Founder’s Day Celebration slated for Saturday

(Editor’s note: The Polk County Historical Commission and the City of Livingston will host a Founder’s Day Celebration at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the Old City Cemetery at the corner of Hwy. 190 and Hwy. 146. Moses L. Choate, the founder of Livingston, will be recognized and celebrated and a newly installed marker on his gravesite will be unveiled. A reception will follow at the Central Baptist Church Brick House located across the street from the Old City Cemetery. Following is an excerpt from “Moses L. Choate and His Influence in the Formation of Polk County, Texas,” researched, compiled and written by local historian Gary B. Davis.)

By Gary B. Davis

Moses Choate was a founding member of the Masonic Trinity Lodge #14 which was organized in 1840 in Swartwout. James J. Hill was the Worshipful Master of the new lodge and Moses L. Choate and Arthur P. Garner both joined, as all new candidates do, as “Entered Apprentice.” The men built a two-story structure for their meeting hall. The Lodge meetings were held on the second floor and the school children were educated on the first floor, a common practice of Masons of the day.

In 1846 the lodge building was moved to Livingston, onto the northwest corner of the City Cemetery lot, at a cost of $500. Once again, the lower floor of this building was used for school purposes. Choate was still a member in 1857 and was listed as a “Steward” of the organization at that time.

On several instances, Choate was employed as an agent to locate properties, have surveys made and obtain title for parties that had claims but apparently not the skill set that it took to make the acquisition. He would do this in exchange for a portion of the property. By 1840 Choate’s land holdings totaled 6,642 acres according to the Liberty County tax records.

Choate was appointed Justice of Peace of Precinct 4 of the Liberty Division on February 4, 1839. On January 31, 1840, Choate, along with B.M. Spinks and A.L. Winfree, were appointed to serve as Liberty County Commissioners. At this time Mirabeau B. Lamar was the President of the Republic of Texas, David G. Burnet, President of the Senate and Vice President David S. Kaufman was Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Then, only a few days later, on February 5, 1840, the Northern Division of Liberty County was created by an Act of the Texas Congress. On this date, James Garner, Moses L. Choate, J.D. Burke, Frederick Rankin and A.S. Ainsworth were appointed as Commissioners. Swartwout was the Site of Justice (courthouse) for the Division.

This Act, signed by Lamar, Burnet and Kaufman, authorized the Commissioners to select, by an election, the site for a Justice of the Peace and to “obtain, upon the faith and credit of said district, or receiving by donation at the point so selected by the people, such a quantity of land as will be sufficient for the erection of public buildings. The land so purchased, or donated, shall be under the control of the Commissioners.”

Choate’s four-year-old son Josephus died on Aug. 11, 1840, and he chose the hill to the west of his home to bury the child. This was the origination of the Old City Cemetery. Choate later buried his 13-year-old son, Rodolphus, in 1846.

The Houston Morning Star of October 7, 1841, and The Telegraph & Texas Register of October 13, 1841, both published a letter that was written at Swartwout on October 5, 1841, by a person with the initials T.H.J. The letter reported on the newly formed Northern Division of Liberty County.

The correspondence gave a description of the boundaries of the new Division and went into the merits of the lands within. “This Division, for the richness of its soil, fine timber and navigation, in the opinion of those who have impartially examined the country from the Sabine River to the Colorado, is superior to any other portion of the same extent.

“When this Division was created by Congress, there were not more than one hundred voters residing within its vicinity; there are at this time more than double that number. Prior to that time this section of the country was but little known to emigrants, and that portion of our citizens who immigrated since the Declaration of Independence; there being no road to guide the traveler, and but few huts to shelter him from the storm or inclemency of the night, the consequence was, that few persons left the main road trading through San Augustine and Nacogdoches, until after they had reached the Brazos, in search of the place intended for their future homes.

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“Since the organization of this Division, the County Court ordered a survey of a road leading from the town of Swartwout in an easterly direction, of the distance of thirty miles, to the County line, at Clements, to intersect at the point with the San Augustine and Jasper roads, and appointed our worthy and enterprising fellow citizen, Moses L. Choate, Esq., overseer, who by his indefatigable exertions has succeeded in opening a road thirty feet in width from Swartwout to the County line, and caused mile posts to be placed at the end of every mile through its whole route.

“The banks of the river at the ferries were graded as the law required, and a good and substantial ferryboat, fifty-five feet in length was provided for the safe crossing of all persons, horses, cattle, waggons (sic), etc. Swartout, the seat of Justice, is situated at or near the centre of the Division on the east bank of the Trinity River. It contains a population of about one hundred souls, three stores, two taverns, one tailor’s shop, a boot and shoemaker’s shop, and a cotton gin, many improvements have been made and are now making by the enterprising citizens throughout the Division, and I have no doubt, but that it will in a few years rank with any county in the Republic, in point of wealth and population.”

This road led first to his home in what was then called Springfield. He certainly used it to deliver and pick up goods from the river boats at Garner’s Ferry, the most reliable source of the time. The Clements reference is the property of Emanual Clements, Sr., located just to the west of the town of Chester, on the county line, and along the Long King Trace towards Nacogdoches.

Clements received a labor of land that was surveyed on May 29, 1841, by Claiborne Holshousen. Holshousen was an early settler of Polk County, was a Liberty District surveyor and served as Polk County Judge from 1848 to 1850. He was the father of Joseph Holshousen, who built, in 1904, his law office that is now occupied by the writer.

District Court records reveal that Choate operated Garner’s Ferry at Swartwout for several years. In July 1847 Choate filed suit against Elizbeth Garner, as administrator of the James A. Garner estate, for $163.02 in payment for operating the ferry from October 2, 1844, to August 14, 1846. During this time, he took a team of oxen with cargo to Houston for Garner for the charge of $16. He sued for damages totaling $179.02 and was awarded $82.62 and ½ cents. He entered into another lawsuit that same year against William M. Maxey over ferriage charges and sought damages of $17.99.

Texas was annexed into the United States on December 29, 1845, when John Tyler was President. Polk County was formed by the Texas Legislature on March 30, 1846, as one of the first twenty-three counties after James K. Polk became President on March 4, 1835. (San Jacinto County was later created on August 13, 1870, from the part of Polk County that lay west of the Trinity River).

An election was held in Swartwout on June 14, 1846, to determine if the site of the county seat should be moved. Johnson’s Bluff (Cape Royale area), Swartwout and Springfield were the candidates.

To no one’s surprise, Springfield was the winner. Choate had offered to donate one hundred acres for the seat of justice and this, plus the fact that it was centrally located, made it the overwhelming choice. It is widely accepted that Choate’s offer came with the condition that the town be named Livingston.

It is unclear as to why Choate wanted to change the name from Springfield to Livingston. Some say that his middle name was Livingston. Others say that it was to honor his hometown of Livingston, Tennessee. The 1850 and 1860 census records reflect that he was indeed from Tennessee.

Judge J.C. Feagin, when interviewed by the Houston Post on September 22, 1922, advised that Livingston was named for Chancellor Robert Livingston, who administered the Oath of Office to George Washington. Judge J.E. Hill, Jr., in a Houston Chronicle interview dated July 6, 1949, stated that the town was named for the African explorer, Dr. David Livingston. “There was no particular reason for calling the town Livingston unless M.L. Choate just admired the explorer.”

And esteemed Polk County historian Emma Haynes stated in her very comprehensive History of Polk County that Choate was from Livingston, Alabama.

Another possible theory is that he was married to Ursula in Livingston County, Kentucky. Regardless of how it got its name, Springfield came to be known as Livingston.