Bowie County, Texas

Bowie County
Bowie County
County
	The Bowie County Courthouse
	Location within the U.S. state of Texas
	Texas's location within the U.S.
	Coordinates: 33°27′N 94°25′W / 33.45°N 94.42°W
Country	United States
State	Texas
Founded	1840
Named for	James Bowie
Seat	Boston (legal);; New Boston (courthouse)
Largest city	Texarkana
Area
• Total	923 sq mi (2,390 km2)
• Land	885 sq mi (2,290 km2)
• Water	38 sq mi (100 km2) 4.1%
Population (2020)
• Total	92,893
• Density	100/sq mi (39/km2)
Time zone	UTC−6 (Central)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−5 (CDT)
Congressional districts	1st, 4th
Website	www.co.bowie.tx.us

Bowie County (/ˈbuːi/ BOO-ee^[1]) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. Its legal county seat is Boston, though its courthouse is located in New Boston.^[2] As of the 2020 census, the population was 92,893.^[3] Bowie County is part of the Texarkana metropolitan statistical area. The county is named for James Bowie, the legendary knife fighter who died at the Battle of the Alamo.^[4]

History

Native Americans

The farming Caddoan Mississippian culture dates as early as the Late Archaic Period 1500 BCE in Bowie County.^[5] The Hernando de Soto expedition of 1541 resulted in violent encounters. Spanish and French missionaries brought smallpox, measles malaria, and influenza epidemics.^[6] Eventually, these issues and problems with the Osage, forced the Caddo to abandon their homelands. Settlers had peaceful relations with the 19th century Shawnee, Delaware and Kickapoo in the area.

Explorations and county established

French explorer Jean Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe founded the military fort Le Poste des Cadodaquious in 1719.^[7] The fort remained in continuous use until 1770. The Red River Expedition of 1806 which passed through Bowie County,^[8] headed by Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis, was of great diplomatic and economic importance to President Thomas Jefferson. Bowie County was established in December 1840 and reduced to its present size in 1846. DeKalb was the temporary county seat, with Boston becoming the permanent county seat in 1841.^[9]^[10]

Bowie County, in the years leading up to the American Civil War, was settled mostly by Southerners who brought their slave labor to work the cotton fields. By 1860, slaves outnumbered whites 2,651 to 2,401. The county voted 208–15 in favor of secession from the Union.^[11] While Bowie was never a battlefield in that war, it was occupied during Reconstruction. Between 1860 and 1870, the population declined. The occupation, and the new legal equality of blacks, became a hostile situation that fostered Cullen Baker.

Cullen Montgomery Baker (b. circa 1835 – d. 1869)^[12] was a twice-widowed, mean-spirited drunk who killed his first man before he was 20. When Thomas Orr married Baker's late wife's sister, thereby denying Baker that opportunity, Baker attempted to hang Orr. Legends abound as to his activities in Bowie and Cass Counties, including a rumored tie to the Ku Klux Klan. His exploits turned him into a folk hero dubbed "The Swamp Fox of the Sulphur River".^[13]^[14] He was a Confederate States Army veteran who joined two units, designated as a deserter from the first, and receiving a disability discharge from the second.^[15] Reconstruction allowed him to focus his anger toward what many at the time believed was a Union intrusion into their lives. Baker and his gang conducted a vicious rampage against citizens he perceived as being on the wrong side of the black labor issue, at William G. Kirkman and the Freedman's Bureau in Bowie County, and at the soldiers of the Union occupation. Kirkman unsuccessfully pursued Baker, killing one of Baker's men in the second attempt. Like Swamp Fox Francis Marion, Baker always managed to elude capture, often with the help of local citizens. Kirkland was murdered by "person or persons unknown",^[11] but Baker boasted of having done the deed. In December 1869, Thomas Orr and a group of neighbors killed Baker.^[15] A local legend has it the deed was accomplished with strychnine-laced whiskey.

When the Texas and Pacific Railway was constructed through the county, a new town named Texarkana was founded.^[16]^[17]

Bowie was hit hard by the Great Depression. Measurable relief came late when the Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant was established in 1942. The base was active until 2009.^[18] The Red River Army Depot,^[19] opened in 1941, remains active. The two installations occupied almost 40,000 acres (160 km²) and provided job opportunities for thousands.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 923 square miles (2,390 km²), of which 885 square miles (2,290 km²) is land and 38 square miles (98 km²) (4.1%) is covered by water.^[20]

Bowie County, Texas is one of only three counties in Texas to border two other U.S. states (the others being Dallam and Cass). Bowie County forms part of the tripoint of Texas-Oklahoma-Arkansas.

Adjacent counties

Communities

Cities

New Boston (courthouse in city)
Red Lick
Redwater
Texarkana (largest city)
Wake Village

Unincorporated communities

Ghost towns

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.	%±
1850	2,912	—
1860	5,052	73.5%
1870	4,684	−7.3%
1880	10,965	134.1%
1890	20,267	84.8%
1900	26,676	31.6%
1910	34,827	30.6%
1920	39,472	13.3%
1930	48,563	23.0%
1940	50,208	3.4%
1950	61,966	23.4%
1960	59,971	−3.2%
1970	67,813	13.1%
1980	75,301	11.0%
1990	81,665	8.5%
2000	89,306	9.4%
2010	92,565	3.6%
2020	92,893	0.4%
U.S. Decennial Census^[21] 1850–2010^[22] 2010–2020^[23]

**Bowie County, Texas – Racial and ethnic composition**
*Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.*
Race / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)	Pop 2000^[24]	Pop 2010^[25]	Pop 2020^[23]	% 2000	% 2010	% 2020
White alone (NH)	62,712	61,343	55,855	70.22%	66.27%	60.13%
Black or African American alone (NH)	20,787	22,230	23,084	23.28%	24.02%	24.85%
Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)	487	572	554	0.55%	0.62%	0.60%
Asian alone (NH)	372	721	1,082	0.42%	0.78%	1.16%
Pacific Islander alone (NH)	33	45	69	0.04%	0.05%	0.07%
Other race (NH)	50	88	332	0.06%	0.10%	0.36%
Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)	873	1,504	4,315	0.98%	1.62%	4.65%
Hispanic or Latino (any race)	3,992	6,062	7,602	4.47%	6.55%	8.18%
Total	89,306	92,565	92,893	100.00%	100.00%	100.00%

At of the census of 2000,^[26] 89,306 people, 33,058 households, and 23,438 families resided in the county. The population density was 101 inhabitants per square mile (39/km²). The 36,463 housing units averaged 41 units per square mile (16/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 73.26% White, 23.42% Black or African American, 0.58% Native American, 0.43% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.12% from other races, and 1.15% from two or more races. About 4.47% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race. In 2020, its population increased to 92,893;^[3] the racial and ethnic makeup of the county transitioned to 60.13% non-Hispanic white, 24.85% Black or African American, 0.60% American Indian or Alaska Native, 1.16% Asian alone, 0.7% Pacific Islander, 0.36% some other race or ethnicity, 4.65% multiracial, and 8.18% Hispanic or Latino American of any race.^[23]

Government and politics

Barry Telford Unit, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison for men, is in an unincorporated area of the county, near New Boston.^[27] Federal Correctional Institution, Texarkana, is a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility in unincorporated Bowie County, near Texarkana, Texas.^[28]^[29]

Bowie County is no longer one of the seven dry counties in the state of Texas. Both the city of Nash and the city of Texarkana (on November 6, 2013, and November 5, 2014, respectively)^[30]^[31] have passed laws that allow the sale of beer and wine.

Politics

Bowie County had voting patterns similar to the Solid South up until 1976. The county has consistently voted for the GOP in each 21st century president election. The last Democrat to win this county was Bill Clinton of neighboring Arkansas, with which the county shares the Texarkana metropolitan area, in both of his national victories.

United States presidential election results for Bowie County, Texas^[32]
Year	Republican		Democratic		Third party(ies)
Year	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
2020	27,116	70.87%	10,747	28.09%	398	1.04%
2016	24,924	72.03%	8,838	25.54%	840	2.43%
2012	24,869	70.24%	10,196	28.80%	339	0.96%
2008	24,162	68.67%	10,815	30.74%	209	0.59%
2004	21,791	64.55%	11,880	35.19%	89	0.26%
2000	18,325	60.44%	11,662	38.46%	333	1.10%
1996	12,750	43.56%	13,657	46.66%	2,863	9.78%
1992	11,776	38.78%	11,825	38.94%	6,764	22.28%
1988	15,454	55.31%	12,331	44.13%	156	0.56%
1984	18,244	64.22%	10,077	35.47%	88	0.31%
1980	13,942	54.35%	11,339	44.21%	369	1.44%
1976	9,590	43.17%	12,445	56.02%	179	0.81%
1972	14,722	73.55%	5,227	26.12%	66	0.33%
1968	5,966	30.44%	6,468	33.00%	7,165	36.56%
1964	7,018	40.31%	10,368	59.55%	24	0.14%
1960	5,927	39.01%	9,198	60.54%	68	0.45%
1956	6,823	46.73%	7,675	52.56%	104	0.71%
1952	6,501	38.34%	10,437	61.56%	16	0.09%
1948	1,161	11.22%	7,028	67.95%	2,154	20.83%
1944	790	8.87%	7,045	79.14%	1,067	11.99%
1940	1,107	13.75%	6,937	86.18%	5	0.06%
1936	472	8.55%	5,030	91.11%	19	0.34%
1932	541	9.28%	5,269	90.39%	19	0.33%
1928	2,225	42.57%	3,002	57.43%	0	0.00%
1924	740	16.58%	3,455	77.40%	269	6.03%
1920	1,032	26.80%	2,396	62.22%	423	10.98%
1916	414	15.72%	1,941	73.69%	279	10.59%
1912	317	15.15%	1,542	73.71%	233	11.14%