Peek into Panola
Panola County covers more than 800 square miles of rolling plains and hills drained by the Sabine River. The woodland, once densely populated with small game, supports deer, squirrel, and quail hunting in season. Freshwater lakes include Hendrick's Lake, Hill's Lake, Clear Lake, and Fish Lake. Reservoirs built in recent years include Murvaul Lake, Martin Lake, and Toledo Bend.The county derives much of its income from the extraction of oil, gas, and coal. Other industries include sawmills, poultry and egg processing, and the manufacture of plastic products.
When the European powers raced for claims in the New World early in the 17th century, Spain secured its claim to Texas from the Sabine River to the south and west. France also claimed the area, based on the explorations of René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. Spain established a line of protected missions across East Texas, two of them not far south of Panola County. The area was involved in a series of territorial disputes between the United States and Spain and Mexico. In 1806, after the United States bought Louisiana from France, a boundary dispute between the United States and Spain was temporarily resolved by the Neutral Ground agreement, but after the Mexican War of
Independence, another treaty had to be negotiated between Mexico and the United States.
American Indians, the Caddos and the Hasinais, lived in the Panola County area, with the Sabine River dividing them. The two allied confederations were known as the Timber Tribes. They made permanent homes in farming villages, where they raised grain and vegetables and hunted for small game in the forests.
Early settlers travel ed the Red River or trails known as the Old San Antonio Road and Trammel's Trace, the route used by trader Nicholas Trammel which eventually became the western boundary of Panola County.
The earliest known white settlement in the area was established by Daniel Martin in 1833 . The Martins came to Texas from Missouri intending to join the colony founded by Stephen F. Austin . Traveling along Trammel's Trace, they camped on a hill near a creek, west of present day Beckville where they built a fort and set up a trading post , Martin's Creek.
A second settlement was established near the site of present of Clayton by Rev. Isaac Reed and a large group of relatives. Reed led the settlers to the place and purchased land from Manuel Antonio Romero. Mexican colonization laws prohibited settlement within a strip of land twenty leagues wide along the United States boundary, so it was 1835 before Anglo settlers could secure land titles from Mexico , but after the Texas Revolution in 1836, the re was a great land rush.
In 1837 the LaGrone Settlement was established east of the Sabine River near the Louisiana border. The LaGrones' wagon train had passed through the area in 1832 . Indian unrest caused the family to travel further into Texas . After Texas won its independence, they returned to an appealing spot they had found previously. By 1840 , forty-nine families were established in the area that became Panola County. Most of them came from Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama.