Jim Barclay Village

In the 1840s the Alabama Indians began leaving the tribe's Fenced-In Village in northwestern Tyler County and moving southward along Big Cypress Creek. They established a settlement near the junction of Big and Little Cypress creeks in western Tyler County. This site was in the John Wheat survey nine miles southeast of the site of present Woodville. In 1852 James Barclay purchased the land on which the Alabamas were living, and the Indians began referring to their Big Cypress Creek village as Jim Barclay Village. Barclay served before and during the Civil War as state of Texas agent for the Alabamas, Coushattas, and Pakana Muskogees. The Alabamas remained in this location long enough for some of the tribe to erect cabins and plant vegetables, but others began migrating westward to the Woods Creek area of what is now Polk County. Although all of them had moved from this location by 1853, the Alabamas continued to use the Jim Barclay Village site for temporary camping on hunting trips until the end of the 1880s.