Texas History and Genealogy - presented by Genealogy Trails

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/CC/hcc5.html (accessed May 15, 2007). (NOTE: "s.v." stands for sub verbo, "under the word.") Anglo settlement began in the late 1830s, with most of the early settlers coming from the southern states of Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. The earliest communities in the area were Pittsburg, near the center, and Lilly and Pine, in the southwestern and south central part. There were probably some early settlers along Big Cypress Creek in the northern portion also, but no information is available about their activities. The first post office, established in 1848, was located in the community known now as Pine, and was called Pine Tree. In 1855 a post office was also established at Pittsburg, and by 1860 this town had become the most important supply center for northern Upshur County farmers.
These early, predominantly southern settlers brought with them their southern heritage and institutions. Most of the early settlers were Protestants, especially Baptists and Methodists. A number of the settlers were also slaveholders, who used the fertile soils of the county to grow the two most important southern crops, cotton and corn. Although precise figures are not available, the proportion of the population who were blacks held as slaves probably exceeded the 1860 statewide average of about 30 percent.
Camp County was separated from Upshur County in 1874 and named for John Lafayette Camp,^qv who was serving as state senator from Upshur County and presented the petitions that led to the action of the legislature. A county seat election was held, and Pittsburg won with 500 votes. Leesburg, to the west, received 228, and Center Point, in the southeastern part, received sixty-nine. Following the election, a courthouse was constructed of locally manufactured brick on a lot donated by William Pitts. Since the 1874 election the choice of county seat has never been contested.