Jonesborough

Jonesborough and Pecan Point share the distinction of being the first Anglo-American settlements in Texas. Located just above the mouth of Lower Pine Creek upon the site of later Davenport in what is now Red River County, Jonesborough was named for Henry Jones, who hunted on the Red River as early as 1815. Among other settlers who were living in the vicinity as early as the spring of 1817 were Adam Lawrence, Caleb Greenwood, William Hensley, William Cooper, and John Ragsdale. Authentic sources make it fairly clear that Lawrence and Hensley located there in the winter of 1815.

Before 1820 a number of other families, including those headed by John Robbins, Hiram and A. Tidwell, John Styles, and James Walters, joined the Jonesborough settlement. The expulsion of settlers north of the Red River by United States troops increased the population of the Jonesborough prairie after 1821, and the number was further augmented by the dissolution of Miller County, Arkansas Territory, in 1825. Many prominent pioneers of North Texas then crossed the river to become permanently identified with Jonesborough. On the other hand, a number of Jonesborough residents left for Stephen F. Austin's colony in 1822 and 1823, John Rabb, Daniel Gilliland, and Joseph Newman being among the emigrants.