DUANE
Duane's take
The marker in Smith County tells it this way, and I'm just the one passin' it along. Now, somewhere out here in the vicinity of what was known as Harris' place, history left one of its quieter footprints — but the story that brought people through here was anything but quiet. Cast your mind back to July 16, 1839.
That's the date of a battle between the Army of the Republic of Texas and the Cherokee people and their associate tribes. It was a fight that ended with the death of Chief Bowles. After that battle — which took place over in the present county of Van Zandt — scouts from the Army of the Republic of Texas were dispatched.
They came through this direction, into the vicinity of Harris' place, right here in what is now Smith County. The State of Texas erected this marker in 1936, staking a claim on the memory of those scouts, that dispatch, and the ground they crossed. Chief Bowles was killed on July 16, 1839.
The scouts moved on. And the land around Harris' place just kept on being the land — holding the story whether anyone was listenin' or not.
What the marker says
In the vicinity of Harris' place scouts from the Army of the Republic of Texas were dispatched from the present county of Van Zandt after the battle with Cherokees and associate tribes July 16, 1839 in which Chief Bowles was killed. Erected by the State of Texas 1936