Texas A&M Forest Service

About forestry service, 74738, Grant, OK, US, Texas

Clarksville is a city in and the county seat of Red River County, Texas, United States, in the northernmost part of the Piney Woods region of East Texas. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 2,857. == History == Clarksville was established by James Clark, who moved to the area in 1833 and laid out a town site. When Red River County was organized in 1835, Clarksville was chosen as the county seat, beating out the community of La Grange (later named Madras). Isaac Smathers built one of the first houses, which was later owned by Charles DeMorse. The town was incorporated by an act of the Texas Congress in 1837, and within a few years it became an educational and agricultural center. In 1841, John W.P. McKenzie, a Methodist minister, retired from serving as a missionary and moved to a former plantation approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south-southwest of Clarksville. Naming his new home Itinerant's Retreat, he soon began offering classes for boys who lived in the surrounding area. During that same year, 16 boys enrolled in classes in his home. There was more demand than he could accommodate in his home, so he had a log cabin to the plantation to serve as a more conventional school.