English speaking settlers from the older eastern states began moving into the section during the westward expansion years before the boundary was established.

In 1819, Spain abandoned all claims to land east of the Sabine River and the United States moved in to establish law and order.

Great caravans of home seekers marched over the old highways and many of them settled in present-day Sabine Parish.

Fort Jesup was founded in 1822 by Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Taylor who later became the 12th President of the United States.

Fort Jesup has served as a vital part of Sabine Parish over the years and can be enjoyed by visitors today.

It was an important frontier post until the annexation of Texas in 1845 and the focal point of the American expansionist movement.

The two main highways of the southwest traversed the Neutral Strip and ran about four miles (6.4 km) apart in the vicinity of Many.

A government survey in 1831 laid out the Sabine area in townships and sections and this, together with the clearing of the Red River "raft" by Henry Miller Shreve, in 1838, opened the Red River to steamboat traffic and gave impetus to the colonization of the area.

About three miles (4.8 km) south of Pendleton was the large and flourishing river port of Sabine Town.

Many was on the Natchitoches San Antonio Road, or El Camino Real, which carried traffic into Texas.

Immediately some thirty citizens petitioned the police jury to lay out the town on the land, sell lots and make arrangements for the erection of public buildings.

The police jury planned a courthouse and jail, raising the construction money with the sale of the lots.

The first cotton gin was built in the early 1850s, and the first census showed Sabine had a population of 3,347 whites and 1,168 slaves.

The action forced the withdrawal of Federal troops along the Shreveport-Natchitoches road, which cut across the northeast section of the parish.

Although they did not affect the ultimate outcome of the war, they frustrated the attempt by Union forces to capture Shreveport and split Texas from the rest of the Confederacy.

The construction of the Kansas City Southern Railroad through the parish in 1896 led to the founding of the towns of Converse, Zwolle, Fisher and Florien.

The area was mainly agriculture until the railroads brought lumbermen, who set up sawmills to convert the trees that blanketed the state into lumber to satisfy a worldwide demand for longleaf virgin pine.

Three decades later the forest acres were barren and a great many sawmills, including Gandy and Peason moved out.

Soldiers from thirty-three states took part in the games, which covered 10,000 square miles (26,000 km2) of cut over pinelands, hills, rivers, and valleys between Alexandria and Nacogdoches, Texas.