One of three pioneer roads that crossed Upshur County and aided in development of Texas. Was heavily used by freighters and settlers heading westward, and by those exporting cotton, hides and produce to the inland port at Jefferson. Was crossed at this point by Cherokee Trace (so named for Indians who used it to travel between their home reservation in Arkansas and their lands near Nacogdoches. The Mt. Gilead Primitive Baptist Church was organized near here in July 1848. Church land and cemetery were given by pioneer merchant Leonidas Cartwright.