Migration of Bird's Fort Settlers to Collin County, Texas

Collin County, before it was organized, formed a part of Fannin [County]. In November, 1841, Dr. Rowlett, Jabez Fitzgerald, Edmund Dodd, Pleasant Wilson, Dr. William E. Throckmorton and others made a trip from the settlements on Red River in the north part of Fannin county, to this section with a view of locating lands for settlement, which Dr. Throckmorton and others proposed to make on the waters of the east fork of the Trinity River. A selection of lands was made on Rowlett's creek, near the mouth of Spring creek. Dr. Throckmorton returned to the settlements for his family and in company with M. C. Clements and his two married sons, Wesley and Bluford Clements, and their families, started to the proposed settlement. On reaching the locality it was found that the party who were with the surveyor, Dr. Rowlett, had taken up the lands that had been selected for settlement. Pleasant Wilson, who had been acting as guide for the families, proposed that the families should return to the east fork, where he could show them fine bodies of timber and prairie lands, that had not been surveyed, or taken up, and where their headrights could be located. He piloted them back to a spring in the neighborhood of where Melissa now is, and soon a suitable location was found, where Dr. Throckmorton settled, on the creek that bears his name in the northern part of the county. This first settlement was made in the month of January 1842, and was composed of the family already mentioned, and the following named persons: Pleasant Wilson, Edmund Dodd, Wm. R. Garnett, Garrett Fitzgerald and Littleton Ratlin. Very soon after the settlement was made, Benjamin White and his son, Archy, from Red River county, whose lands had been previously selected on White's creek, only a few miles distant, came out to prospect and were so much pleased that they determined to settle in the spring or fall. William Pulliam, son-in-law of Benjamin White, came in the summer and settled in the neighborhood. He afterwards settled and improved the farm now known as the Shirley place, just west of Melissa. During the same summer John M. Kincaid came out with his family and located his headright on Hurricane creek. In the same summer the settlement that had been previously started in Bird's Fort, in what is now known as Tarrant county, broke up and Henry Hahn and family, Mr. Walker and family, John and James Wells, B. G. Doddy, Joshua E. Heath and B. C. Thompson, from Bird's Fort, came to the settlement and built cabins inside the stockade. They all made selections of land in the neighborhood and subsequently moved to them except Thompson, who died shortly after his arrival. Land was cleared and the prairie broken for a crop. The country was full of game. Bear, deer and turkeys were everywhere found in great abundance. In the fall, buffalo came in great numbers. Wild horses roamed over the prairies unmolested. Constant watch had to be kept to prevent surprise and attack by the Indians. No country under the sun in its virgin freshness ever presented a more [illegible] appearance. The broad rolling prairies, interspersed with groves of timber, the creeks, with broad bottoms of fine timber; with running branches of clear water; with thickets and small skirts of timber bordering on their banks, and wild flowers of every hue and variety presented scenery unsurpassed in loveliness.