Rapid passage is now being made over that period which Colonel Collins has described as a time "when every fellow was a law unto himself" the beginning of the end of which reign came with the conclusion of the people "to organize into a body politic and get themselves in shape to sue, to be sued and to contract debts." The territory had now been sparsely occupied for two years, and a general desire for local government became manifest. Such a desire was precipitated from numerous causes, the chief one being the existing need of civil measures as safeguards to property, and protection to person; home rule over land matters was a second desideratum: Gains-ville and Denton still exercised sovereignty over land matters, including surveys and filings, and these towns were too far away to give convenient service. The total population was not large, yet of sufficient numbers to justify local government. The original communities had filled up and forced the overflow to find habitations elsewhere about the county. All the choice locations, from Ben Haney's on the south, to Pickett's and Hale's on the north, were pre-empted; there were colonies on Oliver and Hunt's Creek, and Jim Proctor lived near the future Decatur; Howell and Allen's remained the only trading post.

No advancements toward settled agriculture had been made, and none would follow until touched by the developing power of transportation and marketing facilities. The man with herds and flocks remained supreme in the land. The country remained in its crude and primary condition; no roads ran anywhere and no bridges crossed any creeks. Under these conditions the territory was ripe for those measures of organization which would usher in a concentrated effort toward progress and development in all lines and industries. At this juncture there appeared a man, a citizen of the county, who grasped the helm of state and guided it on to the successful culmination of its hopes. This man was Absalom Bishop, a native of South Carolina, but who came to this territory from Hopkins County, Texas, in 1855, and settled on Sweetwater Creek, east from Decatur about four miles. The organization movement found in Colonel Bishop its prime agitator and supporter, the idea doubtless having originated with him. The writer has attempted elsewhere to do justice in a biographical sketch to this many-sided man, but is frank to confess that the picture there drawn is dim and hazy to that which nature stores in the imagination but denies the power to express.

With an inner conception he is seen in bright and livid colors, but not to be exteriorly delineated by the weak hand which at present wields the pen. Every phase of life of the pioneer period felt the guiding impetus of this one man, and if to any is to be accorded the honor of being the Father of Wise County, that distinction falls righteously to the palm of Col. Absalom Bishop.

In accordance with the provisions of the law governing exterior territory, the territory of Wise County still remained attached to the Counties of Cooke and Denton in the manner heretofore described. Now, upon the intervention of the citizens of this territory, and in further accordance with the provisions regulating the organization of new counties, it became incumbent upon the Chief Justice (County Judge) of Cooke County to perfect the organization of the territory under question into Wise County.

At this juncture in these annals due reference must be made to certain contradictory statements which the writer has encountered in respect to which one of the counties of Denton and Cooke, had control of the measures of organization by virtue of which Wise County became an organized county. There are two contentions in favor of either view. Denton County is favored by special mentioning in the creating act soon to be quoted, and also by one of the living pioneers who claims that the County Court of Denton County is responsible for the organization of Wise County. On the other hand, the emphatic assertion of Mr. Charles D. Cates, is to the effect that Wise County was organized under the authority of, and by the officers of, Cooke County. Mr. Cates states,that he distinctly remembers the exchange of visits and transactions that occurred between Col. Bishop and the other promoters of the movement here, and the officers of Cooke County. As clerk in Col. Bishop's store, Mr. Cates was closely associated with the former which justifies his claim to knowledge of Bishop's actions. This view also accords with the provisions of the general statute which, applied to this case, made it the duty of Cooke County to prepare that part of her which had applied for organization. But there is no disposition on the part of the writer to arbitrate this controversy.

The preparations necessary to organization were of two kinds: first, a creating act must be secured from the legislature, which act defined the boundaries and authorized the action; secondly, the territory defined in the act must be divided into convenient precincts for the election of Justices of the Peace and Constables; voting places in each precinct where elections shall be held must be appointed; elections must be declared one month ahead of the date and presiding officers appointed. The first three clauses of the Creating Act approved by the legislature, January 23, 1856, are here quoted:

" Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, that the territory embraced within the following limits, to-wit: Beginning at the southwest corner of Denton County, thence north with the west boundary line of said county thirty miles, thence west thirty miles, thence south thirty miles, east to place of beginning, shall comprise the County of Wise.

" Sec. 2. That it shall be, and is hereby made the duty of the Chief Justice of Denton County, to organize the said County of Wise on the first Monday of May next, by ordering an election for county officers, and conducting same in all respects in conformity to law.

" Sec. 3. That so soon as the said County of Wise has been organized as aforesaid, and the officers of same qualified according to law, they shall enter upon the discharge of their respective offices; and all courts in and for said county shall be held at the Store House of Daniel Howell, until the county seat of said county shall be permanently located by the citizens thereof."

The passage of this act was doubtlessly secured by the representative in the legislature from Cooke County. It is affirmed with positiveness that Col. Bishop selected the name which the county should bear, upon which grounds it is assumed that the name chosen was revealed to the introducer of the above act looking to its being embodied in the enacting clauses.

The name Wise was taken from that of Honorable Henry A. Wise, of Virginia, a patriot and statesman of the early and middle portions of the last century, to whom a sketch is elsewhere devoted.

Thus, by virtue of an act of the Legislature of January, 1856, this heretofore territory became officially recognized as an organized county.

FIRST ELECTION AND REMARKS.
-In accordance with the command of the creating clause, the election was held on the first Monday in May in 1856, with Howell's Store as the chief voting box. Colonel Bishop was influential in naming the candidates, and also announced himself for the office of County Clerk. His motive for taking a hand in the county's initial experience in politics was to perfect some remaining policies held in reserve. The first Chief Justice, Wm. S. Oates, was especially friendly to Bishop and his designs.
 

The following were elected as Wise County's first set of county officials:
William S. Oates, originally from North Carolina, Chief Justice.
Absalom Bishop, originally from South Carolina, County Clerk.
Granger Salmon, originally from New York, District Clerk.
John W. Hale, originally from Tennessee, Sheriff.
Robert C. Mount, originally from Tennessee, Assessor and Collector.
John T. Waggoner, originally from Missouri, Treasurer.
B. B. Haney, George Birdwell, Samuel L. Terrell and J. C. Kincannon, County Commissioners.
Justice of the Peace, Precinct No. 1, James Roberts.
Justice of the Peace, Precinct No. 1, B. P. Earp.
Justice of the Peace, Precinct No. 2, James Davis.
Justice of the Peace, Precinct No, 2, F. M. Holden.
Justice of the Peace, Precinct No. 3, S. Bean.
Justice of the Peace, Precinct No. 3, L. S. King.
Justice of the Peace, Precinct No, 4, S. L. Terrell.

Two justices were elected in each precinct, this office in that day being of paramount importance. Samuel L. Terrell, the forbear of that prominent family in Wise County, was elected to two portfolios in the first government.

Chief Justice Oates, a clear-headed, practical farmer, lived at Aurora; John W. Hale was a trusted citizen of Catlett Creek, as was also John T. Waggoner; R. C. Mount was a staunch citizen, and Granger Salmon was endowed with shrewdness and enterprise.

The next year, 1857, Colonel Bishop was elected as flotorial representative in the legislature from Wise, Denton, Collin, Cooke and Montague Counties, and upon resigning the clerk's office, W. W. Brady was elected to fill out the term. A spirited political contest was waging at the time of Bishop's resignation from the county office. The contest for the location of the county seat had come up, and Colonel Bishop had taken a foremost part in it by championing the site whereon Decatur now stands. This aroused against him the opposition of the champions of other places, and when Mr. Brady announced himself as the Bishop candidate for the unexpired term of the clerk's office, the remaining factions endorsed the race of Sam Woodward, of Bridgeport, and a vigorous fight ensued. Mr. Brady was elected and took office August 3, 1857.

The Chief Justice's office in those days was synonymous with that of the County Judge of the present time, with the exception that no court functions were attached to it. All minor matters of litigation were adjudicated by the Justices of the Peace, and those of weightier degrees of importance were referred to the District Court, of which two sessions a year were held. The title of Chief Justice appears to have been discarded in 1876, when the Hon. J. W. Patterson was elected to the office of County Judge.


The Sixteenth Judicial District was created by the legislature in 1855, and composed of Wise, Collin, Grayson, Cooke, Denton, Tarrant, Johnson, Ellis, Parker and Dallas Counties. Nat M. Burford, of Dallas, was appointed to the judgeship, and John C. McCoy, also of Dallas, was appointed District Attorney. This court held sessions in Wise County for a week each in March and September.

In 1860 Wise was detached .from the Sixteenth District and placed in the newly organized Twentieth, and still later put in the Seventh. Previous to her organization, and while she remained a part of Cooke County, Wise was in the Fourth Senatorial District, composed of Collin, Grayson, Cooke, Denton and Kaufman Counties, and in the Seventh Representative, composed of Denton, Collin and Cooke Counties.

The following list comprises the officers and members of the succeeding county administrations, beginning with the second set, elected in 1858, and ending with the suspensions which occurred in 1865 as a result of the downfall of the Confederacy.
 

YEAR 1858.
Commissioners.
P. B. Bryan. - Jos. H. Martin.
R. M. Birdwell. - John G. Boyd.
Justices of Peace.
David C. Cates. - L. E. Camp.
James Scarborough. - Jacob Garrett.
L. S. King. - John Morris.
Pearce Woodward. - James R. Wheeler.
M. J. Britian. - P. P. R. Collom.

YEAR 1860.
Commissioners.
J. H. Martin. - N. J. Vaughn.
John Mann. - B. B. Haney.
P. B. Bryan. - W. H. Shoemaker.
Justices of Peace.
James Scarborough. - Henry Ward.
Thos. Stuart. - M. F. Prewett.
Robt. Brody. - J. S. Morris.
C. B. Ball. - J. D. Robinson.
Pearce Woodward. - John McCulloch.
J. H. Walker.

YEAR 1862.
Commissioners.
J.H.Walker. - J. G. Boyd.
W. H. Langston. - J. Holden.
Justices of Peace.
S. M. Gose. - H. E. Stevens.
T. D. Robinson. - Pearce Woodward.
J. W. Moore. - A. M. Birdwell.
Jas. A. Watson. - C. B. Ball.
M. P. Pruett. - W. F. Murray.
P. P. R. Collom. - Sam Foster.
J. J. Crawford. - John Brown.
J. F. Morris.

YEAR 1864.
Commissioners.
Wilson Cook. - L. S. King.
Pearce Woodward. - Nathan Huff.
Justices of Peace.
E. C. Jones. - Jerome Smith.
Wm. Rice. - M. F. Prewett.
H. E. Stevens. - Shepard Neel.
 

The following counties were created the same year with Wise County. Traced on the map they mark the frontier line at that time: Atascosa, Bandera, Commanche, Erath, Kerr, Kinney, Young, Lampassas, Llano, Sansaba, Live Oak, Maverick, Uvalde.

The task of surveying and defining the county boundary limits fell to the new County administration, and L. E. Camp, Deputy Surveyor of the Denton Land District, was employed to do the work, which was accomplished in due time, and the field notes, filed for record in the Clerk's office. On May 23 and 24, the center of the county was located and designated as follows: " A black-jack marked C. W. C. 15 M," which point places Decatur one mile north and three miles east of it.
On Feb. 24, 1857, the Wise County school lands were located by William Cloud, Deputy Surveyor of the Cooke County Land District, in Haskell County. This was a body of land covering four leagues. The state and county tax at that time was .50c. on the $100.00 valuation.