Frontier
Times Magazine
NOVEMBER, 1923
Contents
of this volume:
Ben Dragoo's Race for Life
Exciting and eye-witness
tale of noted ranger, Benjamin Crawford Dragoo who was
born in Washington county, Ill., in 1835, and came with
his parents to Texas when he was three years old. His
father settled on Blossom Prairie in Red River county,
and a year later located his headright and settled in
what is now Titus county, four miles from where Mount
Pleasant now stands. After locating on this headright,
the Indians became so troublesome that the father moved
his family to Fort Sherman, where the people had erected
a blockhouse and palisades for protection. This fort
was on Big Cypress creek, near the county line, and
among others who had gathered in that fort were the
Coots family, Gibson Dial and Bell families. Some of
the descendants of these families are now living in
Llano, Mason and McCulloch counties. In the course of
time the Senior Dragoo disposed of his headright and
moved to the Navasota river and settled near Fort Parker.
Ben Dragoo says that when a small boy he often played
with Cynthia Ann Parker and lived only eight miles away
when the Indians attacked the fort murdered members
of the Parker family, and carried Cynthia Ann into captivity.
This story depicts some of the bold confrontations that
this great and courageous ranger had to face while in
the service of the rangers.
Further Mentions:
John R. Baylor's company of rangers. Captains Baylor,
Dalrymple, Cottonwood creek, twenty miles above Ft.
Belknap, Ross, Baylor and Buck Barry, A man by the name
of Gray, Captain Sul Ross, Fort Griffin, F. M. Cassidy,
who lived at Llano, Lieut. Callahan the gallant ranger
for whom Callahan county was name, the Pease river country,
$100 Paid for Waxabaebie
Survey.
Only $100 was
paid for the survey of Waxahachie and Ellis county in
the year 1850, and this sum was ordered paid after funds
had been taken into the county treasury, sometimes of
an uncertain length of time in those days, according
to the old records of the city and county in the office
of the county clerk of Ellis county.
The session of
the court making the order -was held in the home of
E. W. Rogers, there being no meeting place prescribed
by law at that time. The original order, giving many
interesting facts on the organization and the men who
had part in the order, follows:
"At a session
of the county court of Ellis county, begun and held
at the town of Waxahachie, in the county of Ellis, in
the State of Texas, at the home of E. W. Rogers (there
being no courthouse or place designated by law for holding
courts in the said county), on Monday, August 19, 1850.
Present and presiding, the Honorable William Hawkins,
Chief Justice of said county, and Larkin Newton, Henry
Tremble and James L. Berry, commissioners and associates,
and Ben F. Hawkins, clerk of the county court of said
county, the court was opened by William H. H. Bradford,
sheriff of said county.
" It is ordered
by the court that Richard Donaldson be and he is employed
to survey and lay off the county site, comprising sixty
acres of land, into a public square, lots, streets and
alleys of such size as may be determined by the court,
and that the said Donaldson be allowed the sum of$100
to be paid in town lots to to be bid off at the public
sale, or to be taken at an average price of similar
lots, or the price of lots to be determined by two disinterested
persons; a report to be made by the said Donaldson of
his proceeding on the fourth Monday in October, 1850.
" It is ordered
by the court that L. G. Crop, Chief Justice of Navarro
County, receive the sum of $10 for his services in organizing
said county of Ellis, that the same be audited and allowed
paid out of the first money that comes into the treasury
of said county."
Texas Rangers Were First
to Use Six-Shooters.
By Prof. W. P.
Webb. It was during the Republic that the rangers
won a name as fearless and brave men that has clung
to them down to the present time. They have always been
a mounted force, and even today there is a saying that
a ranger is no better than his horse. They had to go
mounted because their enemies were mounted, and they
were few because the State was too poor to maintain
a large force. These early rangers had to make up in
quality what they lacked in numbers. It was also during
the Republic, 1836-1845, that they developed their technique
of war. They were the first men to learn the use of
the six-shooter, and to learn that the six-shooter was
the logical weapon with which to fight the Indian on
horseback. It was in Texas that the white man first
came in contact with mounted Indians. The Americans
had, up until the time Texas was settled, fought the
Indians on foot. But when they came to Texas, they passed
from the timbered area on to the plains, and on the
plains and prairies around San Antonio they met the
Comanches, the superb horsemen of the country. It is
said that these Comanches could shoot their arrows from
a running horse so rapidly that they could keep one
in the air all the time. The Texans needed a weapon
that carried several shots, and that wielded from the
hurricane deck of a Texas mustang. This is the story
of the ranger and his six-shooter.
Further Mentions:
S. M. Swenson, Col. Colt who had just perfected his
revolving pistol, Maj John B. Jones, Capt. McNelly,
The Lone Star Flag of Texas
T. B. Baldwin.
The origin and history of the five-pointed star of the
flag of the State of Texas.
Further Mentions:
Gov. Henry Smith, Senator Jones, Oliver Jones, Mrs.
Looscan, Mr. Thrall, James W. Robinson, President David
O. Burnet, Capt. Burroughs, Capt. Sidney Sherman, Katherine
Isabel Cox, David Paddley,
By A. J. Sowell.
Various true accounts of savage raids in the area of
Medina county, Uvalde county. Good early history of
these areas.
Further Mentions:
the ranch of Ross Kennedy, old man Schreiver, Ebenezer
Rankin, brother-in-law of Mr. Kennedy, Doe (Louis) Lee,
Jack Davenport, Clabe Davenport, Emory Givins, John
Kennedy, and Ambrose Crane. Huffman and Wolf, two cow
hunters, Kennedy's ranch. Blanco canyon, Captain Richarz,
Rancher's creek not far from the present town of Sabinal,
Captain Joe Ney, the Torn Wall settlement on the Frio,
Reunion of a Pioneer Family at Ballinger
By Henry C. Fuller.
Good early history of Nacogdoches county, speaks of
the J. C. Swift family who moved from Nacogdoches county
to Runnels county in 1874 and in 1881 settled in the
village of Runnels which was then on the feather-edge
of civilization in the West. The nearest railroad was
Abilene, fifty miles to the north while on the east
the nearest point at which railroad could be reached
was Fort Worth. W. H. Swift, father of Jim C. Swift,
was born in Abbeville district, South Carolina, in 1816.
In his boyhood days the family emigrated and settled
in or near what is now Washington county, Alabama, on
the Tombigbee River. When W. H. Swift reached young
manhood he took to boating and on one of his far-reaching
trips visited the coast of Texas, made his way up the
Neches River to its confluence with the, Angelina river
and thence up that river to the town of Marion, which
stood at the head of navigation in the territory known
at that time as "Nip-and-tuck,"
Further Mentions:
Dr. R. A. Dickinson, Kit Carson, Will Drannan, Miss
Nancy Walker, Mrs. Nannie Matthews and Mrs. Josephine
Brown Fountain living in Dallas, the backwoods and pioneer
church of Cross Roads, or old Hopewell.,
Shot with a Poisoned Arrow.
In 1863 John A.
Jones moved to Bandera county and settled at Indian
Spring on Myrtle creek, six miles north of the town
of Bandera, and established a cattle ranch. This place,
as was all of Bandera county at the time, was a frontier
and exposed to frequent Indian raids. One day at noon
in 1866, as the family of Mr. Jones was sitting down
to dinner, Rufus Click dashed to the yard fence and
called for Mr. Jones. He was minus his hat and his horse
was breathing heavily. Jones soon discovered that he
had been chased by Indians and was badly wounded. He
had been shot with a poisoned arrow. The arrow had struck
Click in the back, but he had pulled it out as he ran.
The pain was like that after being bitten by a rattlesnake,
for the spike was poisoned by venom from one of those
most deadly reptiles. The doctor gave strychnine to
counteract the effect of the poison.
Further Mentions:
Dr. Fitzgibbons. the Jones ranch,
Hunting Buffalo on the Little Wichita
River.
By W. S. Adair.
Story of John E. Hess, who gives eye-witness account
to a kind of frontier hunting expedition that has no
modern rival. An excerpt:
Capt. 'Peak, shot
them off the roosts by the hundred, and we fed on them
until the odor and taste of turkey made us sick. We
saw no great swarms of buffaloes, but the country was
covered, with small herds. We were armed with buffalo
rifles, which carried a long .45 bullet a distance or
600 or 800 yards. The only cartridge six-shooter in
the party was owned by Capt. Peak. The rest of us had
the old cap and ball navy six-shooters used in the Civil
War. It was just fine to see Capt. Peak ride into a
bunch of running buffaloes and with the six bullets
in his pistol bring down from four to six of the big
fellows. He would ride alongside them and break them
down in the loins.
"There were two
good reasons why the rest of us did not imitate Captain
Peak in this thrilling sport. One was that we were not
sufficiently accomplished marksmen, and the other and
best that our horses would not stand for it. The average
horse is mortally afraid of buffaloes and Indians. A
horse gets wind of buffaloes or Indians long, before
a man can discover any signs. Captain Peak's horse must
have been trained to the business. One day Capt. Peak
espied a beautiful young buffalo with perfectly black
hair, and had a mind to get him an extra fine buffalo
robe. The hair of most buffaloes was sunburned until
it ,was an ugly brown, almost red. In the chase the
buffalo took to the river, which was bank-full and running
like a mill race. In right after him, Capt. Peak spurred
his horse. Buffalo, horse and rider went under. But
up they came some yards down the river and out on the
other side, where Capt. Peak killed his quarry, but,
for some reason did not take its robe. Perhaps he felt
that he had been fully repaid for his toil by the fun
he had in the chase. The, superiority of a cartridge
six-shooter over the old cap-and-ball pistol was demonstrated
by the fact that after remaining under water while Capt.
Peak was swimming the river
the powder in the cartridge was still dry enough to
explode.
Further Mentions:
The party of Capt. June Peak, Col. W. G. Sterrett, Henry
Boll, Robert Cockrell, Leopold Bolinny and Billie Friedman,
and a Mexican cook. Henry Ball, Sheriff James E. Barkley
of Dallas County, Colonel E. G. Bower, who was county
Attorney of Dallas County, Sam Levy, Brownwood, Mr.
Levy was a relative of Mr. Embrick,
Texas and Nacogdoches of Unknown Origin
The origin of
the names Texas and Nacogdoches are alike veiled in
mystery The original spelling and pronunciation and
their local application were influenced by peculiar
environment existing before the white man had come to
the land. They were originally used by the aboriginal
Indians and heard in the native unwritten dialects.
The French explorers, coming from Canada and Louisiana,
the Spaniards from Mexico, lead by the Catholic fathers,
and the adventurous fortune-hunting Americans from the
States, all appeared and figured among the native Indians
about the same time at intervals just before and just
after the year 1700, and each had to learn and write
these names as they sounded to the ear from the standpoint
of their own respective languages. This account further
explores origins of the names.
Further Mentions:
the old village of Douglas, a crossing on the Angelina
River called Linwood, " old San Antonio Road " Stephen
F. Austin, Travis, Bowie, Milam and other noted pioneers,
including the adventurous St. Denis, Philip Nolan, Peter
E. Bean and Gil Ybarbo, the colonist leader, who made
the only permanent settlement of the town of Nacogdoches
in May 1778, one Nepomuceno de la Cerdo, the Frenchified
name of Deleacerdo. the Spanish name Padilla
Cox and Cantrell's Fight
The numerous members
of Josh Cox's family were brave frontiersmen and had
many fights with the Indians during the frontier days.
They came from Fannin county to Southwest Texas and
settled in the Nueces country.
Mentions a
horse hunt on Elm creek in 1864 when Josh Cox and Silas
Cantrell were attacked by nine Indians. Seven of them
ran around a thicket and two charged toward them. At
short range Cox and Cantrell both fired and each hit
his Indian. They wheeled and ran and the settlers pursued
them until they ran over a bank into the brush and disappeared.
The other seven ran also as soon as the guns were fired.
One of the wounded Indians was shot through the body,
which shot also broke his left arm. He rode his horse
six miles to a water hole and dismounting there, tied
his horse to a tree and laid down and died. On the seventh
day his body and the nearby starved horse were found.
The horse belonged to William Pafford. The Indian had
seven pairs of moccasins and a flintlock rifle. An old
shirt was tied around his body, covering the bullet
holes. The head and shoulder of another Indian were
found in…
Further Mentions:
the town of Uvalde on the Nueces river., Cantrell, Nathan
Cox and Tom Bingham, Todd Pulliam,
Horrible Massacre Described by a Survivor
This is story
of the indescribably brutal massacre of the Webster
party and the captivity of Mrs. Webster and her children,
as told by Virginia Webster, the only survivor of that
terrible tragedy. Attack occurred near a point on Brushy
creek, near what is now the town of Leander, in Williamson
county,
An excerpt: "As
soon as possible after it was seen that the Indians
were going to make an attack the wagons were formed
into a small square and immediately the battle began.
This was a most un, equal battle, for my mother often
told me that the number of Indians was estimated by
my father and his men to be fully three hundred, my
father's party being only 14 men. The battle lasted
from sunrise until 10 o'clock at night, when the last
man of the Webster party fell.
"By the time
the battle was ended six hundred more of the savages
had arrived swelling the number to nine hundred, the
Indians leaving the scene of the massacre after dark.
There were ten sacks of coffee in the wagons and they
poured that out on the ground. They smashed the crate
that contained my mother's fine china and silver that
she had brought with her from her home in Virginia,
taking the silver and making trinkets out of it with
which they ornamented themselves, stringing them around
their necks, their arms and their ankles. My father
had his sword with him, and they broke it up into small
pieces, breaking the hilt into three pieces for the
three chiefs -Guadalupe, Buffalo Hump and Yellow Wolf.
While I was very young, scarcely 4 years old, yet I
can well remember these old Comanches breaking up the
sword, and cutting up the silver on that awful day.
Oh, that awful day still haunts my memory, but I feel
happy that such sorrow can never come to us again. Oh,
it was a horrible sight to see all the brave and good
men fall at the hands of the savage demons. I well remember
how I cried, and how my little brother fought the Indians
after the battle was over, when they would approach.
Neither tongue nor pen could describe the awful sufferings
of my dear mother, nor can any reader of this story
imagine her horror at seeing her beloved husband and
friends cruelly scalped and mutilated, with only two
small children with her and expecting every moment to
see them, too, killed and scalped. My brother, who was
in his l3th year, could distinctly remember all the
details of the horrible day and night. After the savages
had completed their work of death and destruction they
started to their great camping place, which was a good
many days travel from this bloody scene, taking mother,
brother and myself with them. When we reached the camping
grounds of the Indians they took all our clothing from
us, dressing my mother in the garb of the Indian women,
and my brother like the Indian boys, As for myself,
I never had a stitch of any kind of clothing at any
time while I was in the possession of the red devils.
Just think about me, a little child, going with out
clothing in the winter's cold and summer’s sun, in sleet
and in snow. If any mother who reads this story will
only think of her own tender babe being placed in the
situation that I was in, she can imagine the feelings
of my mother, and will wonder doubtless, as I often
do now, how a little child could endure such hardships
and live to be 76 years old, as I have. And to think
of the brutal torture I had to undergo at the hands
of these brutes in human form for the red devils burnt
me, and whipped me because I cried. They would sometimes
tie a rope around my body and throw me into the river,
and then drag me out. I still have scars on my body
that were made by these savages by burning and whipping
me. I was almost a solid sore all over my body when
my mother and I reached San Antonio. Just think of we
being stark naked and sore all over and in the winter
at that…"
Further Mentions:
Captain John Webster, who with his family, consisting
of Mrs. Webster, one brother 10 years old, and the author,
at age 2, and two or three negro servants and a company
of 44 men, landed at Galveston in November of 1836.
A Mrs. Boone, Paul Flesher, Hornsby's Bend, a short
distance below Austin. Webberville, in Bastrop county,
Colonel Burleson, the name of Cooksey , M. G. Strickland,
Strickland, in Burnet County.. Charles Munro Simmons,
The Trail of Blood Along the Texas Border
During the year
1873, the Indians had been comparatively quiet along
the Texas frontier, but as they again began raiding
the border settlements and committing depredations it
became necessary to send another expedition against
them. The frontier forces had been depleted, and to
make a respectable escort it was compulsory to draw
off all available men within 1,000 miles of the border,
hence when Gen. Mackenzie was ready to start on this
expedition, he had drawn troops from every post from
Fort Richardson (Jacksboro) to Fort Duncan on the Rio
Grande, and yet the fighting force, exclusive of train
guards and packers, was only about 400 men. The gathering
of the clans took place at the old supply camp on the
Clear Fork and was completed by the arrival of the Seminole
Scouts from the Rio Grande, twenty-one strong and seven
Tonkawas from Fort Concho, on the 18th of September.
Further Mentions:
the Seminole camp, General McLaughlin, Palo Duro canyon,
Tule Canyon, Lieutenant Thompson, Captain Boehm and
Colonel Beaumont, Canyon City, Hon. Chas. Goodnight
of Goodnight, Texas, who was ranching in the vicinity,
J. M. Harworth, U. S. Indian Agent,
A Survivor of the Mier Expedition.
Major Whitfield
Chalk came from the other side of the Mississippi. Reared
in the stirring days of the war of 1812-15, Whitfield
Chalk had little trouble in adjusting his life to the
dangers and uncertainties which then marked the day
in Texas. His father, Capt. William Chalk came to this
country from England shortly before the war of 1812,
settling in South Carolina with his family which consisted
of his wife and young Whitfield. When the latter had
reached the age of twelve years, the family moved to
Tennessee, the state from which Texas was then drawing
most of her pioneers. The death of his father a few
years afterwards caused young Chalk to turn his eyes
also towards the west, which then still lay as a riddle
and mystery before all men.
On his trip down
the Mississippi on one of the old steamboats, Mr. Chalk
had a rather unusual experience. Crew and passengers
were attacked by the cholera and all of them, with the
exception of Chalk and the captain of the old craft
died. Ultimately he participated in the famous Mier
expedition and was one of the very few that escaped
with their lives.
Further Mentions:
Fisher's company, then one of the crack organizations
in the army of Texas. "Big Foot" Wallace, Bate Berry
and "Jeems" O'Rice, all of them heroes of the Texas
- Mexican War, Kempe, Tex
J. C. Bryant Has Had An Eventful Career
J. C. Bryant,
Confederate veteran, Indian fighter, former cattle inspector
on the old Chisholm trail and former sheriff, settled
in Montague county and led an eventful career and is
brim full of thrilling stories of Indian battles and
of adventure during the early days on the frontier.
This is his story.
Further Mentions:
the old Chisholm trail, the famous battle of Adobe Walls,
the Canadian River, he was a close friend of the Comanche
chief. Quanah Parker, the famous long shot fired by
Scout Billie Dixon with a buffalo gun, which has caused
a great deal of comment among historians., "My father,"
said Mr. Bryant, "was a resident of Polk County in the
early days and I was born there. He was the first sheriff
of Bosque county and was waylaid and killed on Village
Creek, in Johnson county, not far from the Shannon settlement
in the '60's. Bourland's Regiment of the Confederacy,
Red River Station in Montague county, Denton county,
Gainsville, Byers, Clay county, about 15 miles from
Henrietta,
The Bloody Career of Billy the Kid.
Billy the Kid
was a New Yorker. His right name was William H. Bonney.
He first saw the light of day in New York City, Manhattan
Island, on the twenty-third day of November, 1859.
Further Mentions:
George Hindman, Sheriff Brady, The killing of Carlyle,
Pat Garrett, Judge Bristol. the murder of Bernstein.
Mesilla,
Terry's Rangers Elect Officers.
Major George T.
McGee of San Marcos, was re-elected president of the
Terrey's Texas Rangers, at the close of the fifty-second
annual reunion of this famous organization at Austin,
September 27. Other officers elected included: Mrs.
W. T. Wroe, Austin, vice-president; T. M. Rector, Manor,
vice-president; Mrs. W. M. Owens, Austin, secretary;
Shirley Gregg, Travis county, corresponding secretary;
Dr. W. R. Minter…
Reconstruction Days in San Antonio.
By Taylor Thompson.
During the period
that has passed into history as the reconstruction days,
the people of the southern states and especially those
who had served in the Confederate army, were made the
victims of many acts of cruelty and oppression. This
is an account of it’s effects in Texas.
Further Mentions:
Major Dan McGary, the Brenham Banner, a weekly paper
published at Brenham. Gen. Griffin's, Alexander Sweet,
Captain George S. Deats, a gallant ex-Confederate officer,
Colonel James R. Sweet,
A Plea for County Historical Societies.
The Killing of Lieutenant Carter
In 1860 a small
party of Texas rangers, eight or ten in number and commanded
by Capt. Cotten, left the town of Hamilton on an expedition
against such Indians as they might find. Among the men
were Lieutenant Carter, John Witcher, Grundy Morris
and John Hurst, and others. This account details the
narrow escape of Witcher, and the death of Carter who
received a dozen bloody wounds in the severe Indian
attack near Hoover's ranch on the Cow House creek.
No comments:
Post a Comment