Madisonville
Texas
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Madison County Chamber of Commerce
Local History
Writing about the Indians of Madison County is difficult because there were many different groups moving through the area. Each group left a campsite with broken pottery shards, arrow and dart points for us to find hundreds of years later. Pottery found on some campsites does show Caddo influence. We do know that the Bedias and Kickapoo Indians at one time lived in Madison County. After 1770, the Bedias and other Indian groups fought the Spanish, thanks to French influence. Soon, the Bedias Indians were reduced to a mere one hundred men, and in 1854, the remaining Bedias joined the Caddoes on the reservation in Oklahoma. For a short time the Kickapoo Indians made this county their home; but, like the Bedias, they were also moved to the Oklahoma Reservation.
Madison County, in the year 7000 B.C. would be unrecognizable to us today. There was a great ice sheet further north, in some places a mile or so thick, and volcanic activity causing a massive cloud covering the earth. This county, along with the rest of North America, was a lot cooler and wetter than today. Grasses and trees grew taller. The animals fed on these grasses. In this county there were mammoth and the longhorn bison. The longhorn bison had a horn span much like the longhorn cattle we know today, only the bison was at least twice the size of the Texas longhorn. A mammoth grew to a height of at least 15-feet height at the shoulder and weighed in the tons. Bones of the mammoth have been found in gravel beds along the Trinity River. So far, nothing has been found with the bones to suggest that early man killed and butchered them.
Scattered finds, mainly dart points, tell us that early man was in this area by 7000 B.C. This would put man in Madison County in what was known as the late Paleo Period. There are three types of dart points, found in this county, that all fall in the Late Paleo Period. They are in Plainview, Meserve, and Golondrina. These dart points were not shot with a bow. The bow would be invented hundreds of years later. They were shot with a spear thrower called an "Atl-Atl." This spear thrower gave early man a chance to kill his game, the mammoth, or the bison, at a safe distance.
Writing about the Indians of Madison County is difficult because there were many different groups moving through the area. Each group left a campsite with broken pottery shards, arrow and dart points for us to find hundreds of years later. Pottery found on some campsites does show Caddo influence. We do know that the Bedias and Kickapoo Indians at one time lived in Madison County. After 1770, the Bedias and other Indian groups fought the Spanish, thanks to French influence. Soon, the Bedias Indians were reduced to a mere one hundred men, and in 1854, the remaining Bedias joined the Caddoes on the reservation in Oklahoma. For a short time the Kickapoo Indians made this county their home; but, like the Bedias, they were also moved to the Oklahoma Reservation.
Madison County, in the year 7000 B.C. would be unrecognizable to us today. There was a great ice sheet further north, in some places a mile or so thick, and volcanic activity causing a massive cloud covering the earth. This county, along with the rest of North America, was a lot cooler and wetter than today. Grasses and trees grew taller. The animals fed on these grasses. In this county there were mammoth and the longhorn bison. The longhorn bison had a horn span much like the longhorn cattle we know today, only the bison was at least twice the size of the Texas longhorn. A mammoth grew to a height of at least 15-feet height at the shoulder and weighed in the tons. Bones of the mammoth have been found in gravel beds along the Trinity River. So far, nothing has been found with the bones to suggest that early man killed and butchered them.
Scattered finds, mainly dart points, tell us that early man was in this area by 7000 B.C. This would put man in Madison County in what was known as the late Paleo Period. There are three types of dart points, found in this county, that all fall in the Late Paleo Period. They are in Plainview, Meserve, and Golondrina. These dart points were not shot with a bow. The bow would be invented hundreds of years later. They were shot with a spear thrower called an "Atl-Atl." This spear thrower gave early man a chance to kill his game, the mammoth, or the bison, at a safe distance.