Ferries
Ferries were an important part of toll roads too. They made it possible to cross the rivers that were too wide and deep to cross safely. This was important particularly to travelers who had large and heavy loads. It cost money to build the ferry and to maintain it. Tolls were charged so that the ferry owner could get back the money that it took to build and maintain it. Also the ferry owner probably made a profit which provided spending money, and that helped the economy of the surrounding area.
A ferry was a wooden raft that was large and stout enough to support a big load. It was moved across the river by pushing against the bottom of the river with long poles or by pulling it across using a heavy rope that was attached to an anchorage on each side of the river. That is someone on the ferry would take hold of this line and pull it across the river while standing on the ferry. Using this method, a round trip on the Red River took between twenty-five and forty minutes. 25 to 200 wagons a day went across the Red River during the height of immigration into Texas.
The Red River, the border between Texas and Indian Territory, was particularly difficult to cross because it was wide, the channel kept changing course, and the rapid current could be dangerous. Also the bottom of the river could have quicksand that could pull a person or wagon down below the river bottom. Because crossing it on foot or by swimming was dangerous, ferries were used to cross the river.
There were several ferries across the Red River between Bryan County in Oklahoma and Fannin County in Texas. The tolls were $2 for a wagon with six horses or oxen, $1.50 for a wagon with four horses or oxen, 50 cents for a one-horse carriage, 25 cents for a man and a horse, 12 cents for a person on foot, and 5 cents for each hog or sheep.
In Choctaw County, a ferry operated near a settlement called Oberlin. All of the people who lived there were African Americans or “Negroes” as they were called in those days. Many of them had been slaves belonging to Robert M. Jones, a Choctaw Indian, in what is today Choctaw County. Jones had owned 200 to 300 slaves many of whom settled in Oberlin.
The Colbert ferry took Butterfield stagecoaches across the Red river for free because Colbert felt that more people using stagecoaches, would mean that his business would be over all. This is because the stagecoaches brought more people into that part of the country, and as the population grew, the need for the ferries would grow also. So Colbert would make money.
In 1917, fifteen businesses in Fort Towson contributed a total of $235 for the construction of a ferry to cross the Kiamatia River. The ferry would make it easier to cross the river and to get to their businesses and buy goods and services from them.
The owners of the businesses in Fort Towson and the owner of Colbert’s ferry could see that a good way to make money was to make it easier for people to get around. People are more likely to come to your place to spend money when it is fairly easy to get there. So it was worth the expense for these businesses to make that happen.
Information provided by Walter Eskridge, Curator of Education