A short sketch-history from personal reminiscences of early days in central Texas

Preface

Having been solicited by my many friends to write up a short Sketch- History of the early settling of the central part of Texas, I have decided to give the reader a brief account, mostly from my experiences, of the very earliest happenings in the territory now divided into the seven counties as follows: Milam, Bell, Coryell, Lampasas, Hamilton, Comanche and Brown.

This little book will give you some idea of the hardships the old pioneers had to bear with and the privations they underwent; it also tells something about the game that was found in the country, and the Indians and their depredations.

As I never thought of writing a book like this until very recently, and am doing it almost entirely from memory, I may possibly make a few mistakes with regard to names and dates, but should any occur they will be honest mistakes and will make little or no difference in substance.

Hoping that the following pages will give general satisfaction and prove of interest to those who may read them, I am,

Yours truly,

THE LIBRARY

BRIGHAM YOUNG UI. - RSITY

PROVO , UTAH

A Short Sketch-History

Containing an account of the settling of that portion of Central Texas comprising the counties of Milam,

Bell. Coryell, Lampasas, Hamilton, Comanche, and Brown.

MILAM COUNTY.

I was born in Pontotoc County Mississippi, in the year 1834. My father moved to the State of Missouri when I was but a child and from there came to Texas landing in the town of Cameron, in the fall of 1846. Cameron was the county seat of the most western organized county of that belt of country. The improvements of the town consisted of a court house made of clapboards a hut 14x16 feet in size; one dry goods store kept by C. N. Huby, and one grocery store run by Uncle Joel Blair, who died long ago in the town of Belton. I would guess the capital stock of those two stores combined would have amounted to $600, though the supply was sufficient for the population at that time. The population of the town was C. N. Huby and family, Joel Blair and family, and one Mr. Iglebarger and family, who lived in a log cabin, and as people were passing by that way they got dinner with him, so his house was called the hotel. There was a family by the name of Stokes living a half mile from the store, who claimed citizenship in the town, and we were willing to recognize him as a city lad, for he had the only mill to grind meal for us all and every man had to do his own grinding. It was a steel mill and run by physical power.

Those four families, with one Dr. Flemmin, who was a bachelor, constituted the population of the town until our arrival, which added four more families to it, to-wit: J. M. Cross and family, T. J. Nabors, wife and two children, Uncle James Blair and family, and one Mr. Trotter and wife. This man Trotter put up a shop and went to work, and being a fine gunsmith, was kept busy, as everybody had to have firearms in good condition in order to protect themselves from the red men.

When my father landed in Cameron he bought two lots and paid for them with a brace of pistols that cost him $12.50 in Springfield, Missouri. On one of those lots he built a log cabin in which we lived during that winter and the spring of 1847. A great many emigrants came into this part of the State and located on the Brazos and Little Rivers, so my father, desiring to go a little farther to the front, sold those two lots for $25, thinking he was doing well to double his money. The sheltering in the log cabin through the winter paid for the erecting of it, (but let me say just here that I was in Cameron about twenty years ago and the two lots with the frame buildings on them were worth three thousand dollars.) We went on up the Little River and stopped in what is known now as the John L. Marshall Valley, and there built another log cabin and planted a little corn crop on Knob Creek, near the Pilot Knobs, and made good corn without any fence. We kept the buffalo run off through the day, there were no other stock nearer than the three forks of Little River, and they seb dom came down there, so in the fall this crop was gathered and we moved nine miles above the three forks of Little River and settled on the Lampasas River, on what is now known as the old Shanklin Ranch, about 30 miles west of Cameron, which was still under the jurisdiction of Milam county.

I am just giving you a history of the sparsely settled wild country, as it was when I came to it. As to the wild game, there were buffalo, bear, deer, antelope and all kinds of smaller game from the lobo wolf down. The rivers were full of aligators and fish of all kinds. My father bought and settled four places in the country before Bell county was organized. During that time we had a little school one mile above the three forks of Little River, taught by Ed. Good, who has long ago gone to his reward. I will give the names of all the pupils of that school so far as I can recollect, that are still living, to-wfit: W. B. Cross, now of Brown county^ S. E. Wills of Bell county; Joel and W. B. Blair, and Mary Blair of Bell county; Mary Blair’s maiden name was Roberts, and myself. These six are all that I can say are now living. Though from a short letter in the Belton paper, written five or six years ago by W. B. Blair, giving all the surviving ones, I think there must be a few others, if I could locate them.

When my father settled on the above named ranch, he and Uncle Jack Nabors were the extreme frontier settlers on the Lampasas river. Below us, on the Leon river, there was a widow Taylor, living in what is still called the Taylor Valley. At the three forks of Little River was Mose Griffin, below him was the Fulcher Colony. Nat Shields, Jeff Reed and wife and William Reed; they were all in that immediate settlement. Just below the Reed Settlement were John Dunlap, John Earley, and Uncle Bob Childress, who died near Temple, several years ago. Still on down the river was old Major Bryant. That place was called Bryant’s Fort, as it was a place of resort for the above named settlers in time of Indian trouble. On Dunaho Creek, in the southeastern part of Bell county lived an old man by the name of Wills — his given name has slipped my memory. He was the father of W. R. Wills, whose widow lives near Killeen. Also on this creek lived Uncle Billy Connell, the father of Geo. T. Connell of Brownwood.

Now as the emigration was coming in so fast we decided to organize a new county. I leave it with citizens of Milam county to figure up the difference between 1846 and 1910, and hope that some one there may write me at Blanket, Texas, giving an estimate of the population of your county at the date of this book.

As to the Indian troubles, I will not say anything about that, except when it may be necessary to speak of them in some particular incident, as the Wilbarger History of the Indian Depredations in Texas is so true that no man living can give it more correctly.

BELL COUNTY.

After having spent two years in Milam County and its territory, the emigrants were coming in so fast, we thought it expedient to organize a new county. It is the above-named county we organized, to-wit: Bell County. It was joined by McLennan County on the North and Williamson on the South. These counties being already organized, their officials willingly came to our assistance in organizing this new county. Uncle Bill Keed was the first sheriff of Bell County, and Billy Stephens was the first magistrate. George Richards first County Clerk ; Danley, first County Judge; and a man by the name of Bailies, the first District Judge. The taxes were assessed and collected by one man. I think that office was filled by Milt Dameron. I was a small boy at that time, and may have made some mistakes in naming those officials, but if so it is an honest mistake. The date of this organization I could not give without seeing some of the old records. I think it was Sam Bigham, who surveyed ^ the county lines. The Jury Commission that located the town of Belton was composed of Joe Denis, Melvin Wilkerson, James Blair and my father, J. M. Cross. The first boards used in covering a roof in the town of Belton were made by one Simon Odell, W. B. Cross and myself. Odell was a man my father hired to assist in improving his place. These boards were to cover a shed for the Widow Loller, who was to board the hands who erected the first building in Belton.

The first mill put up for grinding corn In Bell County, was financed and erected by my father and Bob Childress. It was a little tub wheel water mill, on the spring branch, where the old Shanklin Mill was later built. I used to run that little mill. It would grind about twenty bushels of corn in a day, yet it was sufficient for the population then, for two days’ run a week was sufficient for the entire country adjacent to it. They came as far as thirty miles to this mill for grinding. This place is spoken of before as the Shanklin Ranch, but my father sold it to Joel Blair, and it was then called the Joel Blair place, and while Blair lived there a man by the name of Supples put up a little store on the place, that was four miles South of Belton, on the Lampasas River. When the county site was located, John Pain bought Mr. Supples’ stock of goods, and moved the little business over to the town, it was the first store in the town of Belton. The next was a log cabin grocery, run by Joe Tounscll the next business addition to the town was a store put up by a Mr. McCorkle, the father of Dr. McCorkle, who was killed at Killeen when that place was but a small village. In the settling of this country, I thought it was the grandest scenery I had ever looked upon in all my life. Up to that time it was one vast open prairie country, covered with green grass and decorated with beautiful flowers, and to add to the oenefit of the new early settlers it was full of game of all kinds, buffalo, deer, bear, turkey and antelope. The streams were full of fish of all kinds. The first deer I killed was three miles South of where Belton now is. You may imagine how great General Stonewall Jackson felt at the head of his army, but his greatness would have sunk into insignificance compared with my own, considering my feelings when I viewed that dead deer.

Shortly after my father moved to the territory of Bell County, some men he knew matched a wild race on some fine horses; stock that had been brmght from the Old State . I was a tun

year old boy at the time and my fat er being somewhat of a sportsman, had trained me to ride ra es. I know this is no credit to me. though it is a fact. The race took place down on Little River near the old Fort Bryan, mentioned previously in this book. One of the parties, Nat Shields, asked my father to let me go down and train his horse about three weeks and ride the race for him. On the day the race was run Captain Ross of Waco and his little boy, Sullivan, were there, also John Harmon of Cameron; each of these men had brought a fine horse, running stock. They were short-distance horses and had a five hundred yard race to run the next week. Mr. Harmon asked me to go with him to ** Cameron and ride the race for him, which I did. Captain Ross came over from Waco the day before the race, bringing his horse and his rider, Suil Ross, his boy. The race track was one mile below Cameron on Little River at what was then called the Monro Tracks. On the day of the race everybody was there. The people would go as far to a horserace those days as they will now days to a show of any kind .When we got on the race track the judges were arranged at each end of the tracks, and Sull

Koss and myself mounted the horses. Harmon had hold of the bridle just at this time, he gave me a dollar and said to me : “Tell that boy that you will bet him a dollar that you win the race.” This he did to encourage me in putting the horse through “Alright,” I said, and held up the dollar, and said: “Sull, I will bet you a dollar I get there first.” By the time I had spoken the words Captain Ross handed his boy a dollar. We gave the money to old Uncle Willis Bruce to hold for the winner. I beat the race by twenty-seven feet. Here I can say I won the dollar off of a boy who in after years made one of the best Indian fighters Texas ever had. It was he, Sullivan Ross, that rescued Cynthia Ann Parker, a white woman captured by the Indians at the old Parker Port. After the Civil War he served the people of Texas as Governor. Sull Ross, as he was always called, was a good friend of the writer and I am glad to hear of his honored life. He was the president of a High School in East Texas when called to his reward in the great beyond.

Finally we got to where we had to have a court house, and they built a clapboard house, about such a one as the house described in Cameron. The first murder case tried in that house, was Shadrick Howard who was charged with the killing of one Mr. Lanear. The tragedy occurred at or near a little mountain on the Lampasas river, a few miles above where Youngsport was later located. After being in court about three years the defendant was, acquitted.

The next murder case was that of Jas. Stilman, charged with killing one Mr. Alexander. The defendant was acquitted after a jail life of eighteen months. Those were all the criminal cases of any note that were tried while I was a boy.

Now my dear reader I will give you an idea <^f the disadvantages in building a town in those days. My father and Joe Dennis opened up a lumber yard and had their lumber hauled from Bastrop mills, twelve miles below the town of Bastrop, this lumber was freighted on ox-wagons and ye scribe drove one of those teams. The first trip was made by W. B. Blair and myself. This same W. B. Blair served Bell County as its Treasurer, for twenty years or more, in his later days. I made some trips after lumber on that lonely uninhabited trail without any companion except my four yoke of oxen and an old wood axle wagon, though the Indians were not as hostile then as in after years.

Now as the people of the old states began to emigrate to the new country, and towns began to grow, the government saw that the Lone Star State was determined to grow in spite of all opposition, and after defending ourselves with our own State Rangers for so long a time, Uncle Sam decided to send the old pioneers some protection. So the government sent a line of United States troops to Texas. One company was stationed at Fort Graham on the Brazos River, one on the Leon River 18 miles below where the town of Gatesville stands, and one company near the Colorado River, right where the town of Burnet is today. At that time, it was called

Fort Grogan. The Camp on the Leon River was called Fort Gates in that day and for a number of years afterwards. This line of stations was above all settlements at that time. At this time I was not yet grown, but drove a team in company with others, hauling forage from Little River and Diers Creek in the lower part of Bell County to the soldiers at Fort Gates. About this time there was a man by the name of 0. T. Tyler, who lived in Washington County I think. I know it was in one of the lower counties. He had been up in this country and located a great deal of land. When Bell and Coryell Counties were located, this same 0. T. Tyler contracted with my father and Uncle James Blair to sod 100 acres of land on Leon River, two miles above old Fort Gates, near Leon Junction. My older brother, R. Y. Cross, W. B. Cross and Joel Blair and myself were the boys who plowed the first furrows in Coryell County, though the County was not yet organized. I will state just here, that after the County began to settle up, 0. T. Tyler built a house on this farm, and it was in that house that the Honorable George W. Tyler was born, who has since become one of the leading lawyers of the state.

Now having made mention of Senator Tyler, who was reared in Bell County, I will also give you the names of the first attorneys who practiced at the bar in Belton, to-wit : X. B. Sanders, one Mr. Flint and Captain Bradford. All noble young men. Judge Battle, of Waco, was the first District Attorney. X. Sanders has crossed the Jordan of Death. Capn Bradford is yet in Belton. Flint and Battle I cannot tell their whereabouts, they may be dead, but will say they were all high-toned, scholarly gentlemen. Flint and Sanders defended the first two cases tried in Belton, which have been spoken of before.

Let me give you an idea of how children were reared to man and womanhood in those days, and the disadvantages they had to contend with. The first sermon I ever heard in Texas was delivered by an old hard-shell Baptist by the name of Wheat, who has a great number of offspring yet living in Bell County. This discourse was delivered at my father’s house, at night. I will never forget that sermon, there was an old lady there by the name of Perkins, who was a Methodist, and I being a small boy, was sitting close to the old lady. When the good brother got into an old-fashioned exhortation, the old lady sprang up slaping her hands and shouting at the top of her voice, I tell you reader it just simply scared all the fool out of me. I had never heard anything like it in all my life. At that time society as it is in this day was a stranger in that new country, but the few setlers of the new country began to build up society, and set to work to build a clap-board school house where the little store was; this, as before mentioned tioned was later moved to Belton. In this house we organized a Sunday School and soon secured a local preacher by the name of Cook to come and preach once a month. He was a Methodist. Then everything for the betterment of society seemed to be coming our way. This was the second school house built in the country. The next thing in order was a singing school. We engaged a man by the name of

Elliott to teach the school. It was taught by the old four-note system. After this we had a literary school taught by one Mr. Stickney. I say Mr. because the word professor had not been attached in that day. This man has been spoken of before, as the first County Judge. After his school was out, he got up a writing school at the same place. Now we began to think we were getting up into the pictures, and gaining fast in refinement, and while I was only a wild, rattling boy, I enjoyed the rapid progress of society. We soon became strong enough to organize a Methodist Conference. Our First Circuit Rider was one Rev. James Fergison, who died long ago in the town of Salado. The first presiding Elder was Rev. Louis Whipple.

As the country was settling up so fast, it be came expedient for the soldiers to be moved farther west of the line of stations already spoken of. 1 think it was in the year of 1850 that they were stationed on a line across the state from Red River to the Rio Grande. That line was called the overland mail road for a long time. At the time that line was established, I was about 18 years old, and starting out to do for myself, got employment with Mc- Coy & Dalrymple, who had a contract with the government to furnish supplies for the soldiers on that line. We left the farm of Dalrymple near what is now known as the Leon Junction, with teams and wagons loaded with shelled corn, ranging from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five bushels to the wagon, each wagon drawn by six yoke of oxen, thus we opened up what is yet called the old Phantom Hill road. Phantom Hill is on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. It took just one month to make the round trip to Fort Phantom Hill or Fort Chadborn. Ft. Chadborn was the next station on the line south and Fort Belknap was north of Phantom Hill. We ran this train of wagons to all three of these forts, following this old Phantom Hill trail, until we reached the Little Pecan Creek in the upper Cross Timbers, where we turned to the left for Chadborn. All the small creeks that afforded water enough for camping we honored with names. The Texas map has honored every name we gave except one. After leaving the Tyler and Dalrymple farms, the first creek we called Shale Creek.

The second, a little creek which emptied into the Leon River near Straws Mill, we called Turnover, from the fact that one of our wagons was turned over there. And the Texas map has honored those two names. The next watering place a man by the name of Lewis turned his wagon over, so to make a distinction between the places we called this place Lewis Turnover, but it changed afterwards to Blue Creek. So on we went up the divide, between the Leon River and the Cowhouse, keeping on the Leon side of the divide in order to get water from its tributaries. The next watering place was a creek running into Leon about 15 miles above Gatesville, this was a regular camping place going and coming on every trip. On this stream was the finest grass I ever had seen. It was a sight to see our teams grazing in those valleys. Think of it, six yoke of oxen to the wagon: — one hundred and twenty head of steers all grazing in a bunch. This creek was called Honey Creek. The next watering place was a branch heading about 10 miles South of Hamilton, from here we took the high divide and while our road was straight the crook of the river threw us to camp next night on the head water of a little stream that emptied into the Cowhouse. This was called Little Cowhouse, which name it holds to this day. That camping place was about 3 miles below the Hoover Mountains. Those mountains took their name from the fact that Hoover and his wife had a fight with a squad of Indians. About ten or twelve Indians charged upon them, the wife was thrown from her horse, and Hoover was wounded early in the fight and both of them would have been killed, had it not been for some cow-boys who, hearing the shooting, ran to their relief, — but back to our trail.

On leaving Little Cow-house Creek, we went right between those two Hoover Mountains. The next watering place was called Warner Creek. This is in the upper edge of Hamilton County. We were then traveling several degrees north of what we had been. The next day we reached South Leon, and crossed it about two miles below where Fleming now is, about twelve miles below where the town of Comanche stands today. The next day we reached a small branch which we called Indian Creek. It empties into the main creek right at Comanche. This place, one mile southwest of the town of Comanche, was a camping place going and coming. The next water was a little stream, we called Sweet Water; it is now called Gidson Creek. Our camping place there was in the edge of a town now called Sidney, but at that time there was not a house but only an open country, post oak timber, and fine mesquite grass. You could see a deer feeding five or six hundred yards off. While the oak timber was thick there was no underbrush. This was also a regular camping place in passing either way as long as that road was traveled. After leaving this place our next camping place was twenty miles, which was the longest drive made on the trip, from Fort Gates to Fort Phantom Hill. This camping place was in a fiat post oak woods. There was a wide flat branch out on that high divide. It had channel sufficient for a large creek, being a rock bed which had holes in the rock; we herded our steers along the bed of this branch until we got water enough for them. This we called Deer River. I never saw as many deer in my life, in any country. All game for ten miles around had to get water at this place. After leaving Deer River our next camping place was on Little Pecan Creek. Here the roads forked, one running to Chadborn, the other to Phantom Hill. The rest of the camping places on the Phantom Hill road, were little holes of water in prairie branches. It was all a broken country and only a few days’ drive across it. Most of our forage went to Fort Chadborn, and the route to that fort turned to the left at Pecan Creek. The best camping place was on the Pecan Bayou about 35 miles above Brownwood. The next camping place was on a little branch heading up against the mountains just above what is called Tecumpey Peak; this stream had no name. From there we went to Elm Creek. That place was a regular camping place. From here we went to Valley Creek, which was the last camping place on the trail. The next day we reached Fort Chadborn, unloaded and got back to Valley Creek. On this Creek Mc- Cay & Gooch, (Dalrymyple & McCay having dissolved partnership; Lalrymple went to Georgetown in Williamson County, and A. J. McCay took Gooch in as a partner,) continued to furnish the government with supplies, and I stayed with them on the ranch above mentioned, on Valley Creek. This branch is six miles from Fort Chadborn. The Fort is located on Oak Creek.

I worked on this .ranch until I was twentyone years old, and while there enjoyed life better than any three years of my life. Twice a week I had to kill and deliver a beef at the Fort, and the rest of my time I was on my horse riding over the prairies, watching the beef herd and running wolves. I was out one morning getting up the work steers, and had another boy with me by the name of J. L. Britton, who some fifteen years later, was Sheriff of Williamson county, when we came upon a wild turkey gobbler, very fat, and set in to catch him on horseback. I had never thought of trying to catch anything that could fly before this time. We took after him, and when we began to crowd upon him he rose and flew about three hundred yards, and when he hit the ground could never rise again, and we ran upon him and picked him up in a few minutes. After that we would often come upon a bunch of turkeys and put in after them and when they got tired and hit the ground we could drive them into a pen like cattle or sheep. While out on that ranch we had great sport killing wolves, by getting out about fifty yards from the house and making a blind with two dry beef hides. When we had killed a beef we would take the head and stake it down behind the hides, and set on the other side of the hides and while the wolves were eating on the head we could shoot them. It could only be done by moonlight. Now, this wolf killing story may sound a little bit fishy, but there is living in Comanche today, a man nomed D. P. Pinkard, who was a small boy at that time, who will vouch for the truth of the story.