Gerome W. Shield, Cattleman, resident of Tom Green county since 1883, hide and animal inspector from 1888 to 1892, sheriff for four straight terms ending in 1900 was born in Panohi County, Mississippi, March 22, 1864, came to Texas ill 1869, the family settling in Hunt county, then moving in 1874 to Trickham, Coleman county. It was from there that Mr. Shield came to Tom Green. County and settled for the rest of his life. His legacy as a sheriff and achievements while in public office are the subject of this story.

Further Mentions: his brother, Walter F. Shield, who lives, at McAlister, Okla., the men who in June 1898 held up the Santa Fe passenger train at Coleman Junction. He worked first on the William Hewit ranch on Live Oak creek, now in Coke which a brother, Lee Shield, later purchased. Lee Shield sold his interest in 1886 and Rome Shield remained on that ranch until 1888 when he was elected hide and animal inspector and moved to San Angelo. J. Willis Johnson, Sr., Ed Dozier, ex-sheriff of Concho county, Perry McConnell, Sutton county sheriff at Sonora, Bill Taylor, his brother, Jeff Taylor, Pearce Keeton, and Bud Newman. All lived in the Sonora and Junction country, R. E. Buchanan, of Fort Worth, Engineer Jim Stanton and Fireman Lee Johnson, D. R. Hodges, then a deputy sheriff, deputy Henry Decker., Bud Newman,

A. J. Sowell. Account of brutal slaying of young Ranse Brown, by viscous Mescalero Apaches in Frio county, May 6, 1873. Further depicts subsequent atrocities committed shortly thereafter in same area including the murder of Mrs. Graham’s infant and an attack on Frio Town.

Further Mentions: Brown was from Lockhart, Caldwell county, .Major Allen, who lived near Old Frio Town on the east side of the river., The Allen. Ranch, Billy Allen, Demps Forrest, the two Gildea brothers-Bud and Gus; James Crosson, Ed Massey, Lee Garner, Rufe Ridley, Lee Tremble and Bill Daugherty., the Todas Santos ranch, John Pranglin, Blackaller's, Louis Oge's ranches, Mrs. Julia McKinney,

Annie Dyer Nunn In 1866 they surveyed the Goodnight and Loving trail, perhaps the most famous of a11 the old cow trails. It began in Young County, Texas. and extended southwest to the Pecos River; here it turned northwest, following the course of the river four hundred miles to Fort Sumner and beyond. It then crossed the divide between the Platt and the Arkansas rivers seventy-five miles east of Denver. It ended. at the mouth of Crow Creek.

The first part of the trail down to the Pecos was through good country with plenty of grass and water, but along the Pecos it was bleak and forbidding. There was little grass and the only semblance of tree life was the wild mesquite. in speaking of this country Colonel Goodnight said. "The Pecos country was the most desolate I had ever explored. The river was full of fish, but besides the fish there was scarcely a living thing, not even birds and coyotes. "The country was again good along the upper Pecos and in Colorado."

Such was the trail over which Loving made his last drive. The events of this drive deserve a prominent place in the history of West Texas. The partnership between Loving and Goodnight was an ideal one, since Loving knew the trail and its ways, and Goodnight knew men and cattle. Both were men of high honor and courage. Loving was fifty-five years, old; Goodnight thirty five. This account depicts the trail drive of June, 1867. The outfit consisted of twenty-five hundred head of steers and eighteen men. From the first the Indians were a constant menace. There were other depravations and troubles including the nearly mortal wound that Loving endured, wolves, etc. This is an excellent story of these great men who fulfilled a great dream and provided a great service.

Further Mentions: Weatherford, Texas, Fort Sumner, New Mexico, Emerson Hough, Bill Wilson, a trailsman, Known as One-Armed Bill Wilson, who was with Oliver Loving at the time Loving was wounded. Bill Wilson gave the editor of Frontier Times an account of this fight which coincides with the story here given.. (an old photo of Mr. Wilson is included in the article), Burleson, who had a herd of cattle,

Old Timer in the Coleman Times. This is the story of W. W. (Bill) Hunter, who settled in Coleman county, along with his wife, formerly Miss Fiveash, when but few people had ventured that far west. Mr. Hunter was ten years of age when lie arrived at Camp Colorado in 1860 with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Malcom Hunter.

SELLER’S NOTE: THIS IS GREAT EARLY COLEMAN CO. HISTORY AND GENEAOLOGY. An excerpt: Among the early settlers in and around the army post on Jim Ned during the early sixties and who later became permanent citizens, Mr. Hunter calls to mind L, D. Saint Claire, Dudley Johnson and family, Mr. Chrismas, John Sheem, Rev. H. M. Childress, Methodist minister; Johnnie Rhoads, the Clayton family, L. D. Greaves, R. C. (Cuffy) Morgan and family F. M. Alexander, Joe Byers, (a bachelor), Pete Callan and J. J. (Baldy) Callan. Cuff Morgan had charge of the wagon trains that freighted material and supplies from San Antonio to the army post on Jim Ned. L. D. Greaves came with the troops as guide and was later sheriff of the county. J. J. (Baldy) Callan was in charge of the commissary at that army post and later captained a company of Rangers. Jesse and Dudley Johnson, Jr. served the army post as, f fer and drummer.

Joe Byers, a bachelor, lived with Mr. and Mrs. Dudley Johnson and served the army as a guide. He was killed by the Kickapoo Indians in the historic Dove Creek fight. He was scalped and his head severed from his body and placed on a pole.

Jeff Morgan, as Mr. Hunter remembers, was the first white child born in Coleman county. James Callan, now living at Menard, was perhaps the second white child born in the county,

Luke Williamson, later county clerk of Coleman county, married Annie Johnson. Peter Callan, first postmaster at the town of Coleman, married Jennie Johnson. Captain J. M. Elkins, yet living on the Jim Ned, not far from the old army post, married Emma Johnson. T

Further Mentions: Mr. & Mrs. Enoch Fiveash, settled on Mukewater Creek, R. C. (Cuffy) Morgan and F. M. Alexander, Buffalo Branch, in the eastern part of Coleman county, Mr. and Mrs. R. C. Johnson, one of the flrst families of Coleman county., Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Hunter were married in 1871. Mr. Henry Sackett of Camp Colorado, next friend of the groom, was an attendant at the wedding. 1870 when Indians made a raid in the Mukewater settlement and killed Jacob Dofflemier (Dofflemyer), Mr. Hunter remembers distinctly the Indian raid in August, 1873, which occurred on Sand Creek, about ten miles past of the present town of Santa Anna, in which Mrs. Williams and baby were killed and her nine-year-old daughter carried away by the Indians. Mr. Hunter was on the scene a short time afterward. Assisted by Bill Adams of Brown county, he got 32 men together and followed the Indians to the headwaters of the Brazos River. The rescuing party suffered greatly from heat and lack of water and food. Captain J. M. Elkins and other members of the rescuing party found the body of the girl wrapped in a piece of buffalo hide and suspended from a mesquite tree on the headwaters of the Brazos., Twenty men from the Jim Ned settlement were picked up by Major Totten in his drive on the Kickapoo Indians in the West in 1865. W. W. Hunter’s brother, Warren Hunter, and a brother-in-law joined Totten's command of 400 men and took part in the Dove Creek battle in the winter of 1865. Bill Franks started a store, the building being hewn out of native logs., place became known as Trick'em., John Chisolm moved cattle up the west Chisolm trail and frequently stopped his herd and bought refreshments at Frank's store., May 1871--when L. L. Shield moved into the community and took over the Chisolm business. Mr. Shield later built the rock store which gave Trickham distinction during the early days. The brown walls of the old store, are still standing., Maj E. Kirby Smith, who was in command of the U. S. troops at Camp Colorado, Col. J. E. McCord's Regiment, two companies of Totten's Battalion of Texas Rangers and Captain J. J. Callan with a company of Texas Rangers occupied the fort at various times until the close of the war. The post was not revived after the war and Fort Concho was then established. The present home of Mr. and Mrs. Sackett near Jim Ned Creek, was built of some of the stones taken from the walls of old Camp Colorado.,

Henry C. Fuller. Story of the Fredoinian Rebellion in 1924 when Hayden Edwards and his brother, Benjamin Edwards, declared their area around Nacogdoches a free and independent nation: the Fredonian Republic. The Fredonian Declaration of Independence was written and duly signed. The plan almost worked except for two things: support suddenly caved in on the part of Indians and others who were in favor of the rebellion, and word of a mass of Mexican troops coming to squelch the rebellion. When the Mexicans had withdrawn the refugees returned from the east side of the Sabine, and legend says they reached the little branch on Christmas Day, 1825, where in honor of the return of peace and safety and glad they were getting back home, they 'made a great eggnog, and gave to the little stream the name Eggnog Branch, a name that it has held 100 years, The name promises to remain a monument to the memory of the historic days of a historic period.

Further Mentions: La Nuna Creek., the Old Stone Fort, Benjamin Edwards, Martin Palmer, Richard Fields, Sulphur River, Texarkana, in Miller county, Arkansas, Ellis P. Bean who was acting as agent for the Mexican government, Mound Prairie, not far from where the town of Alto, in Cherokee County,

"James William Taylor, called "Tie" Taylor was born in Dallas county, Texas, in June, 1834. In 1872 he joined the Texas Rangers at Belknap, on the Brazos river, and served continuously until the Indians were driven out. His first captain was Willis Hunter, his next was Rufus Perry, and his third was Captain Nichols. One of the first battles he was in with the Indians was at Salt Creek in Young county. The next one was when the Russell family was massacred by Indians. At that time the Rangers were stationed at the old log school house in the edge of the Cross Timbers, and I, on my mare, "Fleetfoot," carried the news of this massacre to Dripping Springs to the Rangers. I also carried a dispatch to old Uncle Billie Hayes in Springtown, Parker county, where the Rangers were, stationed, a distance of ten miles, and I was pursued by five 1ndians, but Fleetfoot and I beat them to Springtown, and there the Rangers took up the chase and killed three of the Indians.

The Indians captured the Davis boys near their home in Parker county. That same afternoon, they killed Wes Higgins' boy on his way home from school, scalped him and cut him in two and left him in the road. The Indians took the Davis boys to a reservation in Kansas and kept them three years, and finally traded them to Mr. Davis for some ponies…"

T. U. Taylor.  Eye-witness account of the hanging of Negro man, Joe Williams, and subsequent events that occurred in Parker county during wild days of 1868.

Further Mentions: a foot-traveler by the name of Thomas Bird, our home on Bear Creek in Parker county, Texas, Weatherford, a negro by the name of Jeff Eddleman, Spring Creek, Captain Bob Blackwell, the old Buchanan road, stole a large iron grey mare from and went east, taking The officers Went in pursuit and captured Joe about twenty-five miles southeast of Weatherford, returned the mare to Captain Blackwell and placed Joe in the Weatherford jail. Dr. Millikin, Judge Norton., Col. Joe Rushing of Weatherford, George Clark afterwards moved to Waco, and became one of the leading lawyers of Texas, Wes Hedrick, Tom Ledbetter, who lived south of Weatherford several miles on the Brazos, Clay or (Clabe) Williams, to Mr. N. H. Eddleman of Weatherford and Mr. John N. Frazier of Poolville

TX Ranger Thompson accounts Comanche Indian raids in the Neuces Canyon about 30 miles from Uvalde, and the efforts to squelch their frequent uprisings.

Further Mentions: On one occasion, with a detachment of twenty-six men, I was scouting to the north of the town of Bandera, in a region of country then wholly unsettled. The Medina river has its source 40 miles above Bandera, and the vicinity of the head of the river was a rendezvous for the Comanche Indians who were wont to gather there in large bodies, and then dividing up into smaller parties make raids into the country south and southwest., Corporal Rodriguez,

John Warren Hunter. This is a fascinating account of the son of a good man, who turned rotten. Possessing a hot temper and a furious desire for violence, Vaden wreaked terror and murder wherever he went. Finally at Fort McKavett he got his comeuppance. Here is an excerpt of this great story as told by a first-hand eye witness of the events, and a man who knew Vaden. Here is some great Menard County history as well.

Further Mentions: Lige Reynolds who was raised at Sulphur Springs, the First Texas Cavalry U. S. Volunteers, the Biggerstaff gang, Alvarado, Johnson county, Sulphur Springs, I next met John Vaden at Menardville in the fall of 1884. He had married a Miss Jackson, who was of an excellent family, her father being James Jackson who Iived on the San Saba below town., Sam Wallick's store in Fort McKavett, Ben Biggerstaff, Mr. Reynolds, Capt. Tollman, Sam Wallick, D. T. Priest, John Q. Adams, Cahrley Adams and Doe Word, Tom Ball and Tom Elliott, Mr. Priest, , F. Mayer owned a saloon and Ben Daniels, a deputy sheriff under J. W. Mears, was his barkeeper., Charley Adams, Ben Daniels,

Account of the Buffalo Wallow Indian fight in Hemphill county, between the Washita River and the Gageby Creek twenty-two miles South of Canadian and about the same distance east of Miami, Texas. At this place September 12, 1874 two Government Scouts and four soldiers carrying dispatches from General Nelson A. Miles' Camp on McClellan Creek to Fort Supply, were surrounded and held for forty-eight hours by a band of One Hundred Twenty~Five Kiowa and Comanche Indians, fully armed and on the war path. In the beginning of the fight all the men were wounded, and all.except two were disabled.. One of the soldiers received a mortal wound from which he died the night after the attack.

Further Mentions: "Billy" Dixon, Amos Chapman, Olive K. Dixon

Mentions notorious Jim Taylor who, although only 18 years of age, was conceded to be the quickest man with a gun that ever ranged the prairies between the Panhandle and the Gulf who engaged in rounding up unbranded steers. Depicts the events of the Taylor-Sutton feud, which for more than fifteen years tore DeWitt, Victoria and Calhoun counties with bloody single combats and pitched battles, shootings, hangings and sudden, mysterious deaths. Also depicts certain dramatic escapes of the principal figures which moved through the stirring scenes of the feud. This terrible feud tore at Cuero, Victoria and Port Lavaca. The older inhabitants of Cuero will tell you that in the days just prior to 1875 not a week passed without its killing.

The feud started just after the close of the civil war, how, nobody remembers exactly. But then the cattle country was not fenced, the herds bad increased during the four, years of strife, and when their owners returned from the frontiers of war nearly one-half the cattle upon the ranges were unbranded. Naturally their division afforded any number of chances for disagreement, and disagreement in those days was a dangerous thing. This is a great story and great history of the area.

Further Mentions: a family by the name of Taylor, and another by the name of Sutton. Both were in the cattle business and both employed a large number of cowboys., a doctor by the name of Brazell, and his son, were haled from their beds one dark night by a mysterious party of horsemen, and were murdered in cold blood., Dan Sullivan, a well known banker of' San, Antonio, Slaughter,

Elder John S. Dust, pioneer preacher and son of the Texas patriot, Col. John Durst of Nacogdoches, wrote this beautiful declaration of his earnest faith prior to his death in 1924. It is a moving declaration of the reality of a sincere and tried faith that works deep in a man’s heart. Much of what this dear man bore in life, paved the way for his comfort in the hour of death. This is a very moving declaration.

thanks to our Father in Heaven for a prospective place in His sweet home that will defy the wreck of time's wasting hand aeross the river of death that has brought me to its, crossing, and as I cross it, I send back to you, dear one, a loving farewell."

By W. K. Baylor. This is the account of the brave and noble Captain Man Darius Tackitt who was born in Missouri in 1812. He married Miss Emiline Wright. In 1837 he moved to Arwhich was then a frontier country. There six of his seven children were born. One was born in Texas later on. In 1854 Captain Tackitt moved to Parker county, Texas, and settled about 12 miles north from Weatherford, in a howling wilderness. Here the Tackitt's lived for four years. In 1858 they moved to Brown's Creek in the southeast corner of Jack county, in the neighborhood where the counties of Jack, Wise, Palo Pinto and Parker corner. At this last place they lived until October 26, 1863, and during the intervening years had raised a nice herd of stock horses and cattle. In 1854, Tackitt’s brother, the Rev. Pleasant Tackitt moved to Parker county and settled near Veal's Station. In 1857, he moved to Young county, where in January, 1860, he had a big fight with the Comanches. The Tackitts were indeed pioneers in Texas, and in the counties of Parker, Jack and Young. Here is great history of these areas.

Further Mentions: Colonel Henry E. McCulloch, Captain Tackitt, with a company of 40 men, faithfully patrolled the frontier, giving assurance and protection to the frontier people and their property., The first officers were James N. Norris of Coryell county, colonel; A. T. Obenchain. of Parker county, lieutenant-colonel. Obenchain was killed by two of his men, Reek Stockton and Tude Whatley. McCord was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and J. B. Barry of Bosque county, (known as Buck Barry), was appointed major. Barry was quite distinguished as an experienced frontiersman and Indian fighter., Lieutenant-Colonel, J. B. Barry; Major, W. J. Alexander., Col. James N. Norris, , J. H. Tackitt, a younger brother, Caleb, Veal's station, Captain Joshua Caldwell, Major George B. Erath of McLennan county, Major John Henry Brown., Brigadier General James W. Throckmorton, Major Quails, Fort Cobb, The Tonkaway Indians, their chief, Placido., Wm. Mosley was captain,

BIRTHDAY REUNION OF A TEXAS PIONEER.

C. V. Allen. Brief account of Mrs. Issac Gann, and of early history of Hamilton County of which she was a resident for 60 years. Mentions: the old Isaac Gann home near Gann's Bridge, Miss Annie Whitney, Mrs. Gann is the mother of seven children, namely: George M. Gann, Mrs. Mary Arnold, Mrs. Mrs. J. H. Grogan and Mrs. H. H. Hoover, She has fifty grandchildren, seven greatgrandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

By J. C. Duval. FIRST INSTALLMENT. Early history of TX focusing on events prior to and including Mexican War. This is great reading.

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Condition:  Excellent