June 28, 2006

Politics in the Onega area were not exciting during the 1860's and during the time of the Civil War. However just to the north of the Plunk place on Cagle hill, about ten miles was the land owned by the five Sullivan brothers who came to this area with their gold and secured a very large tract of land with each brother’s place adjoining each other.

Politics, however, in Cooke County, just a few more miles to the north of the Sullivan settlement was somewhat very different from the settlers that were settling in the Onega area. The Onega settlers were supporting the government of Texas and Sam Houston.

The northern immigrants settling in Cooke County were loyal supporters of the North, in a low key manner. The Great Hanging was in Cooke County where 40 plus northern loyalists were hanged in the trees. The victims of the hanging were also involved with other crimes.

The Onega area which included th Black Jack area, as it was surveyed by local surveyor Sanford Slaton, and the Key Settlement where the early day pioneers established a free county school was being settled. The area also included the Sandtown area, Rockhill and Springhill. The political atmosphere in Onega was very low key. The name of the settlement was changed from Onega, in an effort to lose the Indian identity, because the Indian population was still being hunted and condemned even as late as the Civil War.

It was during the beginning of the Civil War, on March 16, 1860 that Governor Sam Houston resisted the Confederacy and lost his job. He became more loyal to the Union forces. The Union sympathizers were in the Cross Timbers region and down south toward Pilot Point.

However, to be open in such discussions was as bad as coming out and admitting you were an Indian.

The Cross Timbers on the east side of Cooke and Denton County provided a good cover for protection and security. Twenty miles from Onega near the Red River, were many immigrants from Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and Missouri. These settlers had formed a peace party, and to be initiated into the peace party meant not only a group of people against the confederacy, but they were headed to death by hanging.

The local Cherokees of Onega joined General Lee and the confederate forces because they felt they had a better chance of surviving and living longer.

I don’t have any documentary proof of hangings that took place in the Onega area; I do however, believe that there was a hanging in the area. I just don’t find where the historians that lived during that time made a record for us today.

The Confederate sympathy was the local preference, because they provided several Civil War veterans in the Confederate Army.

We have documentation of Francis Wilson, Sanford, Slaton, George W. Goin, George Williams, and John Williams who were inducted for the Civil War cause. General Robert E. Lee had just been serving time in Mexico. He visited a local camp in Montague on his way back to serve as commanding General for the South.

The Citizens Court was an active court in Gainesville. The court tried the Peace Party members who were sympathetic to the Northern cause. The Citizens Court was a makeshift court that did not possess the legal authority to try these people, but they were successful in hanging many men during the times of the Civil War.

Onega remained an unorganized village. It served as a village of friendly people who watched for the needs of their local folks.

Since there were no telegraph connections and services in 1862, news traveled by word of mouth or via smoke signals.

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