Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Gone to Texas

During the later 1800’s many Itawamba County families moved west to Texas. As more and more families moved, more relatives followed. During the 1880’s and early 1890’s the local newspaper here in Fulton featured advertisements on a weekly basis purchased by railroads luring people west. The advertisements pictured above and below were taken from three of those newspapers during the later part of the 19th century. These advertisements were purchased by the Texas Midland Railroad and The International and Great Northern Railroad.

So many people were leaving west for Texas that notations were entered into some of the voter roll books here reading “Gone to Texas” – or simply GTT. From 1880 to 1900 the population of Texas nearly doubled as folks from the east headed west in search of a better life.

Railroads during the late 19th century opened the way for the settlement of the West, provided new economic opportunities, and stimulated the development of town and communities throughout the country. The advertisements shown here are but a small example of the advertisements read by local citizens here in Itawamba County during the early 1890’s.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And the story gets better, if you factor in all of the new arrivals of Germans who came to Texas about the same time. Between Spanish, English, and German, communication was a comedy in Texas.

Anonymous said...

Did I read the article about the railroad, implying that Itawamba natives could travel to northeast Texas by rail rather than making this long trip with wagon and oxen? My maternal GGgrandmother, Nancy E. Dyer Wigginton and her husband,William Harvey Wigginton did move to the Franklin County area in the mid 1880's and how they got there has been a big question since I learned this doing genealogy on the family.

This area was hit with typhoid fever in the 1898/99 time frame. One of the Wigginton daughters, Georgia Ann "GorgieAnn" married to J. C. Clay died of typhoid along with her new baby. They are buried in Gray Rock Cemetery in nearby Titus Co., northeast of Dallas, TX along Interstate 30 access road. bettye