Garret Igo came to the Red River Valley in the 1840s and after his stints of service in the Confederate army during the Civil War, he began his career as a steamboat captain in the 1860s. He lived in Red River County, Texas for much of his adult life, but then resided in McCurtain County, Oklahoma by the 1910s. At one point, he or his children operated the Igo Ferry between Albion and Bryarly (aka Mound City, aka Roland) in Red River County.
In 1921, Steamboat Captain Igo provided testimony in the U.S. Supreme Court case, State of Oklahoma v. State of Texas about his time traversing the Red River. The purpose of the court case was to establish the actual boundary between the two states. Here is his very interesting testimony that depicts life along the Red River in the latter part of the 19th century.
On being a Steamboat Captain:
In 1848 [later, he testifies that he came in 1847] I came to Red River County, Texas, and located at Clarksville, which is about twenty miles from the Red River....
I navigated Red River from 1866 to 1874. I was captain on the "Belle Crook," which was in 1866.... These boats ran from Fulton, Arkansas, to the mount of the Kiamichi, which was then considered the head of navigation. They were nearly altogether stern wheel boats, drawing about four feet of water, and carrying 1,000 bales of cotton. They were nearly all flat bottom boats... We generally ran from January up until April... I would take about ten days to make the round trip from the mouth of the Kiamichi to New Orleans. [...] We freighted molasses, whiskey, and groceries up Red River before there any railroads; that was our business, to sell the farmers, and we took back cotton, cottonseed and slat. In very low water we had to sound the bottom frequently for bars, by sending a skiff out in front of take a sounding. In low waters we sent very slowly, because if we stuck on a sandbar we might stay there a week or a month. I have known of boats to be snagged and sunk. The "Ham Howell" was one such, and the "Clevis" another. At the old Rowland landing I have seen as many as four big sidewheel steamboats there at one time, some of which would take 1,700 bales of cotton. We had a great deal more water in the seventies than we have now. Those large boats ran then."
On the Steamboat Trade:
We used our steamboats as trading boats, bringing up sugar, coffee, molasses, etc., and buying beef, cotton, and cottonseed. These trading boats operated on the river until the railroads came; after that, whiskey boats continued to come up the river. I have been to old Preston twice, in 1849 and 1909. These upper Red River Boats carried from 800 to 1,000 bales of cotton. They were flat bottom boats, one hundred feet long and thirty of forty feet wide.
The "Ham Howell," the "R.T. Briley," the "Bonnie Lee" and the "Royal George" ran after the Civil War. I remember Ben Kuntz and Jon Kuntz. Their boats were called the Kuntz lines. The "Era" and the "New Era" both ran before the Civil War. The Kuntz line and the Morgan line ran up and down upper Red River along in this section of the country. I remember a boat called the "Red River Planter;" it ran on the river in this section of the country. Captain Cheatham ran the "Frontier;" he had a salt works up on the Kiamichi River, and ran another boat called "The Southern." I remember a boat called the "Francis Jones," and the "R.M. Jones," and the "Walla Busha." The "Jones" boat was built to haul cotton off of the old Shawneetown farm. I remember a boat called the "Jim Turner."
On the Great Raft and Passengers:
The boats brought merchants' goods to Clarksville, Sherman, and Honey Grove. Passengers came on those boats. Except for conveyance by wagon from Shreveport and Gains' Landing [I believe this at the Sabine River, aka Gaines Ferry] the navigation of Red River by boat was the only means of commerce for this section of the country. It was a matter of debate whether the removal of the raft in Louisiana did more to hinder or help the navigation of Red River up along the Texas border; some thought it made the water shallower, and some thought it helped.
On Environmental Destruction:
My daughter lost a one hundred acre farm which caved in on the Texas side of the river. The river there cut away the residence, farm m and all, and made a great beach on this side. It was a gradual process... This made land is composed of sand, salt, and clay. Logs sometimes catch the drift. The sediment is generally in the eddies and back washes. The banks when I first knew the river were more perpendicular than they are now. Cane brakes grew right down to the waters' edge, but as the land has been cultivated, it caves worse. The roots of the cane and timber seem to hold the land better. It was a mistake for the Government to cut the timber off the land. I have known as much as five acres of timber land to go in at one time because of the river cutting it, and there was quicksand underneath. My daughter's house slipped into the river when the river was a hundred yards form it; the river was cutting underneath in the quicksand."
When I first came to this country, in 1847, there was a great deal of timber growing in the valleys on Red River, both on the Oklahoma and the Texas side. Cottonwood, walnut, hickory, pecan, ash, sycamore, gum and bois d'arc. I have seen cottonwood trees that were five feet in diameter. I have seen a walnut tree that was four feet in diameter; that walnut log wood for $900. These valleys on both side of Red River have changed only by the timber being removed, and the land being put in cultivation.
When I came here thousand of deer, turkey, and bear were in the river bottoms; this game was hunted, and after 1870, there was a regular game market at Clarksville, Texas. Deer skins and bear skins where shipped out of the country. The river was full of fish then. I have known of a one hundred and twenty-five pound cat fish that was caught out of Red River.
Links to maps:
There is a Shawneetown, north of the Red River on 259 on way between Bowie County and Idabel OK, going through the bottom ground farms, is just above Pecan Point area.