 According to the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), Joseph Mitchell, a Chickasaw farmer began operating a ferry service across the Red River about 1842.The service continued until Mitchell died in 1847.In 1849, Benjamin F. "Frank" Colbert, also a Chickasaw citizen, had moved to this area in the late 1840s, built a house and began to raise cotton and cattle, employing slave labor.