The springs and high caves of the valleys that fed the Upper Riverways drew the early settlers who were to form Texas County. The early trails that followed the Rocky Ridges both north and south junctioned on upper Jacks Fork of the Current River.
As the mixed blood Indians were pushed westward. They formed villages and established fields in the spring-fed valleys, When they arrived in 1790. they found an established French settlement located on the open prairie of Upper Casto Valley. In this communal settlement were the homes and farms of the traders that served the Indians to the west. They had a gristmill on Dry Bone Creek about three miles west.
The boat landings at the mouth of Ashley Creek was four miles to the North and boat landing at Howell Hollow was four miles East, The trade goods were brought from towns on the Mississippi approximately one hundred miles to the East.
The numerous high caves were worked to obtain saltpeter to be used as nitrate for gunpowder, it was also used to cure meat and as a trade item to be sent along with furs and sassafras root too establish barter credit for trade goods.
To establish law and protection of land titles, a delegation met at Martins Pond in the spring of 1844. The following men represented the communities of the Upper Riverways: Samuel Rose and James Pickett, Jacks Fork; Buckner Garrison, David Huffman, Spring Valley; Elan Martin and Peter Barton, Casto Valley; William Kell and William Anderson, Ashley; William Thornton and John Sherrill, Lick Settlement. At this meeting, it was agreed to petition for formation of a county to be called "Ashley" in honor of William Ashley who had established a trading post at Ashley Spring located on Upper Current River.
Before the petition was acted upon, the community of Ellsworth requested delegates from the communities of Spring Valley, Lick Settlement, Jack Fork, Indian Creek and Ashley to meet in the home of David lynch. The delegates drew up a petition to the General Assembly of Missouri to establish a county to be called "Texas," named in recognition of the admission of the State of Texas, then a national issue.
The General Assembly granted the petition on February 14. 1845 and commissioned David Lynch, James R. Gardner and W.F Ormsby Justices. At the regular term of court, September, 1845, held at ElIswworth, the Lead Mine Trail, running east and west through southern Texas County, was made a state road and called the Springfield Centerville Road. The court ordered that a permanent Seat of Justice be established and at the June, 1846, term of court, it was ordered that the Seat of Justice for Texas County be known as Houston.