DUANE
Duane's take
This one comes straight off the official marker — here's how I tell it. Now, out here in Comanche County, there's a road with a name so plain it almost hides how big a story it's carrying. They call it the Old Corn Trail.
And if you want to know where it all started, you go back to 1850, when Army engineers walked this land with their surveying equipment and drew a line through country that wagons had never crossed before. First one to do it. The very first wagon road to penetrate this area.
Its point of origin was San Antonio, which had been the site of U.S. Army District Headquarters since the annexation of Texas back in 1846. From there, this particular segment stretched out toward Fort Gates in Coryell County, then on to Fort Griffin in Shackelford County, and Fort Belknap up in Young County.
Fort to fort to fort, stitching the frontier together one rut at a time. Now, sure, the Army used it for communications and troop movements — that sounds official and important, and it was. But you want to know what most of the traffic actually was?
Feed. Corn and supplies, hauled out to keep the Army's horses and mules on their feet. Hence the name.
The Corn Trail. There's your wry little twist — this road that opened up a whole stretch of Texas was named not for glory, not for conquest, but for what the mules ate. And yet here's the thing about roads.
Once you cut one, people follow it. The trail pushed through, and settlers started arriving. In 1851, John A. and J.
M. McGuire moved to a site near here on Indian Creek. Then James H.
Neel settled on Resley's Creek in 1852. Come 1854, James Mercer and Captain Frank Collier pitched their tents on Mercer Creek — tents, mind you — and before long their families had joined them, along with the Holmsleys and the Tuggles. Collier put up the first log house.
Holmsley plowed the first furrow. From tents to timber to turned earth, just like that. And then — Christmas of 1855.
There were enough citizens living in this stretch of country that they petitioned for a county of their own. The Texas Legislature heard them, and on January 25, 1856, Comanche County was created. All of it growing up alongside that trail, because the Corn Trail didn't stop being useful once the settlers arrived.
It kept right on serving as a main civilian thoroughfare, kept on carrying frontier troops and their supplies from fort to fort. A road built by Army engineers to haul feed for mules ended up feeding something else entirely — a county, a community, a piece of Texas. Not a bad haul for a corn run.
What the marker says
Surveyed in 1850 by Army engineers, this was the first wagon road to penetrate this area. Point of origin was San Antonio, site of U.S. Army District Headquarters after annexation of Texas in 1846. This segment of road extended from Fort Gates (in Coryell County) to Fort Griffin (Shackelford County) and Fort Belknap (Young County). Although used for communications and troop movements, most common traffic was in supplies--especially feed for Army horses and mules. Hence the name "Corn Trail." Presence of the road and its traffic from fort to fort encouraged settlement. In 1851 John A. and J. M. McGuire moved to a site near here on Indian Creek. James H. Neel settled on Resley's Creek in 1852; in 1854 James Mercer and Capt. Frank Collier pitched tents on Mercer Creek, soon to be joined by their families and the Holmsleys and Tuggles. Collier put up first log house; Holmsley plowed first furrow. By Christmas of 1855 there were enough citizens here to petition for a county, and Comanche County was created by the Texas Legislature Jan. 25, 1856. The Corn Trail was a main civilian thoroughfare, and continued to serve its original purpose as a route for frontier troops and supplies. (1967)