Fort Inglish

During the early years of the Republic of Texas Fannin County residents lived in constant danger of Indian attack, and Fort Inglish was a frequent refuge for settlers on the western edge of the Red River frontier. It was built in the summer of 1837 by Bailey Inglish in the form of a single blockhouse, sixteen feet square and topped by an overhanging story twenty-four feet square, probably surrounded by a log stockade. Fort Inglish was on grounds now occupied by a Veterans Administration center, north of East Ninth Street and east of Lynn street, in downtown Bonham. Although it was private, Fort Inglish played a role in several official campaigns against the Indians by the Army of the Republic of Texas. In November 1838 it served as the rendezvous point for the militia brigade of Gen. John H. Dyer during the Rusk-Dyer Indian expedition, and in October 1840 Col. William G. Cooke's troops straggled into Fort Inglish after the near-disaster of the Military Road expedition. After the removal of the Indian threat to White settlement in Northeast Texas in the early 1840s, however, Fort Inglish fell into disrepair and was eventually dismantled.