Vol 07 No. 07 - April 1930

Benjamin R. Milam

Benjamin R. Milam, the hero of San Antonio, was a genuine son "of the dark and Bloody ground." He distinguished himself as a soldier in the War of 1812, and at its

close became a trader and an adventurer among the Indian tribes on the headwaters of the Texas rivers. Later he enlisted in the ranks of the Republicans, who were trying to disengage themselves from the Spanish yoke. He organized an expedition for the capture of Tampico. Later he was taken by the Imperial troops and thrown into prison, where He languished for a year, and was finally released by an uprising among the people. Later, when the despotic plans of Santa Anna began to be unfolded. These were denounced in unmeasured terms by the stern and incorruptible Milam. The result was Milam was again arrested and thrown into prison at Monterey. He once remarked to Judge Burnet that he had been in almost every prison between the Rio Grande and' the City of Mexico. This is the great patriot’s story.

Further Mentions: Trespelacious * Iturbide * General A. G. Wabell, an Englishman * Dr. Beale * Baring Brothers, London * the fight at Nacogdoches in 1832 * Judge Elis * Beale's grant * Captain Collinsworth * Burleson * Veramendi House

SENATOR QUAY ONCE A TEXAN

Doubtless all students of our country's political history know that Senator Matthew Stanley Quay, of Pennsylvania, was the most astute politician the United States has produced, but few are aware of the fact that Mr. Quay was once a Texan. This is the story.

Pioneer Relates Incidents Of Early Days

As related to Rev. O. W. Nolen, by G. R. Newman, Dilley, Texas

NOTE: THIS IS RARE, EARLY LA SALLE COUNTY HISTORY RELATED BY ONE OF ITS EARLIEST SETTLERS.

Account of G. R. Newman, who was raised near Prairie Lea, in Guadalupe county, and by the time he reached manhood had accumulated a bunch of cattle, and decided to hunt a new location out West, settling in what is now La Salle county in 1883.

Further Mentions: the killing of Jack Harris * John Uvalde Schmidt * W. T. Cude, who lived near Pearsall * B. F. Winters of Moore * Luke and Bob Brite * Capt. Brooks * Cotulla * John Rogers was in Capt. Brooks' Company * Adolph Petry was in Brooks' Company * George Bigford * Carrizo Springs * John Hess * Some of the sheriffs of La Salle county I knew were Capt. Flye, Will Hill, Joe Tumlinson, Bill McMullen, Mr. McMullen was the father of Ed McMullen and Mrs. Ida Hampton, who now live at Dilley. Other sheriffs I knew were Charlie McKinney, who was killed, and Mr. Burwell. * the shooting of the Bowen brothers * W. J. Bowen * Judge Covey C. Thomas * Baylor College * the Thomas children * Mr. T. C. Nye of Cotulla * Laredo *

PIONEER DIES IN EL PASO

Brief account of Mrs. Margaret Dolan, 77, a resident of El Paso for 26 years, and a pioneer Texan, who was formerly a resident of Uvalde, where, it is recalled, she once used a shot gun to save her husband's life.

Further Mentions: Mrs. Dolan was the wife of Capt, "Pat" Dolan, pioneer Texan and for years a captain in the famous Texas rangers * Mrs. Dolan lived on the Leona river near Uvalde * Mrs. Dolan was born in Arkansas, but moved to Uvalde in 1857 * Mrs. Dolan entered the ranching business in Zavala County *

Indian Raid On Mary's Creek

Written by Mrs. Annie Rider Moran

This is an eye-witness account of Annie Rider Moran, a survivor of the Indian raid on Mary's Creek, in Parker country, Texas in 1869. She was 11 at the time of the tragedy and writes from clear recollection of the events.

Further Mentions: J. C. Rider * the Trinity river * her father, William Rider, and his brother, Clinton B. Rider *

A FEARFUL SPELL OF WEATHER

From the Burnet (Tex.) Bulletin, Jan. 1866

On last Thursday afternoon, a, terrible gale of cold wind swooped down upon this devoted section while in its shirt-sleeves, that cleared the throughfares in a few brief and hurried goodbye moments, killed business dead, stopped all out-door work, sent men tumbling…

Mentions: Bluffton, Marble Falls * Mr. J. J. M. Smith * The Llano river * Hamilton Creek *

A Ghost In West Texas

By Mrs. S. V. De Vany

Account of the discovery of a "ghost" in an old West Texas house that for two years had been "haunting" its various residents.

Catarino Garza, Revolutionist

By Frank H. Bushick

CATARINO GARZA was a Texas border revolutionist who made the front page of the newspapers away back in 1892 with a news item that he was at the head of a revolution to overthrow President Diaz in Mexico. Garza was a forerunner of the later communistic revolutionaries, but his revolution failed to get past the initial stages. He was a visionary and socialist, with quixotic dreams of power and a desperate courage to attempt their realization, but he started too soon and the breaks were against him. He tried to play in a big game with too small a stack of chips. This is his story. Contains photo of Catarino Garza

Further Mentions: revolutions under Madera, Carranza, Obregon * He came to San Antonio in 1884 and started a little paper called "El Carre." * "El Libre Pensador" .(The Free Thinker) * Palo Pinto * Sebree * Rio Grande City * Fort Ringgold * General Martinez * Nueva Laredo * W. R. Sinclair * Duval county * Alejandro Gonzales * the Texas-Mexican Railway * Mexican town called Camargo * Yoakum * Blue Fields * Congressman Hon. Jeff. McLemore * Sheriff Wash Shely of Starr county and his brother, Captain Joe Shely, a ranger captain * Mr. McLemore * Mr. Perey * Will Percy * Stephenson, San Antonio photographer * Lemore *

New Rail Line Traverses Old Mustang Range

R. D. Holt

Recollections of old settlers of Schleicher County who watched the work on the railbed of the new railroad through Eldorado and mentions of other days when the Schleicher County Divide had quite a different appearance. They remember the days before progress had placed her hands upon the prairies of West Texas, when mustang ponies, deer and antelope were about as plentiful and as common as jack rabbits are today. One man who has lived in the Schleicher county area for many years and who has observed many changes remarked the other day, that he once roped a wild mustang on almost thee same spot where a 19-foot cut was being made for the railroad. This was in the old Vermont pasture but is now on the ranch of T. K. Jones, of Eldorado.

Further Mentions: One of the oldest residents in this portion of the state, Dave DeLong, of Eldorado * the mustangs originated from ponies which the Kickapoo Indians lost in the battle of Dove Creek, in January of 1864 * the 80-section Vermont ranch * Si McCartney, of Eldorado * Will Peden *

WEST TEXAS HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Mentions: Texas Technological College * Judge R. C. Crane of Sweetwater * Fisher County * Roy Holt, superintendent of schools at Eldorado * Prof. L. F. Sheffy of the West Texas State Teachers' College at Canyon * Judge Sam Cockrell of Abilene * Dr. P. C. Coleman of Colorado * Colonel Smythe of Plainview * Hale County * Judge Kinder of Plainview * Dr. John C. Granbery * Dr. W. C. Holden *

Brothers Meet Again After 43 Years Apart

Account of two brothers, Nathias Costello, a large landholder in Northwest Palo Pinto County and his bropther Mike Costello, both born in Ireland, but separated for 43 years, who fought on opposite sides at Gettysburg, neither knowing the other was so near. Years passed before they finally were reunited in Palo Pinto County and then by a chance remark of a Frisco brakeman to a Texas cowboy. This is their story.

Further Mentions: Mrs. R. D. Vaughn, Dallas * Mathias * Kerry County, Kilmeany, Ireland * Judge J. C. Lynch, prominent Texas cattleman * He bought a ranch from his Uncle Lynch in Palo Pinto County * Mike's oldest son, Cornelius * Weatherford then a small country town with only a stage road out to Mineral Wells *

A Trip After Salt In 1866

Mrs. Brady Morris Water Valley, Tex.

IN THE SPRING of 1866 a train of six wagons drawn by ox teams and a company of eight men left a settlement near Fort McKavett, Menard county, on the headwaters of the San Saba river, bound for the Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos river. Their mission was to get a load of salt. It was an eventful trip frought with all the peril of frontier travel. This is the story.

Mentions: Pearson Carlile was captain * John and Wiley Poe, Dave Broadwell and John Carlile * Georgetown, Texas * Burl Neighbors, a man from their own settlement * Salt Creek in Lampasas county near the present town of Lometa *

NUGGETS FOUND IN TURKEY CRAW START OF GOLD RUSH

Fort Williams, Ont.-The village of Roosport, on the north shore of Lake Superior, 118 miles east of Fort Williams, has been seized with the gold fever. The immediate cause rests with a turkey which was given to Mrs. C. Gerow of Rossport as a Christmas present by the Nipigon Bay Fish Company…

Satanta And His Trial

By Paul Soward Leeper, In Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Excellent account of the trial of the notorious cheiftan, Satanta, the war chief of the Kiowas in 1871. Not content with having committed the bloody massacre at Salt Creek prairie, he had, after scalping and mutilating his victims, and filling their bodies with arrows, lashed one poor teamster to a wagon-wheel and burned him while yet alive. A few days later he rode into Fort Sill at the head of his war party and loudly boasted of his atrocious deed. He was arrested by order of General Sherman, then at the post, double-ironed, and turned over as a prisoner to General Mackenzie for trial in Texas for murder. This is the account of the amazing trial.

Further Mentions: the garrison of Fort Richardson at Jacksboro, Texas * Lieut. R. G. Carter * Judge Chas. Soward * General Mackenzie * Gen. William T. Sherman * Laurie Tatum, Indian agent * Big Tree, Satank, Kicking Bird and Lone Wolf. * Tatum * Fenimore Cooper * Judge Charles Soward * S. W. T. Lanham * T. W. Williams, S. Cooper, Peter Lynn, .Lucas Bunch, John Cameron, William Hensley, Peter Hart, Jas. Cooley, Everett Johnson, W. B. Werner, John, H. Brown and Daniel Brown * Thomas Brazeale

Johnson's Peak Indian Encounter Is Recalled

An encounter with the Indians at what is now known as Johnson's Peak, between Meridian and Iredell, and the murder and scalping of Peter Cartwright Johnson, a venerable old-timer of Comanche county, is told by Uncle Billie Johnson, grandson of the old-timer in this excellent article. Uncle Billie, was a grandson of Peter Cartwright Johnson, venerable old timer of Comanche county, who was scalped and killed by the Comanche Indians in 1858 in Bosque county, while on his way to mill with a wagon load of corn. "Uncle Billie" Johnson and his wife, Aunt Lizzie, moved to their homestead 17 miles from Comanche, near the present village of Gustine in 1885, when there were not many settlers in the district, and neighbors were few and far between. Uncle Billie saw many an Indian war dance on the square where the Comanche county courthouse now stands, when the war whoops and yells of the dancers echoed for miles over the country-side.

Further Mentions: Meridian Mills in Bosque county * Uncle Peter with his 11-year-old son, Peter Jr. (Uncle Billie's uncle) * Leon and Bosque creeks * Stephenville *

"SEVEN WELLS" NATURAL WONDER OF TEXAS

One of the wonders of Texas, probably one of the greatest reminders of the frontier times, lies almost at the front door of Colorado. Seven Wells, a natural wonder spot that has become so familiar to Colorado and Mitchell county that it is not often thought of as a wonder these days, is given the following interesting write-up in this volume.

Further Mentions: Abilene Reporter News * Llano Estacado * Champion Creek in the Wulfjen pasture * J. Wright Moore, former Colorado frontiersman * his ranch near Snyder *

A TRUE SNAKE STORY

By Rev. W. A. Dunn, Bertram, Texas.

It is blue Monday night. I am all alone at home. It is pouring down rain, the wind is howling, the lightning is flashing, the thunder is rumbling,_ the clock has struck eight; the insects and serpents are naturally crawling around seeking shelter, so I will tell you a true snake story.

It was discussed for some time, whether Texas should purchase some black snakes to exterminate the rattlers. Well, we have a fellow in our own state that will do the work if he is given a chance. It is the Bull snake.

A few years ago, my wife and I, and I mention my wife as witness in this case, were driving from Sterling City to a place called Divide, between, Sterling county and Coke county. On our left was a beautiful landscape sloping from the hill westward to the public road. It was late in the afternoon, and the rays of the bright sun were falling upon this flat.

As we drove along there was something that attracted our attention. It was a queer movement of some object a few yards from the road upon this hillside, and we stopped to investigate…

FIRST BOOK PRINTED IN TEXAS

Brief article on the book, found in the Bexar Archives entitled "Translation of the Laws, Orders and Contracts of Colonization From January, 1821, Up to This Time, In Virtue of Which Col. Stephen F. Austin Has Introduced and Settled Foreign Emigrants in Texas." The book was printed by Godwin Brown Cotten, whose name appears on the title age. Cotten had the distinction not only of having printed the first book in the English language in Texas, but of editing one of the first newspapers printed in Texas. He established the Texas Gazette at San Felipe in 1829.

How Albert Sidney Johnston Handled Mutiny

COL. M. L. CRIMMINS, U. S. A. writes the following account of how Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston handled a difficult situation, although suffering severely from a recent wound in the hip, received in a duel, in response to a challenge of General Felix Huston, which should be of interest to students of Texas history. General Johnston was a graduate of West Point, and had served with distinction during the Black Hawk Indian War. He resigned from the army in 1834 on account of the ill health of his wife. After her death he came to Texas, just after the battle of San Jacinto, and offered his services 'to General Sam Houston as a soldier. "With the possible exception of Andrew Jackson or Theodore Roosevelt," Colonel Crimmins writes, "I know of no others who might have handled such a difficult situation so well." This is the story.

Dutch Henry's Raid Near Fort Elliott

W. E. Payne, in Houston Chronicle, December 1923

Dutch Henry was a notorious outlaw who had been suspected of many murders, countless robberies and untold midnight forages on the borders of Kansas and the Indian Territory for more than a dozen years. Time and again he had been incarcerated in the jails by civil authorities. He had been driven from one retreat to another by the United States soldiers from the sundry military cantonments situated in the territory. But by sheer good luck or by clever contrivance he had invariably escaped without ever having been brought on trial for his manifold crimes. The writer gives, in this excellent account his own personal confrontation with the notorious outlaw and his gang in one of Henry’s more vicious forays.

Further Mentions: Cullen Baker, John Long * Dick Glass, Aaron Dog, Tandy Folsom, Cherokee John, the Dalton brothers * `Red Legged Jim Larne' * Silver City N. M. * the counties of Hemphill, Wheeler, Roberts, Hutchison, Randall and others lying between the Canadian River on the North and the Red River on the South' * Bankhead's cantonment on Sweet Water * Fort Elliott, near the present town of Mobeetie * Salvation Creek, about one mile above its confluence with the North Fork of Red River, 70 miles east of Fort Elliott * Lieutenant McKinney of the Fourth Cavalry *

DAVID CROCKETT'S RIFLE

Mentions: It was with this rifle that Congressman William J. Graves killed Jonathan Cilley, also a member of Congress, in a duel * Col. Wright Rives, U. S. A * John Cook Rives * Henry Deringer *

A Pioneer Sketch Of John S. Carithers

Mrs. S. V. De Vany, Dallas, Texas

Account of John S. Carithers, son of James Dudley Carithers, a merchant of Murfeesboro, Tenn, when that town was the capital of the State. In early manhood John Carithers went to Alabama to visit his uncle Hugh Carithers, and finding employment he stayed, and finally married a daughter of Col. Marston Mead of the War of 1812. In 1838 Carithers and his brother-in-law Portius Mead joined a caravan of movers to Texas. Some time afterward he moved to Nacogdoches, and Mead settled on land now in Anderson county. A call came for men to defend the settlement from Indians. Carithers joined a company and engaged in numerous fierce Indian confrontations. As a result of his bravery in engagements, Carithers received from the government a land patent for 1280 acres on Rabbit Creek now in Gregg Co. This is his story.

Indian Emily Saved Old Fort Davis

By Jan Isbelle Fortune

Excellent early history of Fort Davis and especially of an event involving an Indian girl called Emily, who was to later save the fort from massacre.

A group of scouting soldiers were patrolling the surrounding country when they came upon this little Indian maiden lying beside the trail, an arrow through her side. She could not understand their language and they knew little enough of hers, but the party-headed by Lieut. John Essen-took her up and brought her very tenderly into the fort just as the sun, was setting.

The infantry's surgeon extracted the arrow and cauterized the wound. Then he put the little wild girl, who was half delirious, to bed and John Essen spent many days waiting on her and caring for her during her illness. Lacking a name for her, they called, her Emily.

At length Emily grew well and strong again. She was up and around the stockade with the fleet-footed grace of a wild thing. Every one came to love and pet her. She was grateful to them for all the kindness which had been shown her by these Americans, but it was easy to see that her first allegiance went to Lieutenant Essen, who had first found her lying wounded beside the trail, and brought her in his arms to the post…

Further Mentions: Mary Davenport * Comanche Painted Camp * La Limpia Creek * Lieut. Col. Wesley Merritt * W. A. Wilson * Jack Hoxie * Bunk, the dog * two famous picture horses, Old Scout and the Golden Stallion * D. W. Griffith *

Melvin Woman Says This Age Is Better

Account of Mrs. Mahala McDonald, of Melvin, whose father was brutally scalped in her presence after he had sought to make peace with them near Harper in Gillespie county in 1866. After this she was then was carried her away into a captivity of 11 months until ransomed by the United States government. This is her harrowing tale.

Discussing of her early experiences Mrs. McDonald said when she was taken captive by the Indians, she was made to ride a horse to which she was tied. There were no roads, and just where the party went she does not know, though she remembers that at one stop the Indians secured some coffee from trees growing in the place. While she was a captive she was treated with brutality and once was thrown into the fire. Her right arm today is shriveled from the burns she sustained. She was slapped, beaten, thrown into the creeks then she asked for water and was forced to...

She even forgot her own language and learned that of the Indians. Her mother, following their reunion, taught her English again. Mrs. McDonald still remembers some Indian words but she refuses to use them. Her aptness in learning the language saved her from many a cuff from the Indian squaws and they even patted her on the head at times. As time went on she became so popular with the Indians that they wanted to keep her forever, and had it not been for the intervention of another lady she perhaps would not have been released. Her mother was given her liberty after five months, six months prior to her own release. Later her mother remarried and her second husband was scalped by the Indians.

TRYING TO SECURE A PENSION

Mentions: Mrs. M. M. Taylor, Camp Wood Texas, widow of Matthew M. Taylor * Company C, Texas Frontier forces * Capt. Sansom * Kerr county, Texas * Matthew Taylor

WHEN DICK DOWLING SAVED TEXAS FROM INVASION...