Bowie County, Texas

Bowie County, Texas
The Bowie County Courthouse
Location in the state of Texas
Texas's location in the U.S.
Founded	1840
Named for	James Bowie
Seat	Boston (legal); New Boston (courthouse)
Largest city	Texarkana
Area
• Total	923 sq mi (2,391 km2)
• Land	885 sq mi (2,292 km2)
• Water	38 sq mi (98 km2), 4.1%
Population
• (2010)	92,565
• Density	105/sq mi (41/km²)
Congressional district	4th
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Website	www.co.bowie.tx.us

Bowie County (/ˈbuːi/ BOO-ee^[1]) is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 92,565.^[2] Its legal county seat is Boston, though its courthouse is located in New Boston.^[3] The county is named for James Bowie, the legendary knife fighter who died at the Battle of the Alamo.

Bowie County is part of the Texarkana, TX-AR Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Bowie County was one of 46 prohibition or entirely dry counties in the state of Texas. However, both the city of Nash^[4] and the city of Texarkana^[5] (on November 6, 2013 and November 5, 2014, respectively) have since passed to sell beer and wine.

History

Native Americans

The farming Caddoan Mississippian culture dates as early as the Late Archaic Period 1500 BCE in Bowie County.^[6] The Hernando de Soto expedition of 1541 resulted in violent encounters. Spanish and French missionaries brought a smallpox, measles malaria and influenza epidemics against which the Caddo had no immunity.^[7] Eventually, these issues and problems with the Osage, forced the Caddo to abandon their reservations. Settlers had peaceful relations with the 19th Century Shawnee, Delaware, and Kickapoo in the area.

Explorations and county established

French explorer Jean Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe founded the military fort Le Poste des Cadodaquious^[8] in 1719 . The fort remained in continuous use until 1770. The Red River Expedition^[9] of 1806 which passed through Bowie County, headed by Thomas Freeman and Dr. Peter Custis, was of great diplomatic and economic importance to President Thomas Jefferson. Bowie County was established in December 1840 and named for James Bowie, reduced to its present size in 1846. DeKalb^[10] was the temporary county seat, with Boston^[11] becoming the permanent county seat in 1841.

Bowie County in the years leading up to the American Civil War was settled mostly by Southerners who brought their slave labor system to work the cotton fields. By 1860, slaves outnumbered whites 2,651 to 2,401. The county voted 208-15 in favor of secession^[3] from the Union. While Bowie was never a battlefield in that war, it was nevertheless occupied during Reconstruction. Between 1860 and 1870 the population declined. The occupation, and the new legal equality of blacks, became a hostile situation that fostered Cullen Baker.

Cullen Montgomery Baker^[12] (b. circa 1835 - d. 1869) was a twice-widowed mean-spirited drunk who killed his first man before he was 20. When Thomas Orr married Baker's late wife's sister, thereby denying Baker that opportunity, Baker attempted to hang Orr. Legends abound as to his activities in both Bowie and Cass counties, including a rumored tie to the Ku Klux Klan. His exploits turned him into a folk hero dubbed "The Swamp Fox of the Sulphur River".^[13][14] He was a Confederate States Army veteran who joined two units, designated as a deserter from the first, and receiving a disability discharge from the second.^[15] Reconstruction enabled him to focus his anger towards what many at the time believed was a Union intrusion into their lives. Baker and his gang conducted a vicious rampage against citizens he perceived as being on the wrong side of the black labor issue, at William G. Kirkman and the Freedman's Bureau in Bowie County, and at the soldiers of the Union occupation.^[16] Kirkman unsuccessfully pursued Baker, killing one of Baker's men in the second attempt. Like Swamp Fox Francis Marion, Baker always managed to elude capture, often with the help of local citizens. Kirkland was murdered by "person or persons unknown",^[3] but Baker boasted of having done the deed. In December 1869, Thomas Orr and a group of neighbors killed Baker.^[15] A local legend has it that the deed was accomplished with strychnine-laced whiskey.

When the Texas and Pacific Railway^[17] was constructed through the county, a new town named Texarkana^[18] was founded.

Bowie was hit hard by the Great Depression like everywhere else. Measurable relief came late when the Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant was established in 1942. The base was active until^[19] 2009. The Red River Army Depot,^[20] opened in 1941, remains active. The two installations occupied almost 40,000 acres (160 km²) and provided job opportunities for thousands.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 923 square miles (2,390 km²), of which 885 square miles (2,290 km²) is land and 38 square miles (98 km²) (4.1%) is water.^[21]

Major highways

• Interstate 30
• Interstate 369 (Under Construction)
• U.S. Highway 59
  • The future route of Interstate 49 is planned to enter Texas following US 59 from Arkansas just to the north of Texarkana and briefly travel through the far extreme northeastern portion of Bowie County before re-entering Arkansas along US 59.
• U.S. Highway 67
• U.S. Highway 71
  • The future route of Interstate 49 is planned to enter Texas following US 71 from Arkansas just to the north of Texarkana and briefly travel through the far extreme northeastern portion of Bowie County before re-entering Arkansas along US 71.
• U.S. Highway 82
• U.S. Highway 259
• State Highway 8
• State Highway 93
• State Highway 98
• Farm to Market Road 44
• Farm to Market Road 114
• Farm to Market Road 989
• Farm to Market Road 1397
• Farm to Market Road 3527

Adjacent counties

• McCurtain County, Oklahoma (northwest)
• Little River County, Arkansas (north)
• Miller County, Arkansas (east)
• Cass County (south)
• Morris County (southwest)
• Red River County (west)

Demographics

As of the census^[25] of 2000, there were 89,306 people, 33,058 households, and 23,438 families residing in the county. The population density was 101 inhabitants per square mile (39/km²). There were 36,463 housing units at an average density of 41 per square mile (16/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 73.26% White, 23.42% Black or African American, 0.58% Native American, 0.43% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.12% from other races, and 1.15% from two or more races. 4.47% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 33,058 households out of which 33.00% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.00% were married couples living together, 15.00% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.10% were non-families. 26.00% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.10% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the county, the population was spread out with 24.80% under the age of 18, 9.40% from 18 to 24, 29.60% from 25 to 44, 22.40% from 45 to 64, and 13.80% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 101.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.00 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $33,001, and the median income for a family was $41,108. Males had a median income of $31,883 versus $21,439 for females. The per capita income for the county was $17,357. About 13.80% of families and 17.70% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.00% of those under age 18 and 12.40% of those age 65 or over.

Government and infrastructure

Barry Telford Unit, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison for men, is in an unincorporated area of the county, near New Boston.^[26] Federal Correctional Institution, Texarkana is a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility in unincorporated Bowie County, near Texarkana, Texas.^[27][28]

Education

The following school districts serve Bowie County:

Communities

Cities

Unincorporated communities

Ghost towns

• Dalby Springs

See also

• Dry counties
• Le Poste des Cadodaquious, a French fort established in Bowie County in 1719
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Bowie County, Texas

References

External links

• Bowie County government
• Bowie County from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Bowie County from the Texas Almanac
• Bowie County from the TXGenWeb Project

		McCurtain County, Oklahoma	Little River County, Arkansas
	Red River County
		Bowie County, Texas
	Morris County	Cass County	Miller County, Arkansas

Municipalities and communities of Bowie County, Texas, United States County seat: Boston Cities DeKalb Hooks Leary Maud Nash New Boston Red Lick Redwater Texarkana Wake Village Unincorporated communities Almont Bassett Beaver Dam Burkham Settlement‡ Burns Boston Carbondale Dalby Springs Darden Eylau Hartman Hoot Hubbard Malta Oak Grove Old Boston Simms Spring Hill Sulphur Wamba Footnotes ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties

Counties of Texas Anderson Andrews Angelina Aransas Archer Armstrong Atascosa Austin Bailey Bandera Bastrop Baylor Bee Bell Bexar Blanco Borden Bosque Bowie Brazoria Brazos Brewster Briscoe Brooks Brown Burleson Burnet Caldwell Calhoun Callahan Cameron Camp Carson Cass Castro Chambers Cherokee Childress Clay Cochran Coke Coleman Collin Collingsworth Colorado Comal Comanche Concho Cooke Coryell Cottle Crane Crockett Crosby Culberson Dallam Dallas Dawson Deaf Smith Delta Denton DeWitt Dickens Dimmit Donley Duval Eastland Ector Edwards Ellis El Paso Erath Falls Fannin Fayette Fisher Floyd Foard Fort Bend Franklin Freestone Frio Gaines Galveston Garza Gillespie Glasscock Goliad Gonzales Gray Grayson Gregg Grimes Guadalupe Hale Hall Hamilton Hansford Hardeman Hardin Harris Harrison Hartley Haskell Hays Hemphill Henderson Hidalgo Hill Hockley Hood Hopkins Houston Howard Hudspeth Hunt Hutchinson Irion Jack Jackson Jasper Jeff Davis Jefferson Jim Hogg Jim Wells Johnson Jones Karnes Kaufman Kendall Kenedy Kent Kerr Kimble King Kinney Kleberg Knox Lamar Lamb Lampasas La Salle Lavaca Lee Leon Liberty Limestone Lipscomb Live Oak Llano Loving Lubbock Lynn Madison Marion Martin Mason Matagorda Maverick McCulloch McLennan McMullen Medina Menard Midland Milam Mills Mitchell Montague Montgomery Moore Morris Motley Nacogdoches Navarro Newton Nolan Nueces Ochiltree Oldham Orange Palo Pinto Panola Parker Parmer Pecos Polk Potter Presidio Rains Randall Reagan Real Red River Reeves Refugio Roberts Robertson Rockwall Runnels Rusk Sabine San Augustine San Jacinto San Patricio San Saba Schleicher Scurry Shackelford Shelby Sherman Smith Somervell Starr Stephens Sterling Stonewall Sutton Swisher Tarrant Taylor Terrell Terry Throckmorton Titus Tom Green Travis Trinity Tyler Upshur Upton Uvalde Val Verde Van Zandt Victoria Walker Waller Ward Washington Webb Wharton Wheeler Wichita Wilbarger Willacy Williamson Wilson Winkler Wise Wood Yoakum Young Zapata Zavala

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Coordinates: 33°27′N 94°25′W / 33.45°N 94.42°W / 33.45; -94.42