Undated photo of Rebecca and J.O. Hamilton’s then to New Orleans. Texas became a republic in daughters shows Vercy, second from left and born 1836, and then a state in 1846, increasing traffic. in1882, and Mary Maude, far right and born in 1878, on the porch of the Chickasaw Governor’s In fact, travel numbers on the Texas Road involved Mansion also known as the Chickasaw White more than 100,000 wagons annually by the late House, Emet, Indian Territory, in today’s Johnston 1850s. Thus, numerous towns like Boggy Depot County. Family members knew Mary Maude as “Big Aintie,” and Vercy as “Little Aintie.” By the sprang up along the road. Cattle drovers called the time she reached her elder years, Big Aintie was road the Shawnee Trail, the Sedalia Trail, or simply dipping aromatic, fine powdered W.E. Garrett snuff from a snuff tin. She kept a handkerchief “the trail”, as they moved their herds along the road handy to wipe her chin if she dribbled a little. from Texas to Missouri. Others in the photo are unidentified. A barefoot Large numbers of soldiers, trappers, traders, boy sits on the left. Courtesy Mark Hamilton. settlers, Native Americans, wagons, furs and goods of all kinds, horses, herds of cattle, and contentious issues bustled through and near what was likely a dusty, dirty, muddy, and busy Boggy Depot — no doubt a place where the stench, flies, ticks, and mosquitoes were everywhere, and it was a good idea to have a loaded gun, and keep tabs on your children. So it’s no surprise that a Boggy Depot handwritten newspaper, the Choctaw and Chickasaw 12