Delta County, Texas

Delta County, located in the far northeast corner of the Texas near the Oklahoma and Arkansas borders and is surrounded by Lamar County to the north and northeast, Red River County to the east, Franklin County to the east, Hopkins County to the south and southeast Hunt Countyto the southwest, and Fannin County to the northwest. Cooper, the county seat is located 82 miles northeast of Dallas.

Cities, Towns and Communities

Amy | Antioch | Ben Franklin | Brushy Mound | Camp Rusk | Cedar Creek (Daisy Mission) | Charleston | Cleveland | Cooper – County Seat | Crossroads (Union, Clem, Hog Wallow) | East Delta | Enloe | Friendship | Giles | Gough (Bess) | Hickory Grove | Horton | Jot ‘Em Down (Mohegan, Muddig Prairie, Bagley) | Kensing | Klondike (Pleasant Grove, Old Pleasant Grove, New Prospect, Kate) | Lake Creek | Liberty Grove | Lone Star (Barton, Volney) | Long Taw (Good’s Chapel) | Mount Joy | Needmore (Jernigan, Pecan, Pecan Branch, Eureka) | Pacio(Lone Elm, Cuba, Mote’s Mill) | Pecan Gap | Pecan Grove (Granny’s Neck, Harper’s Crossing) | Post Oak (Brushy Creek, Brushy Mound) | Prattville | Price (Habern’s Chapel) | Racetrack | Rattan | Shiloh (Shilough) | Simmons (Rocky Point, Jackson’s Chapel) | Unitia | Vasco | West Delta | Yowell (partly in Hunt County)

History

In 1840 the Congress of Texas formed Lamar County, which included present-day Delta County, from Red River County. In March 1846 the new state legislature organized Hopkins County, which absorbed the southern two-thirds of Delta County. At the end of the war the pioneers who had settled between the two rivers turned their attention to rebuilding an agricultural and herding economy. As the less-isolated county seats of Hopkins and Lamar Counties grew and developed, people from the river delta were forced to travel long distances over inadequate dirt roads and to cross waterways that were often flooded for long periods of time. In 1868 they petitioned the legislature to form a new county that would include parts of Hopkins, Lamar, Hunt, and Fannin counties. After much debate, Texas lawmakers granted their request on July 29, 1870, but only after excluding Hunt and Fannin counties because neither wished to be included. Governor Edmund J. Davis designated a five-man board of commissioners to organize the new district, to be called Delta County for its triangular shape. The county seat would be a new town named Cooper after Leroy Cooper, chairman of the House Committee on Counties and Boundaries, and situated directly between the North and South Sulphur rivers. Erastus Blackwell was appointed sheriff to supervise land sales. The first county election was held on October 6, 1870, to organize the municipal government, and Charles S. Nidever, John P. Boyd, J. F. Alexander, Alfred Allen, and J. M. Bledsoe were elected the first county commissioners.

County Histories

Photos and Tales of Delta County, 1976, by Wilma Ross and Billie Phillips

The Shiloh Pioneers, 1850–1975 by Shiloh Cemetery Association

Friendship: An African-American Community on the Prairie Margin of Northeast Texas, 1996, by Melissa M. Green, Duane E. Peter, and Donna K. Shepard

Location

Cooper, TX 33° 22′ 24.3948″ N, 95° 41′ 17.8548″ W

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