On July 3rd Kathy Pennycuff wrote: Meg, Thanks for the insight on the Sharp Co to TX info. I found my Gr-grandparents in the 1870 Sharp Co Census in Evening Shade. They are Liston TOWNSEND and Mary WILLETT TOWNSEND. More WILLETT family lived closeby. I found the TOWNSEND's in Missouri 1880 Howell Co Census with children: Leona, Orah, John, Corah, & baby. Their son (my grandfather) William Mose TOWNSEND was born in 1883. His SS5 form lists his place of birth as Denison, Grayson Co, OK. In later census he lists Arkansas as birthplace. He told stories to his children of living in Indian Territory. Denison is of course in TX not OK as stated on the SS5. In 1883 OK was Indian Territory. Did he live in OK, TX, or IT? Or were they so close he interchanged them? I'm not sure if this migration from Sharp Co to Missouri to Indian Territory has anything to do with the "free land School" you mentioned. It is still a puzzle to me. Any one have any clues or where to search for more info? Any Info appreciated. Thanks, Kathy I'm answering you largely from personal knowledge. The counties that border Oklahoma in North Texas (Collin, Cooke, Grayson, Montague) share more geographically and culturally with their counterpart counties in OK than they do with the rest of Texas in many instances. This is a porous border. It exists also further west, in the Tillman Co., OK area (where my father's family is from) -- people's ranches and farms often lap into both states, you can reside in one state but go to school in the other, and everyone from the area understands this fluidity but it can be hard when you are tracking down records. Montague and the other counties mentioned are part of what is called the Crosstimbers Region, which cuts diagonally through OK and TX. What they hold in common, besides geography, is that most of the early white settlers came from the Ozarks and from Southwestern Tennessee. Most of the migration to this area occurred after the Civil War, especially as you go further west. Before the Civil War, the Comanches and the Kiowas were successful in raiding white settlements often enough to discourage all but the most hardy pioneers. The Comanches were perhaps the finest horseback culture in the world, and it was not uncommon for a band of raiders to begin somewhere in eastern New Mexico with a remuda (a large group of horses so mounts could be refreshed), travel unbelievably fast and strike deep into Central or East Texas, carry away horses, hostages and usable supplies, and be a thousand miles away before the white community could muster a response. These raids were often timed for full moons (easier to travel at a gallop over vast distances with the extra moonlight). My grandfather, born in Montague County right after the era of Comanche domination, always referred to a certain kind of full moon as a "Comanche moon", and the naked fear in his voice would literally raise the hair on the back of my neck when I was a little girl -- I had no idea what his words referred to yet, I could just tell the adult emotion behind them. I like to think about how long Comanches would have held onto their territory and what changes it would have wrought on the relentless westward expansion of the U.S., the face of Texas, if other historical circumstances had not come together to overcome their resistance. During the Civil War, these tentative white settlements in the Crosstimbers area were raided not only by furious Native Americans but also by Union soldiers and local criminals who recognized an opportunity for mayhem when they saw one. The "justice" meted out by white Texans during the Civil War is notorious, the most infamous being the mass hanging of so-called Union sympathizers in Gainesville, Cooke County (a hanging led by one of my more complicated ancestors, self-proclaimed Colonel James G. Bourland). But after the Civil War, the U.S. government sent their armies of occupation westward, most of these former Union soldiers trained in the terrible battles of the South, whose mission was nothing less than genocide of the Native populations. Because of the leadership of men like Quanah Parker (himself the child of a woman captured during a raid into what is now Limestone County, TX during the 1830s), the Comanches were able to organize and fight long enough to negotiate for a treaty that gave them some meaningful territory and cultural continuity. The Comanche community of southern Oklahoma, along the Texas border, is much more intact than other Native populations. Nevertheless, the story of most of what had been set aside as Indian Territory is that of a series of land runs, opening up former Native reservations to white settlement based on a first come, first claimed basis. This added onto the already attractive option of "school land" offered by Texas created a rush of white immigrants into the border area. I think there must have been broadsides and circulars that somebody brought into places like Sharp County; just word of mouth hardly seems like enough to cause entire family and friendship networks to pack up and head for Texas, no matter how devastated the economy of the South after the war. I have seen one such land ad for the earlier immigration to Texas during the 1830s and 1840s, an immigration that drew down my original Texas ancestors from Indiana in 1834 (I am sixth generation Texan). But I have not yet found whatever it was that Sharp Countians might have read to convince them their destiny lay in Texas and Oklahoma. It's possible the Texas State Archives will have something; I can add it to my research list. At any rate, yes, your ancestor born in Grayson County but living in IT was operating in a community where the official borders had little meaning, and Denison was only a few miles from IT. The "school land" story is pretty simple. When Texas fought its revolution and became an independent republic (and oh how we love to brag about the fact that we were once our own country, but it is a genuinely significant fact in terms of history), we had lots and lots of land but no money at all. Prior to independence, white settlers had been lured to Texas by land grants from the Spanish and later the Mexican government, offering a "league and a labor" of land to any white male with a family who would live on the land and improve it. But these land grants had restrictions, such as forced Mexican citizenry and membership in the Catholic Church, that rankled the sensibilities of the Scot-Irish in the South who needed land of their own. So it wasn't until the Republic of Texas began offering land very cheaply WITHOUT restrictions that the Southerners began really flood in. The eastern counties of Texas were pretty well settled by 1840, but most of central and west Texas still remained under the control of the Apaches, Comanches, Kiowas, and, of course, the Mexican natives who had already lived here over 300 years. The new republic had to provide governmental services, including schools, to its eastern white settlers if they hoped to hang onto them, much less lure new immigrants. So, when the new counties' borders were drawn, each of their lands for sale was designated as the funding for a school in the already settled counties. Much of Montague County was set aside as land to be sold for the funding of Limestone County schools. It was an ingenious solution to scattered, impoverished settlement that was rich in land but nothing else. This system held sway and created the waves of immigration such as from Sharp County. It wasn't until the Goodknight-Loving trail created a market for Texas cattle that the state of Texas came up with other funding sources, and it wasn't until the oil boom after the turn of the century that Texas became wealthy according to the stereotype most people have about the state today. Hope this helps. I've really appreciated folks writing the stories of their own family's migration. This is the stuff of history, real history, and if it differs from the "accepted" version of things, I tend to think the "accepted" version is wrong -- it is not leaders and distant thinkers who shape the lives of ordinary people, it's the other way around. Meg