OUTLINE OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
HISTORY OF CLARKSVILLE AND
RED RIVER COUNTY

Here, with great pleasure and with permission of the author, I include an address by E. W. Bowers on "Economics in Red River County by Decades for the Past One Hundred Years". This idea to me is very unique and of inestimable value to those who would have a true history of Red River County. The address constitutes this entire chapter, and is as follows:

The very first white settlers of Red River County were a group of families who settled on the eastern boundary of the county near where B. H. Williams lives today.

In 1819 a man named Jones settled on Red River and established old Jonesboro, which soon grew into the largest settlement in this whole section. No visible trace of Jonesboro now exists.

From that time on settlers came in more rapidly.

The first settlers found a virgin country with game of all kinds in the greatest abundance. There were millions of prairie chickens on the prairies, plenty of bears, coons, possums, and otters.

Deer were so plentiful that a settler could step