← Cowleach to the Rescue

caddohut

By | Published January 24, 2016 | Full size is 456 × 314 pixels

I watched as the driver of an 18-wheeler and his entourage of law enforcement officials came to an abrupt halt at Cowleach Creek in the southeast part of Greenville. Five feet farther and they would all have found themselves up to the axles in mud and mire. I hadn’t realized how much rain we have had this winter until I watched the footage. Everywhere off the pavement looked absolutely soaked. Cowleach Creek, usually just a dribble in the summer, is one of the two major tributaries of the Sabine River. It heads northwest of Celeste and meanders southeasterly through Hunt County until merging with Caddo Creek to form Lake Tawakoni. Along the way numerous smaller tributaries feed both waterways. The earliest settlers in what would become Hunt County relied on these for their sole water source. Who or what was Cowleach? According to fairly reliable sources, Cowleach was the leader of a group of displaced Shawnee Indians who first settled along the south bank of the Red River near present day Clarksville. As more settlers from the United States arrived and things became crowded, Cowleach led his people into what is now Hunt County. They settled on land now filled with reservoirs for Greenville’s water supply. It seems one Lindley Johnson (1798-1855) wanted that piece of land, all 2,324.98 acres of it for his own. And with that, he wanted the Native Americans off his land. Johnson claimed that Cowleach was stalking him in the woods. Cowleach supposedly fired on Johnson, Johnson feigned death, and Cowleach left the scene. That evening Johnson went to the Indian village where he found Cowleach and shot him, dead! Quickly the remainder of the group packed up and vanished into the woods, never to be seen again. If this sounds sarcastic, it is. There were no witnesses to either shooting, no questions asked later, and suddenly Johnson became a hero with a major street named for him. But that was sometime between 1842 when the land was surveyed and 1855 when Johnson died. Things were different then. According to a prominent woman in Clarksville, Cowleach and his people were peaceable, very friendly, and good neighbors. But after countless moves and searches for safety, Cowleach rebelled. Why were these bands in Texas in the first place you may wonder? From the arrival of the very first Europeans, the Native American population was ravished with diseases to which they had no natural immunity. In fact, more died of disease than in battles with the interlopers. As the numbers dwindled, small groups merged with others in similar situations. All were looking for a safe place to live, to hunt game, and to grow plots of vegetables.

Cowleach and his family probably lived in caddo grass and pole lodge houses similar to this. Photo from National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

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