Carpenter's Bluff, Texas

Last updated
Carpenter's Bluff, Texas
Unincorporated Community
USA Texas location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Carpenter's Bluff
Location within Texas
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Carpenter's Bluff
Carpenter's Bluff (the United States)
Coordinates: 33°45′14.4″N96°24′46.8″W / 33.754000°N 96.413000°W / 33.754000; -96.413000
Country United States
State Texas
County Grayson
Settled1860
Founded byE. E. Carpenter
Elevation
535 ft (163 m)
Time zone UTC-6 (CST)

Carpenter's Bluff is a community in northeastern Grayson County, Texas, United States, located on the Red River and Farm to Market Road 120, twelve miles northeast of Sherman, connecting Grayson County and Bryan County, Oklahoma. [1] Settled circa 1860, it derived its name from that of an early settler, E. E. Carpenter, [2] who operated a ferry across the Red River. [3] In the early twentieth century, the Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway constructed a bridge across the Red River at Carpenter's Bluff. [4] By 1936, Carpenter's Bluff had a population of seventy-five and four businesses. Ten years later, the population had increased to 120, and the town still had four businesses. [5]

Contents

Carpenter's Bluff Bridge

Completed in the late summer of 1910 as a railroad bridge for the Missouri, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad (MO&G) line, this landmark structure was part of a line through Grayson County to connect with other railways in order to secure better freight rates for their shipments from the Oklahoma coal mines. [6] The bridge was designed to withstand major floods such as the one in 1908 that had destroyed several area bridges. Its design also included a wagon shelf, an extra lane to serve travelers on foot and horseback, as well as horse-drawn vehicles, all of whom had to pay a toll for its use. [7] In 1921, ownership passed to the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway (KO&G), which maintained the line until 1965, when the company ceased operations in Texas due to declining rail traffic. [8] The Texas and Pacific Railway maintained the bridge for a brief time and then deeded it to the counties of Grayson and Bryan. County commissioners agreed to convert the structure for vehicular traffic, and upon completion of that work, the bridge was opened as a free public thoroughfare. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grayson County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Grayson County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 135,543. The county seat is Sherman. The county was founded in 1846 and is named after Peter Wagener Grayson, an attorney general of the Republic of Texas. Grayson County is included in the Sherman-Denison metropolitan statistical area, which is also included in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, combined statistical area. Located on the state's border with Oklahoma, it is part of the Texoma region, with proximity to Lake Texoma and the Red River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryan County, Oklahoma</span> County in Oklahoma, United States

Bryan County is a county in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,067. Its county seat is Durant. It is the only county in the United States named for Democratic politician William Jennings Bryan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kemp, Oklahoma</span> Town in Oklahoma, United States

Kemp is a town in Bryan County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 133 at the 2010 census, a decrease of 7.8 percent from the total of 144 recorded in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denison, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Denison is a city in Grayson County, Texas, United States, 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the Texas–Oklahoma border. Its population was 24,479 at the 2020 and 22,682 at the 2010 censuses. Denison is part of the Texoma region and is one of two principal cities in the Sherman–Denison metropolitan statistical area. Denison is the birthplace of US President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red River of the South</span> Major river in the southern United States

The Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South, is a major river in the Southern United States. It was named for its reddish water color from passing through red-bed country in its watershed. It is known as the Red River of the South to distinguish it from the Red River of the North, which flows between Minnesota and North Dakota into the Canadian province of Manitoba. Although once a tributary of the Mississippi River, the Red River is now a tributary of the Atchafalaya River, a distributary of the Mississippi that flows separately into the Gulf of Mexico. This confluence is connected to the Mississippi River by the Old River Control Structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad</span> Former American Class I railroad

The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad was a Class I railroad company in the United States, with its last headquarters in Dallas, Texas. Established in 1865 under the name Union Pacific Railroad (UP), Southern Branch, it came to serve an extensive rail network in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. In 1988, it merged with the Missouri Pacific Railroad; today, it is part of UP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texoma</span> Region

Texoma is an interstate region in the United States, split between Oklahoma and Texas. The name is a portmanteau of Texas and Oklahoma. Businesses use the term in their names to describe their intended service area. This includes 8 counties with a population estimate of 319,455.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Louis–San Francisco Railway</span> Former American railroad

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, commonly known as the "Frisco", was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central United States from 1876 to April 17, 1980. At the end of 1970, it operated 4,547 miles (7,318 km) of road on 6,574 miles (10,580 km) of track, not including subsidiaries Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway and the Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad; that year, it reported 12,795 million ton-miles of revenue freight and no passengers. It was purchased and absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1980. Despite its name, it never came close to San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States National Register of Historic Places listings</span> Register for landmarks in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places in the United States is a register including buildings, sites, structures, districts, and objects. The Register automatically includes all National Historic Landmarks as well as all historic areas administered by the U.S. National Park Service. Since its introduction in 1966, more than 90,000 separate listings have been added to the register.

The Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway (KO&G) was formed on July 31, 1919 from the assets of the bankrupt Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway. The KO&G largely consisted of a single line from Baxter Springs, Kansas, to Denison, Texas, prior to its purchase by Missouri Pacific's Texas and Pacific Railway in 1964 and merger in 1970.

Colbert's Ferry was an important Red River crossing between Texas and Indian Territory from about 1853 to 1899. Both the Texas Road and the Butterfield Overland Mail route crossed here. It was located on the Texas Road about 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of present–day Colbert, Bryan County, Oklahoma. The nearest town on the Texas side of the river is Denison.

The Denison, Bonham and New Orleans Railroad was a railroad company based in Denison, Texas, U.S.A. which was chartered in 1887. It was nicknamed "Nellie". The DB&NO operated on track between Bonham Junction on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad east of Denison and its southeastern terminus with the Texas and Pacific Railway in Bonham, Texas. in 1901 it was building between Bonham and Wolfe City, but work on this was abandoned.

The Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad (CO&G), known informally as the "Choctaw Route," was an American railroad in the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherman–Denison metropolitan area</span> Metropolitan Statistical Area in Texas, United States

The Sherman–Denison metropolitan statistical area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of one county—Grayson—in North Texas, anchored by the cities of Sherman and Denison. According to the 2010 U.S. census, the MSA had a population of 120,877; according to 2021 estimates, it had a population of 139,336. The Sherman–Denison MSA is a component of the Dallas-Ft. Worth combined statistical area, which covers a 19-county area and had an estimated population of 8,057,796 as of July 1, 2009. It is also a major part of the Texoma region with proximity to both Lake Texoma and the Red River.

Preston, also known as Preston Bend, is an unincorporated community and census-designated place located on the Red River in Grayson County, Texas, United States. It grew in the 19th century at the intersection of several military and trade roads and was an important crossing on the Shawnee cattle trail. Preston lost prominence after the MK&T railroad bypassed the town to the east, leading to a decline in traveler and cattle drive traffic. Much of its former town site is submerged beneath the waters of Lake Texoma. Its population was 2,096 as of the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Austin Perry</span> Sole heir to Stephen F. Austin

Emily Austin Bryan Perry was the sister of Stephen F. Austin and an early settler of Texas. She was an heir to Austin's estate when he died in 1836. She achieved significant political, economic and social status as a woman in Texas at a time when women were often not treated equal to men.

In the early 1870s Red River City was a settlement in North Texas, just south of the Red River, which forms the border with the state of Oklahoma. With a population of about 50, it was served by a post office in 1873 and 1874.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allen Depot (Allen, Texas)</span>

Allen Depot was established in 1876 in the central ward of Allen, Texas. The train depot served as a water stop for the Galveston and Red River Railway chartered by Ebenezer Allen in 1848. By 1856, the Southeast Texas to Red River railroad would transition to the Houston and Texas Central Railway.

The Hutchinson and Southern Railroad was formed through articles of consolidation dated October 5, 1889 and filed in Kansas two days later. It combined The McPherson, Texas and Gulf Railroad Company, which had been incorporated in Kansas on May 31, 1887, with The Hutchison, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway Company, which had been incorporated in Kansas on March 7, 1889. The railroad originally built 32 miles of standard-gauge line from Hutchinson, Kansas south to Kingman, Kansas, plus 1.1 miles of siding, in 1889. At that point it had two locomotives and two passenger cars, and was headquartered in Hutchinson. In 1890 it gained approval for a scheme to construct track through Anthony, Kansas to the state line, then through Indian Territory and specifically through the towns of Pond Creek and Guthrie, and terminating at a point in Grayson County, Texas, possibly Denison. It finished trackage to the state line in 1890, giving it 82.2 miles of rails. But the Indian Territory portion of the line ended up terminating in Wakita, Oklahoma in February of 1897, just 8.5 miles south of the Kansas-Oklahoma state line.

The Denison and Washita Valley Railway (D&WV) existed from 1886 to 1903. It had disconnected trackage, partially around Denison, Texas, and partially in a coal mining area in what is now Oklahoma with a line running between Atoka and Coalgate.

References

  1. Hart, Brian. "Carpenter's Bluff, Texas". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 23 Sep 2009.
  2. Charles Lorain Carpenter, RADM, USN, Ret.: The Descendants of Timothy Carpenter (1715-1787) of Pittstown, Rensselaer County, New York, Carpenter Family News-Journal, Machias, Me., 1976.
  3. Hart, 2009.
  4. Kenneth R. Miller: Carpenters Bluff Bridge (8 Miles East Of Denison On FM 120), Marker [062.1], http://www.co.grayson.tx.us/Historical/Mark062-1.htm Archived 2011-06-08 at the Wayback Machine , n.d., accessed 23 Sep 2009.
  5. Hart, 2009.
  6. Miller, 2009.
  7. Miller, 2009.
  8. Miller, 2009.
  9. Miller, 2009.