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Ferries in East Texasby
Bob Bowman | |
Long
before modern bridges were built to span rivers in East
Texas, ferries were maintained at places where roads crossed streams that
were not fordable.
Many of East
Texas’ earliest immigrants entered Texas at James Gaines’ Ferry on
the Old San Antonio
Road crossing of the Sabine
River east of Milam in Sabine
County. The ferry was originally known as Chabanan Ferry.
Gaines’
Ferry is notable in East Texas because
it was operated continuously for more than 150 years--from 1785 to 1937. Pendleton
Bridge now crosses the river and Toledo
Bend Reservoir.
Ferries often had different styles of construction,
but the most common ferry was a flat, raft-like barge which could carry wagons,
people and animals.
As a part of their charter, ferrymen had to keep the
river banks graded so that access to the ferry was not impeded.
Many ferrymen
also stretched bank-to-bank cables as a guide for the ferry crossing. Several
old ferry cables can still be seen at Burr’s Ferry, which also crossed
the Sabine between Wiergate, TX
and Leesville, LA.
Ferrymen were allowed to charge for the ferry’s use
and were required to post their fares, which averaged one or two dollars for light
and heavy wagons, twenty-five cents for one man and his horse, six to 12 cents
for a man on foot, four to six cents a head for cattle, and lesser prices for
smaller animals.
Ferry owners were allowed to raise their fares for crossings
at night or during inclement weather.
Among the earliest ferrymen in Texas
was John McFarland who was issued a license by Stephen F. Austin and Baron de
Bastrop in July of 1824 to cross the river at San
Felipe de Austin.
By 1836, the Republic of Texas was regulating ferries,
spelling out their responsibilities to the public, and requiring them to be chartered
by the county in which they operated. In 1850 and 1854 the Texas Legislature passed
new laws related to ferries.
Ferries
have found their way into East Texas history
on several occasions.
In 1849, Watt Moorman, a central figure in the Regulator-Moderator
War in East Texas, was shot to
death by Dr. Robert Burns of Logansport at a ferry crossing on the Sabine
River.
As Moorman and several accomplices crossed the ferry with the
intention to kill Burns, the doctor stepped from the corner of a building and
fired two shotgun blasts into Moorman’s chest. Moorman staggered a few feet, uttered
a curse in Burns’ direction, and fell face-forward into the dirt.
Burns
was tried “for making an assault with a certain dangerous weapon called a shotgun
with a value of five dollars,” but was found not guilty. | |
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