After Texas had gained her independence, Mexico had hopes of recapturing
Texas, but they did not attempt, openly, to reconquer the infant
republic at that time. The Mexicans endeavored to keep the Indians in a
turmoil all the time, as they would give the Texans trouble. The story
goes that the Mexican agents with plenty of gold and silver came to
Texas to try to get the Indians to revolt against Texas.
The Cherokee Indians were a powerful tribe and highly civilized. Many of
them lived right here in Upshur County and other parts of East Texas.
These agents succeeded in stirring up the Indians to hostility by
promising them plenty of money and land when the whites were driven out
of the country. President Lamar sent General Rusk and Albert Sydney
Johnson against them and defeated them on the Neches River. Chief Bowls
was killed in the battle. The Indians began to retreat toward Oklahoma
and had to pass through Upshur County. When they got to Little Cypress
bottom, they scattered into the swamps and underbrush of the creek. The
Mexican agents with most of their money still with them, feared they
would be captured, therefore when they came to a deep hole of water in
Cypress Creek, they threw all the money they had into this hole of
water. This gold and silver was heavy and impeded their progress, and
also they did not want the Texans to get this money, should they be
captured. It is supposed that today, lying peacefully in the bottom of
Little Cypress, somewhere, is a large amount of gold and silver. Word
got around, finally, that the Mexicans had thrown the money into the
Cypress, so several years after, two Irishmen, who had fought the
Indians, came in and during one dry summer set up two boilers at
different holes along the Cypress and pumped all the water out, but, as
the story goes, never found any money.