Site of Old Spearman's Ferry

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Picture a crossing on the Big Cypress Bayou, right there on the Pittsburg to Jefferson Stage Road. Long before any toll collector ever held out his hand, this site was already earning its keep.

Back during the Republic of Texas itself, a man named E. B. Smith was running the place, operating a ferry and a mill together.

Two enterprises, one bend in the bayou. Then in 1850, John Spearman bought it, and that name is the one that stuck to the place. Now here's where it gets interesting.

Come 1870, the state of Texas looked at that crossing and decided it was worth something official. They authorized a toll bridge right here on this spot. And when the toll schedule came out, well, it covered just about every creature and conveyance you could imagine moving through East Texas.

A single sheep crossing that bridge? Two cents. A modest sum for a modest animal.

But if you were rolling up with an eight-horse team hauling a loaded wagon, you were parting with a full dollar. Everything in between had its price, scaled to the weight and the effort, I'd imagine. Stagecoaches rattling between Pittsburg and Jefferson, farmers moving stock, merchants hauling goods, they all had to reckon with that toll.

E. B. Smith's old ferry landing, John Spearman's crossing, the state's authorized bridge.

Same spot on Big Cypress Bayou, just the river of time flowing right on through it.

What the marker says

Operated along with a mill by E. B. Smith during the Republic of Texas. Bought by John Spearman in 1850. At this site in 1870 the state authorized a toll bridge. Fees ranged from 2 cents for a sheep to $1 for an 8-horse team and loaded wagon. This was at Big Cypress Bayou on Pittsburg-Jefferson Stage Road.