Captain William H. Hart moved to this county in 1843. As a land
surveyor, the Indians made a deal with him to locate a public highway
from Gilmer to Marshall. With his brother-in-law, David Lee, he set out
in a one-horse carry-all, blazing the way through the almost trackless
woods. They had a tent in which they lived until they could clear ground
and build a log house. This was located on the Cherokee Trace about a
mile north of the present city limits of Gilmer, on what is now known at
the Walter Barnwell farm.
Captain Hart had left the mountains of his native eastern Tennessee to
follow his sweetheart, Miss Evaline Kelsey, to Marshall, Texas, where
her father, Dr. W. H. Kelsey, was a physician, merchant, and Methodist
preacher. So much like his native hills did he find the country, it was
easy for him to quickly feel at home and to love his new surroundings.
It was from the Kelsey family that the creek and community west of
Gilmer received its name. As more people moved in, the Hart home became
headquarters and the meeting place for the new settlers, and it is
claimed that for a time, it was used as the county’s courthouse. Here
Judge O. M. Roberts, who later became governor of Texas, and District
Attorney Dave Arden held court. Among the legal attendants were General
Sam Houston and John Reagan. Occasionally, court would be suspended so
all could go on a hunt. Leading the chase would be a Mr. Lee, a noted
bear hunter.
In 1856, Hart represented his district in the State Legislature. He
traveled to Austin on horseback. The legislator’s pay was so small that
Mrs. Hart always had to send him money from the farm to pay his expenses
at the capital. Hart also served as magistrate, or justice of the peace.
Walter Boyd, patriarch of the entire Boyd clan in Gilmer, bought his
marriage license from Hart, when he married here. In later years, one of
Boyd’s grandsons, J. Walter Marshall, married one of Hart’s
granddaughters, Mae Hart.
In November, 1865, the late Rev. W. H. McClelland, and his family,
arrived in Upshur County to make his home in the pioneer community. They
made the trip from St. Louis to New Orleans by steamboat, and thence to
Marshall by train. The family secured a wagon and drove to Upshur
County, where the Rev. McClelland settled on a farm seven miles
southeast of Gilmer.
The early settlers of Upshur County brought their slaves with them,
without whom it would have been almost impossible to do the work of
clearing the land, splitting rails for fencing the farms, felling the
trees, and building the log houses. All this required a lot of hard,
physical labor. The negro slave did his part of this work for which he
deserves credit.