Texas History and Frontier Genealogy

Frio County Has a Colorful History

2011-07-25T15:18:00.000-07:00

MORE THAN TWO centuries have passed since the Spaniards and French explored our country and blazed the trail from the Rio Grande at San Juan Bautista below Eagle Pass to San Antonio, thence northwest to Nacogdoches, San Augustine and Louisiana. According to tradition and history this road was first traveled by St. Denis in the 9ear of 1714, and became very important. It was the original and most used route in the building of the missions at San Antonio. This trail—the historic Presidio Road—traverses the northwest corner of Frio county, created in 1858 with the town of Frio as the county seat.

The county comprising some 1036 square miles, and embracing various fertile soils, was then under the jurisdiction of Bexar county. Also at one time it, was attached to Medina and later to Atascosa counties. The name was derived from the Frio (cold) river, which winds its was through the rich land.

On June 24, 1871, the legislature ordered that B. A. Sheidley, B. M. Daugherty and John B. McMahon appoint justices of the peace, and an election was called for July 17-20. W. C. Daughtrty was then elected district clerk and E. C. Woodridge, sheriff. At their first meeting, Aug. 8, 1871, A. L. Oden was appointed to lay off the town of Frio, in Frio county. The sale of lots was advertised in the San Antonio Express, to take place Oct. 3, 1871. The town was founded on the Frio river, just below the Presidio Crossing, a beautiful spot. The original crossing is still used, being maintained by the ranch people of the vicinity.

Here, too, is handed down by tradition that Santa Anna, with his army, spent some time in resting before his final march to the Alamo. Also a story is told of a battle in Elm Valley, nearby, where many years ago gun barrels were found. In 1900, a Mexican unearthed a gun and pistol with flint locks, a sword hilt, decayed bones and bits of military uniform. The sword hilt bore insignia of Spanish or Mexican origin.

Later in 1836, Santa Anna with his troops entered Texas by way of the Presidio at San Juan Bautista; also, when General Woll invaded Texas in 1842, he entered and departed by way of Presidia at this point; then again General Ugalde (Uvalde) with several hundred troops crossed the Rio Grande into Texas at the same place to chastise a band of Indians, and a battle was fought somewhere near this vicinity. It is possible this forgotten battle field could be traced to any one of these events. Many fights occurred which were not chronicled in history.

The Yolo Digo Creeks tributaries of the Leona River, it is said, received their name from the following incident Mexican troops were camped near Elm Creek. Sentinels were stationed on the highest hill near where these creeks have their source. For some reason the sentinels failed to detect the approaching enemy. As the sleeping soldiers were charged, too late the warning was given. Some one asked, "Who said so?" Another replied, 'Yo lo digo." (I say it.) Berry Creek, another tributary of the Leona, was named for Tillman Berry, father of J. E. (Jim) Berry. "Los Burros" or Jack Creek received its name from a band of wild "burros," that ranged along the creek. Also at an early day, Frio county had great numbers of wild horses, as well as Mexican or long horned cattle. There are numerous legends of buried treasure, still unfound.

The first post office was established in the new town with the name of Frio City. L. J. W. Edwards, the first merchant was also the first postmaster. His successors were L. S. White, T. H. Rogers, J. I. Barnes, W. Y. Kilgore and the present postmaster, Mrs. Artie C. Roberts, whose commission is dated June 6, 1893. First mail was carried by W. C. Randle on horseback from Benton City. Later a contract was awarded to Lee McCaughan to carry it from San Antonio by stage.

November 28, 1871, the county court ordered that W. C. Daugherty receive bids on a 20x40-foot "California" house, with a 10-foot partition, this to be used as a court house. The contract was awarded to L. J. W. Edwards. In January, 1872, this structure was built out of lumber cut from cypress trees that grew along the Frio river and was roofed with shingles made near by. The lumber, bought of John Leakey, was trekked by ox wagon some eighty-five miles. Mr. Leakey owned a sawmill where the town of Leakey now stands. Later E. J. Emsley was employed to "white-wash" the court house inside and out for the sum of $20.00 in coin.

In 1877, that building was destroyed by fire, and in 1878 was replaced by a two-story edifice of native stone architecturally beautiful in its simplicity. The stairway with its gracefully curved railing of walnut is greatly admired to this day. The contractor's bid on this building was not sufficient to meet his obligation. W. J. Slaughter, one of his bondsmen, assumed full charge, completing the building at his own expense.

The first jail of stone was built by Dempsey Forrest in 1872. Before completed, it was voted that the upper story be built of stone instead of wood as was originally planned. This was to be used as a jury room. The walls of the building are still standing. Many notorious characters of early days were locked within its walls, among theta Sam Bass, Jesse and Frank James, these not for criminal but for minor offenses.

In 1872, roads were marked out from Frio City to various points. A crossing made on the southwest bank of the Frio river, intersecting the street opposite the court house square, was known as the San. Antonio Crossing.

The first grave in the Frio City cemetery was that of Calvin Massey, killed by Indians; the second, of Wesley Hiler, age seventeen, son of W. S, Hiler, killed by a horse. A number of Indian victims are buried therein, their graves unmarked and most of them forgotten.

In the spring of 1873, Mrs. Ed Massey saw the Indians kill her father-in-law, Calvin Massey. Unaided, with her three small children, she managed under cover of the Frio river bank to reach the town in safety. The Indians, forty-five in number, were followed but made good their escape.

In the fall of 1876, an Indian raid, carrying devastation and great loss of life, occurred. At break of day, Billie Allen and Jim Berry were holding a herd of cattle near the Indian Crossing on the Frio river just above the mouth of Elm Creek. Jim Berry, before seeing them, rode within twenty-five yards of sixteen Indians, lined abreast. On sight, he turned, making his way quickly to the Live Oak motel nearby. (Jim Berry did not count the Indians! Another man did. )

For some unaccountable reason, the Indians did not molest the men, but turning, went on up the creek to W. J. Slaughter's sheep camp where they killed William Rittberg, the foreman, and four Mexican herders. Going on to the Leona valley that same day, they killed Mr. Butler and Nick Brian who were employed by Mont Woodward, W. J. and C. H. Slaughter. In fact, in 1876 the Indian raids were so frequent that the citizens felt their inability to cope with them and called on the State for Ranger protection.

Major John B. Jones marched his escort company to Frio county. About December 15, 1876, Company “A” with Neal Coldwell as captain, made camp on Elm Creek, three miles southwest of Frio City; hence, the historical "Ranger Camp" whose site was on the south bank of Elm Creek in a fine grove of elm and oak. A short distance from the camp was a beautiful level prairie known as "Soldier's Prairie," on which the Rangers made a race track where they exercised their horses and where they whiled away many pleasant hours. Capt. J. B. Gillett, now the only known survivor of this company, is authority for the above.

The last raid in the early spring of 1877 was made on the Caven Woodward and Louis Oge ranch. Fifty head of horses were being driven away. A party of men were in pursuit. The Rangers were notified, and were also in close pursuit. The Indians realizing their inability to escape, left the horses and rode rapidly away. No lives were lost in this encounter.

More than one time the settlers were forced to bring their families into Frio City for protection, finding refuge in the court house and in the homes of friends. In 1878, a lone Indian slipped into the Mexican section of the town. Sheriff J. C. B. Harkness, with a number of citizens rushed to the scene. During the excitement over the accidental discharge of the sheriff's gun, which caused the loss of one of his toes, the Indian quietly disappeared. Thus the fear of the savage Indians passed almost as quietly and peacefully as did the lone Indian.

Among those who preached the gospel to the early settlers were the Reverend William Monk, John W. De- Vilbiss, W. C. Newton and the well known fighting preacher, A. J. Potter. Also, later, D. Johnson, J. M. Neatherlin and J. C. Russell. Early in Jane, 1880, seven men journeyed on horseback to Frio City and in the court house, organized the Rio Grande Baptist Association. E. A. Briggs of Benton City was chosen moderator and C. B. Hukill of Black Creek, clerk. The fiftieth anniversary of this organization was celebrated June 5-6, 1930, in the old court house and in the grove adjacent.

Those who gave aid to the sick and injured were Dr. E. W. Earnest, Pr. Amos Graves and the much-loved little woman, Mrs. Minerva Slaughter, wife of Benjamin Slaughter. Her name was a household word and her hand soothed many a fevered brow.

Schools were not neglected. Very early the fallowing school directors were appointed for the different school districts: S. O. Speed, J. G. Woodward, W. S. Hiler, R. B. Whitter, Alvin Hotrey, J. W. Craig, Geo. Brown, P. E. Wilson, R S. Ragsdale, John Walden, Joe Adams, J. W. Jones, J. E. Roberts, Silas Hay and Andrew Everett.

The first school was taught by J. M. Ellege. Other early teachers were Mr. and Mrs. Kingsbury, Miss Mary McGee, Dan T. Price and Mrs. A. E. Coates. Later Frio Academy was founded with B. C. Hendrick as principal and Mrs. Hendrick, assistant.

Tillman Berry came to Frio Co. in 1858. Dick Thompson, B. L. Crouch, Louis Oge, Mont and Caven Woodward, H. M. Daugherty, W. S. Hiler and many others were here at an early date.

During the trail driving days vast herds of cattle were sent out of Frio county by such cattlemen as Captain B. L. Csouch, Caven Woodward, Louis Oge, J'. H. Blackaller, W. J. and C. H. Slaughter and others. Driven by such cowboys as J. J. Roberts, M. Taylor, J. H. Loxton, J. H. Cook, B. I. Gilman, J. J. Little, Billie Henson, W. A. Roberts and others.

Various symbols, letters, figures and combinations of these made the brands of the cattlemen. The "Heart'' brand of Tillman Berry, "T Diamond” of W. J. Slaughter, ZH of W. S. Hiler, OL of Caven Woodward were among the first placed on record and are still used by the descendants of these early citizens. Other ranch brands were UL bar, and UL of J. H. Blackalle and 2A of J. E. Roberts. Trail or road brands were placed on all cattle sent up the "trail"—that of W. J. Slaughter "Diamond" and 7P, and of B. L. Crouch a bar from shoulder to flank on both sides of the animal, of Caven Woodward Y at the point of the shoulder and Lazy Y on the loin, and To of J. H. Blackaller.

The early settlers were not without public enterprise. Building material had to be trekked many miles; therefore soon there were established a shingle mill, brick factory and lime kiln, thereby utilizing the natural resources of the country.

During the interim of 1858 to 1871 when Frio county was formally organized, Indians made numerous raids. Early one morning in the spring of 1860, Leonard Eastwood, John Speers, and R. A. Sanders rode off to their work. Mr. Eastwood and Mr. Sanders were killed by a raiding band of Indians; Mr. Speers, though wounded, succeeded in reaching the home of Levi English, near a place still known as the English Crossing on the Leona River.

In October, 1861, a large band invaded the country, and in their wanton role of death and destruction, not only was there great loss of human life but much loss of stock killed and stolen. At this time “Mustang” Moore and James Winters were killed near the present town of Moore; Dr. Thomas Speed and L. T. Ward were wounded. Others engaged in this encounter were James Craig, James Bishop and Norville Kennard.

July 4, 1865, Indians chased Ed Burleson, but he managed to reach his home in safety. The following neighbors started on the trail of the redmen: namely, Levi English, A. L. Franks, G. W. Daugherty, A. D. Aiken, Ed Burleson, W. C. Bell, Dean Oden, Bud English, John Berry, Frank and Dan Williams. A fight ensued in which Dean Oden, Dan Williams and Bud English were killed. Five others were wounded and only three escaped unscathed.

Dean Oden, with his two comrades who fell on this fateful day, rest in a long deserted and almost forgotten cemetery near the old Martin ranch, located above the mouth of the Leona river and a short distance above and overlooking present Frio State Park.

About 1876-1877, the Bennett settlement on the Leona, named for Hamilton Bennett, became a thriving community. An irrigation project was contemplated, a dam and canal was about completed, when floods swept the dam away, which was never replaced.

In 1878 a post office was established by name of Hamlin. This was soon discontinued. At the Bishop Hollow settlement, a few miles from the present town of Pearsall, a post office was established in 1878 by the name of Ireland, although it was also known as Pencilville. This office was discontinued in 1881.

Another important neighborhood, near the line of Frio and Medina counties, was the Tehuacana settlement, located along the Tehuacana Creek. The Live Oak settlement on the Live Oak Creeks has long since been abandoned. It was located near the center of the vast ranch of Captain B. L. Crouch, now owned by Halff and Oppenheimer.

Many Mexican war veterans were early settlers of Frio county, among them Benjamin Slaughter, William A. A. Wallace, James W. Winters and James Winters. Benjamin Slaughter with a band of followers, left Mississippi January, 1836, for Texas to join the forces in the field. When within a short distance of Houston, they learned of the complete victory over the Mexican army. Later he served in Captain Hill's company, Colonel Hays' Regiment, Texas Mounted Volunteers. James Winters, a valiant San Jacinto veteran, was killed by Indians.

James W. Winters, who fought in the battle of San Jacinto and heroically assisted in. winning Texas Independence, was born in Giles county, Tennessee, January 21, 1817. He came to Texas in 1834 and to Frio county about 1880, died October 15, 1903, and is buried in the Brummett Cemetery near Big Foot, Texas.

William A. A. (Big Foot) Wallace figured largely in Frio county history. He was born in Lexington, Va., April 3, 1817. He came to Texas in. 1836. He was known as a great Indian fighter and ranger, a man of fine character ad. indomitable courage. A participant in many fights with Mexicans and Indians, he miraculously escaped in many dangerous encounters. "Captain," as his friends called him, was a welcome visitor in every home. His friendly benevolent manner won many friends. Children, as well as older people, gathered near him and all were eager to hear him relate his interesting experiences.

Often he told the story of when he and Benjamin (Ben) Slaughter were prisoners together during the Mexican invasion of Texas. The Texas prisoners were forced to draw heavy loads of stone for building construction. Ben Slaughter, with his great sense of humor, would soon have the Mexican guards convulsed with laughter; yet he gained great favor and was one of the first prisoners exchanged. With a smile of reminiscence, he would say, "We broke up many a cart and tore up lots of harness."

William A. A. Wallace died January 9, 1899. His body was first interred in Longview Cemetery at Big Foot. Later it was removed to Austin and now rests in the State Cemetery.

The town of Bigfoot, named for "Big Foot" Wallace, was established about 1880. It is an interesting place with much early history. The present residents are mostly descendants of the early citizens; namely, John Brummett, John Thomas, Peter Gardner, Bob Dixon, J. A. Leach, George Henson and others. Located near is the Brummett cemetery. The first grave therein was that of an Indian, killed, so the story goes, in a fight with the whites and given a civilized burial by the settlers.

Until 1878-1879 the country was unfenced. At this time cattlemen began to fence their holdings. This displeased those who were reaping the benefits of free range. Consequently, the fence cutters (Free Grazers, they styled themselves) organized and destroyed many miles of fence. This act of destruction ceased in 1884, when a law was enacted by the legislature making fence cutting a penitentiary offense.

In 1880 a survey was made and the International and Great Northern Railroad (now the Missouri Pacific ) extended its main line through Frio county, missing Frio City. On July 4, 01881, the first passenger train pulled into the newly founded town of Pearsall. On this day lots were sold. The first offered, that on the corner opposite the railroad station was sold to R. G. Long. The town was located on the site of a large sheep ranch. This place was known as Waggoner's Well. At this time the rolling prairie country was covered with a luxuriant growth of sage grass. Prairie fires were of frequent occurrence. The grass became ignited from a camp fire and fanned by a brisk breeze, was soon a sweeping flame. Many of the new residents had a hard fight to save the lumber for their new homes.

Again the sound of the hammer was heard in Frio City, a thriving town of one thousand people or more, but this time it was laying low the houses and moving them to Pearsall, thus ending the fair little city. In 1883 the county seat was moved from Frio City to Pearsall, and in 1886 the name of Frio City was changed to Frio Town.

At Pearsall, a temporary court house was built of lumber. In 1904 the present brick building was erected—also the present jail is of brick. With the two temporary lumber buildings considered, Frio county has had four court houses.

Pearsall has had steady growth with substantial business house and many, pretty residences.

Dilley, Derby, Melon and Moore are towns along the railroad. Dilley, the second town in size, is an enterprising and growing town. Moore was named for "Mustang" Moore, who was killed by Indiana in 1861.

In 1879 John Bennett moved where the town of Derby now stands. He was an engineer in the survey of the railroad line in. 1880. His descendants are now living at Derby, which Mr. Bennett named for his old home in England.

Miguel, Sand Hollow, Keystone, Orelia, Divot and Schattel are important farming and stock-raising communities.

Since 1858, when the county was first created, to the present time, the mode of travel, in regard to speed, has been reduced from weeks to hours.

After these courageous men of the early days had made the county safe, paving the way for the present peace and civilization, their children have not stood still. Although the ranches have been cut into smaller tracts, and the herds of cattle reduced in number, the cattle are better bred. Much land has been turned to cultivation, many acres to truck farming, irrigated from a vast underground supply of water.

At present, there is an interesting development in oil, and Frio county has promise of becoming a great oil field.

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Read much more early Frio County Texas history here.

Early Kimball County, Texas History

2011-06-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

Helped to Organize Kimble County
By Mrs. A. T. Whetstone, Noxville, Texas

EVER AND ANON the funeral train takes up its solemn march to the city of the dead, and among its passengers are many who were instrumental in carving the history of dear old Texas in years gone by.

John C. Kountz, the subject of this sketch, was born October 14,1850 in Russell county, Virginia, and died in San Antonio, Texas hospital May 26, 1929. He died from injury sustained when he was kicked by a horse two days previously. The body was returned to junction, Texas, where he had lived years, and as members of the family could not get there sooner on account of swollen streams, he was not buried until the evening of May 29th. Mr. Kountz was one of the pioneers of Texas, whose ranks are rapidly depleting. He was the son of Dr. E. K. and Harriet Lindwood Kountz. His early boyhood days were spent on the farm. HIis fat her was a soldier in the Confederate army during the Civil War. In 1863, at the tender age of 13 years, John Kountz heeded the call of his beloved Southland for volunteers and bravely stood beneath the flag of the starry cross and followed its streaming folds upon the bloody edge of battle, as a dispatch bearer and tender of horses for the older soldiers. He became a unit in that long thin gray line that blithely charged into the jaws of death by the gleam of the sword of Robert E. Lee.—Those men who gave to these Southern States for all time their fadeless imperishable glory.

In the spring of 1869 the Kountz family moved to Southeastern Kansas John C. Kountz and settled among the Osage Indians, about three miles north of Coffeyville, in Montgomery county, and put up a store and traded with the Indians. Later they owned and operated a store at Kolloch, on the L. L. & G. R. R. In May or early June, 1875, they moved to Texas, direct to Kimble county, which was at that time unorganized. There was no town of Junction then, not even a house, where the present county seat of Kimble county is located . Kimble county was organized in the early part of 1876, and ins April of that year John Kountz, with his brother, C. C. Kountz, was employed as a trail hand to go with a herd of cattle to Dodge City, Kansas. The herd was owned by Lewis & Hurst, and was bossed up the trail by Big Toni Moore, who later became a banker at Llano. The Kountz brothers left the herd at Dodge City and went to Arkansas City, Silverdale and Coffeyville to settle up some business they had left when they came to Texas. They returned to Texas in 1877. John Kountz did all of the work in the county and district clerk's office up to the fall of 1878. The Kountz family put up the first store in Junction, and Mrs. Kountz. the mother of John, was the first postmaster. They kept the clerk's office and the postoffice and store in the same building. The courts were not held 'in that building, however. The first district court held in Kimble county was held under a live oak tree on the bank of the Llano river, about a mile below the Junction of the North and South Llano rivers. Isaac Kountz. a brother to John Kountz, was the first mail carrier to bring the mail to Kimble county. He carried the mail from Fort McKavett on Saturday, December 23rd, and was killed by Indians the next morning, Sunday, December 24th, 1876, while out with a bunch of sheep.

The ranch on which John Kountz was kicked by a horse, from the effects of which he died, and on which he had spent fifty-two years of his life, was purchased by the Kountz family in 1877. Like all young frontiersmen of his day, he wanted a ranch. He worked in the county clerk's office from 1880 as deputy clerk under W. A. Spencer for four years; one term as deputy clerk under A. J. Wilson, and one term under W. G. Boyle.

In 1880 he was married to Miss Laura Turner, who survives him. Mrs. Kountz also belongs to a pioneer Texas family, many of her relatives being prominently identified with the history of Kimble county. At the time of her marriage she was conceded to be the most beautiful girl in Kimble county. To Mr. and Mrs. Kountz eight children were born, three sons and five daughters, Fred Kountz of Phoenix, Arizona; Paul Kountz, Bisbee, Arizona; John Kountz, Jr., Houston, Texas; Mrs. G. G. Martin, Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. W. P. Riley, Junction, Texas; Mrs. Ruth Kersting, Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Carl Wolf, Junction, Texas; and Mrs. Ben Hey, who died at Mason three years ago. Surviving also are two brothers, C. C. Kountz of Balmorhea, Texas, and Sebastian Kountz of Junction; two sisters, Mrs. N. C. Patterson of Junction, and Mrs. Dixie Allen of Pasadena, California.

About fifty years ago Mr. Kountz was converted and united with the Baptist church. He possessed all of the elements of the highest type of manhood, was a devoted husband, an unselfish father, a loyal friend and a devoted Christian. His was a sterling character that braved the dangers and perils of life on the frontiers of civilization. His love and influence is imperishable and will not cease; his life will be an inspiration that calls his dear ones to a higher moral and spiritual life.
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We have much more rare and hard to find early Kimball County, TX history:
History of Kimble Country, TX

Very Early Williamson County, TX History and Genealogy

2011-05-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

Pioneer Days in Williamson County, TX
By Ida B. Hall

During conference of the Methodist Church in Platteville, Wisconsin, in August, 1841, the Reverend Josiah Whipple volunteered to go to Texas as a missionary. At the time, the Reverend John Clark was appointed to the same mission. Both went as regular transfers from the Rock River, Wisconsin, Conference to Texas Conference "for the sole object of preaching the Gospel of the Grace of God in that new and interesting Republic.”

By agreement, Reverend Whipple met Reverend Clark, wife and nine year old son (also Reverend Thomas A. Morris who accompanied them), at St. Louis, October 19, 1841. Reverend Morris wrote an interesting account e: the trip to Texas in a series of fourteen letters to a friend in which he depicts the adventures of the journey day by day until they reached Texas, in January of 1842. On arrival at Bastrop, Rev. Whipple was entertained in the home of one Mrs. McGee, a widow. whom he soon afterward married.

For many years Reverend Whipple was one of the leading ministers of the Methodist Church, South, and his ministry took him over a large part of the state. During that time he kept a diary which recorded the events of his travels and which I am told was a fascinating story of the customs and times Unfortunately, this diary was lost. Reverend Josiah Whipple was one of the five sons of Angell Whipple, all Methodist ministers. They were gifted men, having inherited zeal and strength of purpose from a long line of Neva England ancestors headed by Captain John Whipple who arrived soon after the landing of the Mayflower. and who was a warm friend and co-worker with Roger Williams, whose families intermarried.

It was through the influence of Reverend Whipple that his widowed mother and her family, including my father's family (the Babcocks), were induced to leave northern Illinois and come to Texas. Reverend Josiah Whipple was a brother of my father’s mother.

In 1929 my father was called upon to write a story, of early days in Bagdad, to be embodied in a history of Williamson County. The history was James E. Babcock being prepared for publication by the Old Settlers' Organization of that county. Old Bagdad was about twenty-five miles north of Austin. For some reason this history was never completed. But later, my father's story appeared in part in the Temple Telegram.

Believing that this story of early days might interest readers of Frontier Times, I am submitting it just as my father dictated it to me in the summer of 1929. My family now has in its possession several old deeds describing lands in that section of country. They are yellow with age and some are hardly decipherable. Among the names are those of the Hornsbys and Fisks. My father died October 3, 1934, and was buried beside his wife in Fort Worth. Had-he lived until his next birthday he would have been ninety-three years old. His article is given below:

THE STORY OF BAGDAD PRAIRIE FROM 1851 TO 1870
By James E. Babcock
My father Charles Babcock, moved to Bagdad Prairie the day after Christmas in 1851. He was originally from the northern part of Illinois. I was then a boy nine years old and I little thought that after seventy-nine years I Would be called upon to write a history of the early settlement of Bagdad Prairie. I may be slightly in error as to the time of the events given, but the outline is correct.

At the coming of my father, there were then living on all that prairie only four settlers: a man named Rice, whom my father bought out; a German named Smeltzer, and his two sons-in-laws, Harris and Dawson, all located in the west end of the postoak grove where about in 1854, my father surveyed out the town of Bagdad.

The earliest settlement ever made on Bagdad Prairie was a log cabin built by on of the Hornsbys, famous in Texas history, on the southwest corner of the prairie near the present home of the Hon. James H. Faubion. This must have been as early as 1845, as the building was old and deserted when first saw it. Three miles southeast of Bagdad Prairie a block house fort had been built by the government at a big spring. I have been told that this was the first settlement in Williamson county.

Mr. Smeltzer and his sons-in-law must have settled on the prairie as early as 1845, though I never knew the exact date. To illustrate the primitive conditions of that time I will mention the fact that very few log cabins had any floors. Mr. Smeltzer's cabin had puncheon floors, that is, split hewn logs. There was not a nail nor a piece of sawed lumber in his house. He and his sons-in-law moved there in one wagon, and when that Was broker: down, they built what they called a Bulger wagon. The wheels were sawed from a huge live-oak tree. There was not a piece of iron in that wagon and it look six yoke of steers to haul fifty fence rails from the cedar brakes west of the prairie.

The military road from Austin to Fort Grogan (now Burnet) passed through the grove where Bagdad was afterwards located and being halfway, or a day 's march, between the two places, it became a favorite camping ground for (he United States Army stationed` at Croghan. My father kept a "wayside inn" and many of the officers of the army stopped there. Robert E. Lee, Lieut. Givens and other officers were guests in our home.

A few miles east of Bagdad Prairie, on Brushy Crerek, was the scene of tae Webster Massacre (1838), and here the Bowmer and Davis settlements were made, rut I do not know whether or not they were earlier than the settlements on the prairie.

In 1853 Thomas Huddleston, his son- in-law, James Williamson, George Craven, and Robert Marley came to the Prairie. These men were all from Tennessee except Craven, who was from Indiana. Huddleston bought a large survey in the northeast corner of the Prairie. He had a considerable family and a number of slaves. Williamson bought cut Mr. Smeltzer. Craven also had a large family, and he lived in and around Bagdad until his death soon after the Civil War. Marley, after a few months, move to the Bend section of Lampasas county, where afterwards his son, R. N. Marley, became a large land owner and prominent stockman.

Next came Nicholas and James Branch. James Branch had a family Nicholas had no family, but several slaves. They bought a large survey joining Huddleston on the south.

About 1854 John Faubion came to the Prairie from Tennessee. He had a large family and several slaves. He bought 1100 acres of land on the north side of the Prairie. He was a man of tireless industry and boundless ambition. He put in a very large farm. He was a first class blacksmith and ready worker in any line. A few years later Mr. Faubion built a two - story stone house with cut stone trimmings which, at the time, was said to be the best private residence in Williamson county.

The next settlers of importance were Robert Hanna and Col. C. C. Mason, who came from South Carolina. Both had families and slaves. Col. Mason bought the entire south Bide of the Prairie and put in a large farm. Both men were of high character, honored and respected by all who knew them. After one or two years Hanna moved a few miles east of Running Brushy.

The first school house built on the Prairie wag about 1858, on the north bank of Brushy Creek, on land afterward owned by John Faubion. It was a low log house without windows and had a dirt floor. The benches were split logs without backs. The first school taught there was a short summer session by an Irishman who said his name was Willis, but that probably was not his name. We heard two or three years later that he had joined a squad of horse thieves out west. They were arrested, tried and convicted, sentenced and hanged, all in one day, by Judge Lynch. One other school was taught in the house, but I have forgotten the name of the teacher.

The first school that I attended was taught in a vacant house on the farm of Judge Greenleaf Fisk who, I understand, was the first County Judge of Williamson county. This house was on the San Gabriel, about four miles north of old Bagdad. I remember one evening coming home from school we children got lost. The sage grass at that time grew in the valleys as high as a man 's shoulders. We had with us a little five dog, and when the wolves began howling, this little dog kept up an incessant barking. This enabled our parents to find us, which was about midnight The next day my father, Abe Smeltzer and Fielding Dawson hitched four yoke of steers to a large log, which they dragged straight away across the brakes of the Gabriel in sight of the school house. This became a beaten trail for all kinds of animals and cattle. Forty years afterward saw a section of this trail still plainly visible. About this time my father laid out the town of Bagdad and the school house was moved over there. I believe the first school taught in it was by James Whipple.

In 1855 my father raised the first prop of wheat grown on the Prairie. It was threshed by John and Tom Snyder on a little treadmill thresher. The yield was so large that wheat-growing soon became the principal crop on the Prairie. A few years later John Faubion threshed 1100 bushels of wheat one year.

John E. Heinatz built the first black-smith shop in Bagdad. He was a splendid workman and became one of the leading citizens of the community. He was first postmaster, and later merchant.

The first store house was built by one Schaffer who moved a stock of good from Georgetown and placed James B. Knight in charge. It was a small box house and the stock consisted of a few pieces of calico and domestic, coffee and sugar, tobacco and snuff, and shoes. This was about 1860.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Bagdad Prairie sent a large number of soldiers. There were in and around Bagdad Prairie several men, some of them slave owners, who did not believe that secession was wise or right, but their sons volunteered in the Confederate service the same as the others. Several of these men joined the company organized at Georgetown in March, 1862, which was commanded by Judge Von Trees, and served through the war as mounted men.

After the war, Bagdad Prairie developed rapidly and became one of the best farming districts in Williamson county. By 1868 quite a village had grown up at Bagdad. A large two-story stone building was erected, the lower story for school and the upper story for Masonic Lodge. Dan Emmett was the first Worshipful Master and Prof. William H. Russell taught the first school in the building,

About this time the first cotton gin was built aortas Brushy Creek from the present site of Leander. This gin burned down before it did any work, and another was built on the south of the creek by one A. E. Walker. It was afterwards operated by Wesley Craven. At this time cotton-growing supplanted the raising of wheat on the Prairie.

Up to 1860, dancing parties and play parties, spelling matches, horseback excursions for pecan hunting and berry picking were among the amusements of the young people. Spanish ponies were the means of conveyance. The girls rode on side-saddles and their dresses reached from their throats to the ground. Sometimes we went in squads to camp meeting. At that time the old-time camp meeting was an annual event. We attended these meetings at the springs a few miles above Round Rock, and there were sometimes as many as two or three hundred conversions. At these meetings many old time Methodist circuit riders, including Reverend J. W. Whipple, came and preached. The people camped in tents and services were held under a great brush arbor. It was the custom each day to send men into the woods west of Round Rock and the fattest beet found, no matter whose brand or mark was on it, was brought in and hung up for the use of the meeting.

On the 22nd of next April, (1930) I shall have reached eighty-eight years. Memories of these early years of life are recalled as a pleasant dream.
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Much more on the early days in Williamson County, TX can be found on our site. Here are but a few suggestions:
History of Kenney's Fort
Some Early History of Williamson County
Some Early Williamson County History

The Irish Settlers of Early Texas

2011-05-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

The Irish Progenitors of Texas

Found here:

WITHIN the narrow confines of San Patricio and Refugio Counties, which border the coast immediately north of the city of Corpus Christi, in the far gone days of yesteryears have been enacted some of the most thrilling events that adorn the pages of the yet untold history of Texas; events that tell a story of patriotism, perseverance and fortitude that finds no parallel in the annals of any nation--things that almost stagger credulity.

Texas boasts of a history which for its splendid achievements and noble examples has not yet been approached in any quarter of the world in ages past Her Alamo, her Goliad, and her San Jacinto will remain forever fresh and green in memory's book for generations yet unborn to conjure with. Men may come and men may go, but the sacred recollection of Texas heroes and their deeds will live forever. But as thrilling and as inspiring as were those achievements of Texas heroes which told in song and story, are as familiar to the student of history as Bunker Hill or Gettysburg, the half has never yet been told. For, there is a story of early Texas,days which though yet untold, challenges even the gruesome sacredness of the Alamo and the magnificent stories of San Jacinto. An astonishing declaration: Yes, so it is, but let the reader suspend judgment until he has heard the story. Let him first consider this: That there are worse things in life than death, that it is sometimes easier to die than to live and that death which rescues men from torture and sin is often a blessing in disguise.

Men will fight and die for a flag. Yea, for that emblem of home and motherland will they walk forth to the cannon's mouth, into the very jaws of death and when "all gashed and goy and stretched upon the cumbered plain," and their life's blood slowly ebbs its fitful course, smile and sing because the nation has been saved, What is it? It is what we call patriotism; it is that sublime emotion which, tuned and pitched on high by martial stir of fife and drum, drives men to death. When they die monuments are erected to their memories, they are called patriots.

But there was a day in Texas when no Hag unloosed its folds to the breeze when no martial music roused the souls of men, and yet there were men who fought and died end yet more lived, to preserve the homes they had built in a foreign land.

Listen to the story. It is a story of men who followed "the sign of the cross" into the wilderness, and under its protecting arms laid the foundation upon which civilization might erect her temple magnificent and where government might take her seat.

If there is one institution which more than any other has inspired men to great things in the world's history, that institution is religion. For government men will suffer, for home and land they will die, but for religion they will live lives of never-ending torture, when death would be as but a refuge for the weary soul. This unwritten story of Texas tells of men whose lives were a monument to a religion, men who followed "the sign of the cross" to a foreign land, and there lived and died beneath its shadows that their children's children might enjoy the exalted state of personal liberty and religious freedom which is vouchsafed to all mankind. in Texas today.

More than two hundred years ago, when the ownership of Texas was an undetermined question between France and Spain, the latter nation set herself to a plan whereby she hoped to indelibly stamp the likeness of herself and her institutions upon the disputed territory that its possession would drift to her as a matter of course. In that day and time, even as today, the supremest institution of authority and power in Spain was the Roman Catholic church. It was the life boll of the State no less than the vitalizing influence of its people. It looked to the Holy Church for the solution of its social and political problems. It was the foundation upon which the nation had been established, and it was likewise looked to for the means of extending the nation's power. The plan which Spain adopted to effectually and permanently establish her authority in Texas was, therefore, conceived in religion. Franciscan friars were sent from Spain and Mexico, then a Spanish province, into Texas, and by the close of the eighteenth century they had erected a chain of missions from the Sabine river on the east to the Rio Grande on the south. This era is commonly known in Texas history as the "Mission Period." In the year 1790, when the completion of the mission of "Our Lady of Refuge" at Refugio brought this period to a close, Texas, then spelled Tejas, was firmly annexed to Catholic Spain, both religiously and politically. At the dawn of the nineteenth century, aside from handful of soldiers of fortune, who had drifted to Texas in search of wealth and buried treasure there were, practically speaking, no white men in Texas. Meantime. Mexico grew, prospered and became powerful. Her people wearied of the rule of the mother country and longed for independence. In the year 1823 the power of Spain was overthrown and the Republic of Mexico was born.

Conscious of a new-found power and exalted even to the point of arrogance, the new republic forthwith began to cherish the dream of empire. There to the northward was that great wilderness called Tejas, with her marvelous resources and possibilities which, although now smoldering in dormancy. needed but the trade winds of colonization to fan them into consuming flame.

And that land Mexico decided should be the scene of the exploitation of her dream. She would hold out enticing inducements to such new-comers as might fit her fancy and fulfill the obligations she might impose, and she would hold them in safe subjection b compelling their obedience to stringent laws which would insure the supremacy of Mexico forever. In the prosecution of this colonization scheme the two fundamental conditions to which Colonists had to subscribe, and to which all other considerations were made secondary, were that. the colonists should (first) be of "the Catholic apostolic Roman religion " and (second) that they should swear allegiance to the Republic. As an inducement the government promised to each colonist who would meet these conditions a grant of hand. With a view of facilitating colonization, extravagant grants comprising thousands of acres were offered to a few individuals who would assume the role of "empressarios" (colonizers), and undertake the task of inducing others to take advantage of the government's offer.

Two or three years after the birth of the Mexican republic, four Irishmen came to Texas as agents for a number of Irish Catholic families who were dissatisfied with that condition of affairs at home which would not permit an adherent to tine Catholic faith to own land, with a view of looking over the situation and investigating the opportunities for home-building in Texas. These Irishmen were James McGloin, John McMullen, James Power and James Hewetton.

They were evidently pleased with the prospect, for they immediately proceeded to Saltillo, then the capital of the State known as Coahuila and Tejas, and made application to the governor for grants of land upon which they agreed to colonize several hundred Irish families who would, of course, be willing to subscribe to the conditions of the Mexican colonization laws.

McGloin and McMullen received a grant of land located on the north bank of the Nueces River, about fifteen miles from the mouth, in the county now known as San Patricio, and Power and Hewetton secured a similar grant surrounding the Mission of Refugio, at the present site of the town of Refugio, the capital of Refugio County.

Concerning the early history of the McGloin and McMullen colony, the sources of information are somewhat meager and obscured by the passing of years. Some old moth-eaten and timeworn records now on file in the county of San Patricio, however, indicate that a colony consisting of about forty families landed at a point called McGloins Bluff, now know)! as Ingleside, on Corpus Christi Bay, in about the year 1830.

The newcomers immediately set out on foot to the colony site, which was called San Patricio de Hibernia (Saint Patrick of Ireland), about twenty miles inland. Respecting the Power and Hewetson colony, the records are fortunately clearer. About ten years ago, a litigation involving the validity of the title to a large tract or land which was included in the original grant of the Mexican government to Power and Hewetson, brought forth an interesting statement Iron one or the then survivors of the original colony that, now preserved in the court records of the county, sheds a flood of light upon the time-dimmed mysteries of the early turbulent days when history was young in Texas.

The story is gleaned from the testimony of Mrs. Rosalie B. Priour, now deceased, who at the time the statement was made was 70 years old and who was, as 8- year-old Rosalie Hart, accompanied by her father to Texas with the colonists. Divested of the interrogatories and the repetition that usually infest statements, Mrs. Priour's story is as follows:

"I was born in County Wexford, Ireland. I do not remember the parish in which I was horn, but it joined the parish of Ballagarret. After waiting some time at Liverpool for our ship to start for America and after spending Christmas at Liverpool, we embarked upon our ship and started for America shortly after Christmas of the year 1833 or in the early part of 1834. My father's family and myself came to America as colonists from Ireland with Mr. James Power, Sr. "My father’s family, together with all the colonists who came over on the same vessel with me, settled in Refugio County, in tile town of Refugio, upon lots donated, to each head of the family. Mr. James Power held meetings at the house of his sister, Mrs. O'Brien, in Ireland, where he told his friends and acquaintances that gathered there about America and the advantages to be secured there by Colonists, and among other inducements told them that each family, or head of family, would receive a land grant of one league and one labor of land from the Mexican government, and that each single person would also receive a land grant, but of smaller quantity. Mrs. O'Brien, sister of Mr. James Power, also came to America as a member of the colony. "The only relations Mr. James Power had with whom I was acquainted in Ireland were his sister, Mrs. O'Brien, above mentioned, and leer husband and their children. I think Mrs. O'Brien had three or four boys and three girls. The only names of her children that I can now remember are those of her sons, Morgan O’Brien and John O'Brien, and her daughters, Agnes or Aggie, and Mrs. Bowers, whose Christian name I have forgotten.

"Farming was the occupation of Mr. O’Brien and his family, his son Morgan being about 23 years old, and his son John about 15 years old when they left Ireland, as well as I can remember. The family of Mr. O’ Brien, as well as all the rest of Ike colonists who came to America on the same vessel on which I came, were tenant farmers, none of them ever owning any land in Ireland. Their object in coming to America was to secure lands of their own, my recollection being that under the law in force in Ireland at that time; no Catholic was permitted to own land, with only a few exceptions.

"My father’s family started over to America in a ship containing about 350 persons, colonists.

"Those colonists embarked on one of the largest sailing vessels afloat in those days, starting from. Liverpool to America. "I was born August 1, 1826, and at the time of the departure of the shi p from Liverpool was about 8 years old. "I cannot say what arrangements were made between Mr. Power and other colonists, but I think it was the same as he made with my father. Mr. Power was to charter the ship and land us at Copano, Texas, for a certain sum of money, payable in Liverpool before we would embark. I have often heard my father and mother say that all the other colonists made the same arrangements and the same payments for their passage to America. Each head of a family provided himself and his family with provisions and supplies enough to last one year and brought it along on board the ship. including farming implements, etc., all of which was paid for by the colonists themselves. The colonists were all farmers, with the exception of four or five, who came out as hired men and servants.

"My recollection and understanding which we sailed from Ireland had three masts. I do not remember the dimensions of the ship, only that I often heard it alluded to by my parents and others as one of the largest ships going. "My recollection and understanding from my parents and others is that Mr. James Power, Sr., had made a personal canvass in various parts of Ireland in search of colonists who would come to Texas with him. and accept land grants offered them through hint by the government of Mexico. Texas being at that time a part of Mexico. The colonists assembled at various times in various ways in Liverpool, preparing to embark on the ship at the time fixed for sailing. I do not remember how long we had to wait in Liverpool for the sailing of the ship, only that it was during the Christmas holidays of 1833, for the vessel departed from Liverpool very soon after Christmas. Most of the colonists who came over with Mr. Power are long since dead. Among the few now living, so far as I know, are the following: Mrs. Peterson, now living in Corpus Christi; Mr. Wm. St. John of Refugio; Mr. Redman, in Refugio county between Refugio and St. Mary’s the O'Dochartys, two old maid sisters according to my understanding, still living at the Mission. (All of these survivors are now deceased.) "The voyage from Liverpool to New Orleans was in the main uneventful, except for a severe storm in the Bay of Biscay, when all the passengers were ordered below deck and hatches fastened down. My father having been a custom officer or "water guard" at Cork, Ireland, I was accustomed to the water was not afraid of the storm, so I concealed myself in one of the old hatches and remained on deck throughout the storm.

On the ocean I remember seeing a very large vessel following close to our vessel for several. days, and that the colonists were alarmed for fear we were being pursued by pirates, until finally the other vessel came in bidding distance and proved to be a friendly merchantman. Our ship was so crowded that all the available space was occupied by the colonists, who furnished their own bunks, or beds, and their own provisions, and did their own cooking and household ditties, the same as they did at home. I remember that on reaching the coast of Florida our captain was afraid to venture through Florida straits on account of the great size of the ship, and to avoid danger coasted around the island of Cuba into the Gulf of Mexico. While passing out and owing to the great heat of the sun on the ship's deck, my little sister, Elizabeth Hart, then about 5 years old, received a sunstroke from which she soon died and was buried at sea, which occurrence I remember very distinctly. She was a great favorite with the officers and crew, and my parents were unable to prevent her from staying on deck in the hot sun.

"Our ship was sixty days out of sight of land and about two months and a
half in making the trip from Liverpool in New Orleans, but the voyage in the
main was a very pleasant one, and all of the passengers kept healthy. After reaching New Orleans all the passengers remained or had their headquarters on the big ship, where we had to wait, to the best of my recollection, two or three weeks, before we Were transferred to the two schooners that brought us to Aransas Pass. One of them, named the Wild Cat, made the trip in twenty-four hours. I cannot remember_ the name of the other schooner which my father's family came on, but it was about forty-eight hours, making the trip. On nearing Aransas Pass, we could see the schooner, the Wild Cat, and that it had run ashore.

"Col. Power ordered the captain in my hearing, at the paint of his pistol, to change his course and avoid running his vessel aground. But after casting his anchor for the night, the captain of our schooner weighed anchor and in the night also ran our schooner ashore. My understanding at the time of the grounding of the schooners was, and, has been ever since, that both of them were unseaworthy and heavily insured, and their owners had arranged with the ca p tains to wreck them in order to obtain the insurance money. Luckily, no lives were lost by the grounding of the two schooners, and the remainder of the colonists were transferred by lighter to Copano, where tile old Mexican custom house then stood. It was a small brick house near the shore of Copano Bay, but the building has since been destroyed. My impression is that this building stood near the south of the Mission River.

"After the grounding of the schooners off Aransas Pass, an epidemic of cholera, supposed to have been contracted in New Orleans, broke out among the colonists. My recollection is that, about 250 persons died and were buried at sea. A child of Mr. St. John’s brother of Mr. Wm. St. John, now at the mission, died, and though sympathy for the grief-stricken parents and their horror of burying their child at sea, I remember seeing my mother and Mr. Paul Keogh take the child in a little boat to St. Joseph's Island, where they buried it. After burying the child, Mr. Paul Keogh fell sick with the cholera and died on St. Joseph's Island and was buried there by my father. After an absence of about forty-eight Lours from the schooner my father returned. As soon as my mother and I saw him, we were frightened fly his gaunt and distressed appearance, and we could see that he had no nourishment except water, which he found by digging with his spade on St. Joseph's Island. After my mother and I had administered to my father's wants, he was taken suddenly ill and died about twenty-Tour hours afterwards, and one hour after our lauding from the lighter at Copano, where he was buried by my mother and a Mr. Hart (no relation to my parents), who was already living in Texas and happened to be at Copano. "I saw them wrap my father in a blanket and bury him. I was very sick and lying on a pallet with him when he died. I thought at first that he was only sleeping, hut when I tried to awaken him, I found he was dead. For some reason which I do not now remember, we had to remain about two or three weeks on the schooners after we were grounded, waiting for the lighters to transfer us to the landing at Copano. After landing Mere we were put under quarantine and guarded by Mexican soldiers about two weeks on account of the cholera epidemic, amid the greatest suffering and distress. Finally we were hauled on ox wagons from Copano to the Mission Refugio.

"Most of my information as to the support of the colonists after we reached the Mission was obtained from my mother and other members of the colony, but I remember seeing the colonists working their fields, planting their crops and making their living in various ways. At first most of them farmed. together in one large field, which they fenced together in the land of the river by way of convenience and economy. "If the colonists had not brought supplies with them it would have been impossible to have obtained even the necessities of life at that time in Texas, to say nothing of luxuries. The manner of life of people in Texas in those early days was very simple and very much the same in all the families of my acquaintance.

On our arrival at the Mission, a Mr. Quirk, had a lumber house of one room, which was for many years the only lumberhouse in the colony, as lumber could not be procured even to make coffins, and the dead were buried in blankets." The Irishmen who with their families had accompanied the empressarios to America had come bent upon building homes in a new land, where freedom was as free as the air they breathed and where no tyrannical hand was to wrest from them the right to own their own homes and worship the God of their choice according to the dictates of their own consciences and they immediately set to work to improve the opportunity.

The terrible trials and tribulations, the awful hardships they endured for more than a decade, no pen will ever picture, for those who suffered long and much have long since gone to the better land where no trouble is. Devastated first by shipwreck, then ravaged by pestilence, the few remaining colonists never daunted, entered upon an existence of torment and torture which was even worse than the horrible end of their friends.

Happily the colonists had brought with them a limited supply of actual necessities with which to stay the hand of starvation. They also brought with them a few implements with which to till the soil. These, with their courageous, never-failing hearts constituted their entire inventory of assets. Indians and marauding bands of lawless Mexicans far outnumbered law abiding men in Texas in those days. The colonists were hence compelled to live on the community plan. At San Patricio and Refugio, they cleared small plots of land and planted and harvested their crops together and divided the proceeds. Corn (Indian maize) and sweet potatoes were the principal crops. Other necessities, such as sugar and coffee, were procured from Mexican traders, who were willing to exchange for such commodities as the colonists produced. Except for occasional ox carts, a luxury enjoyed by only a few traders, there were neither vehicles nor means of motive power. But the land was over-run with great herds of wild mustangs, and with their help the Irish ingenuity of the colonists was not slow to solve the problem. Immense pens or stockades were made by implanting heavy branches of trees side by side upright in the ground. Reaching out in a diagonal direction from each side of an opening in the corral wings were constructed in a similar manner, sometimes extending for a distance of a mile or more. When this contrivance was completed, it had the appearance of an immense funnel with a catch basin at one end. A herd of wild mustangs that might be grazing in the vicinity would then be stampeded and rushed headlong into the funnel until the pen at the other end had been filled. The opening in the latter would be closed upon the captive animals. It was only rarely, however, that the colonists were able to successfully pacify their captives, and the general rule was to catch the youngest colts, feed them on cow’s milk which the kine would unselfishly dispense in the same manner as to their own offsprings, and then train them as they grew older. This was the origin of the modern Texas cow pony, which holds the distinguished position of being the toughest and often most refractory member of the genus equus.

Here we pass a few years and come to the time when Mexican oppression was becoming unbearable and when the colonists were getting out from under the yoke. When the Mission at Refugio was completed by the Franciscan Friars, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, they christened it "Our Lady of Refuge, "and well, indeed, was it named. Behind its ponderous walls of three-footed stone, the Mission colonists and the exiles from San Patricio sought refuge and found it. The Mexican army shortly arrived and readily appreciating the impossibility of a quick evacuation of the fortress, took up its position on a little knoll about two hundred yards east of the mission, a few hundred feet north of the point where the Gulf Coast Linebridge now spans the Mission River.

Under the cover of the night a courier left the Mission and started across the country to Goliad, a distance of about thirty-five miles, to convey the news of the invasion to the Texas patriots who were assembled at that point under Fannin. This emissary shortly returned with a company of soldiers under Captain Ward, whom Fannin delegated to protect the colonists at the Mission. In the meantime, however, the Mexicans had evacuated their position and Ward, presuming; that they had been effectually frightened and beat a retreat, proceeded down the Mission River to attack some Mexican ranches.

He had no sooner started, however, than the Mexican army reappeared and resumed its former position. This time it brought with it a four-pound cannon, which soon begs, to play havoc with the Mission, within which the soldiers were sheltered. The walls at first resisted the bombardment, but under its continued violence soon began to weaken and crumble. Fannin was again communicated with and implored for aid. Capt. Aaron B. King and a gallant band of twenty-eight men immediately set out to the Mission's rescue. Meanwhile, however, the four-pounder continued its unrelenting tattoo upon the Mission’s walls. One by one the great stones that stood implanted in the walls as though they had been there forever, crumbled to dust. If help should not. soon arrive, that magnificent structure would totter to the ground and all help, would be lost. Help did not come and there was only one alternative—to capture the four-pounder.

As the shades of the evening began to fall, six men, five dare-devil Irishmen and one German, the only foreigner among the refugees, kissed their wives and babies and stepped out under the golden sun of the dying day and gazed across the intervening space whither they were going to what seemed certain death. Grim, death-defying courage was written in their faces and a prayer was on their lips. Their lives and the honor of their loved ones were the prizes at stake.

The Mexican army was at its evening meal, with no thought of such a reckless move on the part of their enemies, whom they had already condemned to death.. Stealthily and silently the stalwart six stole to where the cannon stood. They had loosened it from its anchorage and were about to make their escape undetected, when the Mexicans, yelling like fiends possessed, were upon them.

Of that remarkable battle between six adopted sons of Texas and that army of 500 Mexican soldiers history gives no account, but if the story, as related by one who received it from her father, who was one of the dauntless six, can be relied upon, it must take its place in history as one of the most marvelous incidents in military annals. For half an hour the battle raged, and Mexican after Mexican bit the dust never to rise again. The people in the Mission, two hundred yards away, witnessed the combat from the narrow windows and prayed the God of their fathers, for the love of whom they had deserted their homes in their native land, to be merciful to them and to look with favor upon their contest.

History relates many instances of obvious divine intervention in warfare, but no story of ancient, mediaeval or modern times savors so much of the miraculous as does the story of that terrible struggle before the Mission Refugio early in the year of 1836. For the God of Nations heard the prayer that was lifted to His throne.

Suddenly the sound of the battle ceased. An awful silence reigned, broken only intermittently by the groans of the injured and the wild curses of the dying. The heavy doors of the Mission flung open on their rusty hinges, and through the hallowed portals walked, unharmed, the heroic six, dragging behind them the captured cannon. What a mighty cheer that must have been mingled with the long penned-up tears of joy, echoed and re-echoed through the vaulted interior of that sacred structure, like the song of that heavenly host in old Judea on the memorable morn twenty centuries ago.

Strange and incredible as it may seem, only one of the valiant six suffered so much as a scratch from the encounter, and his, a mere flesh wound in the face, soon healed.

The next morning the remnant of the Mexican army withdrew and the colon? sts went out to the scene of the conflict of the night before to bury the enemy’s dead. In a narrow ditch surrounding the crude fortifications the enemy had improvised, three hundred Mexicans were buried. Meanwhile, Capt. Aaron B. King and his band of twenty-eight were hurrying to the Mission’s succor. In the eager zeal of their battle against time, they plunged headlong into Melon creek, a few miles from Refugio, and when they emerged on the other side, they discovered, to their sorrow, that their entire supply of ammunition had been wet and was therefore useless. While they were deliberating upon the best course to pursue, a band of Mexican rancheros, faithful to the home government, and under the leadership of a wealthy Mexican ranchman by the name of Carlos de la Garza, appeared and, taking the helpless hand captive, set out to the Mission to deliver then into the hands of the Mexican troops. They had proceeded but a short distance when they were met at a point about four miles north of Refugio by the retreating Mexicans. Capt. King and his men were at once turned over to the blood-thirsty fiends, whom it did not take long to determine the fate of the prisoner. What form of ignominious torture was meted out to King and his unfortunate followers the world will probably never know. At all events, their lives were sacrificed at liberty's altar, and weeks later, when the battle of tiara Jacinto had been fought and the Mission refugees felt secure to desert their place of safety, the dry bones of King and his men, all that had been left by the beasts and fowls were brought to the Mission and laid to rest under its protecting walls. There was an elderly lady living at Refugio who more than sixty years ago, as a young lady, together with her sister, was captured by a band of Indians. In accordance with the custom of their race, the redskins at once proceeded to initiate their captives into the mysteries of their order by shaving their heads and divesting them of their clothing. Without a pretense of any more serious indignity, the prisoners were placed on horses, behind their captors, and a start was made in the direction of the camping. grounds. The lady who now lives at Refugio so persisted in slipping from her mount that she was finally left behind. She was fortunately rescued by her brother, who had missed her. and organized a searching party.

Her sister, however, was carried to an Indian trading post where, in due time, and in pursuance with the Indians commercial customs, she fell into the hands of a friendly trader, who saw to it that she was returned to her home. Excepting for the indecorous initiation, she was little the worse for her experience. Today? Well, today is about. the same as yesterday, only a little different. The dauntless men and women who braved the terrors of the wilderness to find a home and a religious freedom, are no longer there, but the same blood is there. Yes, it is there and, stalwart, and stern as the Spartans, it will probably remain there forever. Today the names that appear most conspicuous among the citizens of San Patricio and Refugio counties are the same as those which stood high on the roll of honor seventy-five years ago. The McGloins, the Powers, the O’Briens, the O'Connors, the Welders, the Gaffnoys, the Foxes, the Shellys, the Dorseys, the Lamberts, the Heards, and scores of other names as familiar half a century ago, are leading citizens of both counties.
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For More on the early Irish Settlers of Texas, see:
The Refugio Colony And Texas Independence
Henry Scott Captured By Indians

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More Kerr County History and the Importance of German Settlers in Early Texas

2011-05-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here is more rare and very early history of the German settlements in early Kerr County History

(I am indebted to several parties for help in writing this article. Among these, I mention James J. Starkey, Edward Starkey of Oklahoma City, Mrs. Henry Weiss, Mrs. Herman Schulze, Judge Charles Real. I also used the pamphlet on ”Kerr County," sponsored by Mrs. Raymond A. Franklin, an d many articles in Frontier Times. I soon found there was a plethora of material on heroic women of Kerr county, and I give the history of some of them at length. Lack of space forbids the mention of others in detail or at length.—T. U. T. )

Kerr county was organized in 1856. The first term of the county court was held May 19, 1856, at J. M. Ridley's, on the Guadalupe river. Jonathan Scott, chief justice; T. A. Saner, W. B. Hindricks, J. M. Ridley and E. A. Mc-Fadden, county commissioners; and D. A. Rees, county clerk, were present. The sparse population was engaged largely in making cypress shingles. A settlement grew up at the present site of Kerrville and was known as Kerrsville. The first county seat was between Comfort and Kerrsville. During the Civil War the county seat was moved to Comfort. In 1866, Captain Charles Schreiner was elected county and district clerk, and gradually the name of the town”Kerrsville" became Kerrville. The letter ”s" was dropped by mutual consent.

A word should be said about James Kerr. He was born on September 1, 1790, in Kentucky, and moved in 1808 to St. Charles, Missouri. In 1819 he married the daughter of General James Caldwell, speaker of the House of Representatives of Missouri, and later became general manager of the DeWitt colony in Texas, and was a friend of Deaf Smith. In July 1826, he laid out the town of Gonzales. He died at his home in Jackson county on December 25, 1850. Austin, Texas

MRS. ELAINE SCHREINER
Miss Elaine Enderle (daughter of Michel Enderle and Mary Mansord Enderle) married Charles A. Schreiner on October 15, 1860, and their home at that time was a rude shingle camp south of Kerrville. The honeymoon was interrupted by the call to arms and shortly afterwards Charles Schreiner joined the Confederate group and was exposed to the hardships and privations of the whole war. His wife stayed in Texas with her people, and underwent almost as much danger and privation as her husband did, for Kerr county was the frontier of Texas and the Indians took advantage of this. The fear of the red warrior and worry over her husband was enough to drive the new bride to distraction. When the war closed, Captain Schreiner returned to San Antonio.

As there was no method of communication between San Antonio and his home, he mounted ”Shank's Mare" and walked to his home in Kerr county— some sixty miles away. Here they started over again. While Captain Schreiner was busy with shingles, sheep, and merchandise, his wife made a home. At first it was nothing more than a shack. Later prosperity came to Charles Schreiner and she lived to see her husband one of the richest men in West Texas. They brought into the world five sons: Aime Charles, Gustav Fritz, Louis Albert, Walter Richard, Charles Armand, and three daughters: Carline Marie, who married Hiram Partee; Emilia Louise, who married W. C. Rigsby, and Frances Helen, who married S. L. Jeffers. From 1866 to 1869 Captain Schreiner lived on his ranch. In 1869 he opened a store in Kerrville, and at that time he borrowed five thousand dollars from August Faltin of Comfort. Prosperity was not only around the corner for the Schreiners--it walked in at the front door and made itself at home. He bought out his partner in 1878 and branched out to the wonderful prosperity which was a blessing to Kerrville, Kerr county, and the State of Texas. Quiet Elaine Schreiner stayed at home, encouraged her husband, brought children into the world, and was a true house wife and helpmate. Her contribution to Kerrville was in eight living children who have contributed much to the prosperity of their town, county, and state. Mrs. Schreiner was born June 6, 1843, and died September 8, 1905. The greatest heritage that Captain Schreiner and his wife, Elaine, left to posterity, and' to civilization was not their ranches, banks, stores, wool, sheep, or cattle, but the heritage of a good name.

CHRISTIAN DIETERT FAMILY
By Mrs. Augusta Schulze Christian Dietert was born in Tesen, District of Magdaburg, Germany, on August 24, 1827. He was a millwright and miller by profession. In early manhood he left his homeland, embarking on a four-masted sailing vessel, accompanied by his brother, William Dietert, who later settled in Boerne, Texas. They sailed for Texas to try their fortunes with the much talked of new country, and to gain political freedom. After a voyage of eight weeks the ship landed at Galveston . Their destination was New Braunfels, the ”Mecca" of all German immigrants in those early days. There were at that time only two routes to New Braunfels, one by way of Houston, which was a long and perilous journey, and another by way of Indianola, then the only seaport on the mainland. This route was somewhat shorter, so they shipped in a two masted sailboat to Indianola. This port was totally destroyed by a tropical storm in about 1887.

After some weeks of delay, waiting for transports, they boarded wagons drawn by mules and were conveyed over trackless miles of territory covered with water from six to twelve inches in depth. This, together with the scarcity of camping places, and danger of Indian raids, wild animals, etc., was a most arduous journey. They reached New Braunfels in July, 1854, after weeks of slow travel overland. It had been five months since they had left Germany.

In August of the same year Christian Dietert joined a company of thirteen men, who journeyed into the Gudalupe Valley to the place where the Cypress Creek joins the Guadalupe river, where they surveyed the tract of land, and helped lay out the town of Comfort.

In the beginning, shingle making was the only industry. The shingles, which were made by hand, were freighted to San Antonio by ox wagon. Early in 1855, a saw and grist mill was built under the direction of Mr. Christian Dietert. This venture was financed by Mr. Altgelt. The power was furnished by a huge waterwheel, fed by the waters of Cypress Creek. The remnants of the old rock dam, reaching half way across the creek still stand, a'silent witness of this enterprise that failed. The little stream that gushed from the hills, no doubt fed by the copious rains the preceding seasons, dried out after a year or two of drouths, and as a result the mill had to be abandoned for lack of water power, less than two years after its completion.

Mr. Dietert was married to Miss Rosalie Hess in 1855. She had come to the settlement of Comfort a short time before from her home in the city of Jena, Germany.

Mr. Dietert 's father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Gustav Dietert, two brothers, Frederick and Henry, and sister, Lena, came over from Germany in 1856, to settle in Comfort. Accompanying them was Ferdinand Schulze, then a young man, who settled on a farm on Cypress Creek in the eastern part of Kerr county. He was the father of Herman Schulze of Split Rock Farm. Early in 1857, Mr. and Mrs. Christian Dietert moved to Fredericksburg to work on the building of the Van der Stucken mill. In the latter part of the same year they moved to Kerrville, following the organization of Kerr county. The young millwright bought the tract of land along the banks of the Guadalupe southwest of Water Street, from what is now Earl Garrett Street south to A Street. He established a shingle mill, using horse power until he could construct a water wheel, with which he later sawed lumber from the Cypress trees growing along the banks of the river. This mill was built on the site of the present ice factory. It was washed away by a great flood after a year or two of operation.

Being without funds to rebuild the mill, they again moved towards Fredericksburg, to build a saw and grist mill for Mr. C. H. Guenther on Live Oak Creek. The power for this mill was furnished by a water wheel. This venture was short lived, but let it be said, in spite of controversy, that they did saw lumber from pecan and walnut trees, of which there were many in Gillespie county. The Germans who worked with lumber were well versed in the art of converting walnut and pecan wood into lumber suitable for building homes and furniture. After only a few months of operation, torrential rains of several days duration softened the sandy land of that section to such an extent that the earth crumbled before the on-rushing waters and took mill, waterwheel, and everything pertaining to the undertaking away, to be buried and lost miles down the creek.

Mr. Dietert moved his little family and belongings back to Kerrville where he again built a mill on the old site. This mill was destroyed by fire. Being offered work on the construction of mills in the vicinity of Comfort, and to be near a school for his children, Mr. Dietert moved to Comfort. He also built a mill for his brother, William Dietert, in the town of Boerne.

The Dietert family moved back to Kerrville in 1866, and again set up a water wheel, to operate a saw mill and steel grist mill. This water wheel was also washed away by a flood. In 1868, he put in an under-water iron turbine for power and a queer old type of flour mill consisting of two large stones, the lower a flat stational stone with a somewhat conical shaped stone above it, which in revolving crushed and ground the grain into flour. People came from many miles around to have corn and wheat ground, and also to have lumber sawed by the sawmill into suitable lengths for building purposes.

According to information recently received from the First Assistant Postmaster General, Christian Dietert was appointed postmaster at Kerrville on July 22, 1868, and served until his successor was appointed on June 26, 1888. He was elected to fill the office of Justice. of the Peace in 1869, and had also to fill the place of County Judge in the absence of the regular judge. Mr. Dietert was greatly interested in education, and served on the school board for some time.

His first civic act upon arrival in the new land was to take out naturalization papers, and to begin the study of the English language, which both he and his wife learned to speak fluently. For a time Mr. Dietert engaged in the hauling of freight in company with a number of other men, to and from Mexico, for the Confederate government during the Civil War. Heavy wagons drawn by four to eight yoke of oxen were used. These trips usually took several months and were filled with dangers and hardships. Necessary provisions and clothing for the home were brought with each return trip. The groceries consisted mainly of coffee, tea, sugar, flour, rice and dried fruits. Cloth was bought by the bolt and was a coarse white material. Lengths of this cloth were dyed by the women with herbs, roots of the algerita and sumac, and bark of the pecan, the walnut, and live oak tree, and were then made by hand into garments for the men and women and children according to their needs.

This history would not be complete without mention being made of Mrs. Rosalie Dietert, who played a most important part in the upbuilding of this section of the country. Women were not appointed to office in those days, but Mrs. Dietert was made assistant postmistress and. took over all responsibilities and all transactions pertaining to the office during Mr. Dietert's tenure of office. The first postoffice fixture was a frame made of cypress wood, by the postmaster. It was four feet high, three feet wide and seven inches deep. It contained twelve pigeon holes six inches high and three compartments fourteen inches wide and 'six inches high for newspapers and packages. A lower section seventeen inches high comprised the entire width of the frame and was used for the general paraphernalia pertaining to the office. This postoffice fixture is still in the Dietert family.

The Dietert home was the center of social activities. Oft times young couples (lanced in the large living room to the tune of fiddle and accordion. Being accomplished in the art, Mrs. Dietert taught the young men and the very few girls to dance the waltz.

Santa Claus brought the first Christmas tree in Kerrville to the Dietert home. People came from miles around to see the wonderful tree, which of course was not the glittering yule tree of today. Its dress was modest; the home made decorations consisted of festoons of chains, links, of which were cut and made from brightly colored paper. There were also nuts covered with gold and silver paper, apples brought from San Antonio, and cookies cut into shapes of birds and animals and decorated With colored sugar. The candles were tallow dips.

The nearest trading place was San Antonio, and trips, which were made by wagon, took about a week. The nearest doctor was also iii San Antonio. In case of sickness the neighbors assisted each other with home prepared potions of roots and herbs. The usual privations and hardships of the pioneer, together with the dangers of Indian raids, wild animals, etc., were experienced by this couple, but undaunted and undismayed they set their faces to the future with the development and civilization of their adopted country ever uppermost in their minds.

Twelve children were horn to them: four sons and eight daughters, all of whom grew to manhood and womanhood except one daughter who died in infancy. Most of them are living in and near Kerrville and are active in various business enterprises. They ere: Gustav Dietert, Del Rio; Mrs. Clara Ochse, Oregon, deceased; Mrs. Lena Herzog, Kerrville, deceased; Rosalie, infant, deceased; Mrs. Amelia Enderle, Kerrville; Rudolph Dietert, New York City; Henry Dietert, Kerrville; Otto Dietert, San Antonio; Mrs. Augusta Schulze, Kerrville; Mrs. Emma Rosenthal, Houston; Mrs. Valeska Mosel, Kerrville, and Mrs. Flora Weiss, Kerrville.

In 1885, Mr. Dietert sold his mill site and interests to Chas. Schreiner and bought a farm across the Guadalupe opposite the town, where he lived with his family until his death in May, 1902. Mrs. Dietert lived to the ripe old age of ninety-six. She spent the last years of her life in the home of her youngest daughter, Mrs. H. Weiss. She was laid to rest beside her husband in Glen Rest Cemetery, Kerrville, on April 7, 1929-, having seen the little settlement with its five one-roomed log huts grow into the city of Kerrville.

When Rosalie Hess arrived in the town of Comfort in 1852, she was nineteen years old, five feet two inches i n height, and weighed an even one hundred pounds. She looked small, was small, and that is all that was small about her. Li her influence in Kerr county, she was a giant. If we measure her by the deeds she wrought, she will take her place on the very front line of pioneer heroines of the west.

The more the writer learns about her, the more he is attracted to her personality. Recently he sat in the glassed in porch where she spent her last years. It fronted south, and the scribe stood on the spot where she sat in her big rocking chair and talked to her kin. She could speak two languages, but in her native tongue she was fluent. She of course talked English, and could take her part in any discussion of affairs of the day. She was born in a neighborhood where she heard much French, and in her later years she was liable to forget the ”yah, yah," of the Fatherland, and the “yes, yes," of the old Texans, and would resort to the early days of her youth and reply in romantic French "oui, oui.”

When she married Christian Dietert she became part of the pioneer west, and she and her husband fulfilled the injunction of the Bible and replenished the earth with eleven children as follows: first, Augustus Dietert, married Louise Hasley, and they had four boys and three girls; second, Clara Dietert, married Robert Osche, and they had one boy and four girls; third, Lena Dietert married Nathan Herzog, and they had one boy and one girl; fourth, Emilia Dietert married Albert Enderle, and they had issue two boys and two girls; and fifth, Rudolph Dietert married first Lillie Griffin, and no issue, married second, Betty Swenson, and had children, one boy and one girl; sixth, Henry Dietert married first Paula Schulze, and had three boys, and two girls, married second, Clara Reed, and issue one boy and one girl; seventh, Otto Dietert married Halanda Boeckmann, and had one child, a boy ;eighth, Augusta Dietert married Herman Schulze, and had two boys and one girl; ninth, Emma Dietert married Oscar Rosenthal, and they had one boy and two girls; tenth, Velaska Dietert married Edward Mosel, issue one boy. The blood of Rosalie Hess flows in eleven children, thirty-six grandchildren, forty-six great grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren; a total of eighty-nine blood descendants that came from the petite little woman who was only five feet two inches in height and weighed a little over one hundred pounds. She has a descendant for nearly every pound of her weight, or if you wish to be exact she has a descendant for every year of her life. If all the 89 descendants were placed on a pair of scales at the same time, the gross weight would tax the biggest truck in Texas, as it would nearly double the weight allowed by law aggregating nearly twelve thousand pounds.

POSTMASTERS AT KERRVILLE
The first official post office at Kerrville was established June 9, 1858, and Hance M. Burney was postmaster. The postoffice continued to be known as Kerrsville until after Christian Dietert, who was appointed postmaster on July 22, 1867, and served until- June 26, 1882, nearly fifteen years. A list of the postmasters is shown below: Hance M. Burney, appointed June 9, 1858. Robert J. Farr, appointed May 25, 1866. Christian Dietert, appointed July 22, 1867. The name of this office was changed to Kerrville, the exact date of which change is now shown. Joseph F. H. Back, appointed June 26, 1882. Albert Enderle, appointed September 3, 1883. Charles C. Lockett, appointed April 25, 1896. Charles Real, appointed August 3, 1900. W. G. Carpenter, appointed May 20, 1913. Emil Gold, appointed March 7, 1922. Gober L. Gibson, appointed May 9, 1934.

Before the post office was established, the travelers to San Antonio would obtain mail from the neighborhood and leave it at the residence of Christian Dietert. His wife took charge of this mail, and sometimes acted as unofficial postmistress. Her home was a type of clearing house for the mail—before the United States established a regular post office. She served unofficially as postmistress for nearly twenty years. While her husband was official postmaster, Mrs. Dietert conducted the office during the time he attended to outside business.

MRS. CASPAR REAL
Emilie Schreiner was born at Riguewhr, near Strassberg in Alsace - Lorraine, in 1836, in a home built in 1500. Her father, Dr. Gustav Schreiner was a distinguished dentist. She was confirmed in the Lutheran Church when 14 years old and had the best educational advantages in both the French and German languages. Having been brought up in a cultured environment, there was probably very little indication of the quiet strength and courage which she was to manifest in later years as a pioneer wife and mother. Her parents both' died shortly after their arrival in San Antonio. In 1853 Emilie Schreiner was married to Caspar Real and moved to a ranch on Martinez Creek, about ten miles from San Antonio between the Cibolo and Salado and near the present community of Converse.

The sheep and cattle business did not prosper due to the poor market and a dearth of money. The Reals left (luring the severe drouth of 1857, and moved to Kerr county, seven miles south of the present town of Kerrville. The continuous supply of flowing waters of the spring-fed Turtle Creek was the main attraction. Two other families besides the Reals located on a 320 acre tract of land and while they were constructing their log homes, Mrs. Real, with three small children, lived with friends on Cypress Creek, near Comfort.. In November 1857, they moved into their new home, built of logs, chinked with chiseled rocks and plastered with adobe. The long big room with a front porch, and the two small side rooms were warm and were equipped with the limited conveniences of that pioneer period. The ”big room" contained one window, a roughly hewn cypress floor and a big homey fire place with two iron hooks on which to hang cooking vessels when needed. A three legged stand was kept usually on the hearth near the side on which to put iron pots for boiling food. Bread was baked in a ”skillet and lid.” Mrs. Real frequently baked cookies for the children at Christmas and other special occasions in this skillet or "Dutch' oven" as it is now called. One of the small rooms became the Real kitchen as soon as it was possible to buy a cook stove. 'The other small room was used for a bed room. Each of these rooms had only one window of two panes. The kitchen for several years had only a dirt floor.

Mrs. Real was busy early and late maintaining a home for her ever growing family with the limited conveniences available. Mr. Real had brought with him from Germany tools that enabled him to make many things that added to their comfort. He made a cradle of mesquite wood, bedsteads, a dining table and benches. They had cowhide bottom chairs and probably two rockers. Mrs. Real was small in stature and very large so she had the legs of her chair cut off for her convenience to use in the kitchen.

The first lights were brass cans filled with tallow, containing a wick which could be ”screwed higher" as needed. Later, tallow candles were used; then lanterns were available. Mrs. Real thought it a great day when lamps could be bought. In addition to her many duties she knitted garments and stockings for the family. She usually did this gt night as the family sat around the fireside after supper. Mrs. Real devoted her time inside the house keeping close watch over the children. Because of the fear of the Indians she kept the children within ”seeing distance” of her house. The danger of Indians, who made almost monthly raids through that section of the country stealing horses, was constantly on their minds. On one occasion Mr. and Mrs. Real went to Comfort in an ox wagon to a fourth of July celebration, taking the youngest child, Mathilde, with them, leaving the older ones at home in care of a hired man. On the trip home, night overtook them near the Guadalupe river, about five miles from their home, when the oxen became uneasy and were hard to keep in the road. "There is a bunch of horses and I saw a man!" said Mrs. Real to her husband in a low voice. ”He is an Indian.” He was standing perfectly still. They did not know how many more were around. Mr. Real, who had been walking by the side of the ox wagon, grasped his pistol and got into the wagon. Mrs. Real with the child lay down in the bottom of the wagon bed. But they were not bothered and on arriving home Mr. and Mrs. Real could not find one of the children, Robert. They were frightened but finally he was found in the back yard sound asleep.

Mrs. Real and her daughters were excellent seamstresses. Goads were bought by the bolt and eyed with walnut leaves and hickory. Hats were made of the same material. During the early days sewing was done by hand. In later years Mr. Real bought one of twelve sewing machines, brought from New York by his brother Adolph Real.

Mrs. Real, though a gentle, retiring soul, seemed always to have plenty of inward grace, strength and courage necessary to meet each problem which confronted her. She was an excellent cook and served her family many rare French and German dishes. Mrs. Real had four brothers: Gustave, Fritz, Charles, and Aime. The latter was killed during the Civil War. Her brother Charles and his wife lived close to them for a number of years, which was a great comfort to both Mrs. Real and Mrs. Schreiner, especially when the men folks were away from home.

Mr. and Mrs. Real gave the children their first schooling, then later they attended schools at Comfort, Boerne and San Antonio. Four sons, Albert, Arthur, Julius and Robert attended the Southwestern University at Georgetown and Walter and Charles received their schooling in San Antonio. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Real, named as follows: Walter, a rancher living near Kerrville; Emma (deceased) wife of Herman Stieler, of Comfort; Albert (deceased) rancher near Kerrville;

Arthur, a rancher now living near San Antonio; Julius, formerly State Senator, living on a ranch near Kerrville; Robert (deceased) a rancher near Mountain Home; Mathilde, wife of Hubert. Tngenhuett, formerly of Comfort, now lives in New York City: Charles, the youngest, a rancher but now in the State Comptroller's department at Austin, Texas. Mrs. Real left the old ranch home in 1900—seven years after her husband 's death to live with her daughter. Mrs. Ingenhuett, at Comfort, where she died March 13, 1918. Mrs. Real was very fond of good music and folk songs, which she had opportunities to enjoy during the last ten or fifteen years of her life by traveling here and abroad.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Caspar Real are buried in the family cemetery on the old homestead near. Kerrville. Like most other pioneer families of their time, the Reals helped to make West Texas a better place in which to live. "A noble pioneer couple has gone to their reward in Heaven."

THE REES FAMILY
In the year 1851, there arrived near the site of the present town of Bandera on the Medina river the Widow Rees and her four children. Her maiden name was Henrietta Lowrance, and she had married John Rees in Lincoln county, North Carolina. In 1828 the couple moved to McNairy county, Tennessee, and in this county all the four children were born. These children were: Sidney Benner Rees, born 1829, died 1909; Daniel Adolphus Rees, born 1831, died 1901; Martha Adeline Rees (Starkey), born 1834, died 1905; Alonzo Rees, born 1837, died 1919.

The Widow Rees tried the Bandera country for a short while, but the Indians were so active in killing and robbing that she moved to the valley of the Guadalupe, a few miles from the present town of Kerrville, where she reared her family. When the family settled in Kerr county, Sidney was about twenty-three years old, Adolphus twenty-one, Martha eighteen, and Alonzo fifteen. It can be seen that the children were ready to take part in the affairs of the frontier, to help make a living, and to wield a rifle in defense of their home. These four Rees children were knit together in a rather close kinship, and a very commendable bond of human ties. They all married and became leading citizens of Kerr county. Each was devoted to the mother and to each other and each other's family. Sidney Rees married Emily Tedford; Adolphus married Lucy Ann Nowlin; Martha Adeline married James Monroe Starkey; and Alonzo married Eleanor Ann Brown.

Here in the valley of the Guadalupe in the hills of the southwest, they went forth and replenished the earth, and even Theodore Roosevelt could not complain of their success in this line of human endeavor. They brought nearly forty children into this world of pioneers. Thirty-six of the number, all first cousins or brothers and sisters, were reared within ten times of Kerrville, and it is thought that this breaks the record for replenishing. Of this number, thirty-two bore the name of pees. Starting with the original John and Henrietta, who came from North Carolina to McNairy county, Tennessee, there were over 500 human beings who were born or adopted into the tribe of Rees by marriage. More than 430 yet survive and are living in Kerr and nearby counties, and each is an asset to the commonwealth of Texas. Sidney Benner Rees married Emily Tedford on March, 15, 1860, and they settled near the mouth of Turtle Creek, along the banks of the Guadalupe. Here they brought into the world thirteen children. Near their farm a Methodist camp meeting was held each summer, and the Rees family constituted themselves host To the congregation. They showed that one was not only welcome to eat at their table, but that one was conferring a favor on them by eating the bountiful repast that was always ready.

Sidney Rees was a very devout man, always energetic, always crisp in his conversation; and sometimes this economy of words was used in his language when he said ”grace.” Members of his family were never surprised when the ”grace" was shorter than usual. His wife Emily came from Tennessee with her family, consisting of her mother; two sisters and four brothers, and settled on Verde Creek. She was ever ready, an effective and efficient worker, and a first-class manager. The husband and wife supported a large family, but visitors were always welcome, and they never counted a visit unless you stayed all night and took a meal. Like the old Kentucky colonel ”Taint no visit unless you wailer a bed and mop up a plate." It is a pity that Texas has not had more families like Sidney and Emily Rees.

Daniel Adolphus Rees was born in McNairy county, Tennessee, on December 2, 1831. He became a ranger in 1864, and later a guard in the Texas state forces in defense of the frontier. In 1856, 1857, and 1858 he was county clerk of Kerr county. On December 3, 1863, he married Lucy Ann Nowlin, and they settled on the old Rees place northwest of Kerrville. Here they brought ten children into the world, all of whom were trained in the fundamentals of religion, patriotism and good citizenship. Six sons and three daughters were reared to become leading men and women of Kerr County. The wife was born near Corinth, Mississippi, on February 23, 1848. They were married by Judge James Monroe Starkey, her brother-in-law, who married Martha Adeline Rees. Lncy Ann Nowlin was a. product of the west, and she took to frontier life like a duck takes to water. It was her adopted heath and the life was not new to her. She knew all the ups and downs, and with complete cooperation she was indeed a help-meet and helpmate to her husband. She was a rare asset to her neighborhood, affectionate, lovable, and a great help in time of trouble or sickness. Her father was a doctor, and her oldest son followed in the footsteps of his maternal grandfather. She early acquired those traits that help in the sickroom and she was ever ready to go to the help of the rich, the poor, the halt, the lame or the blind. She was a cook of rare traits and her cooking was as celebrated as the Camp Verde camels, and far better looking.

She was not only a good cook, but she took to the horse like her forebearers, could handle a rifle as well as the men, and what was an unusual accomplishment, she was an expert swimmer. The waters of Turtle Creek and those of the Guadalupe often had the surface of their pools and holes split by the daring diver, even when she was near th'e age of three score and ten. At the age of 81, she went to her final resting place in the Glen Rest Cemetery in Kerrville, surrounded by the eternal hills among which she had spent a useful life.

Martha Adeline Rees came at first with her mother and three brothers to Bandera county, but soon settled near the mouth of Turtle Creek. She was seventeen years old when the family came to Bandera, and eighteen when they finally settled in Kerr county. She met James Monroe Starkey in Kerr county, and on April 3, 1860, they were married. She was a consecrated Christian and worked hard for the ehurch. In all religious movements she was very active. Mr. Starkey as born in Sparta, White county, Tennessee on February 6, 1820. He was named for James Monroe, the president of the United States, who gave to the world the celebrated ”Monroe Doctrine," which has been an international factor for safety for 130 years.

In 1849 James Monroe Starkey was living in Tennessee, when he and others caught the California gold fever and made the trip overland to the gold fields. There were eight friends who held together and called themselves the "invincible eight," and this name came finally to the Guadalupe valley. After five years of gold digging, James Monroe Starkey took passage by boat for Panama, and finally landed at New Orleans. Iie made his way from East Texas to Kerrville on the back of a Mexican pony. In Kerr county he soon began to clear some land for a crop, and also went into the making of cypress shingles, which at that time commanded a ready sale in San Antonio.

While living in Tennessee, he had married Elizabeth Young Ridley, who bore him a daughter and a short time thereafter passed away. The child was taken into the home of her Ridley grandparents and reared and nurtured. This daughter is now living at the age of 97.

Martha Adeline (Rees) Starkey and her husband brought into the world five children, as follows: Alice, born January 12, 1861, lived in Kerr County and for many years taught school in Kerr County and Kerrville; Jones Starkey, born September 9, 1862, killed accidentally September 9, 1868; John James Starkey, born September 21, 1870, lives in Kerrville, graduate of Coronal Institute at San Marcos, editor of The Kerrville Times, a historian and antiquarian of great ability and acumen, his ancestors came to the hill country in 1851, and his forebearers dodged Indian arrows along the Verde and along Turtle Creek, ”Jim" has followed in their footsteps in dodging Cupid's arrows for over sixty years; Alonzo Lycurgus Starkey, born August 25, 1872, has been county surveyor of Kerr county for nearly half a century, married June 3, 1900, to Pattie Hugh Goodwin, has six children; Edwin Starkey, born February 14, 1876, attended Southwestern University, married Dukie Ramey Hugh at Greeley, Colorado, February 4, 1904, lives at 706 E. 18th Street, Oklahoma City, but his early range is strong enough to bring him back to Kerr county when the grass is green in the spring, to visit the scenes of his youth.

Alonzo Rees, the fourth child, and the youngest of the Rees household that arrived in Bandera in 1851, was born on September 6, 1837. In his early years he served on the frontier forces in defense of the settlers. When the Civil War broke out in 1861 he was twenty-four years old, but had been a soldier for several years. He was sent to the coast country by the Confederacy, and soon was awarded the rank of captain. After the war was over he returned to Kerr county and engaged in farming, and stock raising, and was elected a commissioner for Kerr county, and served sixteen years. On January 16, 1868, he married Eleanor Brown. Her father, Joshua Brown, was by some considered Kerrville 's first citizen. His shingle camp was the center of this section. When Kerrville was laid out in 1856 Joshua Brown 'donated the streets, a public square and a site for the Methodist church; and he insisted that the new town be called Kerrsville in honor of James Kerr of DeWitt's colony. Later the “s" in the town's name was dropped, and was changed from "Kerrsville" to”Kerrville," which it has been for the last eighty years. Eleanor Ann (Brown) Rees was a native of Gonzales county. She came to Kerr county early, and to all intents and purposes she grew up in Kerr. She was the last of the original eight of the ”invincible eight" to pass away. She did her duty always, and she brought into the world an even dozen children: John B. Rees, who married Josephine Klein; Willie Ella, who married Rev. C. W. Goodwin; Joshua Rees, who died young; Martha Adeline married Charles Barlemann; Brownie, married William Alexander Cocke; Joe Denton, married Gertrude Ridley; Louis Luke, married Evvie D. Hagens ; Etta, married Frederick A. West; Osbon, died young; Janie Eleanor, married Wesley Carroll Carringer; Charles Jacob, married Juanita White; Abigail Katherine, who married Douglas Graves Decherd.

MRS. WHITFIELD SCOT T
Mrs. Whitfield Scott, nee Harriet Gill, married Whitfield Scott in 1864 when be returned from the Civil War on a furlough. To them seven children were born. Five survived the father: Mrs. A. C. Schreiner of Kerrville being a daughter. After the Civil War the health of Whitfield Scott became impaired and they moved to Kerrville. When they arrived there it was a small struggling frontier town. Colonel Scott bought what is now the St. Charles Hotel. They lived there until he could erect a home, now occupied by E. E. Palmer. Colonel Scott was not physically strong and he took up ranching for outdoor experience. He became a leading citizen of Kerr county and was elected to the legislature twice. He was almost teetotal so far as drinking was concerned, but he was opposed to prohibition. He was elected the first secretary of the Texas State Wool Growers Association. His work in the legislature was always for cattle and sheep— the main dependence of his county. Harriet Dill was horn in Nacogdoches but the family moved to McLellan county while she was a child. She was a woman of rare refinement and was chosen to make the flag to be carried by th'e Seventh Texas Infantry in the Civil War. The flag went through many vicissitudes but at the end of the war, the flag, tattered and torn, was returned to Mrs. Scott and is one of the cherished heirlooms.

After the death' of her husband, her children scattered and she spent time with them in Kerrville, Victoria, and Monterrey.

TIVY WOMEN
The two Tivy sisters came to Kerrville with their brother, Joseph Tivy, in about 1870. They built a home in the present city limits of Kerrville. He bought 160 acres half a mile south of the Guadalupe. The two sisters and brother Joe had agreed solemnly never to marry. But notwithstanding this agreement pioneer conditions brought changes. Captain Tivy married the widow Losey. She died soon after becoming Mrs. Tivy. The sisters were hurt because of the marriage of their brother and felt he had broken the silent obligation. They went north, but the younger sister returned to Kerrville to live with her brother after the death of his wife and stayed there until her death. Mrs. Tivy requested before her death to be buried on Tivy Mountain which was almost inaccessible. The grave had to be blasted out as the mountain was almost solid rock. The casket had to be carried in a hack drawn by mules, as the other vehicles couldn't make it. The attendants had to walk up the steep mountain side. Captain Tivy, his wife, and young sister all sleep in graves on the mountain. Captain Joseph Tivy was much devoted to education and this took the form of concrete action. He left a substantial heritage to the citizens and children of Kerrville and the town showed its gratitude by naming the high' school Tivy High. The pupils help by keeping the graves green.

MRS. MARY TATTIM BURNEY
Miss Mary Tatum married Judge H. M. Burney whose family had been in Kerr county from its origination. To them nine sons were born: Judge R.H. Burney, deceased; Judge I. H Burney, deceased; Lee Burney, Center Point; Judge J. G. Burney, Austin; W. B. Burney, Cetner Point; W. M. Burney, ('enter Point; P. C. Burney, El Paso; Mac Burney, deceased; John Burney, California. The Burneys grew up as nine sons in Kerrville. The eldest attended the first school in Kerrville when it was a small place, with five straggling houses. The father was the first postmaster of Kerrville and the first judge elected after the county was organized. The school was held in the old court house aptly described as being built of logs 16 feet long, skelped, with wall 8 feet high, and with a shingle roof. The school terms even in the little towns were short. The Burney family have been factors on the frontier 'of Texas since Kerr county was created. The Burneys have occupied nearly every political position within the gift of the people and have always been faithful to their trust.

MRS. ROSALIE HESS DIETER
By Mrs. Herman Schultz Mrs. Christian or Rosalie Dietert was a well educated woman, having finished—as it was called—at a girls' seminary at the University City of Jena, Germany. She was a small dark haired, and brown-eyed woman, weighing about 110 pounds, though what she lacked in size she made up in a charming and energetic personality. Coming to a new and unsettled country still over-run with Indians did not daunt her. She went to live with Mrs. Theo. Wiedenfeld near Comfort. Later she went to live with a Mrs. Ridley some miles west of Comfort where she began the study of the English language.

After her marriage with Mr. Christian Dietert she settled down in a small cabin in Comfort, to housekeeping with a skillet, a small dutch oven (which was a small round iron pot with three legs and a dented-in lid to hold live coals), and a brass kettle holding about one gallon, for cooking utensils. But they were enough for the little they had to cook in those days when they had to do the cooking on a fire outside their doors. Meat there was always plenty, venison, wild turkey, fish, occasionally bear, and later beef. In the beginning there were practically no vegetables. They made a salad of wild parsley and tea from a variety of the small prairie sage, and greens from the ”lamb's quarters" or ”land squatters.” Mrs. Gustave Dietert, my father's mother, brought some vegetable seeds when they came to Comfort in 1855. Among them were some German peas which did' exceptionally well here. Everyone wa.s anxious to get a few for a start. It is noteworthy to state that the strain of this hardy pea has been kept and planted year after year by members of our family to our present time.

Some one brought a handful of squash seed to the colony which was distributed among friends; the fruits of these were not relished at first, but they flourished amazingly, and there were few vegetables to choose from. They soon learned to cook then and make them palatable.

For coffee they used a mixture of cracked and parched post oak acorns, rye and wheat grains. Later coffee was brought from Mexico. The furniture was home-made of walnut and cherry wood. The decorating was up to the women. Her home was not long without homey decorations. For the bare windows she made curtains from widths of a voluminous skirt of those days which were the admiration of all her friends; a. wall basket that seemed to be a distinctive decoration of every pioneer home, to hold letters and patterns was a semi-circle foundation of stiffened cloth or paper and covered with a piece of material with cross-stitched flower design with colored wool thread; or a crochetted piece, or a velvet beaded piece, just whatever their store of treasure yielded. Mother was an expert at handiwork which she willingly taught others. Rugs were made of corn husks or plaited of worn-out trousers and coats. She also made lovely pieces of crochet for the dresser and table. Among her treasures from across the sea she brought a set of silver knives and forks and spoons and lovely linen table cloths. For their bed spreads they pieced and quilted the loveliest quilts, some of which can still be found in homes. Every spring the house got its inside and outside coat of white wash.

Once or twice a year a pattern package came from across the sea. This was always welcomed, for it contained all sorts of handiwork patterns and a large sheet with patterned lines running up and down and criss-cross, designating certain types of dress patterns. To me when I saw a last relic of one, they looked much like a road map of today. One of which shows paved, graveled, or all weather roads. They were eagerly sought after. Dangers of Indian raids were still prevalent, so visits between places were few. When they did visit, they went two, three, or four together on horseback and side saddles. Between the stretches of homes they went in a full gallop all the way. Horseback riding was one of mother's first accomplishments in the new country.

In about 1870 some cook stoves were brought west as far as San Antonio, one of which mother became the proud possessor. No more out-door cooking in all sorts of weather—a stove and a real oven to bake bread and cakes! Her recipes were gotten out, and all sorts of good things were made for holidays and birthdays. The favorites were stollen (loaf cake), pfeffernusse (spice cookies) and schnecken (a sweet dough rolled out flat and covered with brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins, currants and pecan meats. This was all rolled up, cut into slices and baked.) This recipe soon became very popular and was given to all who asked for it until it was used in most of the homes in Kerr county. Recently at a gathering I found a dish of schnecken and I asked about it. The maker said they were the ”Dietert Cookies." “My grandmother got the recipe from Mrs. Dietert. They are still our favorite cookies," she said. I had the pleasure of telling her that I was one of Mrs. Dietert's daughters. It may be of interest to add that mother used the popular sour dough for leavening for loaf cakes. They were set in a warm place to rise. For cookies eggs were used plentifully with lots of hard beating to incorporate air. As postmistress, mother learned to know everyone that came to Kerr county. Mrs. T. K. Carr once told me that when she came to Kerrville as a bride, her husband stopped to get his wail before going on to his ranch home near Harper, Texas. When mother learned that his bride was outside in the ”buckboard," she went out and brought the young Mrs. Carr into the house. It was a very cold wintery day and she had had nothing since they came through San Antonio. She said mother made her a cup of hot coffee and set a plate of schnecken before her. That was Mrs. Carr's introduction to Kerr county, an act she always remembered.

Mother played no musical instruments, but she had a sweet singing voice and taught her children many Lutheran church hymns. Most of the Christmas carols are still popular today. While frequently attending services in churches of other denominations, she remained true to her Lutheran faith to the end.
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Much more on German Settlers in early Texas and Kerr County history here. Free search engine of 100s of Hunter's Frontier Times Magazine - Texas History and Frontier Genealogy written by those who lived it.

The Mega-Ranches of Early Texas

2011-05-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

The famous King Ranch of south Texas was not the only "Mega-Ranch" in the early years of the booming Texas cattle industry.

Here is an article entitled Thumbnail History of the XIT Ranch - another of the early Texas monster ranches.

The XIT ranch in the 1880's was the largest ranch in the world under fence, and it all laid in the Texas Panhandle. Its three million acres sprawled from the old Yellow House headquarters near what is now Lubbock, Texas, northward to the Oklahoma Panhandle, in an irregular strip that was roughly about thirty miles wide. It covered portions of ten counties: Daliam, Hartley, Oldham, Deaf Smith, farmer, Castro, Palley, Lamb, Cochran and Hockley which has apparently helped perpetuate the mitt-belief that the brand— XIT—stands for "Ten In Texas." The brand, in fact, was originated to thwart rustlers; one of the two originators still lives and usually attends the Annual XIT Reunions.

XIT history is a triangle of superlatives. The XIT range was the largest in the world under fence. Texas, biggest state in the union, used it to pay for its red granite capitol, still the biggest state capitol on the North American continent. The Austin structure after more than a half century still houses the Lone Star state government, and as capitols go is second in size only to the one at Washington, D. C. In one respect it is even bigger than the U.S. capitol. Its dome stands seven feet higher.

The long lasso of time must drop back to 1875. The Lone Star government was getting cramped in its old capitol, and the Texas Constitutional convention set aside three million Panhandle acres with which to get a new capitol. Action dragged till fire destroyed the old capitol Nov. 9, 1881. Gov. Oran M. Roberts called a special legislative session. It struck a bargain with Charles B. and John V. Farwell, brothers of Chicago, under which they agreed to build a $3,000,000 capitol and accept the three million Panhandle acres in payment

Ground for the capitol was broken in.1882. By ox-power and specially- built railroad, Burnet county’s famous red granite was transported to Austin for the historic structure.

The Farwells borrowed money in England -to develop the ranch, and oil this fact probably was hung the one-time myth that the ranch belonged to Englishmen. The debt was liquidated in 1909.

In 1885 the first cattle, long of leg and horn, rolled onto the XIT. Thousands of hoofs drummed along the trail, and the Longhorns were pushed on to the No. 1 division headquarters at Buffalo Springs, 32 miles north of Dalhart, now easily available by modern highway. Once the ranch ran, 150.000 cattle.

The corrals, foreman's residence and bunk house had just been built at the Springs, and still stand, the oldest structures in Dallam county.

Ab Blocker, a South Texas trail driver, and B. H. (Barbecue) Campbell, first general manager of the ranch, who once ordered a carload of brown cigarette papers, squatted on their hoot heels and in the corral dust at Buffalo Springs figured out a brand that could be run with a straight iron and that rustlers could not successfully burn over. Blocker ran the first ‘XIT’ then and there.

Rustlers could never entirely circumvent Blocker and Campbell, but they did learn to make XIT into a Star Cross if the "T" was crossed crooked. Blocker still lives near Big Wells, Texas, and rides his horse into town daily.

For more than three decades the ranch has been slowly selling into smaller ranges and farms. But it was so vast that there still remain 350,000 acres, including the Buffalo Springs headquarters. These original holdings are in charge of the Capitol Freehold Land Trust, with Texas headquarters in Dalhart, and. the general headquarters in Chicago where heirs of the first owners are still in the saddle.

Roaming and living in the Southwest and many parts of the world, are old cowpunchers who once pounded leather and smelled six-gun smoke on the XIT. It is to honor these men and their families that the annual XIT Reunion is held. Fort Worth started it in 1936. The second reunion came to Dalhart, and former XIT cowhands, comprising the XIT Association, voted Dalhart the permanent reunion home. The latchstring on the XIT headquarters in Dalhart is always on the outside.
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For more information on the early Texas mega-ranches, see also:
Ranch Founded by Richard King Becomes an Empire
The Yellow House Ranch
The Last of the Old Drovers
Ab Blocker and the XIT

Early Polish Settlers in Texas

2011-05-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

Bandera county has a wonderful history. During the ninety-five years that have passed since the first white people came to make shingles from the giant cypress trees that grew along the Medina river, history has been in the making. Many tragedies have been enacted, many privations endured, many dangers experienced during that long span of years from the beginning of Bandera down to the time when this ceased to be the frontier. Volumes could be written to recount the deeds of the daring, the thrilling experiences, the hardships, sufferings, the heroic achievements of the pioneers of this county, and still much would be left untold. It has been my privilege to know personally many of the early settlers of Bandera county, and from them I have gained, first hand, much of the history that has been made here. Among these early settlers was Mrs. Constantina Adamietz, who died at her home in Bandera a few years. ago, at an advanced age. In 1922, when I was gathering material for my "Pioneer History of Bandera County," I went to see Mrs. Adamietz and heard her relate the story of her long life in Bandera and the many changes she saw take place here. She was living in a house on Lower Cedar Street, on the site given to her by her father, John Pyka, Sr., who came to Bandera in 1855. In relating many of the events of those early days, Mrs. Adamietz was quick to remember dates and names, and at times she spoke with much feeling. Sometimes a tear would glisten as she recalled some pathetic incident, and at other times a hearty laugh would accompany her recital of a humorous anecdote. Her narrative, as it appeared in the "Pioneer History of Bandera County." follows:

"My parents, John and Frances Pyka, were poor peasants in Poland, struggling along from year to year, enduring the hard lot of peasants of that time. One day father heard of the opportunities for emigrants to secure homes in America, and was told that he could go with a party that was being made up to sail for the New World, the land of the free. Poland's struggle for freedom has been recorded in history. Our country was not successful as was America, and Polish patriots turned longing eyes in this direction and rejoiced over the good fortune of their comrades who came to this country. Therefore, when the opportunity presented itself for father to bring his family to America he was quick to seize upon the chance. Preparations were hastily made and we were ready long before the starting time. At last word came that we were to start on a certain day, and then came the sorrow of bidding old friends and loved one goodbye — friends we never expected to meet again in this life, unless they should come to America. I was just a little girl then, only nine years old, with never a care or worry, and full of anticipation of the long journey. But when I kissed loved ones there goodbye my heart was sad, and I could not keep from crying.

"We started, sixteen families in all. Our family consisted of father and mother, myself, my two sisters, Frances and Caroline, and brother, John Pyka. I was the oldest ;child, and of course it was my duty to help mother and the smaller children. We went aboard ship, and for nine weeks we sailed the broad ocean. Every day was just alike, and at night a stillness as of death settled about us. Mother suffered ,a great deal from seasickness, as did many of the other passengers. Three of our party died on the trip and were given a sea burial. Their bodies were wrapped in canvas, weights attached, and dropped overboard. I was greatly distressed when these burials took place, for I feared the fish would eat the bodies. At last we reached Galveston Bay, and there was much hurrying and scurrying about when the ship dropped anchor. Everybody began collecting their scant belongings, mothers calling their children, and the men giving directions for all to keep together. We landed at Galveston in January, 1855. In our party were the families of Verner, Koerdles, Pitte, John Pyka, Kasper Kalka, Albert Haiduk, Frank Anderwald, Samuel Adamietz, Frank Jureczki, John Dugosh, and several others whose names I cannot now recall. We were absolutely without money, and possessed only a few effects besides our clothing.

"From Galveston we went to Indianola, from whence we traveled by wagon and on foot to Victoria, and then on to San Antonio, where we met Charles de Montel, who owned the land where Bandera is situated. He provided conveyance and took us to Castroville and Quihi. I remember quite well the conveyance that served us. The vehicles were oxcarts with solid wooden wheels and the yokes were fastened to the horns of the oxen. We `were overjoyed to reach the end of our long journey. Mr. Montel gave to each man in our party a lot in the town of Bandera, and sold to a number of them small tracts of and in the vicinity. Father bought, on credit, forty acres located just across the river, and it is now owned by my brother, John Pyka. Very soon a number of cabins were built of logs and pickets and we were at home therein. There was a colony of Mormons here when we arrived, but they later moved to the Mormon Camp, several miles below here. Of the settlers who were here when we came I know of only two that remain (1922), George Hay and Amasa Clark.

"Then, as now, this was a beautiful country, but it was a wilderness. Game was plentiful and we did not lack for meat. Indians were also numerous, and often we heard of raids they made in other parts of the country, killing people and stealing horses, and they soon began coming into our settlement. Then we wished we were back in Poland, where no such dangers lurked, but we were without means on which to leave and so were compelled to remain here and `grow up with the country.' We soon became accustomed to our new surroundings, the social life of the community became active, and we set about to make it as enjoyable as (our circumstances would permit. Mr. Montel was a most generous man, and treated our people with kind consideration. He had a sawmill here, and gave our men employment at the mill and also put them to clearing land. The women helped to grub land, worked in the fields, and performed any labor that Could to help make the living. At the sawmill. which was located where the old Peters gin now stands (now known as the Fritz Eckhart residence, on Cypress Street, just south of the Plummer Funeral Home), great cypress trees were converted into lumber and shingles and hauled to San Antonio. Mr. Munroe, a Mormon, erected a flour mill just below town, which was operated by water taken from the river. The dam was made of logs and stones, some of which remain in the river at a point near The Loop, and the old mill race is still to be seen along the bank of the river. This mill race was constructed by Polish labor, men and women digging it with spades. Among the best workers was Mrs. Moravietz, who still lives here (1922). The mill was carried away by a flood in the river after many years of successful operation.

Mr. Montel had a small store here, which was managed by a Mr. Hepke. Mother cooked for the men who worked for Montel. Father was a wheelwright and carpenter and followed his trade. Everybody worked. We realized that we had come as strangers to a strange land and we knew that the only hope for us to succeed in this new land was by dint of industry and hard work. How well we performed our task is apparent today in the development that has been made. The generations that have followed these early Polish settlers have become thoroughly Americanized by the process of amalgamation. Pretty homes, well tilled farms, schools, refinement, religious influences that are widespread, and a happy, thrifty, contented people is what the stranger finds here today. We, the pioneers, had our part in the making of all this, and we look with pride on what our hands have wrought.

"I was married to John Adamietz May 10, 1866, Father Zielenski performing the ceremony. To us were born 11 children. My eldest son, Valentine J. Adamietz, died May 5, 1921, at Thibedeaux, La. Another son, Pete Adamietz, died March 2, 1893, and Felix Adamietz was killed while mining at Morenci, Arizona in 1901. Eight children yet survive and are located near me. (Since this was written in 1922, three more of Mrs. Adamietz's children have passed away.) They are Mrs. Mary Kindla, Alex Adamietz, Mrs. Annie Abernathy, Mrs. Bina Jureczki (deceased), Matt Adamietz (deceased), Henry Adamietz (deceased), Ignatius Adamietz, and Mrs. Frances Ruge. My brothers, Frank and Anton Pyka, were born after my parents came to Bandera, and were raised here.

"We bought our first milk cow at Castroville, and father went down there afoot and drove her home. I have plowed in the field, picked cotton, and done all kind of farm work. I remember the first roasting ears we had to eat. An American neighbor named Curtis showed us how to cook them on the cobs and eat them. We never had roasting ears in the old country.

"In the course of time other families came over from Poland, among them being Anton Pyka. Sr., Tom Mazurek, Jacob Jureczki, and some from the Polish colony (Panna Maria) in Karnes county, Mr. Zerner, the father of Mrs. Kasper Dugosh, and Mrs. Albert Jureczki, being among the latter.

"My husband died October 25, 1911. My parents died many years ago. I recall many tragedies of those times, for the Indians made frequent raids into this settlement and stole horses. One night they stole some horses from Herman Thallman's stable that was located near where the Davenport store now stands. They got the horses by removing several logs from the stable. One night Gideon Carter, a Mormon, was carrying a little child in his arms and, with his sister, was going to visit a neighbor. An Indian concealed behind a tree or in a fence corner, shot Mr. Carter through the body with an arrow: He ran to the home of O. B. Miles, where the arrow was pulled out.' Carter recovered. and afterwards went to Utah. Albert Haiduk also had a narrow escape from death. One night he thought he heard some cattle breaking into his corn field, and when he went to investigate he found it was Indians. He ran back to the house, but was wounded with an arrow before he could get inside. The Indians got all of his horses. I remember when Frank Buckelew was taken captive by the Indians, and also recollect the killing of Theodor Kindla. I recall the time when Amasa Clark, Dr. Thompson and John Kindla were attacked by robbers on the road home from San Antonio. Dr. Thompson was killed outright; Kindla died from the effects of the wounds several years later, and Mr. Clark fully recovered. Bandera county's chapter of tragedies is a long one. The savage red man left a trail of blood through this region that made many homes desolate, and brought woe and grief to the people. Those were trying times, and the present generation, in luxury, cannot gain the faintest idea of the privations and hardships endured by those who blazed the way for civilization. Besides the dangers that lurked on every hand, we had to do without many things that are necessary today. We had no drugs or medicines, and when overtaken by illness, homeopathic remedies were resorted to. Every housewife knew how to `doctor' her children, and how to set and bandage fractured limbs, make poultices, dress wounds, and relieve suffering. We had no furniture except homemade articles. We had no cook stoves, the open fireplace and the skillet and pots cooked our meals. We carded wool and spun cotton and wore homespun clothing. Every girl learned to spin and weave and many of the boys learned it, too. The men had to split rails to make fences—barbed wire was then unknown. We had to invent many ways to get along in those days.

"When the civil war came on we remained aloof from partisanship, but many of our American and German neighbors became involved, and some went to war, while others went to Mexico. Men were hung for their sentiments, and many disappeared to never be heard of again. Those were terrible times.

"The Spanish-American war came on in 1898, and several of our young men enlisted. Then in 1914 the World War started and when America became involved, our sons went forth to offer their lives on the altar of patriotism. Some of our Bandera boys made the supreme sacrifice on the battlefield.

"Three-quarters of a century have passed over my head — years that have been full of joy and sorrow, pleasure and excitement, and now as I sit in the twilight of life's autumn and behold the wonderful changes that have taken place, I am proud to know that I have been an humble participant in Bandera's making.
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More on early Polish Settlers in Texas:
Ranch Life in Bandera County in 1878
A Beloved Pioneer Couple
The Founding of Bandera
...and much more! Just go to our search engine and enter the word "Polish"

Early Bell County, Texas History

2011-05-21T17:32:00.000-07:00

"Long Lost Cave in Bell County"

THE STORY OF a cave lost in Bell county has been told by the Belton Journal. The things that the exploration party brought to light is no more interesting than the embellishments placed upon it by Editor Russell, who, it is stated will crack a joke at the undertaker when he comes to claim him. Here is the story of Bell County's Lost Cave.

J. C. Stubblefield, grandson of the late J. S. Stubblefield, after a search of many years for a cave discovered over fifty years ago by his grandfather last Sunday found the long-lost cavern. The cave is located on the old Shaddick place about four miles northeast of Youngsport in a country seldom visited by man.

When J. C. Stubblefield discovered the cave soon after the civil war, he went only a short distance into the first room, where he discovered a large quantity of ammunition and guns. That section of the country was occasionally frequented by desperadoes and various bands of outlaws and cattle rustlers, and the elder Stubblefield, supposing the owners of the property, judging by the age of same, to have been early day outlaws, who would never return, took his find for his own. A few weeks later Mr. Stubblefield was waylaid and shot, supposedly by a member of the gang which stored a part of its spoils in the cave. Before dying he told his son, J. L. Stubblefield, about the cave and tried to give him the location, but the song was never able to find the cavern. J. C. Stubblefield, from directions and markers told him by his father, after a ten-year search at odd times, found the lost cave Sunday.

The entrance to the cavern was discovered in the side of a canyon, in a clump of trees, briars and thorny undergrowth. A large flat rock, similar to those on every side, covered the door. Leaving nothing unturned to locate the cave, Mr. Stubblefield he moved this rock as he had many others in a vain effort to find the old hide-hole and to ascertain what it contained.

Great was the surprise of the party when they saw the unmistakable entrance to the cave, which they believed to be one they sought. Rains of more than fifty years had washed away the steps leading down to the first room, making the first landing some twelve feet from the entrance, with a 45 degree descent to reach it. The sharp descent didn't puzzle the party much as the risk of being snake-bitten when the landing was reached, as the rays from their carbide lanterns disclosed three enormous rattlers coiled at the foot of the old stairway, ready to receive the callers.

The snakes were killed with rocks and all of the party descended. The first room appeared to be about 95 feet long by 20 to 45 feet wide with a ceiling from 8 to 15 feet high. In this room the party found many evidences of habitation years ago, in the way of improvised seats, tables of stone, shelves, fragments of ammunition eases, etc., but no guns or ammunition. Passing into another room to the north of what might he termed the reception room or auditorium, the party found what the elder Stubblefield had not found, for lack of proper light or fear of snakes and wild animals— the remains of Indians or cliff dwellers. How many human beings perished here or how many bodies were deposited here for burial could not be ascertained, as the party were not so interested in finding skeletons as in collecting guns, coins, Indian or cliff dweller relics. In this room Mr. Stubblefield picked up a few human bones, but was careful not to include in his collection any skulls.

Entering room No. 2, the party considered itself well paid for the time and energy spent when it discovered a number of articles which in all probability had belonged to a race long extinct. The collection included a crude earthen pot, which showed signs of having at one time been used for a cooking vessel ; a, large strung bow and arrow, a buckskin valise or traveling bag, containing some two dozen arrow heads of various sizes. (This find was probably one of Lady Mountain Jumpers vanities, which had been overlooked and left in the drawing room following a bridge game at which hyena soup and delicious and bountiful helpings of polecat salad had been served for refreshments.) A large tommyhawk was also found in this room. The most valuable find of the party was a rock tablet picked up in room No. 3, covered with crude writings and drawings of a character different from any yet found in this country. Since it is a well known fact that. Indians were too lazy and shiftless to make permanent drawings, and their education consisting of memorizing of a dialect of very limited vocabulary, it is supposed that the tablet was carved by a race ahead of the Indians. It is possible the tablet contained the names of a number of rival chiefs selected to "take a ride." Or, it may be that the drawings represented on one side of the slab a promissory note accepted by Chief Cloud-Up-and-rain-in the-Face as part payment for a choice well polished missionary 's skull, the reverse side of the rock being left for credits of interests and payments on principal. Another theory is that the hieroglyphics on the tablet set forth. in rather abbreviated form, an account of some great and daring deed performed by the chief head-cracker of the tribe, or a brief and to-the-point discussion of the Volstead Act., ways and means of its enforcement, and its effect upon camp drunkards and cliff bootleggers. Until the writings have been translated what the author was driving at will remain a secret. Mr. Stubblefield and party left the cave after exploring for four hours. He plans to provide food and water and better lights for another trip to the ancient hang-out in the near future, at which time he believes more rooms will be discovered, and possibly more relics of a race that was.
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For some great early (and rare) Bell County, TX history see:

"Pioneer Struggles in Bell County"

Wild Fires on the Early Texas Frontier

2011-04-22T07:41:00.000-07:00

WHEN PRAIRIE FIRE WAS FIRE
No Author Given

Parched prairies covered with grass as dry as wheat straw at harvest time has recalled to many old-timers in West Texas the prairie fires which once were the most dreaded scourge of the cattle country. When the Panhandle was comprised of big cattle ranches without highways or plowed fields, a Winter like the one just past would have called for constant watching by range riders for that tiny puff of smoke which might be followed a moment later by a sweeping blaze difficult to control.

Those who lived in this area in 1900 remember the one blaze which jumped the Canadian River from the north and burned to the vicinity of Groom before being controlled. The wind, they said, was high and fitful, whipping first one direction and then another, lifting embers across the wide sandy bed of the river to new footholds in the tall grass. Mrs. Carolyn Deason Timmons, of Amarillo, who has interviewed many pioneer ranchers on the subject, said the methods used to fight prairie fires were pretty much the same throughout the plains country.

"Go and fight," Mrs. Timmons said, "was the law of the range. The law was the same for men and women, and even children who were large enough to help. When a blaze was sighted every one who saw it went directly to it and began fighting with whatever they had, even their clothing. The grass had to be saved, Life for the cattle depended on the grass and the life of the people depended on the cattle." When a large enough force had assembled, Mrs. Timmons said, a cow or a horse was killed and pieces of hide were stripped off for flails. A fence post was used to spread the animals legs and flatten the carcass, then two or more cowboys would fasten ropes to the carcass and drag it along the line of the blaze. Only shod horses were placed inside the burned area. Men with flails followed to beat out any remaining sparks.

Backfires also were started along streams, ravines and roads where workers kept the blaze under control until it started its sweep in the direction of the uncontrolled conflagration. Food and rest meant nothing until the fire was controlled.

Those fires often covered a wide territory, moving at a pace of 25 miles an hour, or little short of wind velocity. One fire which started in new Mexico swept the prairie to the very outskirts of Canyon, near Amarillo. In 1899, according to Mrs. Timmons, a fire which started between Amarillo and Canyon burned everything in its path until it was near Goodnight, cutting a wide swath for 50 miles in less than two hours.

An occasional grass fire still may cause considerable loss in the ranch country but the cry of "Fire! The prairie is on fire!" doesn't mean what it did before there were numerous highways and thousands of upturned acres.

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"One of the most magnificent sights that a pioneer saw (in Falls County, Texas) was that of the prairie grass on fire and the cattle running, trying to get to the bottom or timber land. I have seen the flames leap over them and keep traveling. It would only singe their hair. The settlers all plowed around the outside of their rail fences as a protection from prairie grass fires. When the fire hit the plowed earth it would die out, and in this way the farmers protected the crops.

"The hardest work our slaves ever did was fighting fire one Sunday afternoon. I happened to notice the flames going to the sky a mile away, and aroused my father from his sleep. The earth had not been plowed around our fields and father was very excited, as the fire travels so rapidly. He and the men set fire to the grass around our fences and whipped it back with brush brooms before the fire. The grass around the fences was shorter than the prairie grass. When the rolling prairie fire met the burnt grass two hours later it died out. The women helped by carrying water to the men, who were almost exhausted by the heat.

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For more on this subject see:

"Texas Prairie Fires" - Click here
"Fighting Prairie Fires on the Plains in the Early Days" - Click here
"Early Day Prairie Fires in the Panhandle" - Click here

Very early Burnet County, TX History and Genealogy

2011-04-16T12:06:00.000-07:00

No Author given on this very early description of the origins of Burnet County, TX

THE BURNET CITY Line Demonstration Club voted unanimously that the following, recently read by one of their members, be published for the benefit of school children:

The long gone days of sparsely settled country, great. distances, horseback, ox wagon and lumbering stagecoach transportation made those great strips of country then designated as counties extremely cumbersome as governmental units; consequently, as the population began to increase, part of two or more of those counties were often made into another county—hence came our Burnet County from Bell, Williamson and Travis counties—named for David G. Burnet of Texas history fame.

Our county was created in February P452, the Texas Almanac states that it was organized in 1858. Records show that all county officers were elected in 1852. Those first county officers were: Judge, John Scott, Clerk, A. G. Horne; Treasurer, S. E. Holland: assessor collector, Wm. D. Reed; District clerk, and Justice of Peace. Geo. Joy; Sheriff, J. C. Bradley; commissioners, Wm. T. Cheeser and John Jennings, Sr. Not until 1912 did Burnet county have its first woman to hold an office when Miss Myra Erwin (later Mrs. Prank Atkinson) was elected county treasurer. The area of any county is 974 square miles; its present population is guessed by good authorities, to be between eleven and twelve thousand. The assessed valuation for 1934 was $5,191,580. Burnet, the county seat, had its origin in 1849 when old Fort Crogan was established a few hundreds yards west of the present town site. Fort Crogan was first established at Holland Springs three miles south of Burnet hut because of objections raised by the few settlers of that place it was moved. When established Burnet was known as the town of Hamilton. Just when the name was changed seems to be somewhat obscure.

It is a matter of record' that when the county was organized the people became divided into two bitter factious. One faction contended to put the county seat east of the divide on Oat Meal creek; the other faction led by Peter Kerr, Sam Holland and Logan Vandiver, fought to keep it at Burnet. Peter Kerr donated 100 acres of the John Hamilton survey, to the commissioner's court in order to induce the majority to vote for the present county seat.

At that time. Logan Vandiver and Peter Kerr owned or controlled the surveys upon which the town of Burnet and surrounding territory stands. Most of the town lots within the present city limits were conveyed by Kerr and Vandiver, Vandiver being Kerr's agent and attorney. I failed to learn whether or not those two men remained a part of Burnet until their deaths. Pew or our Burnet school children know that in 1861 or 1862 there was left a will by Peter Kerr donating 6,500 acres of land and about $24,000 worth of notes for the establishment of their free school; however the aftermath of the Civil War disrupted the will and nothing was left to it except the block upon which their present school buildings now stand.

The first marriage license was issued in 1852 to S. E. Holland and Miss Mary Scott, daughter of the first Judge. Their only child was the first born in the county and is still living, being in his 83rd year. Records show that S. E. Holland was in all probability the first permanent settler of this immediate section, he having settled at old Holland Springs three miles south of Burnet during the late 40's.

From the earliest pioneer days, even on up into the 1890's corn and wheat were ground for bread and feed stuff by old water mills situated in widely separated sections of the county. Among those old mills were Gabriel mill situated just across the county line from Mahomet, old Smithwick Mill, old Cedar Mill and the historic old Mormon Mill, so named from the fact that in the very early days a colony of Mormons settled in those lower reaches of Hamilton creek.

The coming of the telephone, automobile and highways discontinued a number of post offices over the county. I may stand for correction, but I am under the impression that at one time or another a post office was located at Sunny Lane, Joppa, Mahomet, Sage, Striekling, Tamega, Naruna, Smithwick and several other places. In early days mail was received once a week, often only once a month.

With the coming of the railroad in 1882—1883 Burnet became a terminal for most parts of Llano, Mason and San Saba counties and points north and south. With the extension of the road to Marble Falls and Llano the superiority was lost.

The county courthouse was burned in 1873 (f) In 1875 our present courthouse was completed. At that time th e jail was also in the courthouse being situated where the assessor-collector's office is now situated. Our present jail was built in 1884.

All settlements were made near some stream or Spring of everlasting water. All pioneer homes were built of logs or of native stones. In fact, numerous until the 1880’s. A log cabin situated on Cow Creek in the southeastern portion of the county, and still standing, is said to have been the first house built within the county. Smithwick Mill, Mormon Mill, Cedar Mill, Council Creek, Cow Creek, Spicewood Springs, and Holland Springs and other creeks and springs are among the pioneer settlements. Smithwick is the only one of these old settlements preserved in history. Years ago a daughter of Noah Smithwick, founder, came from California, gathered authentic data and later wrote the history while her father was yet living at a very advanced age.

The few days in which I had allotted to prepare this paper prohibited my gathering data as to when old,Gabriel Mill village was moved over the line to its present site—now Bertram—or as to the founding of Marble Falls, the building of the factory and of its old toll bridge.

Praise should be given Dr. Neyron Cheatham for his patriotic act in gathering and preserving many of the relics of Burnet county in his museum which will become a sort of shrine to our natives.

In the 50's came the forefathers of our present day—Magills, Frys, Corkers Stewarts, Kincheloes, Williams, Breazeales, Jennings, Covingtons, Bitticks, Lewis, Moores, Smiths, Vaughns, Fields, Johnsons, McCoys, Halls, Jacksons, Coxes, Aters, Dorbandts, Malones, Lacys, McCartys, Pankeys, Laforges, Bartons, McFarlands, Rountrees and others that I cannot recall just now. About 1852 came Judge Woodard, just a little later came Gen. Adam R. Johnson who became the father of Marble Falls.
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These are only a few rambling comments bearing upon some of the high points of our county history. There is a history connected with each, and every pioneer community—their origin, their pioneer settlers, their achievements in the face of great adversities. Each old mill site, each old gin site has a story all its own. It would take many pages to chronicle Indian depredations, Civil war days, Reconstruction days, . Our Granite Mountain, our days of outlawry and political turbulence, our Ichthyol Deposit, our Graphite mine, our Longhorn Cavern, and our other bountiful natural resources along with the story of our flora and our fauna would make a written volume—and soon, the interesting story of our latest achievement—the building of Buchanan Dam.

A CORRECTION
The editor of the Bulletin has read with' great interest the short sketch of the history of Burnet County prepared by a member and read before a recent meeting of the Burnet City Line Demonstration Club, and which is published in this issue of the paper. I am almost an old-timer myself and knew personally only two of the officers that were elected in 1852—S. E. Holland, Treasurer, and John Jennings, County Commissioner; all the others I know by reputation. With my father, I have gone to Mormon Mill to have our wheat ground into flour. I remember when post offices were at Sunny Lane, Joppa, Mahomet, Sage, Strickling, Tamega, Naruna, and Smithwick. I remember when the railroad reached Burnet. Major Ray Wingren of this place was born on that night and it is no trouble for him to remember the Date. I can recall the first time I ever tried to talk over a telephone; I was as skittish about it as a locoed mule, and when the answer came back to me I jumped ten feet high and called for help. I have been inside the first log cabin, on Cow Creek, built in Burnet County. I have known descendants of every name mentioned as the forefathers of the county, and knew some of the patriarchs themselves, notably Uncle Peter and Johnnie Fry, M. H. Corker, B. II. and C. C. Stewart; L. C. Kincheloe was my grandfather; I knew .Jeff, Harrison, and Clint Breazeale, and.lohn, Dr Dick, and Flem Jennings, A..1. Covington, who died only a short time ago in Wyoming, Capt. T. D. were first cousins, Dr. Field, Uncle Vaughan, whose wife and my father Hugh McCoy, Capt. Dorbandt, father of Chris. Dorbandt, Uncle Alex La- Forge, John Pankey, Alex and Poinsett Barton, Dr. Jack and King Mc- Farland, Judge J. T. Woodard and Gen. A. R. Johnson. I perhaps knew some of the others mentioned but they passed on before I was old enough to remember. Some of the old-timers will recall that my grandfather Chamberlain, sometime in the sixties, was the first man to build and run a cotton gin in what was then called West Texas. It was on what is highway 29, between Burnet and Bertram. At the time it was built., it was probably the only gin in all the state west of Round Rock. I do not know how others feel about it, but I get a great kick out of articles published concerning old times in Burnet County. I got strung out and cam e near forgetting the correction I was going to make in the article that inspired these remarks. It was about old Gabriel Mills village being moved to Bertram. It was the town of South Gabriel that was moved a distance of two or three miles to Bertram which was built after the railroad calve. South Gabriel was south of Bertram some two or three miles, situated upon the Burnet-Austin road.

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For more early Burnet County Texas History see:
Burnet County Hills Reveal Hidden treasure
Explosion at Burnet Mill
Pioneer Days in Burnet County

More rare and very early LLANO CO. genealogy

2011-04-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

Part 2, The Old Macedonia Baptist Church

The pastors of the Macedonia church were Rev. Joseph Bird, 1880-81; Elder R. J. McNeil, 1881-82; Rev. J. F. Hillyer, 1882-83; Rev. Joseph Bird part of the time 1883 and 1884; W. B. Harmon preached some about this time for the church and also, Rev. E. K. Branch. In the autumn of 1884, the church called Rev. G. W. Johnson as pastor. Rev. C. B. Hollis was pastor during the year of 1886 and 1887. Rev. W. B. Harmon was called as pastor March, 1887, and served as pastor until July 1890. Rev. G. W. A. Latham was chosen pastor July, 1890 and served the church until August, 1891, when Rev. C. M. Hornburg was elected as pastor and served until October 1892, when Rev. J. N. Marshall was called as pastor and served for one year, November 1893. Then Rev. G. W. A. Latham was called as pastor again and served until December 1894. Rev. J. C. Dodges was called to the care of the church December, 1894, and he and Rev. G. W. A. Latham were pastors of the church until 1898, when Rev. Latham moved to New Mexico. Rev. Jay Dodgen was the pastor until August, 1899, when Macedonia church was dissolved by mutual consent, as so many of the members had moved away or united with other churches. J. V. Latham was elected church clerk August 1890. He was clerk for about two years. J. C. Hardin was moderator and church clerk pro tem often. Ed Hardin was the church clerk when the church disbanded in September, 1899.

Rev. J. C. Dodgen Many were the happy days that we spent at that old church and school-house with our grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, parents and sweethearts. We would go in wagons and on horseback and take our dinners, good old chicken and hog meat. G. W. A. Latham, Hick L. Tate and Ben M. Gibson always made the coffer, regular cowboy coffee and it was good and strong, and that was the kind that Uncle George Latham always liked. Mr. and Mrs. Hick Tate were not members of the Macedonia church, but lived in that community and always did their part generously in everything. Mrs. Hick Tate was Miss Fannie Latham, a daughter of Wm. Latham, but was reared by her grandfather, Dr. V. G. Latham, in Rolla, Mo. She came to Texas with her father and grandfather in 1875, and her brother V. G. Latham, Jr. Mrs. B. M. Gibson was a daughter of William Latham. She, too, came to Texas with the Latham immigrants in 1875. I can remember what a thrill we children got when we saw the immigrants coming. There must have been about twenty covered wagons and some hacks and buggies.

My father had just had this house built and it was new and on a hill. We had not moved into it and we were living in a log house, but when we saw the wagons coming around the field, mother took all of us up to the new house on the hill and the immigrants drove around on the flat back of the house with their wagons and teams, great big old Missouri horses. We had been accustomed to the Texas cow pony. My father bought all that we had in Austin, sixty miles away. He bought cloth by the bolt and I think that four of us little sisters all had on a calico dress off the same bolt of calico, but my oldest sister, Annie, had traded a dress off this bolt of cloth to our cousin, Millie Green, for a ready-made dress, and our cousins from Missouri thought that it was a right stylish looking dress for one who lived so far out on the frontier. But those were good old days, when the grass grew green up around the door and the cattle and horses grazed on it. And there were no wire fences nor bank robbers. I have seen my father put a blanket down on the floor and pour out hundreds of dollars and count it out. I suppose he would bring it from Austin for himself and his neighbors. When brother Jim Latham was about ten or twelve years old my father sent him to Mr. Sam Tate to take five or six hundred dollars in a duck money bag, a distance of eight miles through the wilderness, not a house near the road. Jim rode his noted mount, Horace Greely, a little mule. Lewis L. Green said that the Little Hope Baptist church was organized under a brush arbor on Walnut Creek, and that the church practiced foot washing for awhile. We are sure that these old pioneers did not know the good seed that they were solving at that time but the song of the sower and the voice of the reaper will mingle together in glory by and by.

There were some good singers among the young men in those days. Ralph Haynes. Ed Hardin, J. V. Latham, J. Y. Latham and James Green Richards had a wonderful bass voice. Our hearts were made sad when in the autumn of 1885 four of our young men were called to their reward, and our church singing circle was broken. George A. Haynes, James G. Richards, Vance Richards, and Frank Yoast, and in June, 1886, Harry Walker, a member of our church was called home. Not many of the old settlers are left in that once prosperous community. Some of the old homes are standing in pastures while some of them have been burned. This dear old Macedonia church house was burned in the autumn of 1926, but the memory of the happy days we spent on that sacred spot will always remain with us. There is where many of us went to our first school. It was in that house that I taught my first school in the spring of the year and the valley was blue from buffalo clover blossoms. Many are the joys and sorrows that we have had there. But the many ties of love and friendship which were made there will mingle with our thoughts throughout the ceaseless cycles of eternity. And we are sure that many of those faithful ones who have gone on before, as well as those who still remain, will receive that blessed applaudit: "The fight you have fought Good service you have wrought. Well done, Faithful Ones, “Enter, in, for your work is done." When we think of these old pioneers and think what wonderful frontiersmen they were we cannot express deeply enough the respect and emotion which arises within us.

While Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Tate were not Baptists, they and their children attended the Macedonia church often and helped in a number of ways. They were members of the Methodist church and Christians. Mrs. Tate was a noble Christian mother and neighbor. Mr. Tate was a generous man and a staunch Mason. There was a Masonic lodge founded on his place as early as 1865. They were old time Southern hospitable people and the latch string always hung on the outside. They reared twelve children. John C. Tate, their oldest son was an old time trail driver.

My mother also reared twelve children and one day when I was at Mr. Tates they were talking something about paying poll tax, and I asked Mr. Tate, " Do parents have to pay poll tax on all their children?" Mr. Tate laughingly replied, "No, my child, if they did your father and I would soon go broke. "

I must admit that I was a number of years younger then than I am today. These old pioneer men did not know what day they would return home and find their wives and little ones murdered by the fiendish hands of the ever marauding Comanche, but they knew that they were in a good country and stayed with it and most of them became prosperous.

Mr. and Mrs. William Hardin united with the Macedonia Baptist church in July, 1884, on recommendation. Believe they must have belonged to the Comanche Creek Church when it dissolved.

"Uncle Billy" and "Aunt Mary" as they were lovingly called, lived in the Comanche Creek community. I believe that they lived on the place that was settled by George Hardin, the father of the Hardin brothers. Uncle Billy and Aunt Mary were well fitted for the strenuous times they had to live through. They lived out farther west, for awhile near the Saline, in Mason County, and endured great hardships. Joe Hardin also lived near them, and I am sure that I have been told that the Indians ripped up the feather beds and burned Joe Hardin's house. In the Comanche Creek country Uncle Billy and Aunt Mary lived in, a house by the aide of the road where they were friends to their fellow travelers and what Aunt Mary meant to the mothers of the community, God alone knows. Aunt Mary, though nearing the century mark, still lives in the old home with her youngest son, Lon Hardin. Her oldest son, J. C. Hardin, lives at Willow City, Texas. They reared nine honorable children, who will rise up and call them blessed Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Philips came from Fayette county to what must be Gillispie county now, near Hudson Mountain, not very far from Willow City. Mrs. Phillips was Mellisie Crownover, a sister of Rev. Arthur Crownover, who was a Methodist minister: Mrs. Phillips was a Methodist. I am sure that they moved from near Willow City on account of the Indians, as it was so sparsely settled. They settled on Pecan Creek, about one mile from where Macedonia church was afterwards built. They came to that country in an early day. Mr. Phillips was an old time soldier. I think that he fought in the Mexican War. And also, I think that he was in the fight with the Indians. At Plum Creek after they and robbed the store at Linnville down near Lockhart. If he was not in the fight he knew a lot about it, because he told me that the Indians had rubbed the store and gotten bolts of cloth and had tied it to their horses tails. Some squaws were along and they were riding along holding parasol's over themselves. And the chief had gotten what we called a Yankee overcoat, a big blue coat with large cape and trimmed in brass buttons. Mr. Chief had that on and it buttoned up the back, and I think it was in the summer time. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips our neighbors, and royal neighbors they were during those strenuous days of having to deal with the Indians. There was old Pecan Creek, which went in rather a circuitous route from our house to Mr. Phillips. It was densely timbered and one day when the Indians came to Mr. Phillips' barn and drove his horses away and Mr. Phillips and sons began shooting at them from the house. The Indians were shooting arrows at them and they were falling on the house and Mary Phillips, who was a plucky young lady, left the house and ran up the creek for about one mile and a half to tell their neighbor, John Backus, that the Indians were at their house. Mary Phillips married John Haynes and is still living in San Antonio. Those frontier women were as brave as the men and the wonderful deeds that they did. During the time that the Indians were up at his barn after the horses and he and his sons were shooting at them from the yard, Mrs. Phillips took her baby boy and went out into the field, which joined on to the yard, and tried to hide in the corn. I think the Indians got the horses and no one was hurt. Mr. Phillips told me that while he was planting corn in the spring that Mrs. Phillips told him that he was getting it too thick, but after she tried to hide in it that day from the Indians she told Mr. Phillips that "it seemed like the corn was mighty thin."

Mart Phillips was the baby boy that Mr. Phillips tried to hide in the corn. Mart told me, after he was a married man, that if he had not have been such a big baby the Indians would have gotten him that day, because his sisters tried to get hips to go up into the corn field at the back of the barn to get some roasting ears and he said he would not go. After the Indian left they went up to investigate to see where they had been and what they had done, and the Indians had been inside the field eating sugar cane, right where Mart would have had to have gone for the corn.

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Recommended by Glenn Beck on his 2010 "My Favorite Things" Christmas TV Special!

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Mrs. Phillips, although a Methodist, often attended the Macedonia Baptist church. She was lovingly called "Aunt Mellissie" by her friends and neighbors. And what her Christian life and influence meant to that community God only knows. She was often sent for in sickness and if there was a death the consoling and comforting words she would speak. In that part of the country there were no undertaking parlors and Aunt Mellissie, who nearly always wore black, would comp an d sit in the room where the corpse was and try to console the bereaved. She was a typical frontierswoman, and after she was old she said that she would enjoy moving West into a country where it was more of a frontier than the old Pecan Creek country was. Mr. Phillips passed away in November 1897. Mrs. Phillips went to her reward in January 1894. My father, George Washington Allen Latham, was born in Tishomingo county, Mississippi, Sept. 1, 1837. His parents were Dr. V. G. Latham and Nancy Wolverton Latham. They moved to Missouri when G. W. A. was a young boy, and settled in Pulaski county, but afterward moved to Maries county, to the town of Vienna. Dr. V. G. Latham's house was the second house built in Vienna, Mo. G. W. A. helped to build the first court house there. My mother, Sarah Jane Gibson, was born in Osage county, Mo., near Lyntown. Sept. 16, 1836, but was reared in Varies county. My parents were married October 7, 1858, and moved to Texas with their two young children, James V. and Annie, in 1861. They settled in Blanco county, and lived on Spring Creek for some time, then moved to the headwaters of Wright's Creek, where they were often molested by the Indians. One day while my father was away from home the Indians came into the pasture near the house. They threw a lariat on to the horse of a colored boy who Was living with my parents at that time and the horse came running to the house, mother knew that the Indians were near and while she was suffering from a severe attack of sick headache she donned some men's clothing, took a large rifle and walked around through the yard with the gun on her shoulder to make the Indians believe if they should come close enough to the house that they could see that there was one man on the place. We little children thought it was funny to see mother dressed up in men 's clothes, and we would laugh at her, but she said that she did not feel like laughing, as there was so much responsibility resting upon her. She had six small children. She would make us small children stay back by the beds. The negro boy was only thirteen years old. And if an Indian had come near, this plucky little Scotch-Irish frontier mother might have sent a bullet through him from her Enfield rifle, as she could shoot. The Indians stole a number of horses that day. One night, when the moon was shining bright, my father had just arrived home that afternoon from Columbus, Texas, and had brought sever - al head of horses with him. Uncle Ben Major Gibson was at our house and he and my father were taking turns guarding the horses. Sometime during the night they espied an Indian creeping up to a horse that had a rope on, but my father and uncle began to shoot at him. He jumped on his own horse and got away from there as fast as he could. My brother, J. V. Latham, said that he and sister Annie counted the Indians that night as they went over the hill and there were seventeen. These were the same Indians who had killed the Johnson women the day before and no doubt but what they had the little boy with them, they had captured the day before, when they killed the Johnson women and tortured Mrs. Friend, in Legion Valley, Llano county.

Ben Major Gibson It was in the summer of 1870 that my parents moved from Blanco county down on to Pecan Creek in Llano county, a distance of about twenty miles. My father never saw an Indian until the night he and Uncle Ben shot at them. Father rode in the woods most of the time while his brother-in-laws, Sanford and John Backues and Ben Gibson had fights with the Indians and killed them. My father would go with the scouts after the Indians, but just never happened up with them. He and J. P. Smith' were partners at one time. in the stock business and were prosperous. He was also a partner of Pleas Wimberley.

My parents reared twelve children on Pecan Creek there in Llano county. This is a picture of the house where they lived for twenty-four years and it stood like the house in the middle of the road and fed the rich and the poor. the lumber was hauled from Austin, 60 miles away in 1875. In old frontier days people raised large families, as the Hardins, Phillips, Tates, Harringtons, Lathams, Masses, Wimberleys, Wilsons and Crownovers. But why not rear large families? The woods were full of wild hogs and cattle and mavericks galore and the one that did not get the mavericks, well it was their own fault. And they did not have to feed their children out of paper bags and tin cans. The first canned tomatoes that. I ever saw Mrs. Samuel Tate put them up, and Mrs. Samuel Richards canned the first peaches that I ever saw in a can.

The noted Indian fight on Packsaddle Mountain in August, 1873, was the last Indian raid in Llano county. We children were taught to be vigilant and to ever be on the alert in regard to the Indians and if we saw horses or cattle running, unless we knew who was after them, we would know that Indians were near.

My mother, Mrs. George Latham, and her step sister-in-law, Mrs. John Backues, were neighbors and great friends. One Sunday Mrs. Backues, or Aunt Eliza as we called her, came to our house to spend the day. In the afternoon mother and Aunt Eliza thought they would take a walk around t h e place. The older children had gone up the creek, about three hundred yards away, to my Aunt Harriet Gibson's, and that left Cousin Mallie Backues and myself, who were only six and seven years old, to look after the younger children and the babies. We were doing nicely until we saw a red cow running toward the house. We grabbed those babies and little children and broke for Aunt Harriet's. Our mothers heard our screams and came running to us. They, too, had seen the cow and saw that she was running from the heelflies and were not frightened, but before we got to the creek with the children we saw Aunt Harriet and our older brother and sisters coming toward us. How happy we were! But I do think that Mallie and I did a real deserving deed to look out for the little children and not run off and leave them. However, I am sure that our 'mothers always taught us if there were Indians around to stay in the house, but we were too badly scared to think about that.

Wm. Cansler
Wm. Cansler and wife united with the Friendship Church in Pulaski County, Mo., in 1850. Mr. Cansler was elected clerk. We have no record of where they were granted letters from the Friendship Church in Missouri, but the first Lord's Day, in Sept. 1856, they united with the Little Hope Baptist church in what was called Burnet county then, but now it is Blanco county. They settled on the waters of Walnut, and afterwards moved to Round Mountain, Texas.

Rev. R. G. Stone
Rev. R. G. Stone and Celia Scott were married in the state of Missouri before the year of 1845. They came to Texas about 1853, in company with Rev. John Gibson and family. In April, 1853, were granted letters from Friendship Church in Missouri. Rev. Stone was deacon and clerk of the Little Hope Baptist church and was ordained to the ministry, the fourth Sabbath in February, 1872. He moved to Mason county that same year, near where Loyal Valley is located. He was pastor for the Squaw Creek church, and preached in Gillespie, Mason and Llano county for a number of years. He went to his reward about 1896. When I was quite young I learned that old song "There is Rest for the Weary," from him. He sang it one night at my father's house at cottage prayer meeting. His beloved wife, Celia, lived to be more than ninety years old. He has several children living. Mrs. Eliza Johnson, Alamogordo, N. M., Mrs. Carolyn Yoast., Las Cruces, N. M. Mrs. Matilda Kidd, of Loyal Valley, Texas, died last year.

James Gibson
Rev. John Gibson was my great uncle, and James Gibson, Sr., was my grandfather. His first wife, who was my own grandmother, was Miss Margaret Morrow. She was thrown from a horse and died on a road in the state of Missouri, July 17, 1848, leaving eight little children. My mother, Sarah Jane, who was the oldest girl, was eleven years old, and my uncle, Ben Major Gibson, was the baby boy. Grandfather James Gibson, Sr., soon married Eliza Backues, who had three sons, John, Mike, and Sandford Backues. The old church book states that Mrs. Eliza Gibson joined the Friendship Church by letter in February, 1849, then in 1856, James Gibson Sr. and wife, Eliza, were dismissed by letter, and that is the year they came to Texas. James Gibson and wife, Eliza, only stayed iii Texas for six months. They got their letter from Little Hope Baptist church to go back to Missouri in August, 1856. Then in April, 1859, they came back to Texas and joined what was called Pecan Creek by letter.

The Hardins
G. G. Hardin and wife, Cynthia Hardin, who were early pioneers in that country, I think came from Tennessee, in an early day in company with the Sugarts and the late Curd Cox. A man by the name of Wm. White came with them. Aunt Cynthia died about 1873. Mr. Hardin settled in the Comanche Creek community. There was a Baptist church organized there in an early day and I think that Mr. and Mrs. Hardin belonged to that church until it disbanded. Mr. and Mrs. Hardin had six sons who were brave good men. Amos, William, Butler, Joe, Robert, and Wash. They were citizens of Llano and Blanco county and William, Butler, Joe, and Robert were all members of the Macedonia Baptist church with their father during the 80's. A daughter, Hasseltine, married Aaron Crownover, a son of Rev. Crownover, and his daughter, Mary, married Clay Oatman.

JOHN ALEXANDER GREER
By L. W. Kemp
John Alexander Greer was born, July 18, 1802, at Shelbyville, Bedford County. Tennessee, the son of Thomas and C. L. Greer. Little is recorded of his early life but the fact that special dispensation was granted by the Grand Masonic Lodge of the State to allow him to join Harmony Lodge at Shelbyville, a deformed foot ordinarily disqualifying him from membership, testifies to the esteem in which he was held in the community. He rose to Master of the Lodge and later represented his Chapter in the Grand Lodge. On May 18, 1836, he was married by the Rev. Thomas Jordan Lambert to Adeline Minerva Orton, of Shelbyville, and soon afterwards the two moved to San Augustine County, Texas. At the resignation of Henry W. Augustine Nov. 24, 1837, as senator from the district composed of San Augustine County, Greer was elected to fill out his unexpired term, taking his seat, April 9, 1838, in the third session of the second congress. He was returned each succeeding session, serving longer than any other man in the congress of the Republic. On Nov. 21, 1842, he was elected president pro tem of the senate of the sixth congress, a position he was successfully elected to as long as the Republic lasted. On April 2, 1842, Governor James Pinckney Henderson appointed Greer mustering officer to inspect and muster into the service of the United States, to serve during the war with Mexico, a company of mounted riflemen, enrolled by Capt. Middleton T. Johnson in Shelby County. At a mass meeting of citizens held at the court house at San Augustine, July 3, 1847, he was nominated as a candidate for the office of Lieutenant Governor of the State. He agreed to enter the race and on Nov. 1, of that year was triumphantly elected, taking the oath of office Dec. 21. He was reelected Nov. 5, 1849, and continued in office until Dec. 22, 1851, having served through the administration of Governor George Thomas Wood and the first term of Peter Hansborough Bell. He sought to wrest the office of governor from Bell August 1, 1851 but was unsuccessful in the election held on that date.

Greer continued his activities in the Masonic field and in 1842 was elevated to the highest office of the order in the Republic, that of Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge. In 1851 he was Deputy Grand High Priest of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the State.

Mrs. Greer died August 26, 1843, leaving a little daughter, Catherine Adeline, who had been born Feb. 2, 1838, shortly after her parents moved to Texas. The child was sent to Shelbyville to be raised by the mother and father of Senator Greer. In 1853 Catherine was married to Dr. W. Bond Dashiell at Shelbyville, and they moved at once to San Augustine.

John A. Greer died July 4, 1855, at his home on his farm a few miles from San Augustine and was buried on his
land. His remains were removed and, on Dec. 8, 1929, reinterred in the State Cemetery at Austin, the State of Texas
erecting a monument at his grave. Greer County, Texas, now in Oklahoma, was named in his honor.

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For more early Llano County Texas History see:
How Llano Came Into its Own
Indian Days of Llano County
Masonic Lodge Uncovers History of Llano

History of Freemasonry in Early Texas and the Frontier

2011-04-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

Early History of Freemasonry in Texas

By Anson Jones

Before his death that noted Texas statesman, soldier and Mason. Anson Jones, first grand master of Masons in Texas, wrote a brief historical sketch of Freemasonry in Texas. The committee on Masonic service and education has had numerous requests from the press, and Masons over the state, for copies of this sketch. It is here given exactly as taken from the Grand Lodge records of Texas:

"As I took an active part in laying the first foundation of Freemasonry in this country, originated, and was personally present at, the first meeting ever held here, and cognizant of the earliest steps taken for the organization of a lodge, I place upon record the following facts, which may be of interest perhaps to the fraternity hereafter and would otherwise be lost, as I am now the only living of the five brethren who organized Holland Lodge.

"In the winter of 1834-5, five Master Masons, who bad made themselves known to--each other, consulted among themselves, and, after much deliberation, resolved to take measures to establish a lodge of their order in Texas. This resolution was not formed without a full appreciation of its consequences to the individuals concerned. Every movement in Texas at that time was watched with jealousy and distrust by the Mexican government and already had its spies and emissaries denounced some of our best citizens as factionists and disaffected persons; already were the future intended victims of despotic power being selected. It was well known that Freemasonry was particularly odious to the Catholic priesthood, whose influence in the country at that time was all-powerful. The, dangers, therefore, attendant upon an organization of Masons, at this time,, which was trying upon men's souls,' were neither few nor unimportant. But zeal for the beloved institution, a belief that it would be beneficial at this period when society seemed especially to need fraternal bonds to unite them together predominated; all fears of personal consequences were thrown aside, and the resolution to establish a lodge, as above mentioned, was adopted. The five brethren were John H. Wharton, Asa Brigham, James A E. Phelps, Alexander Russell and Anson: Jones, and they appointed. a time and place of meeting to concert measures to carry their resolution into effect. In the meantime another Master Mason came into their plans—Brother John P. Caldwell.

"The place of meeting was hack of the town, of Brazoria, near the place known as General John Austin 's, in a little grove of wild peach or laurel, ad which had been selected as a family burying ground by that distinguished soldier and citizen. The spot was secluded and out of the way of cowans and eavesdroppers, Ind they felt they were alone. Here, and under such circumstances, at 10 o'clock in the morning of a day in March„ 1835, was held the first formal Masonic meeting in Texas as connected with the establishment and continuance of Masonry in this country. The six brethren I have mentioned were all present there, and it was concluded to apply to the grand lodge of Louisiana, for a dispensation to form an open lodge; to be called Holland Lodge, in honor of the then Most Wonderful Grand Master of that body, J H Holland. The funds. were raised by contribution to defray the expenses of which each contributed as he felt willing and able. A petition was in due time drawn up and signed by them, which was forwarded to New Orleans, having been previously signed by another Master Mason, Brother W.D. C. Hall, and perhaps one or two more; but of this I do not recollect.

"The officers named in the petition were: For worshipful master, Anson ,Tones; senior warden, Asa Brigham; junior warden, J. P. Coldwell, who filled those offices respectively until the close of 1837. The dispensation was granted. and after some delay, in these brethren, and Holland Lodge No..36, under dispensation, was instituted and opened at Brazoria, on the 27th of December, 1835. Brother Phelps was chosen treasurer, and M. C. Patton secretary. The other officers I do not recall. The lodge held its meetings at Brazoria, in the second story of the old courthouse, which room was afterwards occupied by St. John's Lodge No. 5. About this time the difficulties with Mexico broke out into open hostilities, and our work was very much retarded by that circumstance, and by the members having to be absent in the service of the country. Still there were a few others from time to time introduced into the order, either by receiving the degrees or by affiliation. The lodge struggled until February, 1836, when I presided over its last meeting at Brazoria. I well recollect the night and the fact that Brother Fannin, who one month after became so celebrated for his misfortune and those of his unfortunate party at Goliad, acted as senior deacon. It seemed indeed that the gloom which prevailed in the lodge that night was a foreshadowing of its and their unhappy fate, which was to soon to overtake both.

"In March Brzoria was abandoned. Urrea soon after took possession of the place at the head of the detachment of the Mexican army, and the records, books, jewels and everything belonging to the lodge, were utterly destroyed by them, and our members were scattered in every direction. Brother Wharton, Phelps and myself joined the Texas troops on the Colorado, about the 18th of March. In. the meantime, the Grand Lodge of Louisiana had issued a charter for Holland Lode No. 36 and it was brought over to Texas by Brother John A. Allen. This, /together with some letters from the grand secretary, was handed to me by Brother Allen, on the prairie between Grece 's and San Jacinto, while we were on the march, and carried by me in my saddlebags to the encampment of the army on Buffalo Bayou, at Lynchburg. Had we been beaten here Santa Anna would have captured the charter of Holland Lodge at San Jacinto, as Urrea had the dispensation for it at Brazoria. Such an event however, was impossible. The charter and papers were taken safely to Brazoria; but, as the members had been lessened in numbers by death, or scattered in the army and elsewhere in the service of the country no attempt was made to revive the work of the lodge at that place. "In October, 1837, however, it was reopened by myself and others, at the city of Houston, having been in existence about two years.

"In the meantime two other lodges, with charters from the Grand Lodge of Louisiana, were established in Texas: Milarn, at Naeogdoches, and McFarlane, it San Augustine. Delegates from these, and from Holland lodge met in convention at Houston in the winter of 1837-38, and the Grand Lodge of the Republic of Texas was formed. By advice and direction of this body, the three subordinate lodges transferred their allegiance from Louisiana, and received others from Texas; and Holland Lodge No. 36, under the former, became Holland Lodge No. 1, under the Grand Lodge of the Lone Star republic. By this course, the causes of many difficulties which have afflicted many of the Grand Lodges of the United States were considered and obviated in the formation of the Grand Lodge of Texas.

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"Holland Lodge No. 36 was the only one established in Texas prior to the revolution which separated her from Mexico.

"Such is a brief but faithful sketch of the first establishment of Freemasonry in Texas. It was founded like our political institutions, amid the stern, concomitants of adversity and war, but its foundations were laid broad and deep; and upon them has been raised a superstructure of strength and beauty symmetrical in its proportions and vast in its dimensions, which I trust will rise usque ad astra and continue as a beacon to guide and cheer worthy Masons on their journey of life, and against which the wasting storms of time shall beat in vain, and the restless waves of persecution cast themselves to destruction in angry Foam; while the presiding genius of the institution from its lofty walls shall ever continue to exclaim in emphatic tones, to be heard by all—east, west, north and south.

"Procul! O Procul! est profani!” Tu clue invade viam.” Far hence, ye profane! Welcome, ye initiated, to these glorious courts; tread ye them aright!"

We have LOTS of information on early history of Freemasonry in Texas...
Other articles (by no means exhaustive) include:
Freemasonry on the Frontier
A Builder of Texas
Old Homestead Lodge

Pioneer Days in Gillespie County, Texas

2011-04-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

The Founding of Fredricksburg

J. Marvin Hunter

Last month's article on German colonization in Texas told of the founding of New Braunfels by Prince Solms. Braunfels, and the departure of Prince Solms, after a short, but hectic stay in Texas. Still quoting from Moritz Tiling's splendid book, "The German Element in Texas," we now give the story of the founding of Fredericksburg.

Prince Solms was in such haste to leave New Braunfels that he did not await the arrival of his successor, Baron Ottfried, Hans von Meusebach, who had been appointed commissioner general for the Adelsverein on February 24, 1845. When von Meusebach arrived he soon saw that the finances of the association were in a hopeless condition. The company's treasurer, being ordered to make out a complete statement of all assets, credits and obligations of the Adelsverein in Texas, could not comply with the order. He explained to Meusebach that the prince, the treasurer, the doctor, the engineer and other officials had issued orders, due bills, drafts and notes promiscuously, and that no proper account of them had been kept in the company's books. Meusebach, a man of great energy, at once decided to follow Prince Solms to Galveston, and obtain from him the desired information as to the financial standing of the Verein in Texas. Of this meeting Meusbach wrote:

"I found Prince Solms there with an attachment against him, taken out by some uneasy creditor of the company. I lifted the attachment by paying the claim out of my credit of $10,000 under the condition that he would urge the directorate in Europe to send immediately, and, without waiting for a report, a credit twice as much as I had along, because the items of indebtedness picked up by me on the road from Carlsshafen (better known as Indianola) to New Braunfels and from there to Galveston showed the association being in debt to that amount. I told him that the welfare of the immigrants depended for the present on the means of the company that had promised to support them in provisions until they could raise a crop and to furnish them with everything necessary to make a crop either for pay or on credit. I have no doubt that the prince did notify the directory in Europe according to promise. But that committee probably had at that time no more available funds on hand. Having failed to get from the prince in Galveston any reliable information in regard to the financial operations of the company and its debts and having been again referred to the treasurer at New Braunfels, who had declared that he could not make a full statement, I had to go to work at it myself. I restored order in the financial department and by close management inspired the creditors with confidence and would have kept both order and confidence but for some new stupendous blunder on the part of the directory in Europe in the shipment of the emigrants in the fall of 1845. In August, 1854, I had sent a complete statement of all amounts, credits and debits of the company in Texas showing that a. debt of $19,460.02 was left by my predecessor in office, besides using up my own credit of $10,000 for provisions for the immigrants at New Braunfels. By the first of November this debt had increased to $24,000 and I requested the directorate in Europe to send immediately this amount as a separate fund irrespective of the amounts necessary for the reception of the new immigrants to be shipped in the fall of 1845, and for further operations.

Tiling says : If the Adelsverein had been true to its public declarations and its pledge it would have remitted the amount asked for, but von Meusebach's urgent request was never complied with. In fact, the association was practically bankrupt there and then and it was only due to the great activity of Meusebach and his astonishing resourcefulness that the sinking ship was kept afloat for some time longer.

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Von Meusebach knew that he had to expect several thousand new immigrants by November of that year and that it was absolutely necessary to establish another station nearer the land grant, if the colony should ever reach it. Therefore, with a small exploring party, he left New Braunfels in the latter part of August, advancing in a northwesterly direction towards the Llano River. About 75 miles from New Braunfels he found the desired location near the banks of the Pedernales river, it being about two-thirds of the distance to the nearest boundary line of the grant. There he bought 10,000 acres of arable land, well watered and timbered, on credit, equipped and sent out a surveying party of 25 men, led by Lieutenant Bene, in December and had a wagon road established from New Braunfels to the new settlement. The whole tract was laid out in 10-acre lots and distributed among immigrants of 1845 and 1846 as preliminary homesteads. This was the beginning of Fredericksburg, today the county seat of Gillespie county, and one of the most flourishing German settlements in Texas. When von Meusebach had left Europe for Texas at the end of February, 1845, he had been informed that the Adelsverein intended to send a considerable number of emigrants to Texas in the fall. And they came. When he returned from his exploring expedition to New Braunfels at the end of October, he found letters awaiting him with the information that 4,000 emigrants were on their way to Texas and that a credit to the amount of $24,000 had been opened for him with a banker in New Orleans, in other words a credit of $6 for each emigrant. For this pittance the emigrants had to be transported from Galveston to the mainland, thence to New Braunfels (later to Fredericksburg), and given provisions until they made their first crop. That the association 's debt in Texas at that time was already more than the new credit opened for Meusebach, the directors in Mainz seemed to have forgotten, or held it beneath their dignity to notice, or were under the impression that, having paid their debt of $24,000 with the amount sent to New Orleans, Meusebach would enjoy an unlimited credit.

This sending of 4,000 immigrants in the fall and winter of 1845 probably was the most inexcusable of the many blunders of the Adelsverein. Through Prince Solms, who had returned t o Germany in August, 1845, Count Cawtell was made fully aware of the precarious condition of the colonists who had come to Texas in December, 1844, and the impossibility of reaching the grant lands for some time. Despite this undisputable fact, he sent over 4,000 more immigrants who had to be housed and supported for an indefinite period. The proper policy would have been to send 'the immigrants in small numbers, to buy from ten to 20,000 acres of lands every 30 miles apart and there establish settlements as relay stations, and thus advance gradually from the coast to the proposed colony in the Fisher and Miller grant. As it was, there were only the two settlements, New Braunfels and Fredericksburg, on the entire distance of more than 250 miles from the coast to the grant, New Braunfels being 150 miles from Indianola, and Fredericksburg 75 miles further, with no intermediate resting places.

Robert Penniger's "Golden Jubilee Edition" for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Fredericksburg (May, 1896), contains a detailed and interesting account of the founding of this German colony in the western wilderness of Texas, from which we quote the following: "In the middle of December, 1845, Commissioner General von Meusebach sent out fro m New Braunfels an expedition of 36 men under the command of Lieutenant and Surveyor Bene, with instructions to establish a wagon road from New Braunfels to the north banks of the Pedernales, where he had bought land for a new settlement . This expedition was well equipped with wagons, provisions, weapons, instruments an d tools, and besides Lieutenant Bene, two engineers, Gross and Murcheson , accompanied it . They arrived at their point of destination after a march of three weeks, and at once began the construction of a block house, which was only partly finished, when they were forced to return to New Braunfels for lack of supplies .

On April 24, 1846, the first body of colonists started for the new settlement in 20 ox-carts and some Mexican two-wheeled vehicles, amid the cheers of their countrymen who remained at New Braunfels . When they approached the Pedernales they were met by a number of Indians from the tribe of the Delawares, who, fortunately, were friendly disposed and the colonists passed the Indian camp unmolested. Friday, May 8, the weary immigrants reached the place where the surveying party had begun the erection of the first house in the new colony in an opening of the virgin forest of gigantic trees and dense coppice. The new settlement named Fredericksburg, in honor of Prince Frederick of Prussia, a member of the Adelsverein, was platted by Surveyor Wilke, the fearless pioneers began the construction of their new homes, their number being constantly increased by the arrival of new immigrants, and soon Fredericksburg had 1,000 busy and industrious inhabitants. Through gifts and considerate treatment they succeeded in establishing and maintaining friendly relations with the Indians, who were numerous, and, like New Braunfels, Fredericksburg suffered very little from Indian depredations. With hardly any funds on hand whatever and with thousands of immigrants to be taken care of on their way to Texas, von Meusebach was not in an enviable position. A man with less sense of duty would have resigned at once, while a man with less energy and resourcefulness than Meusebach would have been in a hopeless embarrassment. He knew that the immigrants trusted the Adelsverein implicitly and now he bent all his energies to take care of the coming flood of immigrants in the best manner possible . He went to Galveston to see after their disembarkation and further transportation, first to Carlshafen (Indianola.), and thence to New Braunfels.

From October, 1845, to April, 1846, there arrived at Galveston 5,247 immigrants in 36 ships, 24 of which came from Bremen and 12 from Antwerp . They all, after disembarking, had to be brought by small schooners to Lavaca Bav, and, as most of the immigrants had very heavy and often bulky baggage, and provisions for four months had also to be transferred from the vessels to Carlshafen, this was quite a difficult task, but nothing in comparison with the strenuous exertions to be made for the transportation from Indianola to New Braunfels . Through Meusebach's efforts the immigrants were brought from Galveston to Indianola as speedily as possible and housed in tents and barracks, while he was searching the country for teams to transport the several thousand people to New Branufels and Fredericksburg. After many unsuccessful efforts he finally made a contract with Torrey Brothers of Houston, in March, 1846, for the transportation of the immigrants from Indianola to New Braunfels, who in the meantime had been subjected to great sufferings and diseases. The winter of 1845-46 in Texas unfortunately was exceedingly severe and wet, rain falling almost continuously for months . Many of the immigrants being badly housed and poorly nourished, contracted fever and several hundred of them died at Indianola during the winter. The suffering was intense and everybody hailed with joy the announcement made in March that relief could be expected daily and that the march to the colony would soon begin. Shortly after that 100 teams arrived and the first wagon train started for the interior . Then the war between the United States and Mexico broke out (May, 1846), the American commanders utilizing all available horses in Texas; the United States government paid more for teams than Meusebach could afford, Torrey & Co. repudiated their contract, and the immigrants were left to their own resources. Five hundred enlisted with the American army, while the others started on the road, trying to reach New Braunfels the best way they could . This proved disastrous to many, more than 200 perishing on the way from exposure, hunger and exhaustion; the bleached bones of the dead everywhere marked the road of death the unfortunate people had taken, while those who arrived at New Braunfels and later at Fredericksburg carried with them germs of disease that soon developed into a frightful epidemic, in which more than 1,000 died.

The conditions at New Braunfels and Fredericksburg soon became exasperating. Most of the colonists were dissatisfied and restless, because they felt that they were imposed upon by the association, and when the deadly disease began to spread and the stipulated daily rations of the "Verein” were no longer distributed regularly, the affairs bordered almost on anarchy. Von Meusebach was threatened with bodily harm and he had to employ all his powers of persuasiveness to such an extent that he had been forced to hypothecate his store with all its contents . Then Meusebach resorted to the last expediency—publicity. He advised Klaener to send a correct report of the miserable conditions as they actually existed, to some reputed newspaper in Germany, requesting publication of the article. Klaener followed Meusebach's advice and sent a full statement of the affairs of the Adelsverein in Texas to Mayor Schmidt of Bremen, requesting publication. This was done and had the desired effect. Several of the government took notice of the accusations made in the article and demanded an explanation from the directorate of the Adelsverein, which resulted in the opening of a credit of $60,000 to von Meusebach . Count Casten was very indignant over the action taken by his agent, Klaener, but the tenseness of the situation was relieved. (In a future article we will give an account of the remarkable hand unbroken treaty von Meusebach made with the Indians on the San Saba rive r in 1847, a treaty which insured the security of the colonists at Fredericksburg.)

We have LOTS of information on early Fredricksburg, Texas...
Other articles (by no means exhaustive) include:
An Inn of Frontier Days
Pioneer Life in Fredricksburg
A Bakery of Pioneer Days

Early Kerr County Texas History

2011-03-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

Day Events Given by Kerr Pioneer
by W. S. Adair

"I HAVE LIVED IN Texas almost 70 years, that is, all my life” said J. J. Denton of Center Point, Kerr County, who is visiting his son, Howard Denton, 4339 Cole Avenue.

"My father, B. F. Denton, who was waterbound in Arkansas for some time, came to Texas from Montgomery County, that State, in 1859 and settled in Burleson County. But before he had time to look well about him the Civil War came on and, shouldering a musket, he went to the front and was gone four years. He underwent all the privations and hardships Confederate soldiers were exposed to and took part in many of the biggest battles, but came home with health unimpaired.

"At the end of the war settlers began to move into. Kerr County, then beyond the frontier. In that region free lands were open to all comers; the head of a family could file on a tract of 160 acres and a single man 80 acres. Father took a survey in the fertile valley of Turtle Creek, a crystal clear stream fed by pure mountain springs and tumbling into the Guadalupe River.

"The Indians were still stalking abroad in the light of the moon. We often heard of their forays at a distance and the settlers constantly were on the alert for them, but to our immediate locality they made but a single visit.

"One night, when father was away and mother was looking out for herself and children, her attention was attracted by a commotion at the barn. She saw the Indians lead the family mare out and one of them mount her. She stood in the door of the house, gun in hand, but recoiled from the thought of starting a battle, thinking it better to reserve her fire until the marauder s should attack the house. But luckily for us, they contented themselves with the horse, with which they hurried away.

"When we went to Kerr County all that part of the country was covered with the most luxuriant native grass, three to four feet in height, and as thick as it could stand, over the mountains, as well as the more fertile valleys. Unbranded cattle that had no owners peopled the country in incredible numbers. Deer, bear and turkeys, which had not as yet learned to fear man, abounded. The buffaloes, however, had moved farther west, but the ground was still white with the bones, hoofs and horns of them, which the cattle chewed for the sake of salt they yielded, and which, getting lodged between their teeth, or in their throats, often killed them. Many times we removed pieces of bones that had lodged in the mouths of our milch cows and thus saved their lives.

"But the bullfights were what interested us boys. These wild cattle had a place on the creek near us where they mustered in the evening to get water and to bed. We went in advance of the time for them to come and climbed trees a short distance from their bedding grounds, whence in safety we could observe the war. When the cattle had drunk their fill of water the bulls went at it to determine who was who and to keep themselves in practice. Sometimes there were a score or more fights in progress at once and the cattle of the herd seemed to enjoy it as much as we boys did. The exciting moment of the battles came when a fighter realized he was beaten, for he knew that when he turned to run the victor would cut him in the flank with his horn. He dreaded this final stroke so much that he never failed to fetch a despairing moan or bellow when lie unlocked to run. This thrust in the flank seldom proved fatal, hut it almost always inflicted a deep wound.

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"For some time after our arrival in Kerr County we lived in a tent after the manner of the Indians, but a year or so later a settler set up a sawmill on the creek near us and there father got lumber enough to build him a house. The first year we had to pay $2.50 a bushel for meal, but father fenced a tract of 10 acres and planted, or rather, sodded it, in corn and made 40 bushels to the acre. We hauled the corn to Fredericksburg, a distance of 35 miles, in order to get it ground. We had no flour. The first biscuit I ever saw my grandmother sent me as a present and curiosity when I was 9 years old. We could buy coffee from Charles Schreiner, merchant at Kerrville. We practically did without sugar, using honey in place of it. The women made the clothing for the family, spinning and weaving on the old-time wheel and the hand-loom, and we wore moccasins in default of shoes. I was 11 years old when I pulled on my first pair of leather shoes. All the men and boys wore buckskin leggings.

"But we were never short of meat or honey. The woods were full of bee trees. Bogs were scarce and wild at first, but the settlers soon stocked the woods and then everybody had a wild hog claim. It was no trouble to kill a deer or a turkey, but the staple was bear meat, which the pioneers salted and dried, just as they did hog meat.

You can eat bear meat every day in the year and never tire of it and, when cured, you can eat it raw as well as cooked. Everybody used bear oil as a substitute for lard; it made the best shortening in the world. A smokehouse in those days was as likely t o be stocked with bear meat as with bacon and hams. My uncle, John Lowrance was a mighty bear hunter and often had 1,000 pounds of bear meat in his smokehouse. He considered it the most wholesome of meats and believed that a diet of it would cure any sort of stomach trouble.

"The first mill established at Kerrville was a small steel affair, owned and operated by Christian Dietert. That was in 1868. In the following year M. A. Lowrance built a water mill at Kerrville. It was equipped to grind corn, saw lumber and cut shingle. Then it was that the settler s abandoned their tents, log cabins and Jogouts and moved into frame houses. For some years my father freighted gut of San Antonio. I made my first trip to San Antonio when I was 15 years old. We had raised a bale of °otton and, loading it on an ox wagon, mother and I took it to the Alamo City, a distance of 75 miles. We were many days going and as many coming. When the oxen would get hot and hang their tongues out that was the signal to stop and rest them.

“On that trip I found out two things about oxen. One is that they do not perspire in the daytime, at least, not hewn they are at work, but do their sweating at night. The proof of this is that when you unyoke oxen in the evening after a hard day 's work, skin is perfectly dry, but when they feed and lie down they soon become soaking wet with perspiration. The other is that when you turn work oxen out to graze at night they will hide to keep you from finding them in the morning. In view of this fact, I conclude that the ox is not so stupid as he is proverbially supposed to be.

“When the men were at the front during the Civil War the cattle went wild. There was nobody to bran d them and, in the absence of marks, after the war, they belonged to the first man who could crap a hot iron to them and, of course, there was a wild scramble to see who could brand the greatest number. But cattle were almost worthless until a market was opened for them in Kansas. In 1872 or 1873 the first trail herds of South Texas cattle were gathered up. Reports that settlers could get actual money for cattle for the mere trouble of driving them to Kansas at first found little credence among us and many refused to believe until men who were known to have started North with cattle came back and showed the gold pieces. From that time on the movement of cattle North increased every year. They went by tens of thousands, making people along the route wonder where they all came from and why, after so heavy a movement, there appeared to be as many of them as there ever were still on the range.

"I was a farmer and cattle raiser for many years and then embarked in the mercantile business at Ingram, eight miles west of Kerrville. In the meantime I served six years as County Commissioner of Kerr County. On account of failing health I have been out of business for some time. As a youngster I learned to play the fiddle after the country fashion and since I am unable to get about and my eyes have failed me so I cannot read, I beguile the time by playing the old tunes. Two years ago I began to attend the old fiddlers ' contests and I have already won three prizes."

We have LOTS of information on early Kerr County, Texas...
Other articles (by no means exhaustive) include:
Disastrous Battle with Indians in Kerr County
James Kerr, First Settler on the Guadalupe
Recalls Early Days in Kerrville County

Pioneer Days in Williamson County Texas

2011-03-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

During conference of the Methodist Church in Platteville, Wisconsin, in August, 1841, the Reverend Josiah Whipple volunteered to go to Texas as a missionary. At the time, the Reverend John Clark was appointed to the sonic mission. Both went as regular transfers from the Rock River, Wisconsin, Conference to Texas Conference "for the sole object of preaching the Gospel of the Grace of God in that new and interesting Republic."

By agreement, Reverend Whipple met Reverend Clark, wife and nine year-old son (also Reverend Thomas A. Morris who accompanied them), at St. Louis, October 19, 1841. Reverend Morris wrote an interesting account of the trip to Texas in a series of fourteen letters to a friend in which he depicts the adventures of the journey day by day until they reached Texas, in January of 1842. On arrival at Bastrop. Rev. Whipple was entertained in the home one Mrs. McGee, a widow, whom he soon afterward married.

For many years Reverend Whipple was one of the leading ministers of the Methodist Church, South, and his ministry took him over a large part of the state. During that time he kept a diary which recorded the events of his travels and which I am told was a fascinating story of the customs and times Unfortunately, this diary was lost. Reverend Josiah Whipple was one of the five sons of Angell Whipple, all Methodist ministers. They were gifted men, having inherited zeal and strength of purpose from a long line of New England ancestors headed by Captain John Whipple who arrived soon after the landing of the Mayflower. and who was a warm friend and co-worker with Roger Williams, whose families intermarried.

It was through the influence of Reverend Whipple that his widowed mother and her family, including my father's family (the Babcocks), were induced to leave northern Illinois and come to Texas. Reverend Josiah Whipple was a brother of my father s mother.
In 1929 my father was called upon to write a story, of early days in Bagdad, to be embodied in a history of Williamson County. The history was being prepared for publication by the Old Settlers' Organization of that county. Old Bagdad was about twenty-five miles north of Austin. For some reason this history was never completed.

But later, my father's story appeared in part in the Temple Telegram.
Believing that this story of early days might interest readers of Frontier Times, I am submitting it just as my father dictated it to me in the summer of 1929. My family now has in it possession several old deeds describing lands in that section of country. They are yellow with age and some are hardly decipherable. Among the names are those of the Hornsbys and Fisks. My father died October 3, 1934, and was buried beside his wife in Fort Worth. Had he lived until his next birthday he would leave been ninety-three years old. His article is given below:

THE STORY OF BAGDAD PRAIRIE FROM 1851 TO 1870
By James E. Babcock

My father, Merles Babcock, moved to Bagdad Prairie the day after Christ mas in 1851. He was orginally from the northern part of Illinois. I was then a boy nine years old and I little thought that after seventy-nine years I Would be called upon to write a history of the early settlement of Bagdad Prairie. I may be slightly in error as to the time of the events given, but the outline is correct.

At The coming of my father, there were then living on all that prairie only four settlers: a man named Rice, whom my father bought out; a German named Smeltzer, and his two sons-in-laws, Harris and Dawson, all located in the. west end of the postoak grove where. about in 1854, my father surveyed out the town of Bagdad.

The earliest settlement ever made of Bagdad Prairie was a log cabin built by one of the Hornsbys, famous in Texas history, on the southwest corner of the prairie near the present home of the Hon, James H. Faubion. This must have been as early as 1845, as the building was old and deserted when I first saw it. Three miles southeast of Bagdad Prairie a block house fort had been built by the government at a big spring. I have been told that this was the first settlement in Williamson county.

Mr. Smeltzer and his sons-in-law must have settled on the prairie as early as 1845, though I never knew the exact date. To illustrate the primitive conditions of that time I will mention the fact that very few log cabins had any floors. Mr. Smeltzer's cabin had puncheon. floors, that is, split hewn logs. There was not a nail nor a piece of sawed lumber in his house. He and his sons-in-law moved there in one wagon, and when that Was broken down, they built what they called a Bulger wagon. The wheels were sawed from a huge liveoak tree. There was not a piece of iron in that wagon and it took six yoke of steers to haul fifty fence rails from the cedar brakes west of the prairie.

The military road from Austin to Fort Crogan (now Burnet) passed through the grove where Bagdad was afterwards located and being halfway, or a day's march, between the two places, it became a favorite camping ground for the United States Army stationed' at Croghan. My father kept a "wayside inn" and many of the officers of the army stopped there. Robert E. Lee, Lieut. Givens and other officers were guests in our home.

A few miles east of Bagdad Prairie, on Brushy Creek, was the scene of the Webster Massacre (1838), and here the Bowmer and Davis settlements were made, but I do not know whether or not they were earlier than the settlements on the prairie.

In 1853 Thomas Huddleston, his son-in-law, James Williamson, George Craven, and Robert Marley came to the Prairie. These men were all from Tennessee except Craven, who was from Indiana. Huddleston bought a large survey in the northeast corner of the Prairie. He had a considerable family and a number of slaves. Williamson bought cut Mr. Smeltzer. Craven also had a large family, and he lived in and around Bagdad until his death soon after the Civil War. Marley, after a few months, move to the Bend section of Lampasas county, where afterwards his son, R. N. Marley, became a large land owner and prominent stockman.

Next came Nicholas and James Branch. James Branch had a family Nicholas had no family, but several slaves. They bought a large survey joining Huddleston on the south.

About 1854 John Faubion came to the Prairie from Tennessee. He had a large family and several slaves. He bought 1.100 acres of land on the north side of the Prairie. He was a man of tireless industry and boundless ambition. He put in a very- large farm. He was a first class blacksmith and a ready worker in any line. A few years later Mr. Faubion built a two-story stone house with cut stone trimmings which, at the time, was said to be the best private residence in Williamson county.

The next settlers of importance were Robert Hanna and Col. C. C. Mason. who came from South Carolina. Both had families and slaves. Col. Mason bought the entire south aide of the Prairie and put in a large farm. Both men were of high character, honored and respected by all who knew them. After one or two years Hanna moved a few miles east of Running Brushy.

The first school house built on the Prairie was about 1859 on the north bank of Brushy Creek, on land afterward owned by John Faubion. It was a low log house without windows and had a dirt floor. The benches were split logs without backs. The first school taught there was a short summer session by an Irishman who said his name was Willis, but that probably was not his name. We heard two or three years later that he had joined a squad at horse thieves out west. They were arrested, tried and convicted, sentenced and hanged, all in one day, by Judge Lynch. One other school was taught hi the house, but I have forgotten the name of the teacher.

The first school that I attended was taught in a vacant house on the farm of Judge Greenleaf Fisk who, I understand, was the first County Judge of Williamson County. This house was on We San Gabriel, about four miles north of old Bagdad. I remember one evening coming home from school we children got lost. The sage grass at that time grew in the valleys as high as a man's shoulders. We had with us a little flee dog, and when th'e wolves began howling, this little dog kept up an incessant barking. This enabled our parents to find us, which was about midnight The next day my father, Abe Smaltzer and Fielding Dawson hitched four yoke of steers to a large log, which they dragged straight away across the brakes of the Gabriel in sight of the school house. This became a beaten trail for all kinds of animals and cattle. Forty years afterward I saw a section of this trail still plainly visible. About this time my father laid out the town of Bagdad and the school house was moved over there. I believe the first school taught in it was by James Whipple.

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In 1855 my father raised the first crop of wheat grown on the Prairie
It was threshed by John and Tom Snyder on a little treadmill thresher. The yield was so large that wheat-growing soon became the principal crop on the Prairie. A few years later John Faubion threshed 1100 bushels of wheat one year.

John E. Heinatz built the first blacksmith shop in Bagdad. He was a splendid workman and became one of the leading citizens of the community. He was first postmaster, and later merchant.
The first store house was built by one Schaffer who moved a stock of goods from Georgetown and placed James B. Knight in charge. It was a small box house and the stock consisted of a few pieces of calico and domestic, coffee and sugar, tobacco and snuff, and shoes. This was about 1860.
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At the beginning of the Civil War, Bagdad Prairie sent a large number of soldiers. There were in and around Bagdad Prairie several men, some of them slave owners, who did not believe that secession was wise or right, but their sons volunteered in the Confederate service the same as the others. Several of these men joined the company organized at Georgetown in March, 1862, which was commanded by Judge Von Trees, and served through the war as mounted men.
After the war, Bagdad Prairie developed rapidly and became one of the best farming districts in Williamson county. By 1868 quite a village had grown up at Bagdad. A large two-story stone building was erected, the lower story for school and the upper story for Masonic Lodge. Dan Emmett was the first Worshipful Master and Prof. William H. Russell taught the first school in the building.

About this time the first cotton gin was built across Brushy Creek from the present site of Leander. This gin burned down before it did any work, and another was built on the south of the creek by one A. E. Walker. It was afterwards operated by Wesley Craven. At this time cotton-growing supplanted the raising of wheat on the Prairie.

Up to 1860, dancing parties and play parties, spelling matches, horseback excursions for pecan hunting and berry picking were among the amusements of the young people. Spanish ponies were the means of conveyance. The girls rode on side-saddles and their dresses reached from their throats to the ground. Sometimes we went in squads to campmeeting At that time the old-time campmeeting was an annual event. We attended these meetings at the springs a few miles above Round Rock, and there were sometimes as many as two or three hundred conversions. At these meetings many old time Methodist circuit riders, including Reverend J. W. Whipple, came and preached. The people camped in tents and services were held under a great brush arbor. It was the custom each day to send men into the woods west of Round Rock and the fattest beef found, ho matter whose brand or mark was on it, was brought in and hung up for the use of the meeting.

On the 22nd of next April, (1930) I shall have reached eighty-eight years. Memories of these early years of my life are recalled as a pleasant dream.
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For more early Williamson County History see:
Williamson County: Interesting Bits of History
History of Kenney's Fort
Some Early History of Williamson County

Early Texas Railroad History

2011-03-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to offer articles pertaining to the great history of the early development of the railroad history in frontier Texas. We know that there are many railroad enthusiasts who will find these articles informative and intriguing.

This article by C. M. Hammond is entitled "How the Railroads Peopled Texas". See the links below for more articles on early railroading days in Texas.

BECAUSE OF its "detached and remote situation," President Houston urged the Sixth Congress of the Republic of Texas in 1842 to remove the State Capital from Austin to some point on the seaboard, giving as his reason, in addition to the constant danger from Mexican and Indian raiders, the fact that "during the last year, the expense of the Government for transportation to the City of Austin; over and above what is would have been to any point on the ace board, exceeded seventy thousand dollar." Austin, he considered, was entirely too deep in the interior and too far removed from the center of population to be the capital of the State, or to become anything but a small village. Yet, less than fifty years after President Houston made that statement, two rifles larger than Austin had sprung up in the wilderness almost two hundred miles farther from the seaboard. And less than sixty 'years afterwards, 43 per cent of all the people in the State were living within a radius of a hundred miles from •Dallas. Even such a dreamer as Sam Houston could not foresee the tremendous development That took place during those sixty years.
The History of those sixty years is a stirring epic of empire building, for it was during that period that the vast interior of the State was settled. and became one of the most productive and prosperous agricultural regions in the world There were, of course, other factors which played part in this magnificent drama of empire building, but by far the most important and the predominant role was played by the railroads. Other factors, such as the great. westward urge then sweeping the country and the fertility of the new lands, were all secondary and never exerted their influence until after the building of the railroads into each new section of the State.
In order to get an idea of the situation in Texas before the building of the railroads, let us go back to the year 1850. At that time practically all of the state's population was to be found in the counties along the Gulf coast re along the navigable portions of the Brazos, Trinity, Neches, Sabine, and Red Rivers. A few hardy pioneers had pushed farther into the interior, but their efforts to settle those sections met with discouragement, due to the lack of communications with the older sections and with the Gulf parts, Ox wagon trains offered the only means of transportation, and rates were so high that surplus crops could not be moved out nor needed supplies brought in except at exorbitailt. prices. These high casts of land transportation practically confined trade to those sections along tidewater and navigable, streams, and as a result most of the wealth of the State was concentrated along the Gulf Coast. Sixteen of the South Texas counties with access of water transportation had a combined assessed valuation in 1850 of $26,353,000, which was 51 per cent of the total for the State, while sixteen representative North Texas counties, including Dallas and Tarrant, had only $2,324,000 assessed valuation, or 4 per cent of the total.

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The first railroad built in Texas was the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado, on which construction started in 1851. The moving spirit behind this venture was General Sidney Sherman, and its object was to connect Harrisburg, at the head of navigation on. Buffalo Bayou, with Austin. According to C. S. Potts, Dean of the Southern Methodist School of Law, in his "Railroad Transportation in Texas," ten other railway building projects were started between 1851 and the outbreak of the Civil War. Most of these early lines had for their objects the connection of points along or near the seaboard, but one of them was the beginning of the Houston and Texas Central, the State's first great north- and-south artery, while two of them were later extended and merged to form the Texas & Pacific, the first connected line across the State from east to west. Up to the Civil War, 492 miles of railroads had been built, but only two lines extended as far as eighty miles from the seaboard—the H.&T.C. which terminated at Milbean, and the B.B.B.&C. which stopped at Alley-ton.
All railway building in the State stopped with the outbreak of hostilities between the States and remained dormant for about five years after the close of the war. Then, in 1870 the greatest period of railroad building in history of the State began, and during the two decades between 1870 and 1890 something like 8,000 miles, or almost half our present milage, was built. It was during that period of twenty years that the railroads pushed far into the interior and crossed the
State from both directions, and, significantly, it was also during those two decades that the tremendous development of the northern and central sections of the State took place.
The connection between this growth and the building of the railroads is graphically illustrated in the steady onward march from the Gulf to the Red River of the Houston and Texas Central, the first of the roads from the seaboard to reach the center of the State and to cross to its northern boundary.
Construction on the extension of that road from Millican, its northern terminal at the time, began in 1870, and in 1871 the line was completed to Corsicana. The census of 1870 shows the population of Corsicana was then only 80 people, but ten years after the railroad came the population had grown to 3,370, and by 1890 there were 6,285 people living in that city.
Pushing on, the road reached Dallas the following year and found there a village of considerably less than 5,000 inhabitants. The Texas & Pacific reached the town in 1873, and during the decade following the coming of the two roads, Dallas became a city of 10,358 inhabitants. During the next decade the M.K.&T. gave the city another ncrth-and-south line, and by 1890 Dallas had grown to 38,067 inhabitants to become the largest city in the State that year.
Fermi Dallas the H.&T.C. continued northward to reach Sherman and Denison in 1873, the year following the entry of the M.K.&T into Denison. As a result, Sherman grew from 1,439 population in 1870 to 6,093 in 1880 and to 7,335 in 1890, while Denison rose from practically nothing in 1870 to 3,975 in 1880 and to 10,958 in 1890, In the meantime, Waco was connected with the main line of the H.&T.C. by a branch line in 1871, and grew from a town of less than 4,000 in 1870 into o city of 7,296 people in 1880. The M.K.&T. reached the city in 1884, and Waco reported a population of 14,445 by 1890.
The Texas & Pacific also exerted a magic influence on the country through which it passed on its march across the State from east to west. The northern branch of the road from Texar: liana to Sherman connected Paris with those two points in 1876, and from a village of less than a hundred inhabitants Paris reached a population of 3,980 in 1880 and 8,254 in 1890.
The main line of the Texas & Pacific through Dallas was built into Fort Worth in 1876 and connected with El Paso six years later, in 1882. Fort Worth grew from nothing in 1870 to 6,663 in 1880 and to 23,076 in 1890. El Paso increased in population from 736 in 1880 to 10,338 in 1890.

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By 1877 the seven North Texas cities of DaIlas, Fort. Worth, Waco, Corsicana, Sherman, Denison, and Paris were connected by rail andlutd rail outlets to St. Louis on the north and to the Guff ports. As a consequence those seven cities which had a combined population of around 12,000 in, 1.870 reached a total of 41,734 by 1880, an increase of 247 per cent, and by 1890 the combined population had grown to 108,420, an iiierease for the decade of 170 per cent and by coming of the railroads those cities increased 800 per cent in population, while the increase for the State as a whole was only 173 per cent for the Same period.
The rate of growth of Dallas and Fort Worth by decades since 1880 shows a striking similarity to the com parative amount of railroad building during each decade. The decade between 1880 and 1890 was the most active decade of railway building in the history of the State, 5,895 miles have been constructed during the period. The increase in population of Dallas during that time amounted to 267 per cent and that of Fort Worth to 246 per cent. The next decade was a period of little activity in railway building, only 1,215 miles being built, and Dallas grew only 12 per cent and Fort Worth only 15 per cent during that period. The ten years between 1900 and 1910 was another decade of great activity in new railroad construction, 3,575 miles of new line being added, and during that period Dallas increased by 116 per cent, while Fort Worth increased by 174 per cent.
The growth and development of the territory surrounding Dallas and Fort Worth is an equally striking example of what the building of the railroads has meant to the State. In 1850- the territory within a radius of a hun.- cared miles of the sites of the two cities was little more than a dreary waste of wind-swept prairie inhabited by buffalos and wild Indians, while today, some sixty years after the coming of the railroads, one-third of all the inhabitants of Texas live within that area. And within that area is concentrate more than fifty-two per cent of the total wealth of the State. But that remarkable increase in wealth and population has not been at the expense of the older region along the seaboard, for there also the increase since 1870 has been enormous. And it is doubtful if there would have been any increase in that section to speak of had not the railroads opened up and provided connections with the vast interior of the State.
Since 1910, most of the new railroad construction in the State has been in the western and northwestern sections. The development through which those sections have passed and are passing due to the activities of the Santa Fe, the Texas & Pacific, and the Fort Worth and Denver, is equally as remarkable as that. which came to the central section in the closing decades of the last century.
Thus it is that the railroads have built a great empire in Texas—an empire undreamed of by President Hous ton as he addressed the Congress of Texas less than a century ago. The marvelous development which the state will celebrate on the centennial of its year of independence might have been brought about without the railroads although it is extremely doubtful, but the facts remain that. no other agency exerted so powerful an influence on that development, and that the growth of Texas in wealth and population is too closely intertivined and related to railway building in the State to admit of any doubt as to that being the prime and moving cause.

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For more articles on this subject, see:
Early Railroading in Texas
The Race of the Railroads
First Railroads in Texas

German Immigrants to Early Texas

2011-03-11T09:03:00.000-08:00

The importance of German Immigrants to early Texas cannot be overstated. The existence of many thriving frontier communities especially in the Hill Country such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg are directly the result of the hard working, resourceful and sturdy settlers who arrived on Texas soil from Germany in the mid-1800s.

We are offering the first in a series of articles that will describe the early development of these German communities.

This article, written by J. Marvin Hunter is from Hunter's Frontier Times Magazine, October, 1944.

Enjoy!

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The great global war now in progress seems to be approaching its climax, with victory for the Allies in sight. Germany and Hitlerism seems doomed to utter destruction, and well may it be done, for upon the outcome depends the future peace of the whole world.
It has been my intention for some time to give Frontier Times readers some history concerning the German colonists who came early to Texas and became an integral part of the citizenship of the Republic, later the State of Texas. Simultaneously with the in dependence of Mexico, won from Spain in 1821 began the immigration into and colonization of Texas by the Americans that was destined to wrest this great domain from the decadent Latin race in 1836, and build up the greatest commonwealth of the United States. The policy of the Mexican government in respect to immigration was the opposite of that of the former Spanish authorities. It was comparatively easy for "empresarios" (contractors or promoters) to, receive large grants from Mexico., The only condition under which these empresarios received their grants were that, they pay the cost of survey and recording fees, to bring a certain number of families to Texas within a specified time, and to see that none but Catholics should settle in Texas. After the abdication of Emperor Iturbide in 1H23, the Mexican colonization law was adopted by the Mexican ootigress with the proviso that not more illi:1:1 "sitios" (one sitio-4428 acres) should ever be granted to ont7 person; viz : One league (sitio) of irrigable band, four leagues of dry, but enitivabll land and six leagues of grazing hind. This provision was made to prevent land monopolies and on it were based the socalled "eleven league claims" in Texas. The first American empresario securing a claim under this law was Moses Austin, who was born in Durham, Conn., but had spent many years in Missouri, at that time part of the Louisiana Territory. In December, 1820, he arrived in San Antonio, and, with the assistance of Baron de Bastrop, he sent his application for a land grant to Governor General Arredondo at Monterey. His request was granted in January, 1821, but Austin died soon afterward, transferring his grant to his son, Stephen P. Austin, who ably and conscientiously carried out the intentions of his father.
Among the empresarios of this time were two Germans, Joseph Vehlein and Robert Leftwich. It seems that Vehlein never made use of his grant and no records exist relating to any land transactions by him. Leftviens grant dates from the year 1822 and his extensive lands were situated near the old San Antonio road, leading from New Orleans to Texas, between the Colorado and San Marcos rivers. He built a small fort and settled a few families on his land in 182a, but aeon afterward went to Tennessee, where he had formerly lived, and died there. After his death a company was formed at Nashville in 1830 toacarry out the conditions of his contract, but the Mexican government did not recognize the transfer of Leftvich's claiin to this company and gave the land to Austin and S. M. Williams. Four years later the Mexican goverment reversed its decision and permitted the Nashville company to succeed as owners of the original Lreftvich grant. Thereupon, Sterling C. !Robertson brought 500 families from Tennessee and South Carolina as settlers on this land.
According to Moritz Tiling's book, "The German Element in Texas," pubs lielled in 1913, Texas was first brought to notice of the German people through the publication, in Berlin in 1821, of a book by J. V. Hecke, under the title of "Travels 'Through' the United States." Hecke a former Prussian army officer, had traveled extensively through the western parts of the United States, and hi 1818 came to Texas, then part of Mexico. He remained in Texas for about a year and after his return to Germany published a glowing report about the beautiful climate, the rich, productive soil and the highly favorable conditions for immigration to Texas. He advised the purchasing and colonizing of Texas by Prussia in the following words:
''If there is a land on the traits-Atlantic continent favorable as a colonial possession for Prussia it is the province of Texas, the acquisition of which by purchase from Spain, to which it is -neither of use nor of political advantage, might be very easily made- Cer. Mainly very important results in agricultural, political and mercantile respects would accrue from the pasees. sion of a country which is greater than Germany. At'hough at present there is no, or very little, civilized popular lion in that country, in a short time it would become a flourishing colony, if Prussia. would make use of the emigrants from Germany, who, having become beggars, through the expense of their voyage and lack of employment, suffer wretchedly in the United States. The Prussian government should furnish them free transportation to Texas on Prussian ships and give them land either gratuitously or grant them support, if only by advanced payments."

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He continues that fifty acres of fertile land would not only be sufficient to support the colonist and his family, but also enable him to repay in five or ten years all sums advanced to him with good interest, thus becoming an. independent land owner. He continued by saying that Prussia. could send. over 10,000 former soldiers, who could be given land as rt gift. With these the colonists could form an effective militia. Prussia's navy would be built up through this colonial possession and Prussia become rich and powerful through its trans-Atlantic commerce.
What would be our status today, if Hecke's dream had been realized? When we remember that the Monroe doctrine was at that time not yet promulgated, and that Tturbide, who had just then proclaimed himself Emperor of Mexico, might have been quite willing to part with the province of Texas for a monetary consideration, Heek&a plan of a New Prussia on this side of the Atlantic does not look like an iridescent dream, and leaves n wide field of speculation of what might have oceurred, had his ideas been carried out. Who knows? The plan of creating one or more German States in the immense territory west of the Mississippi river, then almost an unknown wilderness, was revived several times in.Germany, and several unsuccessful efforts were made to realize this idea, that may seem preposterous to its, but seemed very probable to many German idealists.
Quoting again from Mr. Tiling's "The German Element in Texas:" "In the fall of the same year in which Linke’s book was published, 53 adventurers of different nationalities landed on Texas soil. This was in the month of October, 1821, the party coining from New Orleans. A report of this expedition in the State archives at Austin contains the following German names. Joseph Dirksen, Eduard Hanstein, Wilhelm Miller, Ernst von Rosenberg, Carl Cauns (7) and Caspar. Porton. Nothing definite is known about any of these adventurers except Ernst von Rosenberg. The expedition landed at Indianport (Indianola) and went. to La Bahia (CloHad), where it seems its members were made prisoners by Mexican soldiers. AU participants in this expedition were heavily armed, and the Mexicans, fearing a hostile invasion of Texas, held the adventurers in custody until they received further instructions. Rosenberg was escorted to San Antonio. He had been lieutenant of artillery in Prussia, and when he declared his willingness to join the Mexican army his services were gladly accepted. He received a commission as colonel of a regiment of artillery, and, according to some unconfirmed statements, was shot after the abdication of Iturbide, while, according to others, he fell, during the political fights that followed, in battle. A brother of this Ernst von Rosenberg came to Texas in 1849, and his descendants belong to the most prominent. German families of the present time.
"The first German colony in Texas, was established on the Colorado river, about 30 miles east of the city of Austin. Baron von Bastrop, having received a land grant westward of Stephen Austin's grant, induced a number of German families in the year 1823 to settle on his land on the beautiful banks of the Colorado. Nearly all of these pioneer settlers came from the County of Elmenhorst, Grand-duchy of Oldenburg, For 16 years, until the founding of the city of Austin in 1839, this was the farthest northeastern settlement in Texas. Here the sturdy German pioneers, surrounded by ferocious and barbarous Indian tribes, in a wilderness a . hundred miles away from civilization, toiled faithfully and undaunted, plowing their fields with guns on their shoulders and performing all the hazardous work incident to pioneer life. When in 1836 Bastrop county was or ganized, this county comprised all of the present Travis county, and the five commissioners, appointed by the Texas Congress in 1839 to select. a suitable site for a capital of the Republic of Texas, bought 7735 acres in the township of Waterloo, on the banks of the Colorado river, where the city. of Austin now stands, for $20,000, the deed for this property being executed by the sheriff of Bastrop county. It may be of interest to note that when the State agent, John Edwin Waller, and surveyor, W. Sandusky, appointed by President. Lamar to survey and plot the grounds purchased for the future capital, arrived at their destination, they found two families, Becker and Harrel, the only inhabitants of Waterloo. Two miles south of Waterloo was another city with the proud name of Montopolis, the rival of Waterloo, also inhabited by two families, On August 1, 1839, Judge Waller sold the first town lots, substantial houses were quickly built, and on October 17 President Lamar with part of his cabinet arrived at. the new capitol of the Republic of Texas, received by General Sidney Johnston, Colonel Edward Burleson and Judge Waller, the latter delivering the address of welcome.
"The capital of the young Republic grew rapidly, quite a number of Germas taking an active part in the building of the city. Many highly educated men, who had first adopted the strenuous life of the pioneer farmer when they came to Texas from the Fatherland, gradually left their farms for the more congenial life and employment in the city, and the Germans of Austin have forever been a prominent social , political and industrial factor of the capital of Texas."
Kr. Tiling further says:
"The first real and productive German immigration to Texas was practically caused by the French July revolution of MK This Paris convulsion shook many of the thrones of the petty German princes and threatened for a moment to topple into ruins the whole fabric of absolutism carefully constructed by Prince Metternich at the Vienna Congress. When the storm had subsided and quiet again restored by the liberal use of bayonets and gendarmes, a detestable system of espionage became rampant in many of the German States and principalities. Hundreds of men in all walks of life were put under rigid police surveillance, while many were even imprisoned. for expressing or merely holding different political views from those of their governments. The reactionary element was triumphant, while the progressive, liberal minded men were harassed everywhere. Men of education and science, university professors and teachers, jurists and physicians, suffered most from this political persecution. The press was gagged and literary productions subjected to merciless censure. This deplorable state of affairs naturally created in the hearts of many men of intellect and energy the desire to free themselves in some way from these intolerable political fetters. The revolution, or rather insurrection, having failed, these men were anxious to emigrate to some country with free institutions and a liberal government, and to found and establish there new homes for them' selves and their families under more favorable conditions. Naturally their eyes and thoughts turned westward, where the rising young republic of the United States guaranteed to everybody that freedom of thought and action that had been banished from Europe and especially so from the German States.
"During the ten years from 18201830 many highly educated Germans, and men of means, had made extensive travels in the United States, west of the Allegheny Mountains, and their letters and reports about that new country proved a considerable revelation to their friends. Many books of travels were published, of which those of Browne, Gerke, Arends and Duden were the most prominent. The kat named, Gottfried. Duden , came to America in 1824 and lived for four years in Missouri, then still a wilderness and the most western part of the United States. He returned to Germany in 1628, filled with unbounded admiration for the country he had visited and unlimited enthusiasm for its liberal institutions and government, His book, 'Report of a Journey to the Western States of North America, and a Sojourn of Several Years on the Banks of the Missouri River, was published in 1829 at St. Gallen, Switzerland. The strict censure practiced throughout Germany would have either eliminated much of its valuable information, thus rendering the book lees interesting and useful, or, what is even more probable, might have entirely forbidden its publication.
"Duden gives a. graphic description of the wonderful country he had visited, of the fertility of the soil, of its vast forests, its extensive prairies, its abundance of fish and game of all kinds, and dwells with great stress on the political, social and religious freedom granted to every settler. He proclaims the land of the Mississippi Valley the new Canaan, the land where millions of poor and oppressed would find peaceful homes and a comfortable living. In the preface to his book, Duden makes the following caustic but true remarks about the conditions prevailing at that time in Germany:
" 'The poverty, the administrative coercion, the oppressive financial systems, the tolls and excises, form with us invisibly, and therefore more dangerous, a kind of serfdom for the common people, which, in some instances, is worse than legally recognized slavery. The purile idea that one could fill his pockets with gold on the very shores of America has ceased; but one thing is unquestionably guaranteed to the immigrant: a high degree of personal liberty and ,assurance of comfortable living to an extent that we cannot think of in Europe. Millions can find room on the magnificent prairies and valleys of the Mississippi and Missouri and a nature that has long been waiting for the settler and farmer!
"Driden's words fell on open ears and ready minds, The book was read eagerly by thousands of interested men in Switzerlaud, Baderi, Wuertternberg, flessen. Rhenish Prussia, Hanover and Oldenburg and had a far reaching influence. The protracted stagnation of industrial life after the ware of liberation, the unsatisfactory social conditions and, above ,all, the intensely unpopular system of political reaction, bud created among thousands of the higher classes the so-called feeling of being CRuropaniude' (tired of Europe). The time for emigration was ripe and Duden's book was the mariner's compass pointing to the proper direction for the burdened and distressed, To the former emigration for economic reasons wad now added the emigration influenced by political and romantic ideas. University professors and students alike were fascinated by the plans of creating one or more German States in America with genuine free and popular life, and societies were formed to bring these plans to maturity. Ernest Brnneken in his German Political Refugees from 1815-1860' state that the German immigrants, of the early '30s came in more or less organized groups. They had more or less definite ideas about establishing States in the United States. These States might or might not be members of the Union, but were to be predominantly German in character, 'They would have the government of the United States itself bilingual, and if the Americans would not grant this—why, then. the German States would secede and set up. a National Government of their own.'
"For the purpose of furthering this wholesale emigration, societies were formed in different cities of Western Germany, the Emigration Society of Giessen being the most prominent.. G. 0. Benjamin in his excellent study, 'Germans in Texas,' makes the following mention of the objects of this society:
"11t was organized originally by a. number of university men, Ong
whom Carl Fallen was the leading spirit. Its aims, as stated in a pamphlet, issued in 1833, were: The founding of a German. State, which would of course have to be a member of the United States, but with. maintenance of a form of government which will assure the continuance of German customs, German language, and create a genuine and free popular life. The intention was to occupy an unsettled and unorganized territory 'in order that a German republic, a rejuvenated Germany may arise in America! The members were men of means. Some held high official and professional positions• They sailed in two vessels from Bremen to New Orleans in 1&34. After the arrive in this country dis-sensions arose and the company was broken up. An account of thin undertaking is given in Niles' Register and shows clearly what vague ideas existed at that time,' (Benjamins 'Germans in Texas,' page 6,) While these Utopian plans were never and could never be accomplished, still the western part of the United States gained ranch by this immigration, and so did Texas, then still part of Mexico, It brought to this country a great number of highly educated and energetic men who not only assimilated themselves readily to existing condi. tions, but who became the basic element of these embryonic &Rates. It was their hard and persevering labor that opened a vast territory to civilization and made millions of acres pro-dilative."
Among the first Germans who came to Texas may be mentioned Friedrich Ernst and Charles Fordtran, and it is generally assumed that the history of the Germans. in Texas begins with the coming of these two pioneers. This was in 1831_ Ernst was from °Ulanharg, and was a bookkeeper by profession. He, like many others, became dissatisfied with the prevailing conditions in fannen, and emigrated with his family to America in 1829, landing in New York, where for more than a year he kept a boarding house. There he became acquainted with Charles Fordtran, a tanner, who was born at Minden, Westphalia, in 1801. In the spring of 18.31 both decided to etalg)ate to the new State of Missouri. At that time the voyage from New York tc.) the upper Mississippi by water fives greatly preferred to the slow and dangerous overland route of 1500 miles. Ernst, with his family, and Fordtran therefore took passage on as a ship sailing from New York to New Orleans, where they arrived in March, 1831, There they heard of the favorable laud propositions in Texas, where each married settler was to receive one league and one labor of land, 4606 acres, free of oharge, so they decided to locate in 'texas instead of going to Missouri. They arrived in Harrisburg, on Buffalo Bayou, April 3, 1831, and after a stay of five weeks at Harrisburg, which then boasted of five or six log houses, they set out to their future new bonne, a Mane of land selected by Ernst, where the town of Industry, Austin county, Wrir stands. Ernst gave Fordtran one-fourth of the land ail Fordtran also received one league from S. M. Williams for the surveying of the two. leagues.
Rrlist and Fordtran were not the ars.t Germans coming to Tomas, they established the first permanent German settlement there, and Mrs. Ernst is unedited with having been the first. German woinan in Texas- Ernst and li'ordtran built. rude log houses on their hind bevenal miles apart, hot the b4irmony between them soon eeased. Ernst called his place Industry, while Fordtraii's farm received the less inviting.name of "Indolence," or "Lazy-town,' as it was generally called.
Ernst -svrQte a letter to a friend in Oldenburg by the name of Schwarz, informing hire about the favorable land• conditions in Texas. This letter was published in some newspaper and through this report several German Litanies were induced to emigrate. to Texas. Ernst died in 1858, but. his widow, who hater married a Mr. Stoehr, lined for 57 years at the place were they had settled in 1831. She dierl at Industry in 1888, at the age of 88 years. At the age of 84 she gave the following graphic description of her family's first years of hardship and privation on their Texas farm:
"In New York we had became a- quainted with the rich old Mr. J. J. Astor, a staunch and honest German, who advised my husband to start a dairy if he wished to make money. Ile offered him a 10-acre lot on the East River, where Pearl Street now is, for a few •thousand dollars on deferred payments, but although I urged my husband to .accept that offer, he refused it, and in April, 1831, we came to Texas, landing at Harrisburg. Houston was then not even known by name, and no ship dared to land at Galveston from fear of the Karankawee Indians, who infested the island, On ox-carts we traveled fifty miles westward to the town of San Felipe de Austin, where we found one German named Wortaner, among the 300 inhabitants of the place. . There we were • on the border of civilization. Westward and northward roamed the Indians, and no white man had yet risked to cross Mill Creek. My husband soon set out on an exploring expedition, and coming to the forks of Mill Creek, where Industry now stands, he selected a league of land for us, being attracted by the romantic scenery, the pure water, and fine forests around. After having lived in the most primitive style for several months on our new homestead; we sold about one-fourth of our grant for 10 3017a. Now we had at least milk and butter, which was a real Godsend, for the con-slant monotony of venison and dry cornbread had almost become nauseate- ing, We lived in a miserable little hut, covered with thatch that was not waterproof. We suffered a great deal in winter, as we had no heating stove, Our shoes gave out, and not knowing how to make moccasins, we had to go barefooted, For nearly two years we lived alone in this wilderness, but fortunately we were not troubled by the iii discs, who were quiet and friendly, In the fail of 1833 some Germane settled in our neighborhood. among them the families of Bartels, ZimmerseIrreit and Juergena. We naturally hailed their coming With great. joy. In 1834 the following German families arrived here: Amaler, Wolters, Kieberg, von Roeder, l+ refs, Siebel, Grassrneyer, Biegel, and some others whose names .1 have forgotten, The first settler being killed by Indians was Mr. J. Robinson, the father of Colonel J. Robinson, who lived near Warrentown. fry the fall of 1834 the Indians kidnaped and abducted the wife and two children of Mr.. Juergens, who had just settled at Post Oak Point, four miles from here. Through the effmts of Father Muldoon, a Catholic missionary, Mrs. Juergens was returned to her husband, but of the two children no tidings ever came."
Mr. Tilings contiuea
"The courage and perseverance of these early German pioneers is worthy of the highest praise. Here they were thousands of tulles from their native country, not only in a foreign laud, but in the solitude of a wilderness, with dangers of all kinds lurking around them, but unflinchingly did they bear all the numerous inconveniences and hardships incident to pioneer Ufa. Their unreserved love of freedom was the bright star shining above them and guiding them through all the dark hours troubles of the first years of frontier life, .and assisted these intrepid men and women to battle against and finally conquer seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Ernst'S settlement, 'Industry,' grew rapidly, and for years was one of the most prosperous places in Austin county, It has remained a strictly German town up to the present day, with a. thriving and progressive population.
"Some. Germans, who came to Texras and settled on land received from the Mexican government several years before the arrival of Ernst and F'ordtran are mentioned by F, Lafrentz in Texiiische Momatshefte, Vol. 11, No. 2, n06, but nothing is known of most of them except the recording of their land patents in the archives of the general land office at Austin,"
In a future issue of Frontier Times we will give other information concerning German immigration to Texas between 1836 and 1845, and the establishment of New Braunfels and Fredericksburg.

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Read other articles about this subject here:
German Pioneers in Texas
Idealism of the German Pioneers of Comfort, TX
German Pioneers Built a Solid Country
German Societies in Texas

Very early HAYS COUNTY TEXAS history

2010-07-09T10:13:00.000-07:00

From Hunter's FRONTIER TIMES MAGAZINE, Feb., 1941

We are compelled for the sake of space to restrict ourselves to the hills of Hays County and not to trespass on the lowlands. The International and Great Northern Railroad approaches the foothills very closely and we shall not cross the track in our observations.

Ninety per cent of the county is in the hills, but the heavy voting strength lies in the black land section. The first white settlers came to the county in 1846, the same year the town of Fredericksburg was founded. Others came in 1847 in large numbers. General Edward Burleson was representing the district in the State Senate and he introduced the bill to make the district a county. The bill was passed on March 1, 1848, creating Hays County.

On August 7, 1848, the first election was held and the following officers elected: John Kirby, sheriff. E. Erherd, county clerk. W. E. Owens, district clerk. Henry Cheatem, chief justice. N. F. Owens, tax assessor. At the same election Sheppard Colbath, C. R. Johns, A. E. McDonald, and U. A. Young were elected county commissioners.

General Ed Burleson moved to the new county and built his home on the hills overlooking the valley of the San Marcos River. This house was a double log cabin on the highway between Austin and San Antonio. It was, for a long time, the stopping place of travelers. General Burleson had served his country nobly and the county of Burleson was created and named in his honor. He was born in 1798 and died in 1851. During his life he was a Senator in the Third Congress of the Republic of Texas, prominent leader throughout Texas, Vice President 1841-44 of Texas Republic, fought in the Battle of San Jacinto, and was State Senator when he died. He also led the Texans in the famous Plum Creek fight against an over-whelming number of Indians. He should be known as the father of Hays County because it was largely through his influence that the county was created. His life is a fascinating story of pioneer grit, of exalted courage, and of lofty character. He left a heritage to Texas far richer than its natural resources—its gold, silver, or oil—that of a good name. The writer is almost forced to quote the advice of old Polonius to Laertes :

"Good name in man or woman, dear my lord, is the immediate jewel of their soul... but he that robs my good name fetches from me something that not enriches him but makes me poor indeed."

In writing an article on the history of the heroines of the hills in Hays County, one would like to take up the women of the Burleson clan, limiting the whole article to their acts. In fact, a large part of any history of Hays County would have to deal with the Burlesons.

EMMA KYLE
I must again remind the readers that this is a sketch primarily of the heroines of the hill part of Hays County, and incidentally, I am forced to drag in some men, because they married these women. Emma Kyle was born in Hinds County, Mississippi, April 8, 1832, and died in Hays county Texas, February 5, 1877, at the age of forty-five years. She was married to Major Edward Burleson on February 15, 1854, in Hays County, in the foothills of the hill country. I should add here that Major Edward Burleson was the son of General Edward Burleson, the man who fought with Sam Houston, thus making a clear distinction between General Ed and Major Ed. Major Edward B. Burleson was horn in Tipton, Tennessee, November 30, 1826, and died in Austin, Texas, on May 12, 1877. He died 96 days after his wife's death. The marriage of Emma Kyle and Major Edward Burleson was one of the most romantic and peculiar that has happened in Texas. At that time, however, lie was not a major, because he won this title during the Civil War. He was only Ed Burleson, a son of General Burleson. Major Ed was 28 years old, and his wife was 22, when they married. They were married late in the afternoon and rode to Bastrop the next day.

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Edward Burleson was rather independent in his youth, and had been in love with Emma Kyle for seven long years. But Emma kept putting him off. Finally Ed made up his mind to end the matter one way or the other. One day he rode up to the Kyle home, near the present town of Kyle, and told the lovely Emma: "Now, you can either marry me or I am gone for good. " She knew he had the Burleson determination in his eyes. He told her he would come back the next morning and bring the marriage license from San Marcos. Next day he came to the Kyle home with the license and the Methodist preacher. Emma then went and told her mother that she intended to marry Edward Burleson. The father was away from home, and the mother put her foot down on the marriage and issued her final decree: "Emma, you can't marry at this house without your father's consent." Edward spoke up: "Let 's go over to my mother 's house and be married there. " Colonel Kyle had given his daughter Emma a splendid horse, which was her favorite riding horse, and the young couple rode to the Burleson home. Mother Burleson, who was a spitfire, inquired: "Why didn't you marry at Colonel Kyle's?" Emma answered: "Father wasn't at home." Edward said: "We just came here to be married." Grandmother Burleson issued her final decree: "If Mrs. Kyle didn't approve of it, because your father’s not here, I am not going to approve of it either." Edward said to Emma: " Come on. " It should have been said that when they left the Kyle home, Emma said to her little brothers: "Come on, boys, sister is going to be married."

Then they all mounted their ponies, and the whole cavalcade rode to the Burleson home. Here, told by Grandma. Burleson that they couldn't marry there either, the ardent young couple, thus turned away from the Kyle home, were not permitted to marry in the Kyle home or in the Burleson home. There happened to be living between these two families an old lady by the mane of Aunt Sooky Holt. She was kind to everybody, and was worshiped by young and old. She lived in a log cabin with a dirt floor. When the bridal party rode up and announced their mission, Aunt Sooky said: "Get out and come in. I want to see you married before you leave here." Thus Edward Burleson, whose father had fought at San Jacinto, and Emma Kyle, the mother of a future member of a President's cabinet, were married in a mountain cabin in the hill country on a dirt floor. They walked out of the cabin man and wife, but when they came to the horse block, Edward said to Emma: " Don't get on that horse. " Emma replied: "Edward, this is my horse. "Edward replied: "I don't want any-thing of Colonel Kyle's but you, and I've already got you." He fixed the bridle reins on the horse, turned it loose and gave it a cut across the hips with his quirt, and started it back to the Kyle ranch. Emma's four little brothers overtook the horse and led it back to the Kyle home. Emma got up behind Ed on his horse, and they spent the night at some neighbor's house near there. The next day Ed gave Emma another horse, and they fled away on their honeymoon horseback, across, the country to Bastrop. Here they spent one or two years, and their first baby, Edward Claiborne, was born on August 25, 1855. Edward looked at his offspring and issued his decree: "Don't take. my baby to the Kyle ranch." However, time and common sense will heal all wounds. Somehow, Emma’s father or mother saw the grandchild, and it was love at first sight. That grandchild united the two families, and reconciled both sides of grandparents to the marriage.

Before the second child was born, little Edward Claiborne Burleson enjoyed what amounted to adoration from both the Kyle and Burleson families, and peace was restored completely and fully, after which some-one in the Kyle family gave little Edward a small Bible.

Major Edward Burleson had bought a tract of land at the head of the San Marcos River, about two miles above visible flowing water. Here, in 1856, Ed and Emma settled in a rock house at Sink Springs. The tourists can easily find this famous old home by traveling about 2½ miles from San Marcos on the San Marcos-Kyle road, and turning to the left on what was formerly called the Sink Springs road and is now called the Limekiln road. A more beautiful site could not have been selected. It is a natural cove, or valley, that opens up towards the southwest. It is really a prolongation of the San Marcos river, but here at the Burleson farm the river sank beneath the surface and was not visible, crossings its way through homeycomb limestone rock. The site for the Burleson home was on a natural flintrock foundation. Here Major Ed and his wife Emma built their stone house with no architect's plans, and nothing but their own. It was built by unskilled laborers who were devoted to Marse Ed and Miss Emma. When the Civil War came on, Ed Burleson and five of the Kyle boys all joined the Southern Confederacy. Grandmother Kyle, who did not permit the couple to be married without the father's consent, was intensely religious. She went into a cave on the Blanco river each day and prayed for her five boys, who were fighting for the Southern cause. Then the war was over, and the soldier boys came back. The Yankees came in and advised the young negroes to leave, and the only negroes left were the old and decrepit and those who would not desert parse Ed and Miss Emma for any freedom or emancipation that could be conferred upon them.

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Here at this home Emma Kyle brought into the world ten children, as follows : Edward Claiborne, born August 26, 1855, died January 24, 1863; John William, born August 29, 1857, died July 1, 1927; James Glenn, born August 1, 1859, died September 10, 1915 ; Ford McCulliver, born June 19, 1861, died May 21, 1887; Albert Sydney, born June 7, 1863, died November 24, 1937; Kyle, born August 8, 1865, died November 5, 1866; Edward, born July 17, 1867, died September 1, 1873 ; Emma Kyle, born August 2, 1869 ; Lily Kyle, born August 2, 1871; Mary Kyle, born December 14, 1873, died April 3, 1923. At the Burleson home the couple lived in complete happiness, and here the wayfarer found plenty to eat and a bed to sleep on. Nuns and priests of the Catholic Church, old Texans, tramps, and any white traveler found a place to stay all night at the Burleson home. One peddler by the name of old Melaski dealt in pots and pans and bought hides. He was a great friend of Colonel Burleson, and stayed the night whenever he was in that section of the country. He amassed a fortune in buying hides that were cured and handling them. Naturally, the smell was not always conducive to good society. When they would see old Melaski coming in his wagon, someone would call out to Ed's old body servant by the name of Pappy : "Pappy, if you and Big Bob let Mother smell old Melaski tonight, I'll shut you up in the cotton-seed house." The darkies were very skillful. When the wind changed so that it would convey the smell to the house, the big negroes would move the wagon around to the other side of the house. There were few newspapers, and old Melaski gathered all the news and gossip in the country, and the family would gather around after supper and make him talk until late at night, telling the gossip and news of the day, and the happenings in the other neighborhoods.

Major Ed Burleson kept a book of accounts and a list of those to whom he had loaned money. An iron chest served as a bank, and one entry reads as follows: "B. Melaski—not a scratch of pen between us. $10,000. gold. Paid. “By another name appeared these words : "Too much white in his eyes. " After another name : "White wheat eyes too close together. " Others were called by such names as "Bad Egg, " "Bad Injun," etc., showing that Ed Burleson was a good judge of human nature.

When they lived at the old home, Mrs. Ed Burleson would often go into San Marcos to do her trading and shopping, and would take some of her children with her. When she would take Emma, the negro servants always took along an extra outfit of clothes. Emma's personal body servant was named Hester, and she was supposed to look after the child while her mother was making purchases. But Hester got into a conversation with some negroes from other plantations on the streets of San Marcos, and forgot about little Emma. She was about six years old, and all dolled up within an inch of her life. She heard a negro man ask the store-keeper : "What shall I do with that sugar in the bottom of my barrel of molasses? " Emma went out, saw a scoop in the barrel of dry pans, took the scoop and passed out "molasses candy.” Emma's mother inquired of her whereabouts of Hester and Mr. Johnson, the storekeeper, who replied that they did not know. When they fond little Emma, she was covered in molasses from head to foot. They rolled her up in some unbleached domestic, like a mummy, until they got her home. Mrs. Burleson had a new buggy, and didn't want to get it sticky with molasses. Big Bob, who kept the hides wagon of old man Melaski out of smelling distance of the house, was the driver of her hack. Major Burleson never let his wife drive horses, but he furnished her with two spans of carriage mules.

Then came that fateful day when Emma Kyle Burleson sickened and died on February 5, 1877. She had replenished the earth with ten children. Little Emma was only eight years old when her mother died. Major Ed Burleson took no interest in anything— business, farm, stock—but said to his friends that he didn't want to live any longer. And in 96 days after Emma's body was buried in flays county soil, her husband went into the great beyond. The youngest child was only four years old. It will be noted that the first seven children were boys, and then came three girls, two years apart.

Tom Sneed, a brilliant lawyer, had married a daughter of old General Ed and was therefore a brother-in-law of Ed Burleson. He immediately took charge of the estate and became guardian of the children. He placed Emma in the St. Mary's school at Austin, where she stayed for thirteen years, until she was twenty-one years old. She is living today, hale and hearty, and takes great interest in public affairs. When the route of the International and Great Southern railroad was discussed, Major Burleson bought a large tract of land, and tried to induce the railroad to come through this land; but failed.

To illustrate the devotion of Major Ed Burleson to his wife, Emma, it is related that on one of his visits to town he bought three pieces of silk for the three women in the household, and told his wife she could have her choice. The three women got into a disagreement about the pieces of silk, and when Major Burleson came home, the story was told to him. He called to his brother-in-law: "Get your horse and Lou's horse and go. Mother is cock of this walk. She bosses me and everybody that crosses this threshold. Get your horse and never enter this door again."

At the end of the Civil War came a few luxuries. Lincoln coffee came in. The Burleson family was the first in Hays county to have a bath tub. The bath tub was hauled from old Indianola, and that bath tub is now in existence, used for a horse trough, It was placed in the front yard, and a form of bath house was erected around it. The dairy was under the same roof, with a partition between them. The major raised many hogs and cattle, and when the hog-killing time came after the war, the kids had a vacation and everyone wanted to help.

The stage from Austin to San Antonio passed right by the Burleson home, and nearly always there was somebody stopping and staying all night. There was a company bedroom, and the furniture of that bedroom is still in existence. The father died in May, 1877, and different kin came to the house, and naturally relics disappeared. The three youngest children were girls. Silver and jewels were in the great safe, and Tom Sneed took charge. Until the girls were 21, they didn't have a dime ready cash, but could charge anything at the stores. When they divided the trinkets of the old Burleson household, Emma drew the silver.

When Emma was a student at St. Mary's Academy, the best girls had the place of honor in the front line, and the naughty girls were in the rear, followed by the nuns. Emma relates that she was always by the nuns. She would never wear a hat. At the Burleson home, she had always had a negro servant to dress her and comb her hair, and when she got to the academy, she had to dress herself and comb her own hair, and even make her own bed. In a few days after entering the school, Emma got tired of the job 'of combing her hair. She got hold of some scissors, cut off the braids, and threw them away. The nuns were horrified, and 'they sent for Uncle Tom Sneed. He came in, took one look at Emma, and inquired in a judicial tone: "Did you cut off that hair?" Emma very tartly replied : "Yes, sir." Judge Sneed replied: "Go down to Bob's and have him cut your hair.” Bob was a famous negro barber, and he had quite a reputation for cutting hair. In addition to combing her hair, Emma had to lace her own shoes, and she solved that problem by throwing away her shoelaces. A Mrs. Brown saw Emma, without a hat, marching in the rear of the line of children, and concluded that she was a charity ward of the school. Mrs. Brown was telling another lady about this poor little girl—that she had to walk in the rear of the line without any hat. The friend said: "Is it that little cotton-headed girl? She is a niece of Tom Sneed, and a granddaughter of General Ed Burleson, the hero of San Jacinto."

About the time that Emma Burleson became twenty-one years old, and after she had been in St. Mary's Academy for thirteen years, she was walking through the streets one day and met her friend, Miss Maud Moore of Austin. After the greeting, Emma asked Maud where she was going to spend the winter. She promptly replied that she was going to attend Mary Baldwin seminary in Stanton, Virginia, a dyed-in-the-wool Presbyterian school. For thirteen years Emma had been in a Catholic school, but she suddenly made up her mind that she was going to Mary Baldwin, and go she went. She went to the house of her guardian, Tom Sneed, who was very sick at the time. She walked in and told her Uncle Tom that she was going to Mary Baldwin, and he signed the papers and gave her permission. Miss Emma Burleson has been a factor in public affairs of Texas for over fifty years.

AUNT SOOKEY BREEDLOVE
Mountain City was a small town or community a few miles northwest of Kyle. Some relics of the town can be seen to this day on a country road leading out of Kyle, but the modern highways have passed it by and it remains a memory. Near this little town lived a remarkable character by the name of Aunt Sookey Breedlove. She was relatively poor in this world's goods. She had a husband that carried the rural mail and two or three daughters, all living in a little log cabin, happy, cheerful, and contented. It is with "Aunt Sookey" that we shall spend a few moments. She was that rare combination of the Good Samaritan and of Dorcas. She was full of good works and good deeds and many a lonely heart did she make glad and many a. broken heart was healed by the kind words and acts of Aunt Sookey Breedlove. She not only let Emma Kyle and young Edward Burleson be married in her cabin on a dirt floor, but she was daily doing some good. On the day that "Aunt Sookey " Dorcas let Emma Kyle and young Ed Burleson cement their holy vows, she did a• deed that (lid not bear fruit for nearly fifty years later. The offspring of that marriage sat in the cabinet of Woodrow Wilson as Post Master General of the whole United States.

It is related that the elder Dorcas sickened and died near the coast in the holy land near Joppa., and Peter came and knowing of her good deeds commanded her to rise and she sat up. Aunt Sookey died years ago in Hays county, and went to her reward, followed by hundreds of weeping eyes and aching hearts. No Peter came and raised her from the dead. But in the hearts of pioneer men and frontier women, Aunt Sookey still lives and many men and many women in Hays county are better men and better women to good ninety years after she witnessed the marriage of Emma Kyle and young Ed Burleson, on account of some recollections of Aunt Sookey, the Dorcas of Hays county.

THE TABITHA OF HAYS COUNTY
Dorcas was also known as "Tabitha." The writer for several months has been peering into the valleys and hills of Hays County, along the Blanco, Onion Creek, and along Stringtown, and at Driftwood. Everywhere he met with some old settlers who, when relaxed, will tell you tales of God-fearing and God-obeying women like Aunt Sookey that lived and wrought in Hays county iii the hills. The writer has been bitten by the history bug and it has given him an incurable malady and he will never die satisfied till he pays just tribute to these women of the hills of old Hays fro m Stringtown to the Pedernales. There was not only the good Samaritan women of Stringtown, but over in the northern part of the county Emma Johnson, wife to Thomas Johnson of Hays, Blanco, and Travis and other counties. There was Mother Kyle, the mother of Emma Kyle, who sent five sons to the Southern armies. Every clay from the time they left until they returned, she went to a certain tree near the Kyle home and there she knelt on her knees on Texas soil and prayed to the God of Battles that the Lord would let her sons return home safe and sound. Five Kyle sons and one son-in-law, Ed Burleson, were in that war and the sun never set on the hills of old Hays county that did not witness this God-like woman on her knees praying for the return of her boys from the battle fields. Her prayers were answered and all of her sons became leading citizens of the State of Texas. And there came the time when Mrs. Roundsavill came to Coronal Institute and wielded an influence that has marked the civilization of Hays County for over sixty years and the writer wished that he had space to pay a just tribute to her memory and services. Her life still lives in the lives of the grand children of her former pupils.

OLD TIMER'S DINNER
On October 18, 1940, the venerable Sam R. Kone, whose people came to Hays when it was Bastrop, gave a small dinner to a few old timers of Texas. There sat down at his table 429 years of age of experience in Texas. divided as follows : R. M. Alexander, who had his 91st birthday on October 19, 1940; Samuel Reid Kone, 8 5 years; C. W. Moore, 87 years; T. U. Taylor, 83 on January 2, 1941; and Pete Woods 83— a, total of 429. All five had spent nearly their whole lives in the counties around the capitol. For three hours the conversation was free and unrestrained, with no formality, no program. We went from Sam Houston to Jesse James, from Ferg Kyle to Johnson Institute. The whole history of the county be-fore Hays was created, before the Civil War, the return of the soldiers, the birth of the cattle drivers, the birth of different schools, the growth and de-cline of towns and neighborhoods— all these came up in passing remarks. It soon developed that a town was known in the early days long before San Marcos and Kyle were anything but spots on the landscape, and that this town was a factor in the growth of Hays county. This town was five miles long and a furlong wide and known from Austin to San Antonio as STRINGTOWN. It extended from a point two miles west of the court house in San Marcos to the town of Hunter, or from the present western city limits along the highway. The houses were dotted along this highway that skirted the foothills for five miles. It was a settlement of pioneers, many of them kinfolks, all of them neighbors. All had had their rifles in the wood forks above the door; all had their six shooters ready. There were no cook stoves. Every house cooked on the old fire place with its back log, and old Dutch oven called by us a "baker. "Every family had its ash hopper, piggin, churn, and many had their looms —linsey-woolsey was a household term and the men wore “homespun." Shoes were made by a member of the family or by some neighbor. The leather came from the hides of the cattle raised on the ranch and it was tanned at some neighbor's by the old bark process. Every pioneer soon learned the trees in the neighborhood that gave the best available tan bark for the conversion of the raw hide into leather pliable and strong. It is strange that modern science with' al l its electric tanned leather cannot make a product to compare with the old time barked tanned leather. The people of Stringtown not only produced their own clothes and shoes, but raised nearly everything they ate. Stringtown had one street and it was one side of the town. It had no mayor, no marshal, for the simple reason that none was needed. It was one big family from one end of town to the other over a stretch of five miles. They helped each other in time of trouble, and many of the good wives were good doctors for the frontier ailments. In time of death the men dug the grave for their neighbor's dead and acted as pallbearers. There were no undertakers, no hearses, but there was one thing that civilization had not ruined. The minister preached a funeral sermon that referred to the late departed friend. He did not read from a printed book something that would apply to a man in South Africa. as well as to the one in Hays county. It was an individual tribute and he did not refer to the Amelikites.
The people were all honest, traded and bartered, rarely gave a note. In fact, a note was not asked. The asking of a note was to mark a. man as newcomer and not one of the soil. The wayfarer from Austin to San Antonio could always find a place to stay all night. No traveler was turned away or refused food for himself and horse. The horse was part of the man's family. He was at once a luxury and a necessity. The old family horse lived on and became a bread-winner and a means of transportation to the church, the mill, and the market.
Along the one street of Stringtown passed some of the notable men of the west. Sam Houston, General Edward Burleson, Ben Thompson—the noted gun-man, O. M. Roberts, George W. Brackenridge, Jesse James, Frank James and Big Foot Wallace traveled it. At one house in Stringtown they would spend the night, partake of the good home cooking of a pioneer wife and mother, sleep in a feather bed, and the only charge for providing for horse and man was the command: "All we charge is to come again when you are passing this way." The present venerable Sam R. Kone tells of a unique experience. Two young men on the way to Mexico appeared at his father's gate late one evening and asked politely for shelter for the night. They were gladly welcomed. The strangers took supper; stayed all night; ate break-fast : and when leaving offered payment for their entertainment. They were met with the command: "Stop again when you are passing this way." The travelers left on their very fine horses. Young Sam Kone had the honor of taking care of the horses and feeding them. After a few months the travelers returned from their trip to Mexico, but it was noticed that they were riding small mules instead of fine horses. They were entertained as before and later it was found that the Kone family had had the honor of entertaining Frank and Jesse James. The venerable Sam R. Kone has the credit of currying the horse of Jesse James.
The people of Stringtown were Godfearing people, worshiped God, paid their debts, never turned a traveler away, always came to the aid ofa neighbor in distress, and let each worship his Creator according to his own conscience. In the neighborhood were some hardshell Baptists, honest, brave, and true men and women. On one occasion in pioneer days, this denomination had a foot-washing in the little creek that courses its way by the town of Hunter, and the whole town of Stringtown attended. Here in the hole of water in sight of the modern highway from San Marcos to San Antonio each member solemnly washed the feet of his neighbor or brother in the church as a token of humility and devotion. It was a very solemn occasion and made a profound impression on the spectators.

JENNIE BURLESON
During the summer of 1940 the writer visited the reunion of the old Confeds and pioneers at Camp Ben McCulloch near Driftwood. Here he found a large shed well constructed many camps, many campers, and a well organized community almost on a military basis. A glance at the pro-gram showed him that he was there on the day when the Jennie Burleson unit was in charge of the program. His mind went back to the frail little woman that he had met some quarter of a century before as Jennie Burleson, and he soon realized that it was this little woman of Hays County that was a patron spirit of the pioneer and old Confeds at Camp Ben McCulloch. He was thereby inspired to trace the history of Jennie Burleson. She was the grand-daughter of Gen. Edward Burleson a who was one of Sam Houston's men at San Jacinto and was the leader of the pioneers in the battle of Plum Creek during the clays of the Republic. Her father was David Crockett Burleson, son of Genera] Ed Burleson. IIe served with the old Confeds during the Civil War; had married Louisa Ware and settled near the town of Buda in Hays County. Here they raised a family of several children. While Jennie was in her teens, the wife sickened and died and little Jennie became the mother, the manager, and the head of the household. In the course of events the family fortune had not fared well, and the father and his children were left with a few acres of land that came from the Ware estate. There was no house and no shelter. The father was not strong, and they had no money to hire carpenters or buy lumber for a house. But somehow Jennie secured the lumber, and she told her father that they would build their own house. The father thought the job was impossible, but here little Jennie showed the Burleson grit. She ordered her father to hold one end of the weather boarding in place, while she marked off its proper length, and marked the line to guide the saw. She sawed off the outer to fit the joint and then with her own hands she drove the nails through the weather-boarding into the studding and from this on to the roof, the flooring, the doors, the windows, and soon it was ready for the Burleson family. Neighbors passed by and saw the brave little woman acting as carpenter, joiner, builder; while her father, Crock Burleson, acted as assistant in holding one end of the plank while his daughter Jennie did the carpenter work.

There is a beautiful story about the house "That Jack Built” but in the town of Buda, on its northern border, is a small frame house that is known by old timers in the neighborhood as " the house that Jennie built."
The building of the house was not all. Into the house moved the Crock Burleson family and to provide bread and meat Jennie took a job as clerk in the Birdwell store. Here she learned the arts and technique of a sales-woman. Old timers say that she took to it like a duck to water. She was mother to a small brood, and she did not neglect the amenities of life. A musical club was organized in Buda that suet once a week. Each one was supposed to play something, aid Sister Mary took to the piano and Jennie got hold of an old fiddle and she went at it with all the fire and determination of her grandfather. She made that old fiddle bow fly across thee string and its companions till she could wield the fiddle bow that would make Cotton-Eyed-Joe proud of himself. She took the family, including her father, to the Old Settlers Reunion and the old Confeds at Camp Ben McCulloch. Her father always wore his Confederate grey on these occasions. Not to be outdone or outshone, Jennie got hold of some Confederate grey and made her a complete military outfit of Confederate grey. In this she became the darling of the old Confeds at the camp. This, with her fiddle, completed the conquest. It was this suit of Confederate grey and her fiddle and her skill that made the old Confeds adopt her as a mascot or sponsor. After this she went everywhere with the old Confeds and to all their meetings. After the girls grew up, Mary and Jennie moved to Austin and lived near the Suton Infirmary. Jennie secured a position as saleswoman with Scarborough and Hicks, and her former experience with her natural ability soon made her one of the most effective saleswomen of the staff. Here she worked as she had a way of doing, only asking a chalice to earn her bread by the sweat of her brow.

Many years ago she was made superintendent of the State school in Waco for unfortunate children and here she worked and labored for the unfortunate. It is well here to glance backwards During the month of October, 1940, the writer had a curiosity to see the "house that Jennie built." He made a. trip to Buda and old settlers pointed out to him that neat little cottage on the brow of a email gently sloping hill. Here he gazed at the very identical weatherboarding that was nailed in place by this frail person of indomitable grit and perseverance. He was informed that after Jennie took her family to Austin, the house stood vacant for awhile and a very wise old Queen Bee was mothering a hive on a nearby hill. She saw the vacant house and promptly moved her family in the " house that Jennie built," and went to work to store honey for the winter. She succeeded beyond imagination and had all the sweetness of the flowers of the surrounding hills concentrated in the bee-hive in ' the former abode of the grand-daughter of a hero of San Jacinto. Then came the day when the house was sold and a family of human beings was to move in. Here they found a peculiar situation. The warm weather of the next summer had melted some of the honey and it had flowed over the floor. Nothing but a sharp scraper could dislodge it, and the family to this day remembers the floor that was varnished with honey.

The writer cannot forbear to call attention that the only thing that could have entered the "house that Jennie built" with any degree of appropriateness was a bee. There is a striking similarity between little Jennie and a queen bee. She had everybody at work; she generated sweetness; she built her own house; she was independent; asked no favors; worshiped her God and the old Confeds. A Texas frontier native recently stood by the, "house that Jennie built " and he thought these lines :

THE HOUSE THAT JENNIE BUILT
Sing to me your sonnets And let your phrases lilt ;
But hold your sweetest notes For the house that Jennie 'built.
Come with me to Buda,
And if thou wilt, I'll show you the modest cottage
The house that Jennie built.
It is no cathedral,
Nor covered with gaudy gilt,
It was once a happy home
The house that Jennie built.
It is upright and modest With silver, gold and gilt,
It has no leaning tilt But none are as sweet to me,
It was home, sweet and happy, As the house that Jennie built.
The house that Jennie built.
Jennie Burleson died in Waco, Texas. Their father fought for Texas, with knife to the hilt, died December 12, 1938, and was buried in the Live Oak cemetery north of the body of this heroic little woman.

Some rare and very early GILLESPIE CO. genealogy

2010-07-04T13:46:00.000-07:00

From January, 1941 Hunter's FRONTIER TIMES MAGAZINE article "Heroines of the Hills."

GILLESPIE COUNTY

Gillespie county has a unique history in comparison with the other counties of the state. All the other counties were settled from older states —Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and others. They brought the pioneer customs of the South into the frontier state of Texas. They spoke the same language wherever they went . They came by the same conveyances—'oxteams, horses, or mule teams . They brought the same utensils, rifles, an d many brought the old fiddle . A few brought fire all the way from East Tennessee and kept it going for the thirty days on the trip . But into Gillespie county came a new people , speaking a new language ; and when they met the people in Blanco and Llano counties they found, to them, a strange language. The customs were also different, as were the cooking and the costumes.

An old freighter relates that in the eighties he drove two freight wagon s from Austin to Fredericksburg through the hills by way of Cedar Valley, Dripping Springs and Blanco . When he arrived at Fredericksburg there was only one person there, the sheriff, who could act as interpreter because he could speak German and broken English. Since that date, over fifty years ago, the mixing with other counties and travel have brought the English language into universal use in Fredericksburg, but for thirty years German was practically the only language spoken. A traveler from th e fatherland would have felt at home i n the homes in Gillespie county. The German settler was a homeloving body, and his wife was moreso . They had their festivities and reunions but of the German kind of entertainment. A tourist visiting the museum in Fredericksburg will be struck when he views the implements, utensils, and household effects used by the ancestors of the present inhabitants . Practically all the inhabitants speak English and German fluently, but occasionally some old Grandma has to have her children translate English for her . This article is entirely too short to do justice to this yoeman people. Practically the whole population can be described in one sentence. They were all frugal, honest, industrious; there were no loafers among these people ; they were good neighbors in sickness and health and in times o f trouble; the German-Americans of Gillespie county have been an asset to th e commonwealth of Texas .

THE 94th YEAR JUBILEE

In the spring of 1940 the writer at- tended the 94th year Jubilee at Fredericksburg held in the high school building. Here came people from Kerrville, San Antonio, Austin, Mason, and Llano, to witness a portrayal by ing actors the scenes in the history of Gillespie county . We sat entranced at the dramatic skill of old and young. Grey-headed men and women threw their souls into their parts. The writer felt that he was paying a visit on a Sunday afternoon to the "Hermit of the Hills," who was a unique character if there ever was one. Here he saw four couples of elderly people come out on the stage and with pure delight and gusto re-dance the old dances that their grandfathers enjoyed nearly a century ago . They did not call the same dances that you will see and hear at the breakdowns in Bandera, but there was only a slight difference. They swung their "corners," "promenaded," and " balanced all" like the old time settlers along the Brazos, Trinity, and in the piney woods of East Texas . What amazed the writer was the agility these housewives displayed in tripping an d swinging as easy as girls of sixteen, and they seemed to revel in the dance . The men looked solemn, but the old girls handled their feet with the skill of professionals.

To cap a show that was already replete with good acts, several couple s of young boys and girls still in their teens walked out on the stage an d without a single " call " or "prompt" went through the "lancers, " while a young lady behind the screen played the music without a flaw. The dancers threw bodies in the mad whirl o f this old-time dance that had nearly disappeared from festivities . The writer thought, as he watched this Jubilee, that from this town an d county came Louis Jordan, a German- American, who was the first ex-student of the University of Texas t o give his life in France for his native country of the good old U. S . A.

"PEACEFUL" INDIANS

In the early days of the Fredericksburg settlement, the leader of the Germans was very active in developing friendship with the Indians. They expected the white brother and the white sister to feed them when they were hungry and give them horses to ride. It was a common sight in the early days to see a long string of Indians coming into town . The inhabitants soon learned that these Indians all expected the white brother to cook them a hot dinner, and often they unhesitatingly walked right into the kitchen and proceeded to help them- selves to anything in sight. Their desires were not restricted to food and horses, but on one occasion Grandma Klingelhoefer got up early one morning about daylight in the west room of the double-log cabin and started out into the hallway between the two rooms. To her consternation, she saw sleeping quietly on a cot in the hall a big buck Indian, snoring peacefully away, undisturbed and happy. He had applied the peaceful efforts of the German colonists literally, and he had concluded that the white brother really loved the red brother and that the latter was conferring a favor on the Klingelhoefer household by honoring them by sleeping on the cot in the hall. Even to this day, the last klingelhoefer can point out the spot where the big Indian slept and dreamed of the happy hunting grounds . It was not long after this to the time when both ends of that hall between the two big rooms were boarded up and doors secured at night . That same hall exists today, but it has doors and has had for many generations. The spot where the Indian buck took a long quiet sleep can be seen. The efforts of the leader in behalf of peace was too drastic and the red man became too peaceful. In fact, to such an extent that he felt that he had a right to stalk into a white settler's kitchen and take a loaf of hot bread right out of the baker and sit down and eat it as a token of peace .
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THE KLINGELHOEFERS

The Klingelhoefers were among the first German settlers who came t o Texas and settled at New Braunfels . Shortly afterwards other immigrants came and new locations were sought . The Klingelhoefers came with the second crowd of immigrants . They left Germany and spent several months on the ocean in a sailing vessel, and some of them reported that the ship bucked like a Texas bronco . But the German women and the German men had set their hearts on a new land and a new liberty . They arrived on the Texas coast, and by ox-wagon wended their way to New Braunfels and on up through the hills to the magic valley surrounding what was later to be called Fredericksburg . Into this valley came John O. Meusebach, the advance agent and a trail-blazer. He found a valley of oval shape, some twenty-five miles long east and west, and some twenty miles north and south, wellwatered, and of good soil . Here he led his band of followers, to build a home in the wilderness against the objections of the red warrior .
The Klingelhoefers came with the caravan and settled in what is now the western limits of Fredericksburg. Here they built a double log house , with a hall some seven feet wide be- tween the two rooms . In the early days the end of this hall was open, Here the father and mother settled and raised their family. On the northeast corner of the left side of the road to Harper, on the main street, the traveler will notice a low-setting house wit h a huge grapevine twining along the eaves of the front porch . This is the spot where the Klingelhoefers located ninety-four years ago, and here their children and grandchildren were born . Some of the Klingelhoefer descendants are still occupying the house. The rooms, about sixteen feet square, were built of logs, accurately notched to the corner and fitted into the log below. The roof ran parallel to the road , covering both rooms and the hall. The front porch was built parallel to the road, and the rafters and all the braces were cut out of native timber with the broadaxe, and were fitted to the joints and to the plates by the sturdy work - men. This house will rival any in the state for housing one family for ninety- four years.
The wayfarer will notice some quaint furniture . In the east room a hugh wardrobe is about double the size of the ordinary 1940 wardrobe . It was constructed by hand, and not a machine of any kind touched a piece of the lumber. It has a history like the Klingelhoefer family. Other pieces of furniture will demand the attention of the visitor. Near one corner of the front porch many years ago was planted a grapevine. It climbed to the eaves, twined itself along the rafters and plates, and covered the whole length of the porch. It ordinarily bears a very heavy crop of grapes. The vine was planted by Klingelhoefers, had been cultivated by Klingelhoefer, and Klingelhoefer now plucks the clusters of grapes when they are ripe. Then they extract the juice and convert it into a delightful concoction, that, when poured into a glass, looks like the ripe sun and tastes like the elixir of life, and sends a glow through the human frame that makes a person conclude that Texas is a fine old state.
All around the house is evidence of thrift. The kitchen is on the southeast side, and there are cans and cans of preserves, canned fruit, canned vegetables, dried sausage, bottles of grape elixir, dried pumpkin cut into strips, and many other things. You walk out of the back door through a gate into a large garden that grows prolific vegetables. Even the chickens in the yard seemed to be proud of their ancestry, because they were started generations ago—from hen to egg to chick, and then another generation of chickens. These hens were lazily resting under some fruit trees, wearing an expression that said they were proud of the Klingelhoefers.
Many years ago the house showed decay, and they were forced to plaster the outside and inside walls. The visitor can see no trace of the old logs that formed the bodywork of the ancient structure. But on the front porch , one can look up and see the trace of the axe that nearly one hundred years ago felled the trees that were fashioned into an abode for Klingelhoefers. Recently the writer visited this place for the third time and took with him Dave Dillingham, who at the age of twelve years hauled a load of freight to Fredericksburg in the dead of winter when the road ran by Dripping Springs and Blanco . Here the two old pioneers, the writer and Dave Dillingham, sat in the east room that was ninety-four years old and gazed at the ancient relics and that huge wardrobe. Mrs. Robert Lewis, nee Klingelhoefer, the present houseowner and housewife, brought out the delicious kucen and a bottle of that grape elixir, and the mother, now verging on to three score and ten years, also came in. Fortunately the visitors had with them the old Ben Thompson banjo . The writer ascertained the old settler tunes as played in Fredericksburg seventy years ago, and after finding out what tunes they had heard, Dave Dillingham made the old Ben Thompson banjo wail its story of the derelictions of Cotton-eyed Joe and the beauty of the Buffalo Gals . They were told that the banjo, which had once been owned by President Diaz of the Republic of Mexico, was paying tribute to the Klan of the Klingelhoefers. The visitors left, promising to return later and partake of a square meal, bred in a square house by some women who had always acted on the square, because the blood of the Klingelhoefers flows in their veins .
MRS. CLARA FELLER

Mrs: Clara Resseman Feller was one of the original pioneers of Gillespie county, and went through untold hardships, sacrifices, Indian raids, witnessing the murder of her husband . She was born in Germany, December 12, 1832 ; and arrived at old Indianola in 1845, where they remained some 18 months. Her family reached Fredericksburg in the latter part of 1846, the year of the great epidemic . Their first home was in the western part of Fredericksburg, and they found many huts, shacks, tents, and shelters had been erected . The father, John Peter Resseman, became a freighter and hauled goods with two mule teams to Bastrop and went to Indianola and other points. After they had been in Fredericksburg about a year, in the latter part of 1847, the father started to Bastrop after a load of corn, and died on the road.
About this time, 1848, due to the Meusebach treaty, the Indians became very friendly, and would come into town by the droves and hundreds, and expected to walk into any house and be fed. They felt free to take anything. Clara Resseman was a first class cook and bread maker. Flour was very scarce, and once Clara had baked some extraordinary loaves of bread when a big buck Indian walked in, saw the hot bread, and walked off with' it.
Clara was married to William Feller in 1850 when she was 18 years old, and they bought a farm of 200 acres 15 miles west of Fredericksburg . They moved on the place, cleared their 200 acres, paid for it, and had lived on it about 13 years . In 1863 the war was having a distinct effect on Gillespie county. Mr. Pellet' was a bitter opponent of slavery and expressed his views openly. One night a mob appeared at his house, took him an d others by force, shot Peter Burg through the back, and William Feller and Mr. Kirchner and Mr. Blank were hanged not far from their home. It was nothing but mob vengeance. Not long after this it was ascertained that William Feller had bought his land from a rascal who did not own it, and had no title to it, with the result that the Feller family and others lost their land for which they had already paid . After losing the land Mrs. Feller returned to Fredericksburg with a family of children, the oldest only 13 years old . All she possessed was a few household goods and an overdue note due her husband . The note was bought by a friend who paid par value for it, more than it was worth. With this hundred dollars she bought the little place where she lived until she was over 90 years old . This little pioneer home at first had a dirt floor, and it brings to the mind of the writer the dirt floor on which he was born in Parker county.
MRS. MARTIN DITTMAR

In 1845 Martin Dittmar, Sr., left his ancient home in the fatherland and with his wife and four children took sail for the United States . After many days and weeks on the ocean, they finally arrived at old Indianola . Mr. Dittmar was taken sick, but he was very anxious to leave Indianola and make the trip to New Braunfels. In a few days several of the teams were started for New Braunfels in the country and Mr . Dittmar made arrangements for his family of six t o make the trip from Indianola to New Braunfels. The laborious and slow trip finally ended, but it was the year of the great epidemic of cholera, and it raged throughout the hill country and other parts of Texas, and Martin Dittmar, Sr ., soon succumbed to the plague, and the widow Dittmar was left with four children, the oldest child, Martin Dittmar, being seven years old. The children were Martin, Annie Elizabeth, John George, and baby Elizabeth. Mrs. Dittmar made arrangements after the burial of her husband to take her family to Fredericksburg. After her arrival, she was assigned the usual allotment of ten acres of land arranged for the German emigrants . Here, the brave woman in 1846 faced frontier conditions where Indian raids were likely to occur. Fortunately, just before, Meusebach, the manager of the colony, had arranged a peace treaty with the Indians, and each side agreed to be very friendly with the other side. They had hardly settled in the new home when the youngest child, Elisabeth, contracted the plague and soon joined her father, and the widow Dittmar was left with a boy nearly eight years old and two daughters . She faced conditions with a brave heart, grit, and determination to make he r home, in the new land. They moved into the suburbs of Fredericksburg. It was a weekly habit for several hundred Comanche Indians to visit the town, and they construed the agreement of friendliness in a very drastic way. They considered that they were welcome to stalk into any woman's kitchen, take her bread and meat, and walk out majestically with all the food in the larder . They had a habit of smelling the bread cooking about noon time and they often timed their visits to fit the taking of the bread from the oven. On many occasions they appropriated the bread while it was hot or warm, and out they walked with the air that they were conferring a favor on the pioneer housewife by deigning to eat her bread . In some cases it was about all the housewife had to eat. The widow Dittmar met these friendly advances of the Comanches with grit and self-denial. Young Martin Dittmar had a chance to go to school b y joining the family of Reverend Rode , a minister of the Methodist church . It was a great opportunity for young Martin, and the widow made every sacrifice to let her son remain in the home of the pious and well educated minister. The widow Dittmar lived her life of usefulness and became a true pioneer of the west .
While in Mason county young Martin met a beautiful young lady by the name of Eckert and within a short while married her, and the young ocuple turned to it with a will . Martin at one time moved to Beaver Creek in Mason county, and here he started his home . He took his cattle from Gillespie county to their new range, but - the cattle proved very patriotic and did not stay in Mason county, but would beat it back to the old home. Young Martin decided that he would let the cattle have their way and they moved back with the cattle, and he made the remark : "The cattle just wouldn't stay on Beaver Creek, so I decided we had better move back with them ." The young couple bought 110 acres of land, started to grubbing and clearing the land. First, they erected a small one-room cabin and this expanded into other rooms, and by the time the widow Dittmar passed away, she saw that her son was well fixed an d well established as one of the pioneer citizens of the Hill Country .
MRS. W. A. PERIL

Mary,. Ollie Lock was born and raised in Bexar county, and in the early seventies Billy Peril, known as William A. Peril, succeeded in persuading her that the Hill Country between Kerrville and Harper was an ideal place for a home and he assured her mother that he would build his house "by the side of the spring. " They were finally married, and the y made their 110 mile honeymoon trip on horseback up the Guadalupe river to the new home where she lives today, over ninety years old, robust in mind and body and resourcefulness. When they settled in their home eleven miles north of the present town of Kerrville, there was not a single house or town between there and the Rio Grande. They could travel in a bee line from their house to the Rio Grande and never strike a house. The house was built at the head of a branch that drains into the Guadalupe and the chimney was built on a solid rock that proved to be honey comb. After they erected the chimney, it was discovered that friendly rattle snakes made their home in the caverns under the chimney, and on warm days the snakes would come out and bask in the sunlight. One day two of them sunned themselves on the front porch which had a southern exposure, and when noticed, they were peacefully stretched out on the floor taking a sun bath.
Here Aunt Ollie milked fourteen cows, slopped 39 hogs, and sometime s carried her drinking water 3434 feet from the spring to the house that Billy Peril built " by the side of the spring ." Billy Peril soon acquired the reputation of having the best cured meat in the western part of Gillespie county . The Billy Peril meat was a standard of excellence in the Hill Country, and he had orders long in advance of hog killing-time. Few of the families who bought the Peril meat realized that the hogs were raised, slopped, cared for , and fattened by the hands of Aunt Ollie, wife of William A. Peril . Recently the writer with Dave Dillingham, an old pioneer freighter , 'visited the Peril home and went to the Peril spring, about two-thirds of a mile from the house . Aunt Ollie to this day relates the stories of hog killing time—how they erected the scaffold in the branch below the spring and here wood was collected and the hogshead was placed in an inclined position. On a bitterly cold day the hogs were killed at the ranch house, hauled two-thirds of a mile in a wagon , jerked out and dumped into the hogs - head full of hot water, pulled out onto a table where the hair was scraped off . Strong arms lifted the porker to the scaffold which raised it off the ground . A stick was inserted between the fetlocks and there the carcass swung with the nose several inches off the ground. The hands of skilled pioneer s soon divested with sharp knives the porker from all internal machinery and he was left overnight for the animal heat to be frozen out. All night long guards sat by a roaring fire end guarded the 39 hogs from the coyotes After a few days the carcass was carved into hams, shoulders, jowls, side meat, lard, and all the trimmings were saved for the sausage mill . The writer has participated in several hog killings and one day h e had to shoot 64 hogs and see them carted away half a mile to be strung up. There was no stop for dinner an d every Texas pioneer boy will recall that each claimed the " melt" of certain hogs . Around the big fire this "melt" was roasted to a finish, sometimes salted and sometimes not, but everyone enjoyed hog killing-time . The weather was bitterly cold but a roaring fire would thaw out the thumbs of all hands except the shooter who was over half a mile away and he had to thaw out his hands in his pockets.
Aunt Ollie Peril was often left alone and one night the Indians came, determined to find the fine blooded mar e that was out in the pasture . They chased her over the pasture, and finally hemmed her in the corner by the house in which Mrs. Peril stood alone with her baby. From the darkened house she saw the favorite mare shot with an arrow that ripped her side and caused her death . At one time she drew a bead on the Indian with a shot gun ; but finally concluded that if she killed the chief, the whole tribe would be down on her, burn the house , kill her and her baby . Here she displayed pioneer headwork when she traded a dead horse for a live Indian.

Some rare and very early LLANO CO. genealogy

2010-07-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

From J. Marvin Hunter's FRONTIER TIMES MAGAZINE, Jan., 1930.

THE MINUTES AND records of the old Macedonia Baptist church in Llano county, Texas, are found in an old church book which was brought from Missouri about the year 1833 by Rev. John Gibson and Rev. Reuben Gilmore Stone . The book is now in the possession of the writer, who was at one time a member of the Macedonia church.

The names first appearing on the church membership list are John Gibson, James Gibson, Ambrose Y. Stone, Reuben Gilmore Stone, John P. Robertson, James L. Robertson, Mary M. Gibson, Margaret Gibson, Sidney E. Stone, Celia Stone , Mary Davidson, Olivia Catherine Robertson and Abigail Robertson . The Constitution of the Friendship Baptist Church reads : "We, the above named members of the Cannon Church of the united Baptist order and faith, met at Brother John Stone's on the llth day of October, in the year of our Lord, 1845, in Pulaski county, on the waters of the Bag Maries, in the State of Missouri, having previously given ourselves to God and given ourselves to each other to live together in a church capacity to keep up a Godly discipline according to the rules of the Gospel, then proceeded to call on Brother John Chaudon with the help of the two brother Gibsons, all being present, to bring u s into a constitution, we the undersigned presbytery, after the nomination o f the above named members on the day and (late above named, read the articles of faith which was adopted b y the members present, and after prayer , pronounced them Church in the name of the Holy Trinity." John M. Chaudon, an ordained preacher, and the two brother Gibsons, James and John, both ordained deacons.

The articles of faith': "We believe in one true and ever living God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and these three are one . "We believe the scriptures of the old and new Testament are the Word of God and the only true rule of faith and practice. We believe in election according t o the foreknowledge of God the Father , through sanctification of the spirit . We believe in the doctrine of original sin. "We believe that man is unable t o recover himself from that fallen stat e he is in and that sinners are justifie d in the sight of God by the impute d righteousness of Jesus Christ being imputed unto them . "We believe that if saints will per - severe in grace that none of these will perish . "We believe that baptism and the Lord 's Supper are ordinances of Jesus Christ and that true believers are the only subjects of them, and the true mode of baptism is immersion . "We believe in the resurrection o f the dead and a general judgment . "We believe that the punishment o f the wicked and the joys of the righteous will be eternal. "We believe . that no minister has the right to the administration of the ordinances but such as are ordained an d in order . “Rules of decorum : Each meeting to be opened by prayer and praise . Time moderator chosen at each meeting if necessary. "Visiting brethren invited to sit with us and have all the privileges o f the church but voting . The fellowship of the church inquired for . "References called for and attended to. "Doors of the church opened for the reception of members. "Voting on the reception of members. "Unfinished business , "Other business"

The old church book does not tell where Rev. John Gibson was born, but he was moderator of the church about 1864, and I believe he was an ordained minister then. His wife was Mary Mallie Lane, and I think they were married in Missouri. The first of the book seems to have been destroyed , but there are minutes of the meetings in Missouri from 1844, one of which reads thus : "The church met the first Saturday in July, 1852, and after worship proceeded to business . Brother John Gibson, Brother Edward Moss, Brother Alexander Powers, Brother Ambrose I. Stone, Brother John H. Powers, Brother Ruben G . Stone were chosen as delegates to bear their church letter to their next Baptist association, and that Brother John Gib - son write the letter and that we contribute two dollars for minutes printed . Then in August, 1853 . "the church sat itt conference, found to be in peace, opened her doors for reception of members and received Sister Mary Gibson by experience and baptism ; then appointed Edward Moss, ,James Gibson , Ambrose Stone and John Powers t o hear their letter to the association, an d Brother Wnt. Canslcr to prepare the letter. " The book states this was the last meeting that Brother John Gibson ever held in Missouri, and I drink h e carne to Texas that fall . Brother .Jint Causlcr was born January 20, 1810, in Pendleton District South Carolina, and as soon as he came to Missouri he and his beloved wife . Eliza, united with the Friendship Clement of' Pulaski county, Missouri, when they met the first Saturday in January, 1850, by letter and Brother r l'ansler was chosen church clerk at that time.

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Rev . John Gibson preached in Missouri trout 18486 until August, 1853, then he and his wife, Mary, and their children came to Texas and Settled on Pecan Creek in the southern part of what is now Llano county, but at tha t time, according to the church book, it was Burnet county. His home was about three miles west of the Colorad o river. Rev. R. G. Stone and family came t o Texas from Missouri with Rev. John Gibson and settled on Walnut Creek in Blanco county, about six miles from Rev. Gibson 's. At the time these sturdy pioneers came to Texas ther e was not a church and that region wa s so sparsely settled it was almost impossible to have a church, but they contented themselves until 1854, when a church was organized, and the first minutes entered in the old church boo k after they brought it from Missour i are as follows : "Burnet county, Texas, August , 1855. We the undersigned met in accordance with previous appointment a t Little Hope on the first Sabbath in August, A. D. 1855, and after an appropriate discourse by Elder Eldridge from Matt. 16-18, 'Thou art Peter, an d upon this rock I will build my churc h and the gates of hell shall not prevai l against it, ' we entered into a solemn covenant which is appended below, an d was organized into the church' by Elder Eldridge and John Gibson, according to the Baptist faith, with members as follows, : John Gibson and wife , Mary M. Gibson ; Joseph Bird and wife, Eliza Bird ; Ruben G . Stone and wife, Celia Stone ; Greenberry Lackey and wife., Polly ; Mary Gibson ."

The church being authorized, proceeded to business by appointing Elder Eldridge moderator and Rev . Bird clerk for the time being, and held a n election for moderator and clerk, an d elected Brother John Gibson moderator and Rev . Joseph Bird clerk . R . G . Stone was chosen deacon . This church must have been located on the east sid e of Walnut Creek in Blanco county, o n the Round Mountain and Fredericksburg road, near where the old Methodist church now stands . Ruben Gilmore Stone settled the place (wher e Charlie Haynes lived and reared hi s family on West Walnut) and Lane Gibson settled about a half mile up West Walnut creek from Rube n Stone ' s. Mr. Hickman Dunman lived down the creek a short distance . In August, 1856, a committee was appointed to see about a meeting house . Esquire Dunman said he would donate five acres of land on Walnut Creek for a church house. It seems the building was not erected for some time, as one of the minutes says in July, 1858, the committee reported that friend James Green, Jr ., agreed to let them have three acres of lan d on the place he bought from James Gibson, Jr., including the spring o n the hill, and that "we agree to build a house 18 feet wide by 24 feet long." The committee was Rev. John Gibson, Wm. Jolly and Wm. Cansler. This land was located on the property Lewi s Green afterward owned, but the Eblig brothers own it now. It is in the northwest corner of Blanco county. A minute written in January, 1859 , reads : "Saturday before the firs t Lord 's Day, January, 1859, church me t at Little Hope and decided to change the name of the church to Pecan Creek, Church." In February they met at Pecan Creek church and called Rev. John Gibson as pastor, so they must have moved from Walnut Creek to Pecan Creek, a distance of four miles. Rev. John Gibson preached all through that section. Their association extended from Austin to Sulphur Springs, now Lampasas, and he has a regular appointment at Oatmeal, in Burnet county, somewhere near Bertram . He walked almost everywhere he went.

The nearest post office was Oatmeal, a distance of 45 miles. My grandfather, James Gibson, lived near his brother, John Gibson, and my mother, Sarah Jane Gibson, then a young lady, corresponded with my father, G. W. A. Latham, who lived at Vienna, Missouri. My uncle would mail her letters at Oatmeal and bring her mail. While we only have an ac - count of his life from 1845 to 1859, h e must have endured great hardships, as he had a large wen on his back. He was a true pioneer minister and scattered seeds of loving deeds along the fertile fields where grain has grow n what he has sown and fruitful harvest yielded. He swam swollen streams , climbed rocky hills, walked through cedar brakes to meet his appointments. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord finds watching. We have not the exact date of Rev . John Gibson's death, but it must have been in July, 1859. The church book states that the Baptist Church of Christ met at Pecan Creek Saturday before the first Lord 's Day in September, 1859 ; and after divine service s there was offered by the moderator fo r the consideration of the church a pre - amble and resolutions, towit : "Whereas, the great Head of the Church has called our much beloved brother and pastor, John Gibson, from his station on the walls of Zion to his reward in heaven ; and whereas, one so devoted to the cause of Christ as a brother an d pastor we feel that we have sustained a great loss ; therefore, resolved, that in our bereavement we feel that our loss is irreparable, being deprived of one we so much loved for his deep piety and earnest zeal, but our loss is his gain ; resolved that notwithstanding our loss is so great, yet we bow in humble submission to the will of God , who in His wisdom has thus bereaved us. Resolved, that we tender to the family of our deceased brother our sincere sympathy and trust that the surviving members of the family may strive to imitate his pious example . Resolved that the foregoing preamble and resolutions be recorded in our church book and a copy be sent to the Texas Baptist with a request that it be published in the same. Read, received and adopted by the church . William Jolly, Moderator . Lewis L. Green, C. C. " Rev. John Gibson married Miss Mary Mallie Lane in Missouri, but I do not know what year. His wife , "Aunt Polly," as she was lovingly called, was a very devout christian and a great reader of her bible . They reared seven children . Aunt Polly was more than 90 years old when she was called to her reward . She helped to rear a number of her grandchildren .

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Lewis L. Green joined the Little Hope Baptist church by letter in October, 1858, and was elected clerk o f the church in July, 1859 ; was ordaine d a deacon in 1867 . He was married to Miss Mary Ann Gibson about 1860 . She was a daughter of Rev. John Gibson. Brother Green was a Confederate soldier and an old pioneer of Blanc o county. He was in a fight with Indian s at Spring Valley near the Perdenale s in Blanco county when George Hardeman .was killed. After he married he settled on Pecan Creek and one day while working in his field he saw some one riding into his field. He thought it was some of his neighbors coming to where he was ; he went to investigate and found a horse he had in the field was missing. Then he discovered that it was an Indian he had seen, and that Indian got his horse. In August, 1861, Miss Madeline Green, a sister to Lewis Green, joined the Pecan Creek church and was baptised by Rev . Joseph Bird . She married Samuel Richards, and both o f them were brave pioneers . Mrs. Richards lived about two miles north from her brother Lewis, and the Indian who stole Lewis' horse came riding near her house on the stolen animal and Mrs. Richards saw him ride into the brush. In August, 1865, the Pecan Creek church held a meeting on Cypress Creek and James Green, Sr ., and his wife, Nancy, were received into the church. Mrs. Nancy Green came t o Texas with Austin 's Colony about 1831. They were the parents of Lewis L. Green and Mrs . Richards. L. L. Green is now more than eighty year s old and lives at Phoenix, Arizona. Mrs. Richards lives at Mineral Wells, Tex .

In October, 1856, Mrs. Jemima Dunman, wife of Hickman Dunman, joined the Little Hope church on recommendation. In September, 1857, Lane L Gibson and wife, Betsy Ann Lambeth , united with the Little Hope Baptist church by experience and were baptised into the full fellowship of the church'. In October, 1857, William Gibson united with the church by letter . These were sons of Rev. John Gibson . In June, 1868, Mrs. William Gibson , who was Sarah Ann Haynes, joined the church . In September, 1857, James Gibson, Jr., and wife, Mary, were dismissed by letter and moved to Cook e county, Texas. James Gibson was killed by Indians in Cooke county. He, too, was a son of Rev . John Gibson .

At a protracted meeting at Little Hope in November, 1858, Joseph Hardin and Miss Irene Jolly presented themselves to the church for membership and were received and baptised . At a camp meeting on Cypress in 3859, four members, were received and baptised, Mary Ann Gibson, Jacob Finley, August Sockleman and Margaret Casner.

In September, 1860, Mary the colored servant of Hickman Dunman was received into the church by letter . This servant was bequeathed to ' Hickman Dunman by the will of Morning Majors, as was also another negro, Terrell . Mr. Dunman kept Mary as long as she lived . Terrell was killed by Indians in Llano county while he was out with an ox team . The oxen were not molested and they came on wit h the wagon and when near Mr. Dunman 's house they walked between two trees and the hubs of the wagon wheel s caught and held them fast. They were found the next day and unyoked from the wagon, but the wagon was never moved from the trees. Mary died at a ripe old age, and was buried beside Terrell at the Dunman and Hayne s cemetery on Walnut Creek, Llano county, Texas.

Mr. and Mrs. Hickman Dunman were early settlers in Llano county and good citizens . Their daughters married some of the pioneers of tha t county. Josephine married John B . Duncan ; Sarah Jane married C. P. Haynes ; Elizabeth married Dick Burr ; Belle married Levi Wight. William Dunman was an old time Texas Ranger a brave and fearless man. In October, 1855, William Jolly an d wife joined the church and in May , 1859, he was ordained to the ministry . Rev. John ,Gibson, Rev . Jacob C . Talley, Rev. Joseph Bird, George Morris and Rev. Isaacs composed the presbytery. Then in August, 1859, Rev . Jolly was called as pastor of the church, serving until May, 1860, when he resigned, and Rev . Joseph Bird was called as pastor, and he served until January , 1862. Sometime (luring the year o f 1861 the church must have given up the meeting place on Pecan Creek, in Blanco county, and moved over to the Cedar Creek school house in Llano county, near the old Slator place. Both places are now owned by Ebling brothers. At that time it was the Privett place.

We have no record of what the church did from January, 1862, until August, 1865 . That was during the gloomy Civil War period. In August, 1865, the Pecan Creek church held a protracted meeting on Cypress Cree k and received five members, James Green and wife, Nancy, Mr. Click and wife, and Louisa Casner, into the fellowship of the Pecan Creek Church . There is no record of the church between 1865 to May, 1867 . The second Sunday in May, 1867, the church cal - led Rev. Rucker as pastor and they had preaching by a Rev . Randolph. The second Sunday in June, 1867, letters of dismission were granted to Rev . R. G. Stone and wife, and they went further west to preach the gospel o f peace . In July, 1867, Lewis Green was ordained as a deacon . In those days there were Rev. Quillian, Rev . Randolph and Rev. Brown, and also Rev. Dolahite of Dripping Springs, who would preach for them some times, but Rev. George Rucker was pastor from May, 1867, t o December, 1869.

There were no minutes from December, 1869, to October , 1871, but in that month a protracte d meeting was held at the old Cedar Creek school house, which was then called Pecan Creek church, and a number of people attended and camped on the ground, among them being Uncle Sanford Backues and Uncle Wiley Fowler of Love Creek, Rev. Bird of Round Mountain, Lewis Green, Dir . Richards, Uncle John Backues and my mother and her children . I believe m y father was in Kansas at that time. Some of the Sirugarts from Roun d Mountain were there, and the Phillipses also attended the meeting. Rev. Bird, Rev. Bell, and perhaps Revs . Tally and Rucker helped in the preaching, as well as Rev. John Gibson's widow. There were four additions to the church', John Keeney Backues, G. Wash Gibson, Sarah J . Latham, and Elizabeth Dunham were accepted and baptised by Rev. Joseph Bird in Pecan Creek . The minutes said they had quite a refreshing shower from the Lord. Rev. Joseph Bird In December, 1871, J. K. Backues was elected clerk and in February, 1872, Rev. Joseph Bird was called as pastor.

I am sure that during all these years when there were no records made of the meetings Rev. Bird was preaching occasionally for them . He was like a faithful horse, if he could not work on one side of the harness he would work on the other. He was 188 FRONTIER TIMES always ready to do whatever he could . The fourth Sabbath in February , 1872, Rev . Montgomery Bell preached, and R. G. Stone was ordained to the ministry, and C. Lane Gibson was ordained as a deacon . Rev. Gilmore Stone and wife, Celia, Brother Lan e Gibson and wife, Sarah Ann, called for their letters so they could organize a church over on Squaw Creek in Gillespie county . Rev. R. G. Stone was pastor and Lane Gibson was a deacon o f the new Squaw Creek church. The records show that the church met at Pecan Creek in April, 1872 . Sister Elizabeth Gibson joined the church . She was Grandpa Gibson' s third wife, and her name before Grandpa married her was Mrs . Elizabeth Rix. John Backues was church clerk from December 1871 to May , 1873. Rev. Bird and Rev . Bell preached some for them and they would often meet and have prayer meeting a t their homes Lewis Green often conducted these services, and sang wit h that great wonderful voice of his . One of the songs which he enjoyed singing was "The Old Ship of Zion . John Backues was my mothers ' step-brother . His first wife was Miss Sally Gibson, daughter of Rev. John Gibson. She died in 1867 and left him with four little children . He afterward married Miss Eliza Stone, daughter o f Rev. R . G. Stone.

Some of the members of the church were among the earliest pioneers of the country, but their names are o n the list of members, among them being Greenberry Lackey and wife, Polly Shugart, Sarah Privett, Louisa Casner, Maria L. Holdman, and Marie E. Holdman. Sometime during the year 1867 John Green and his mother united with the church and sometime after that William Green and wife joined . In October, 1869, John Green, William Green and wife, and James Green wer e dismissed by letter. Mr. Cady was baptised and granted a letter , the same day. John Green's wife 's maiden name was Miss Belle Harrington . John K. Backues was a brave and fearless man . He killed an Indian in the noted fight on the head of Cypress in Blanco county, Texas . He died in February, 1874 . Ilis brother, Sanfor d Backues, shown in the accompanying picture, was also an Indian fighter an d a good citizen. Sanford Backues died in February, 1875, just one year after his brother died . Sanford Backues and John Backues We had church services at intervals at the old Pecan Creek Church and Cedar Creek School House until as lat e as 1877, but there were no minutes kept of the proceedings. Rev James M. Moore, a Presbyterian minister, who taught our school, would often preach. Rev. Moore married Miss Bettie Moss in Llano county, and afterwards became County Judge. We had no services in a church house for about six years, but as far as we know these are the names of the members of the church when it was discontinued : Jemima Dunman and daughter, Elizabeth ; James Gibson, Sr ., and wife , Elizabeth Gibson ; Lewis Green an d wife, Mary Ann Green ; Mrs. Madeleue Richards ; G. Wash . Gibson and wife, Sarah J. Gibson ; Mrs. Sarah J. Latham.

About 1877 others had died or received letters or were excluded . In the autumn of 1880 the citizens of Pecan Creek community built a good school house . Those who took part in this good work were Samuel Richards , M. R. Sheppard, Mrs . Sanford Backues Wash Gibson, Ben Gibson, Uncle Jimmie Gibson, G. W. A. Latham, J . V. Latham, Dr. V . C. Latham, V . G. Latham, Jr., William Latham, Benjamin Phillips, H . T. Duncan, Hick L . Tate, J . H . Cherry, F. Yeast, Ralph Haynes and George Haynes. Others who did not live in the community but who helped in the work were J . P. Smith and C. P. Haynes of Walnut, Samuel Tate and sons of the Sandy Mountain community, and the Hardins, and Crownovers , Code Phillips, William Strickland and Frank Waldrope . Then on the 10th day of April, 1881 , the following persons met at the Pecan Creek School House and covenanted together to live in a church capacity, : James Gibson, Marion Crownover and wife, Emma J. Crownover ; Mrs . G. W . A. Latham, G . Wash. Gibson and W. G. Ridge, and were then acknowledged by the following presbytery : Elder Dan E. Moore of Willow City, Elde r Joseph Bird, Wm . Cansler, Deacon Willie Grisham of Round Mountain . They adopted the covenant and articles of faith of the Perdenales Baptist Association. Then the church met in conference, when George W. A. Latham was received by experience .

By motion of Brother John Gibson the church was named "Macedonia. " Later Rev. James Bell was called a s pastor. He did not respond, and Rev . Bird supplied . In every time of nee d he was always willing to help . On the fourth Saturday in September, 1881, David Strickland was received by letter and Mrs. David Strickland and Annie Latham Cherry were approved for baptism. On the next day, Sunday, Rev. R. J. McNeil preached and in the afternoon Sisters Strickland and Cherry were baptised in Pc - can Creek by Rev. Joseph Bird . On the fourth Lord 's Day in October, 1881, Rev. R. J. McNeil was chosen pastor of the Macedonia Baptist church. At a camp meeting at Flat Rock Springs, Burnet country, September 19, 1881, Butler Hardin was receive d by experience and baptised by Bro . Isaac Sellars. Butler Hardin came from Tennessee when a young man and married Miss Rufina Crownover. They were pioneers of Blanco and Mason counties, reared eleven honorable children and stood for the best and the things that were worth most in this life . A number of the Macedonia Church people attended the Baptist association at Round Mountain in August, 1882, and enjoyed the fellowship of a number of churches. Rev. McNeil served the church abou t one year, and then Rev. Hillyer was called as pastor.

They had meetin g most every month and were a faithful few until the Lord came with refreshing showers from above. At a camp meeting at Flat Rock Springs, Burnett county, August 1 , 1883, Dr. V. G. Latham and wife, Nancy, Latham (parents of G. W. A . Latham), were received into the fellowship of the Macedonia Baptis t church and were baptized by Rev . Win. Jordan. At the same meeting Miss Rosa Tate was received into the Macedonia church and baptized by Rev. Jordan. Church met at Macedonia secon d Lord 's Day in October, 1883, Preaching by Bro. Bird. G. G. Hardin unite d with the church on recommendation and his daughter, Mrs . A. Hasseltim e Crownover, united by letter . James C. Hardin and wife, Melissie Phillips Hardin, Miss Cynthia Hardin (Butler Hardin 's daughter) James Buie and wife, Vina Crownover Buie, and Thomps M . Gibson were received into the church by experience and was baptized the same day in Pecan Creek by Rev . Joseph Bird into the full fellowship o f the church . Richard Pope and his wife, Josephine, united with Macedonia Baptist church on this same day . Richard Pope afterwards became a Baptist preacher and his wife Josephine was a great help to him as they have traveled as missionaries in Texas, New Mexico , Arizona . They are now located i n California .

On the second Lord 's Day May 1884, G. W. A. Latham was elected to the office of Deacon and ordained the same day, Rev. Beall and Rev. Joseph Bird the presbytery . In July, 1884, Rev. Wm. Harman, a young Baptist minister, preached a t Macedonia. Among others who united with the Macedonia Baptist church during the year 1884 nearly all were children o f the old pioneers, the Hardins, Richards, Haynes, Gibsons, Ropers, Dun - mans, Latham, Yoast, Cherry, and Colliers . Others who came in later were Mrs . R. L. Tate, daughter of G : W. A . Latham ; Mrs. Fannie Tate Lee, Lev i Wight and his wife, who was Miss Bell Dunman ; John T. Hallford and wife , Millie Phillips Hallford ; John L . Barnes, Alonzo Killgore and wife an d daughters ; Theodore Alexander an d wife ; the Ilattons,°the Pattersons an d Mr. C. P. Tuberville. Mrs. Annie S. Hardin united with the Macedonia Baptist church September, 1886. She was the wife of G. Wash . Hardin and daughter of Rev . Arter Crownover and a sister to Mrs . Butler Hardin. Rev. Crownover moved with his family from Fayette county to Wight ' s Creek in Blanco county in an earl y day. He brought some negroes with him. One night the dogs got after something and it ran up a tree . The negroes went to see what the dog s were barking at and they discovered that it was a large panther .

Camp meetings were held in August , 1884, at Flat Rock Springs in Burnet County, at Moore 's Chapel in Llano county, and at Wolf's Crossing in Burnet county. A number of profession s were made at these meetings and several converts united with the Macedonia Baptist church . Among them were Robert W. Hardin, Ben M . Gibson, Ralph W . Haynes and John Roper , who were old pioneers and Indians fighters. Ralph Haynei and Ben Gibson were in the fight with the Indians , on Cypress Creek in Blanco county . Robert W. Hardin, Ben Gibson and John Roper were with the company of people who were going to California from Blanco county, Texas, in 1869 . And were attacked by the Indians on the Pecos river, when Silas Gibson was killed by the Indians . Robert Hardin's wife, who was Mrs. Deborah Gibson Phillips, was with the emigrants when her brother, Silas Gibson, was killed . She united with the church when her husband did and also their daughter , Effie Hardin, who was one of the emigrants. They returned to Texas, from California in 1874 . These meetings were held by Rev. Jacob Talley, Rev . Hallford and Johnson at Wolf's Crossing . At Flat Rock, by Rev. Isaac Sellars, John A . Arbuckle, Rev . McFlory and Rev . Joseph Bird, and the ever faithful layman , Wm. Cansler was present. Rev. Barton and Cal Malloy Methodist ministers, conducted the Moore's Chapel meeting where my uncle Hiram T. Duncan and wife, Harriet Gibson, were converted.

Hiram T. Duncan was reared around old Packsaddle Mountain, where the last Indian fight was fought in Llano county, and the men who were wounded in the fight were brought to his uncle, John Duncan 's, residence on Honey Creek in Llano county, Hiram T. Duncan was one of the men, I think , who rode to Llano town that night after a doctor, for the wounded . Church met at Macedonia, Sept . 1885, on the 4th Lord's Day . Preaching by Rev. E. K. Branch. Brethren R. W. Hardin and Dr . V. G. Latham were ordained as deacons of the church. Eld. Branch and Deacon G . W. A. Latham composed the presbytery . In October, 1891, G . W. A. Latham was ordained to the ministry and Be n Major Gibson was ordained as Deacon . Rev. C. M. Hornburg, Joseph Bird an d Rev. Henry Allsup composed the presbytery. Rev. G. W. A. Latham was pastor for the Macedonia Baptist church for about two years, and if the regular pastor was absent he would always tr y to fill the pastor 's place. He preached at Honey Creek in Llano county and at Comanchie Creek in Blanco county . He moved to New Mexico in 1898 and settled in the Sacramento Mountains where he preached for some time . On October 7, 1908, he and his beloved wife, Sarah Jane Latham, with their many friends and neighbors, celebrated their golden wedding at Mountain Park Baptist church. This is the photograph of them made at their golden wedding. The vest that my father has on is the one he married in and as h e was much larger at his golden wedding than he was when he married he said that he had to have side boards put into his vest so he could wear it to his golden wedding . The waist and cape that my mother has on, she was married in them. My father and mothe r were married sixty-eight years whe n my mother passed away, May 23, 1917. G. W. A. Latham and Wife In 1910, he moved with his family, t o Alamogordo N . M., and while he was not physically able to preach, he attended church regularly until hi s death February 17, 1924.

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For more early Llano County Texas History see:
How Llano Came Into its Own
Indian Days of Llano County
Masonic Lodge Uncovers History of Llano

Written by those who lived it!

2010-07-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

Mr. Hunter published his periodical during a time when early Texas settlers, pioneers, cattlemen, and observers of the events of Texas history were still alive and able to tell their stories. This is one of the most valuable assets of this magazine. Its articles are written largely from the vantage point of the eye-witness observer or actual participant in the event. Mr. Hunter sought to gather as much of this eye-witness testimony as he could before the generation of these settlers passed on.

These magazines are highly sought-after and are of almost unparalleled value to historians, collectors, and genealogists. They are rich in first-hand accounts of formative pioneer events -- early settlers and frontier expeditions, soldiers, Rangers, Indians and outlaws; of battles, privations and tragedies; of riches won and lost, of mines, and hidden treasure. No modern revisionism here - just the facts: bold, bloody and accurate. Each magazine is also a voluminous resource of genealogical data: family names, ancestors, relations, locations, employments, relocations, birthdates and death-dates.

For many years, researchers of Texas history and Texas genealogy, and folks who just love Texas and frontier history have found these magazines a hidden gold mine of information. Because of Mr. Hunter's commitment to solicit his stories from from the folks who lived the history themselves, there is information in these volumes that cannot be found anywhere else. But he also gathered stories from reputable historians and writers such as T. U. Taylor, J. Frank Dobie, Col. M. L. Crimmins and others, as well as documents from old newspapers, court records and personal testimonies from those who were part of the shaping of the Texas Frontier and other areas of the Southwest during the 1800's. In these volumes you will also find much in the way of Indian lore, Mexican-American history, and the history/genealogy of surrounding regions, especially, Indian Territory (Oklahoma), New Mexico, Kansas and Arizona.

J. Marvin Hunter had the highest regard for historical accuracy in whatever he included in his publication. In many cases, when an inaccuracy was discovered, Mr. Hunter unashamedly and readily published the clarifications, making this periodical an undisputed authority on historical and genealogical data
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