Losing the Trail - Trammel's Trace and William's Settlement

It’s hard to believe that is has been 15 years since I first heard about Trammel’s Trace. Besides the book and the history of the road and of Nicholas Trammell, I’ve worked with others off and on to locate the remains of this historic route.

All along the route from Fulton, Arkansas down toward Nacogdoches there are surveyor notes that tell us where Trammel’s Trace was during the early years of the Republic. Some Mexican land grants provide even earlier indications. From those known points we can follow the terrain and likely route, and with the help of landowners, find swales and ruts along the way.

Are these the remains of Trammel’s Trace as it passes through William Settlement?

That is until we get to a point just south of the Old Shiloh Baptist Church about six miles northeast of Mt. Enterprise on Highway 315. That is the last surveyor’s call for Trammel’s Trace. From that point south, around Mt. Enterprise and toward Nacogdoches there are no documented points on the ground. The trail is lost there.

This illustration of later roads is from the 1932 Rusk County GLO Map #76688 (click for map).

But now we are going to try and find it. And have a good idea where to look.

Although there are no survey calls, there are other indicators. Some swales along a county road, commissioners court minutes assigning road overseers in the 1850s, Mexican land grants, and other tidbits of information help us focus on a likely path.

But there is one big “find” that would help speed things along, and that would be to know the location of Williams Settlement. Williams Settlement was not a town per se but a gathering of pre-Republic Anglo settlers with close ties to the Cherokee. As early as 1821-1822, Thomas Williams and his sons moved into an area just southeast of present Mt. Enterprise on the east side of the Angelina River’s east fork. High bluffs overlook the creek bottom.

The Williams’ sons were notable in early Texas history. John “Cherokee” Williams and Brooks Williams were both killed by Indians, even though their families reportedly intermarried with Cherokee. Leonard Williams was a trader and spoke many native languages. He was in the party that negotiated with Chief Diwali before the Battle of the Neches in 1839, and later became one of Sam Houston’s Indian commissioners. He lost an eye in the Siege of Bexar before the battle of the Alamo. Their Mexican land grants, the first in what is now Rusk County, came as a result of supporting the “old settlers” in the Fredonian Rebellion. It may have even been members of the Williams family who during that uprising chased Nicholas Trammell off the land he’d been given at the Trinity River crossing of the El Camino Real.

It is very probable that the route of Trammel’s Trace passed through the land settled by Thomas Williams and his extended family. Twenty miles north of Nacogdoches they were in a place where their interaction and trade with the Cherokee in the area could be carried on without constant attention from the Mexican soldiers in Nacogdoches. They were close enough to be counted in the 1835 census, but far enough not be watched over closely.

A few landowners in that area of Rusk County who may be along the route of the Trace within Williams Settlement have been invited to a discussion and presentation to learn more about what may have happened in Texas history on land that they own. By involving people in their own part of Texas history it helps us keep Paying History Forward. . . that’s what it is all about.