Alfalfa Hay Wanted N Midlothian , Tx.

In the early 1800s, settlements began to take place in the area that became Ellis County, but full colonization of this area was slow until 1846, when Sam Houston finalized peace treaties between several of the indigenous inhabitants of the region and the Republic of Texas. The earliest inhabitants of this area were the Tonkawa people, but other tribes also hunted in this area, including the Anadarko people, Bidai, Kickapoo, and Waco. The future Ellis County area of the young Republic of Texas was known as the Peters Colony, named for a Louisville, Kentucky-based land grant company consisting of English and American investors. The young Republic empresario grant program encouraged settlements in North Texas in 1857. The few settlers who lived in this region trapped animals and sold their pelts, and traded goods with the natives.