Colonel M. T. Johnson
from "Southeast Corner of Tarrant County Before the Civil War"
by Sallie Hodges McKnight
The first inhabitants about the two points that were to become Mansfield and Johnson Station, the latter said to be the oldest town in the county, were the Caddo Indians. Johnson Station was
first known as Terry's Trading Post, where Indians traded pelts, pecans and ponies for blue calico, beads and ammunition. Terry's Trading Post later came to be known as Big Bone Spring, named from the big fossilized bones of wild animals found in the stream leading from the spring.
When Colonel Johnson established a military post there, Big Bone Spring became Johnson's Station, and in Col. Johnson and his company of rangers the Indians found acceptable neighbors. Col. Johnson and General Houston were personal friends, and this was the point selected as a rendezvous for various tribes of Indians with which General Houston sought to negotiate a treaty in 1842.
It was said that no man wielded a mightier influence over the destinies of the young county of Tarrant than did Col. Johnson, who, after serving in the Mexican War, brought with him Colonel
Daggett from the little Indian village of Waco, and established not only a military post but a social center of no mean importance. He owned a large retinue of slaves and gave great balls, attended by many out-of-state dignitaries.
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