic center, was named for Leroy Cooper, chairman of the House Committee on Counties and Boundaries. Gov. E.J. Davis named as commissioners to organize the county: Joel Blackwell, John P. Boyd, James Hamilton, J.W. Iglehart, and Thomas J. Lane. To supervise sales of lots in Cooper, Erastus Blackwell was appointed sheriff. The organizing election was held on Oct. 6, 1870, naming Charles S. Nidever as Chief Justice. Commissioners elected were John P. Boyd, J.F. Alexander, Alfred Allen and J.M. Bledsoe. (1970)