Hickory Creek in Denton County, Texas, is just a 45 minute drive south of the Red River along Interstate 35E, situated between Denton and Lewisville on the north side of the Lewisville Lake Interstate bridge. If you'd look at it as you speed along the highway, you'd think "oh wow, a suburb" and not really crane your neck in any direction. Which is a good thing, since you gotta watch out for that awful I35E traffic.
It does sit on the north shores of Lewisville Lake, though, so there's something. And, it's named for Hickory Creek, one of the creeks that feeds Lewisville Lake. And that's pretty much it... except that Hickory Creek in Denton County, Texas may be named for Hickory, a much older settlement that history has forgotten.
A Map Tells
Maps are true snapshots of history, especially pertinent for researchers to imaging what life was like when there weren't ready-made cameras in our back pockets. I use maps extensively when I'm doing research, and about a year or two ago, I was conducting research for an exhibit on Lewisville schools. I had received from the Denton County Museums a photograph of a wooden building with African American children standing in the front of it. It was labeled "Hickory School," and I was trying to figure out where Hickory School was located. It opened in 1876 and then, at one point, its students were consolidated into Lewisville Colored School.
As I was perusing Denton County maps, I came across one compiled around 1880 for the Land Department of the Texas & Pacific Railway. I noticed that the dotted lines on the map indicated wagon roads, which can be fairly uncommon on maps from that era. I traced the dotted line from Lewisville northward and paused... what the heck: is there a town called Hickory along this old road? Would Hickory School have been located there?
According to the map, Hickory was a settlement on the east side of the wagon road in the northern section of the John Maloney survey. In 1833, Maloney, originally from Kentucky, had received from the Peters Colony Land Grant "640 acres situated in Denton County about 3 1/2 miles from Alton" by virtue of his race, gender, and married status. 14 years later, he served in the Mexican-American War, as he was mustered in 1847 at the "Elm Fork of the Trinity" in Bell's Regiment, Texas Mounted Volunteers. Upon the end of the war, he continued to live in Denton County with his wife, Lucinda, where he had set up a farm on some of his original land grant. In the 1850 census, he owned two people -- two young boys, ages 8 and 7.
African Americans at Hickory
Maloney's ownership of enslaved people is the intriguing part: Hickory School opened in 1877 as an place of learning reserved for black children. Since the black children were most likely descendants of people once enslaved in the area, and Maloney had been a slave owner (as were his neighbors, the Clarks and Medlins, listed in the 1850 slave schedule), it might be possible that the Hickory School for black children was located at the little town of Hickory that I found on the 1879 map.
An oral history by Laura Brantley, found at the Lewisville Public Library, describes Hickory School. Brantley said that it was "one-room yellow school house... with a bell by the front door" for grades 1 through 6. It was "located on the west side of the interstate somewhere in the approximate vicinity of the Hickory Creek State Park." Since there isn't a state park at the shores of Lewisville Lake, I'm going to assume that she meant Hickory Creek Park.
Further, a deed research for the approximate location of Hickory revealed the location of Clark Cemetery, an African American burial ground that was relocated to Lake Dallas during the construction of Lewisville Lake. Since the black cemetery at Hickory was most likely near the location of the Hickory School (which also served as a church), does that mean that the former town of Hickory is now under Lewisville Lake?
A Book that Leads Nowhere
Early historians relied very much on a book called "History and Reminisces of Denton County" by Ed.F. Bates, published in 1976 (as many county histories were to commemorate the nation's bicentennial). Bates's book is a bit all over the place, but has been the "go to" source for Denton County for the past four decades. "Hickory" is mentioned often, but since there are two Hickory Creeks -- Upper and Lower -- and because both flow into the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, Bates's geography is sometimes hard to discern.
According to Bates, there were ranger stations (to patrol against Native American incursions) west of Denton. One of these stations "was called Hickory and was situated at the high knob just south of Hickory Creek at the Fort Worth Crossing about three miles southwest of the present city of Denton." Another description: "The ranger patrol line extended from Elm Station (between Gainesville and Red River) south to Hickory Station (three miles west of the city of Denton) south to Johnson's Station (about one mile south of Arlington, in the east edge of Tarrant County), and on to Waco on the Brazos River."
But the map from 1880 shows "Hickory" as being roughly three miles southeast of Denton.
The most pertinent description of Hickory Station in Bates's book is this one: "There was a road from Hickory Station, passing our place on the north side leading to the settlement and crossing Elm at the Higgins Crossing. This is the road that the rangers passed on frequently going to an from the stations to the settlements in east Denton and Collin counties... There was another road leading from Hickory Station to Dallas, which passed on the south side of our farm, crossing Elm at Keenan's Ford."
Bates provides an interesting anecdote, regardless where Hickory Station was: "It was at Hickory Station that the first murder was committed in this county that we have knowledge of. A Mr. Teel, a ranger, shot and killed Mr. Ramsey there in 1848."
Land and Lake and Road and Map
In 2023, I was working with a documentary film crew about the story of Quakertown in Denton. During an event, I spoke with an African American woman whose family has deep roots in Denton County. She just happened to mention that she had recently visited the "old school house at Hickory" along the shores of Lewisville Lake "near Alton" at "Hickory Creek Park." While by the time she visited, nothing remained of the actual building, she had walked on dry land.
This led me to re-check current maps, specifically the area around Hickory Creek Park. Unfortunately, the USGS maps were of no use, but luckily, an aerial map of Denton County from 1958 helped tremendously.
The 1880 map shows the road curves at Hickory. The 1958 aerial map of Denton County indicates that this same road and bend, now within property that ties into Hickory Creek Park, still exists. Current satellite and Google street views reveal that the old wagon road has become Sycamore Bend Road.
A Visit
I investigated the site in person on a rainy afternoon in December and discovered that the old road bed has become a part of a quiet walking trail that wind along Hickory Creek and Lewisville Lake. As it's corps property, it's a bit rugged. I discovered some piles of brick, one burned trash pile, and a clump of irises that may indicate the site of a (former) grave or house.
Who knows? I may have found the lost town of Hickory.
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