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Wise County is in northwestern Texas, forty miles south of the Oklahoma border. Decatur, the county seat and largest town, is thirty-five miles northwest of Fort Worth on U.S. highways 81/287 and 380. The county, comprising 922 square miles, is divided from north to south between the Eastern Grand Prairie and the Western Cross Timbers regions of Texas. The topography of the eastern section consists of gently rolling hills with sandy loam topsoils and brick clay subsoils. Central Wise County has a combination of flat and undulating terrain; its waxy, light-colored surface soil covers deep layers of red clay. The western section is primarily hilly, with alluvial loam and sandy top layers over clay and limestone sublayers. Natural resources include stone, clay, gas, and oil. Vegetation ranges from natural and improved grasses to post and live oak, cottonwood, and mesquite trees. Approximately 40 percent of the total area is quality farmland, and 60 percent is forest and grazing land. The average elevation of Wise County is 800 feet above sea level, and two-thirds of the county is drained by the West Fork of the Trinity River. Two lakes, Lake Bridgeport and Eagle Mountain Lake, and numerous creeks and tributaries provide an abundant water supply and recreational facilities. The average annual rainfall is twenty-nine inches. Temperatures vary from an average low of 33° F in January to an average high of 96° F in July. The growing season lasts 248 days.
The first known inhabitants of Wise County were probably Wichita Indians, a nomadic plains group that depended upon the buffalo for food and other necessities. In 1540, when the Coronado expedition came through the area east of the site of present Decatur, there were several Indian villages between the Trinity and Red rivers. The Wichita period ended around 1835, as various Caddo Indian groups filtered into the region. At the time that the first White settlers came to the area, one village of approximately sixty-five Delaware Indians led by Jim Ned remained in Wise County. Jim Ned and his peaceful band befriended the Whites, and various hills, streams, and communities were named after the Indian leader. Hostile groups of Kichai Indians also lived in the area near Bridgeport during the period, and they raided White communities in Fannin County. Generals Edward H. Tarrant and James Smith led expeditions against them during the 1840s and early 1850s. By 1855 the permanent Indian settlements had moved to reservations in West Texas. The history of White settlement in Wise County began with Sam Woody, who moved to Deep Creek (then in Cooke County) in 1854. His original log cabin remains as a historic site. Many other settlers, eager to take advantage of the state preemption grants of 160 acres of land, followed Woody into the area. District surveyors from Cooke County in the north and Denton County to the east mapped out the area, most of which was drawn from Cooke County. Wise County was officially established by legislative act on January 23, 1856, and was named in honor of Henry A. Wise, a United States Congressman from Virginia, who, during the 1840s, supported the annexation of Texas. The county seat, Decatur (originally named Taylorsville), was selected by a countywide election and, though challenged after the courthouse burned in 1895, has remained the seat of government to the present. The majority of Wise County settlers were immigrants from southern states, though only fifty-three of the county’s 3,160 White residents owned slaves in 1860. Prior to the Civil War cattle and sheep production were the major industries; cotton was not introduced into the county until the 1870s. Most residents engaged in open-range ranching through the 1880s; the two most prominent ranches, owned by W. H. Hunt and Daniel Waggoner, were located in western Wise County. The predominantly southern populace supported secession in 1861 and raised five Confederate companies that fought in the Civil War. The removal of federal troops from the frontier left outlying settlements at the mercy of hostile Comanches and other plains Indians. Texas militia units, formed to patrol from the Red River to the Rio Grande, set up a post in Decatur. Local volunteer groups also defended the frontier communities. Nevertheless, many farms were abandoned, as fearful residents moved into towns for protection against Indian attack.
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