Old Boston Red River Plantation Specie — Bowie County

Old Boston was settled in the early 1830s and named county seat when Bowie County organized in 1841. Before the Civil War wealthy planters along the Red River resided in the community; population reached 300–400 in the 1860s. Bowie County's 1860 census recorded 2,651 slaves and 2,401 Whites; slaves represented 64 percent of taxable property value. When the Texas and Pacific Railway bypassed Boston by four miles in 1876, merchants moved to New Boston on the rails. Antebellum plantation folklore imagines strongboxes buried when county seats shifted or courthouse records burned. Shortly before Texarkana ceased being county seat, the courthouse burned and nearly all county records were destroyed. Coordinates mark Old Boston south of New Boston.