A Historically Interesting Original Letter by an Early Texas Resident, Reporting a Horse Theft by Shawnees in the Frontier Town of Preston, Grayson County, TX, and Asking Col. Arthur Upshaw, an Indian Agent and Former Superintendent of Indian Removal, to Help Recover the Lost Property “Without Trouble and Difficulties.” Preston, Grayson County (Texas): Ca. 1846-1850.

Octavo (ca. 20,5x20 cm). 2 pp. Brown ink on beige wove paper. Fold marks, but overall a very good letter, written in a legible hand.

A historically interesting original autograph manuscript letter from the pioneer days of Grayson County, capturing tensions along the border of the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) and the newly admitted state of Texas (1845). The letter, written in ca. the late-1840s, notifies a Chickasaw Indian Agent and former superintendent of Indian removal about a horse theft by Shawnees in the frontier town of Preston (Grayson County, TX).

In 1822, a band of the Missouri Shawnees, numbering about 270 families, migrated south into Mexico, in the eastern part of Spanish Texas. Sixteen years later, shortly after Texas achieved independence, most Shawnees were forcefully relocated to the neighboring Indian Territory, mainly to the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations. Over the following decades, the frontier lands became the scene of multiple confrontations, including murders and thefts, between the settlers and the Shawnees.

The author addresses the letter to Indian Agent and one of the most important officials involved in removing Native Americans, Colonel Arthur Upshaw (1803-1877). In the 1830s, the Colonel oversaw the resettling of Indian Tribes from Mississippi and Alabama into present-day eastern Arkansas. After being removed from office in 1850, Upshaw relocated to Texas, where he later served in the Texas legislature for Washington County.

In the text, the author, David Wale, notifies Upshaw, about a horse theft in Preston, Grayson County. Wale complains that the livestock was taken away to the Choctaw Nation by the Shawnee Indians and asks the addressee to help the suffice, Ino Prior, "to recover the lost property without trouble and difficulties. "

The docketing on the verso of the integral leaf identifies Upshaw as an "Ind. Agt. " at the time of the letter's writing, necessarily dating it before his removal in 1850 and after the establishment of Grayson County in 1846.

Overall, an important frontier correspondence capturing the tensions between the settlers and Shawnees in the immediate aftermath of Texas admission into the union.

The text of the letter:

“Mr. Ino Prior, the bearer, has lost some horses, together with a good many others, it appears they were stolen by same Shawnees and taken into Choktaw Nation, this I think is a fact from all the information that can be had at this place, both from the Whites & Indians,

The sufferer seems to be anxious to do, and to act according to all Law & Justice, to recover the lost property, without trouble and difficulties.

My advice to him, in the first place, is to go, and see you, I would presume if the horses are in the Nation, you can do something for him.

Your Truly

(signed) David Wale”