Picketville

Duane's take

The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the one passin' it along — here's the story of Picketville. Now, half a mile east of where you're sitting right now, there's a place that used to matter a great deal to Stephens County. It doesn't announce itself anymore.

No courthouse, no main street, no bustle. Just a cemetery and a fence. But that's getting ahead of things.

Picketville was one of Stephens County's first white settlements — founded before the Civil War, before 1861, out on the banks of Gunsolus Creek. That's where folks put down roots, built their homes, and tried to make a life on the Texas frontier. And the way they built tells you something about the country they were building in.

The name probably came from picket construction — tree limbs stood on end, gaps chinked with mud. Simple, sturdy, and close to the ground in every sense of the word. Then the Civil War came, running from 1861 to 1865, and it reached all the way out here in a way you might not expect.

Not with battles and cannon fire, but with absence. The military defense that had kept the frontier somewhat steady — gone. And so the families of Picketville did what frontier people do when the situation demands it.

They forted up. Right here, on Gunsolus Creek, they gathered together for protection against hostile Indian attacks. That phrase — forted up — carries the whole weight of it.

People huddled inside those picket walls, waiting. Picketville survived. More than survived — it rose.

It became the county seat of Stephens County, which is no small thing. That's where the business of government happened, where disputes got settled, where a county took its shape. But then came 1876, and Breckenridge was settled.

And the way of things on the Texas frontier is that a new town rising often means an old one fading. That's exactly what happened. Picketville began to decline.

The county seat moved on. The people moved on. The buildings — those picket-constructed walls of tree limbs and mud — they didn't last forever.

What remained was a cemetery. And even that nearly disappeared. Many of the graves were accidentally destroyed — a quiet tragedy layered on top of an already quiet place.

The kind of loss that doesn't make noise, but stings all the same when you think about the people who were laid to rest there, and the families who once called this county home. But here's where the story finds its footing again. Boy Scout troops stepped in.

They restored the site. They fenced it. In 1975, this marker went up — and the work of remembering was made official.

Half a mile east. Gunsolus Creek. A cemetery with a fence around it, standing where Stephens County's earliest settlers once stood.

Picketville may have declined, but it hasn't disappeared. Not entirely. Not as long as somebody's still telling the story.

What the marker says

(0.5 mi. E) One of Stephens County's first white settlements, Picketville was founded before the Civil War (1861-65) on Gunsolus Creek. Without military defense during the war, families "forted up" here for protection against hostile Indian attacks. The name probably came from picket construction in which tree limbs were placed on end and chinked with mud. Picketville served as the county seat until Breckenridge was settled in 1876. Then the town began to decline, leaving only a cemetery. After many graves were accidentally destroyed, Boy Scout troops restored and fenced the site. (1975)