The Doan Family Trading Empire: A Chronological Reconstruction of the True Pioneers

For decades, the standard histories of Wilbarger County, Texas, and the surrounding regions have credited Corwin F. (C.F.) Doan for founding and working at the Ft Sill Trading Post for two years and founding the historic Doan's Crossing Trading Post on the Red River in 1978. Primary source documentation-including contemporary newspaper accounts, military survey maps, and family obituaries-reveals a deliberate distortion of the historical record. C.F. Doan and his daughter, Bertha Doan Ross (who married a Vernon newspaper editor), published a narrative that systematically erased the monumental accomplishments of C.F.'s uncles, Jonathan Doan and Calvin W. Doan, as well as CF Doan's sister, Phebe Doan Madden.

This website establishes the true chronology of the Doan family enterprise using newly refined timelines and geographic context. It proves that Jonathan and Calvin W. Doan were veteran wilderness traders who established at least six distinct stores and trading posts along major cattle and military trails across Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas long before C.F. Doan arrived in the region. Conversely, the only independent commercial venture launched by C.F. Doan was a solo grocery store in Vernon, which resulted in insolvency and legal debt battles. Be sure to look at the Doan Family Timelines if you have not done that yet.

Chronological History of Operations (1865-1878)

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Prior to the Civil War ( 1861 to 1865)

Brothers Jonathan Doan (b. May 20, 1837; d. Nov 6, 1902) and Calvin W. Doan (b. 1830; d. Aug 12, 1913) left Ohio in 1849 to trade in Kansas Territory according to family history. When the Civil War started, they went back to Ohio to serve in the Union Army. Following the cessation of hostilities, Calvin utilized his pre-war expertise in Native American trade and re-established merchant operations. Jonathan did not follow in his brother's footsteps until January 1871.

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1865-1870: Trading Post / Store 1 - The Original Chisholm Trail / Red River Crossing: Calvin

As the cattle industry surged, Calvin moved from Kansas through Oklahoma to Texas, in all probability with others, along the Chisholm Trail, in 1865, establishing a Trading Post at the southern terminus where the trail encountered the Red River on the Texas side.

Newspaper Article: Oklahoma Weekly Leader Thu, Oct 23, 1913 - Page 7 CHISHOLM TRAIL DESCRIBED BY OLD COWMAN Wichita, Kan, Oct. 24.-An accurate description of the route of the old Chisholm trail has not yet been made public, according to John A. Blair, superintendent of street cleaning and early day cowman. Mr. Blair owned a ranch on Pond Creek in the Indian Territory more than forty years ago [around 1870] and he moved cattle over the trail many times, he says, "Traces of the Chisholm trail can be seen mow between Wichita and Clearwater in plowed fields and where it crossed streams," said Mr, Blair, "The trail started at the west end of Douglas avenue bridge and bore going west, passing west of Oatville, It crossed the Cowskin about one mile west of the Missouri Pacific railroad. Crossing the Ninnescah River nearly due south of Clearwater, the trail continued south, passing five miles west of Wellington, where it crossed Slate Creek. It crossed the Chickasha River due north of Caldwell, going right through the town over the spot now occupied by the Rock Island depot. From Caldwell the trail went southwest, crossing Pond Creek a half mile east of the present town of Jefferson, Okla, and continuing through the west edge of the present town of Pond Creek due south to Kremlin. "It crossed Skeleton Creek one mile east of where the Rock Island depot stands in North Enid, going through the center of Enid," continued Mr. Blair. "The Rock Island depot at Hennessey stands right on the old trail. From there it ran south to the north bank of the Cimarron River at Dover. It followed the river southeast, crossing it east of the mouth of Kingfisher Creek, going three miles east of the town of Kingfisher, then south, crossing the North Canadian River west of the town of Yukon. From there it ran south to Red River, crossing it at Doan's store.
"I am satisfied that the trail did not go to Fort Reno, because that fort was not established until 1874. The Chisholm trail was started in 1868," concluded Mr. Blair. NOTE: History from an early 1880s article proves Blair owned a ranch around Pond Creek in the Cherokee Outlet.

• Geographic Trajectory: Primary documentation shows the trail passed through Kingfisher to the town of Yukon, extending directly south to the Red River crossing at Doan's Store in Texas. Jonathan and Calvin brought their freight south along this Chisholm Trail, passing directly by Jesse's store.
• Archival Verification: A retrospective account published in the Oklahoma Weekly Leader (October 23, 1913) quotes a Mr. Blair describing this route, explicitly noting it ran "south to Red River, crossing it at Doane's store."
• Historical Significance: Blair notes that the trail did not divert to Fort Reno because that post was not established until 1874, while cattle drives on the Chisholm Trail were started in 1868. Backed his extensive pre-war trading experience with Native Americans, Calvin successfully established this post at the trail's end. At some point, Calvin left this location and opened two more Trading Posts.
• Historical Marker: There is a marker exactly where the Chisholm Trail crossed the Red River into Texas. It was at the Red River Station, which was a bustling border settlement (originally known as Salt Creek) situated in the northern part of Montague County, Texas, northeast of present-day Ringgold and not far from Saint Jo.
• Significance: During the peak of the cattle drives, it served as the primary "jumping-off point" where herds coming up from Fort Worth and other Texas feeder routes crossed the river before heading north toward the railheads in Kansas.

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1865-1871: Trading Post Store 2 - Confluence of the Pease and Red Rivers (Camp Augur): Calvin

This Trading Post was established north of the Red River where the Pease River merges, operating near Camp Augur. Davidson, Oklahoma, was built in the area in 1901. This store was positioned to capture traffic moving along early regional routes before the main trail completely shifted west. Long before the "Great Western Cattle Trail" became a fixed, formal highway crossing further northwest at the permanent Doan's Crossing in 1871, traffic was dictated by military protection and established roads. It was on the road from Fort Cooper to Fort Sill. In the early-to-mid 1870s, the safest, most traveled route across the Red River was right along that Fort Griffin/Camp Cooper-to-Fort Sill military trail. Again, Jonathan and Calvin set up stores on well-traveled roads. The map also shows the cattle trail crosses where the road to Fort Sill is at Doane's Store

• Archival Verification: This store is explicitly identified as "Doane's Store" on the historical military map compiled in 1927 by Ed Dorchester, titled "Trails Made and Routes Used by the Fourth US Cavalry under the command of General R.S. Mackenzie." The map, compiled from military surveys spanning 1871 to 1875, places the store on what was the Van Dorn Trail (originally mapped by J.W. Williams, 1858-1859).
• The Cattle Trail Shift: As time passed, cattle drives to Kansas were going further west.

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1865-1871: Trading Post Store 3 - South of Grandfield / Red River (The Early Great Western Trail): Calvin

Calvin Doan established a Trading Post on the south side of the Red River, positioned north of Wichita Falls and approximately five miles south of present-day Grandfield.

Newspaper Article: The Frederick Press Tue, Aug 31, 1926 Page 12 Trail From Texas to Dodge City Passed Thru Here Before the Indian outbreak of 1874-5, all cattle driven northward from the ranges in Texas to the shipping stations in Kansas, passed up the Abilene and Arbuckle trails (both east of the 98th meridian) from Red river to the Cimarron, where they united to follow the Chisolm Trail to the Kansas line. After the close of that war, when it was deemed safe to drive cattle across the Comanche- Kiowa-Apache and the Cheyenne- Arapho reservations, a new trail was made, entering the southern part of the county from Doane's store and crossing, on Red River, about five miles south of the site of the present town of Grandfield. It followed a course thence slightly west of north across Tillman County, its destination being Dodge City, Kansas. It was largely used during the driving season from 1876 to 1889 by trail herds from western Texas.

Trail Blazing Context: Pioneer drover N.J. McElroy recalled crossing the Red River at this Doan's Store location as early as 1870s. Captain John T. Lytle crossed at this exact spot, traveling west of north across Tillman County with a destination of Dodge City, Kansas. Following the 1876 closure of the Chisholm Trail in Kansas to northbound herds, cattlemen were forced to seek routes farther west.

The Van Dorn Trail passed by this Doans Store.

When Earl Van Dorn and his 200 cavalrymen pushed north from Fort Belknap toward Oklahoma in September 1858, they tracked right through what is now western Wichita County. His scout, "Sul" Ross, led the column straight to the Red River at a natural low-water shelf located just west/northwest of modern-day Burkburnett.

The trail crossed the river right at that pocket, heading directly toward Otter Creek to establish Camp Radziminski.

The Connection to Camp Augur

The geography matches perfectly because of how the military reused these natural river crossings over the decades:

• 1858: Van Dorn's 15 heavy army supply wagons physically carved out the roadbed and proved the reliability of that specific Red River crossing point.
• 1874: During the Red River War sixteen years later, the U.S. Army established Camp Augur as a temporary sub-post and picket station right on the northern bluffs overlooking that very same crossing (on the Oklahoma side, just across from Burkburnett) to patrol for Kiowa and Comanche movement.

Because Van Dorn had already leveled the approach and established the road years prior, the garrison and supply wagons servicing Camp Augur utilized the exact same physical trail footprint to move troops and provisions north out of Texas. A supply road, a cattle trail, and a military trail is exactly where the Doans built their stores.

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1870: Store 4 - Cache Creek Trading Post (Fort Sill) Either Calvin or Jonathan

Ft Sill was mapped out in 1869; by 1871 it was a well-established post first called Camp Wichita. It was later named Ft Sill. In January 1871, Jonathan and his family left Ohio. He either met with Calvin there or opened a trading post on Cache Creek, located approximately two miles from the Fort Sill military post in Indian Territory. It is possible that Calvin sent a letter to Jonathan to liquidate all his possessions in Ohio and bring his family to this established Trading Post. It does not make sense that a man would sell everything and take his wife and children to the Indian Territory without a destination. The store operated as a trading hub, buying hides and trafficking goods. June 1875 marked the end of Indian warfare on the South Plains.

Jonathan's niece (and C.F.'s sister), Phebe Elizabeth Doan (b. April 24, 1851), married Thomas Elwood Madden in Ohio on October 17, 1872. The couple moved to Fort Sill and took over the day-to-day operations of the trading post from Jonathan. Phebe gave birth to a son, Leon Doan Madden, at Fort Sill on October 12, 1873. On April 17, 1873, Calvin boarded a train with Phebe Doan Madden in Ohio because she was returning to Fort Sill. Jonathan left Ft Sill to build a Trading Post at Chalk Bluff in 1873.

Tragedy and Heavy Realities: Phebe passed away at Fort Sill on September 22, 1874. The child passed away a short time later. C.F. Doan and Phebe's husband took them back to Clinton County, Ohio, for burial around October 15, 1874. CF returned to Ft Sill and stayed there off and on for a little less than a year. He did not return west until 1878.

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1873-1875: Store 5 - Buck Creek Buffalo Hunter Trading Post (Chalk Cliffs): Jonathan

The Amarillo Globe-Times Fri, Sep 05, 1947 - Page 6
"Mrs. Wheatley also is the daughter of the late Jonathan Doan, who with his brother, Calvin, and their nephew, C. F. Doan [note: remember CF left Ft Sill in 1875 and came back to Texas in 1878], probably made the first mercantile business venture in the Panhandle when they started a buffalo hunters trading post in the chalk cliffs of Buck Creek between Adobe Walls and Childress in 1873. In 1875, they moved their store to Doan's Crossing on Red River on what was known as the "Northern Cattle Trail."

The Mobeetie Trail Ran by Doan's Chalk Bluff Store

Before Memphis, Texas, was even a thought on a map, the natural gap along Buck Creek and the striking Chalk Cliffs (Chalk Bluff) provided two things absolutely vital to a heavy, slow-moving freight wagon train:

• Water: Buck Creek offered a reliable water supply in an otherwise dry, rugged stretch of the Rolling Plains breaks.
• Shelter and Landmarks: The bluffs served as both a visual navigation landmark across the plains and a natural windbreak.

Jonathan Doan and his family were brilliant frontier merchants. They set up their 1873 stockade right against those cliffs precisely because that corridor was already the primary thoroughfare for buffalo hunters, early scouts, and the first freighters pushing into the Panhandle toward the camps that became Hidetown (Mobeetie) and Adobe Walls.

When teamsters loaded up massive freight wagons at railheads further southeast (like Henrietta or later Wichita Falls) to haul food, ammunition, and whiskey out to Fort Elliott and Mobeetie, their wheels tracked right past the very spot where Jonathan Doan first traded with the hunters. It wasn't until the buffalo vanished and the trail traffic shifted toward the massive northbound cattle drives that Doan packed up his mercantile operation and moved it down to the Red River crossing in Wilbarger County.

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1875: Store 6 - Doan's Crossing, Wilbarger County: Jonathan

Doan's Crossing is the permanent and famous epicenter of the family's Trading Posts established by Jonathan Doan in 1875 along the Great Western Cattle Trail.

Jonathan's daughter said, "In 1875 he moved their store [at Chalk Bluff] to Doan's Crossing on Red River on what was known as the "Northern Cattle Trail." Apparently he knew Captain John T. Lytle had blazed a massive, definitive trail through that exact corridor. Positioning a post right at that bottleneck would guarantee a captive audience of thousands of hungry, ill-equipped cowboys. Jonathan traveled to the remote northern edge of Wilbarger County to establish what would become their sixth and most famous enterprise: Doan's Store.

• C.F. Doan Settlement Timeline: C.F. Doan remained in Ohio until 1878. His wife Lide gave birth to their daughter, Bertha Doan (later Bertha Ross), in August 1877.
• C.F. finally sold his Ohio grocery business in early 1878. On September 25, 1878, C.F., his wife, and their three children (including their daughter Mabel) departed Sherman, Texas, in wagons driven by Calvin Doan.
• They arrived at the Red River location on October 10, 1878.
• C.F. stepped in to manage daily operations and established the local Post Office in 1879, a role he and his daughter later used to claim total credit for founding the site. This was the 6th store opened by the family, built entirely on the foundational work of Jonathan and Calvin.

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1883: Store 7 - C.F. Doan & Co., Vernon (The Solo Venture):

In the early 1880s, the Doan family had two distinct operations running simultaneously: the historic trail store at Doan's Crossing (under Jonathan's foundational oversight) and a new, urban retail venture located on the 1800 block of Wilbarger Street in the town of Vernon, Texas. This Vernon store was the first and only enterprise independently conceived, owned, and operated solely by Corwin F. Doan, which he named "C.F. Doan & Co." (mimicking the name of his old 1871-1874 Ohio grocery business).

• Commercial Failure: Lacking the strategic retail placement of his uncles' stores, C.F. Doan mismanaged the Vernon operation by unsustainably extending credit rather than conducting cash-only business.
• Insolvency and Litigation: By 1883, C.F. Doan & Co. collapsed into total financial failure and was forced to close. C.F. Doan defaulted on massive wholesale debts, resulting in a series of bitter lawsuits brought against him by creditors seeking recovery of funds. This business failure was systematically erased from the pioneer profiles later curated by his daughter Bertha.

Based on this documentation, the relationship between the Doan trading posts and the U.S. military was characterized by strategic positioning, evolving frontier logistics, and a complex interplay with regional military campaigns.

• Strategic Trail and Post Placement: Several Doan trading posts were established along routes mapped or utilized by the military. Specifically, a trading post operating at the confluence of the Pease and Red Rivers (near Camp Augur) was identified on a 1927 military survey map, which documented routes used by the Fourth U.S. Cavalry under General R.S. Mackenzie between 1871 and 1875.
• Logistical Hubs: While the Doan trading posts facilitated commerce for buffalo hunters and cattle drovers, they existed in a landscape where military activity-such as the Indian Campaigns of the 1870s-had cleared the path for settlers by forcibly relocating Indigenous tribes to reservations in Oklahoma.
• Distinction from Military Forts: Documentation clarifies that the Doan posts were distinct from military garrisons. For instance, records explicitly note that the Chisholm Trail did not divert to Fort Reno because that post was not established until 1874, whereas the trail was already in use.
• Family Connections to Military Sites: The Doan family's early history included direct operations at military posts. Jonathan Doan established a trading post on Cache Creek near Fort Sill around 1870, which was subsequently operated by his niece, Phebe Doan Madden, and her husband. Your records highlight that these interactions, particularly for C.F. Doan, were deeply personal and sometimes somber, rather than merely commercial, due to the deaths of family members at Fort Sill.
• Post-Conflict Transition: By the time permanent settlement intensified in the late 1870s, the era of garrisoned military forts in the immediate region had largely passed. The trade networks established by the Doan family effectively repurposed the infrastructure of the earlier frontier era, transitioning from military-adjacent supply routes to the cattle highways that defined the later settlement period.

Conclusion

The primary source evidence effectively dismantles the C.F. Doan "monopoly" on Wilbarger County history. Jonathan Doan, Calvin W. Doan, and Phebe Doan Madden were the true economic architects of the regional trail trade, successfully operating six complex wilderness stores from 1865 to 1875 before C.F. Doan permanently settled in Texas in 1878. Historical preservation groups, including the Wichita County and Wilbarger County Historical Societies, should recognize Calvin and Jonathan Doan as the authentic mercantile pioneers of the Red River frontier, while correcting the historical omission of the family's true female trailblazer, Phebe Doan Madden.

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