WCHS

A. H. Fortenberry

FM 51, Slidell, Texas

From Decatur, take FM 51 about 15.5 miles northeast to marker on Denton/Wise County line.

In the 1850s, A. H. (“Sevier”) Fortenberry and his second wife Jane (Odell) moved from Arkansas to the wilderness then existing in this section of Texas. Living as a farmer and stock raiser, Fortenberry joined neighbors in warding off Indian raids which endangered the settlements. On October 30, 1868, at a site 3/4 of a mile northwest of this marker, he was intercepted and killed by Indians while trying to join a defensive posse. He was buried in the Pollard Cemetery, Denton County. It is thought that he was the last fatality in the Indian Wars in this vicinity.