Gainesville, Cooke County
The U.S. Cavalry constructed roads to improve logistical routes in the west during the 19th century. Henry O. Flipper, the first African American graduate of West Point, was an officer in the Tenth Cavalry regiment “Buffalo Soldiers” at Fort Sill, Indian Territory (Oklahoma). By late 1879, Fort Sill required a more significant railroad town than nearby Caddo Station, and the Army placed Flipper in command of building a road from Fort Sill to Gainesville. Two years later, the railroad reached Henrietta and replaced Gainesville as a Fort Sill supply town. Nevertheless, the construction of the Gainesville-Fort Sill Road is a historic example of the Buffalo Soldiers’ contributions to the west’s economic development. (2006)