Indigenous peoples lived in Gregg County before Anglo settlement

The Caddo people lived in this part of East Texas for centuries before European contact. Cherokee people, displaced from the eastern United States, later moved into the region. In 1839, the Republic of Texas forcibly removed the Cherokee from East Texas.

Anglo settlers from the American South began moving in after Texas joined the United States in 1845. By 1860, the area had nine rural post offices but no towns. Cotton and timber shaped early settlement. Gregg County was carved out of Upshur County in 1873. The courthouse story came later, after Caddo homeland, Cherokee removal, farms, timber, and rails.