 Thus the Cherokee were driven out of Rusk County only to return in 1844 and 1845 with the purchase of 10,000 aces of land by Benjamin Franklin Thompson a white man married to a Cherokee.This established the Mount Tabor Indian Community, some six miles south of present day Kilgore that later spread to incorporate areas near Troup, Arp and Overton, Texas.Originally organized as a part of Nacogdoches County, Rusk was established as its own county by the Congress of the Republic of Texas on January 16, 1843.