BROWN'S FERRY, TEXAS. Brown's Ferry, also known as Brown's, was an early riverport on the Angelina River near its confluence with Attoyac Bayou in southeastern Nacogdoches County. A settlement seems to have been at the site as early as 1849, when Robert Patton's riverboat, the Angelina, began plying the waters between Pattonia and Sabine Pass. During the 1850s Brown's Ferry was a shipping point for neighboring cotton plantations, and several stores operated there around the time of the Civil War. In the 1870s the settlement became a regular stopping point for the Laura and other riverboats. A one-way ticket from Brown's Ferry to Sabine Pass, which included meals, cost fifteen dollars; the trip took an average eighteen to twenty-two days. The construction of the railroads in late 1870s and 1880s brought an end to river traffic on the Angelina, and Brown's Ferry declined rapidly. By 1900 the settlement was a ghost town. Sam Rayburn Reservoir has inundated much of the area.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Richard W. Haltom, The History of Nacogdoches County, Texas (Nacogdoches, 1880; rpt., Austin: Jenkins, 197-). Nacogdoches County Genealogical Society, Nacogdoches County Families (Dallas: Curtis, 1985).
