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Archiver > Southern-Trails > 2001-05 > 0989353897


From: "Coffee" <>
Subject: [SouthernTrails] Texas Trace
Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 15:31:37 -0500


Most of the NE Texas area was settled by Tenneseans from 1835 through 1870.
My great grandfather Joshua David Coffee and his brother, John James Coffee
came to Fannin County in NE Texas, in 1855. They settled in the Orangeville
Community. The area was part of the Damron Survey which was a 640 acre land
grant to Colonel John Henry Damron from the Republic of Texas. Most of the
settlers in that area of Fannin County came from the area of Tennessee
around Nashville.

I have never determined the route the Texas Trace made that came from
Tennessee to NE Texas. The entry point of Texas at the time was at Fulton,
Arkansas. It was located on the Red River near present day Texarkana. I
assume it was through central Arkansas. Could it possibly up the Red River
frome the Mississippi, I doubt it.

My great grandfather, my great great grandfather were from Gordonsville,
Tennessee on the Cumberland River. My great grandfather married Mary Lou
Blanton in June, 1960. Mary Lou Blanton's sister, Nancy, married Colonel
John Henry Damron, circa 1850. The Blantons were one of two separate
Blanton families in Fannin County Texas. Both those families were from South
Carolina. The community of Orangeville in Fannin County was named for
Orangeville SC and settled by the Methodist Blantons. My Blanton family were
the Methodists and the "other" Blanton Family were the Babtists. A short
time ago, I talked to an older gentleman named Ed Blanton in Fannin County
from the Babtist family that married a Blanton from the Methodist family.
The religious denomination was the only way people could tell the Blanton
families apart. The Blanton families from S. Carolina passed through
Tennessee on their way to Texas and thus both families became Tenneseans.

Jerry Coffee

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