ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY; Volume 19, Spring 1961 Disturbances on the Arkansas-Texas Border, 1827-1831   BY LONNIE J. WHITE Austin, Texas   The International Boundary between the Arkansas Territory of the United States and the Mexican state of Coahuila and Texas had been defined in the treaty of 1819 between the United States and Spain, but remained unsurveyed in 1827. Because the location of the border was uncertain, the ownership of a considerable area southwest of Red River was in question. Arkansas Territory had, since 1820, exercised jurisdiction over the settlements immediately south of the river, holding them to be a part of Miller County. In 1827 the easternmost portion of the disputed area, approximating the present corner of Arkansas southwest of the river, was assigned by the territorial legislature to the new county of Lafayette. In 1828 Miller County north of the river was abolished and a new Miller County constituted south of the river in what is now northeastern Texas (1). ______________________ 1. Rex W. Strickland, "Anglo-American Activities in Northeastern Texas 1803-1845" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, 1937, 95-96, 101-102, 170-175; Rex W. Strickland, "Miller County, Arkansas Territory, The Frontier that Men Forgot." Chronicles of Oklahoma, XVIII (March, 1940), 12: Grant Foreman, Indians & Pioneers (Norman, 1936), 230: Arkansas Acts. 1827, pp. 10-11. According to Strickland. Miller County, as defined by the Arkansas territorial legislature in 1831, comprised all the present northeastern Texas counties of Bowie, Red River, Lamar, Fannin, and Delta plus parts of eight counties south and west of these.         Contents  Words  Study Questions   Related Sites  Next Page