Vol 09 No. 03 - December 1931

Governor Francis Richard Lubbock Account of Francis Richard Lubbock who was born in the town of Beaufort, on the coast of South Carolina, October 16, 1815. He came permanently to Texas in 1836 engaging in mercantile, cattle, and other pursuits until he was appointed assistant clerk of the House of Representatives, which position he held for some time. Afterwards he was elected district clerk of Harris county, and then was appointed Comptroller of the Republic by President Sam Houston. In 1857 Francis Lubbock was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas, and eventually the office of governor. He retired from the Governorship November 5, 1863, and entered the Confederate service as assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and served through the remainder of the Civil War. In 1879 he became State Treasurer, serving until 1891. This is his story. Mentions: Colonel Edward Clark * W. B. Wortham * Dr. Henry Thomas Willis Lubbock * Captain Richard Lubbock * Susan Ann Saltus * Francis Saltus * Henry Shultze * Jim Porter * Charles T. Ketchum * Miss Adele Baron * McKinney & Williams, a large business firm of Vellasco * the Hutchins House * Col. Benjamin Fort Smith * J. S. Holman * Judge Tyler * Robert P. Boyce * Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Porter The Death Of John B. DentonBy Judge J. M. Deaver, El Paso, Texas THE INDIAN raids into Grayson county and the slaying by them of various members of the Dugan family in 1839; the Indian fights around old Fort English at the establishment of the first courts in Fannin county in 1840; and the massacre of the Ripley family in Titus county in, April, 1841, resulted in the Tarrant expedition and the death of John B. Denton on May 24, 1841. This sad event occurred on Village Creek between Ft. Worth and Dallas, near where the highway that now links those two cities together crosses that creek. This is the account of that tragic death and of the Tarrant expedition. Mentions: A company of about 70 men was organized with Captain E. H. Tarrant, a citizen and resident of Bowie county, as commander. They penetrated the wilderness going up beyond Ft. Warren, Preston's bend and in the vicinity of old Ft. Graham, returning down the Trinity river * Ft. Bird * Henry Stout * Captain John Griffith * Captain Henry Stout * Oliver Creek in Denton county, Texas * Captain E. H. Tarrant * the "Keechi Village Fight" * Methodist preacher, Reverend Allen of Frisco, Texas * W. N. Porter * Andrew Davis * Capt. Yeary, Henry Stout, Daniel Montague * Cal Coffee, James Bourland * Wm. Bourland, Mack Bourland, Cal Porter, Dick Hopkins, Clabe Chisum, J. L. Lovejoy, W. C. Young, J. B. Denton, Capt. Griffith and Col. Sam Sims, Wiley B. Merrel, and M. H. Wright * Mrs. S. J. Wilson of Clarksville * Rich Hill, Missouri * Miss Mary Greenlee Stewart * Amos Morrill * John. B. Craig * old Mother Dugan * Robert Potter * Dr. Pat B. Clark * Mrs. S. J. Wilson * John Chisum * Felix McKittrick * John Lovejoy * Dr. A. N. Denton * W. C. Baker * Bernard Hill, a school teacher of Clarksville, Texas * Henry Stout * Lute Caldwell * the "King place" * John B. Craig, * JOSE MARIA CISNEROBy Miss Ruth Dodson, Mathis, Texas Account of Jose Maria Cisnero, Mathis, Texas, who at the age of twelve years came to Nueces county and with his father, brothers and sisters, settled on the Penitas Creek, near the old Casa Blanca, in Jim Wells county. At an early age he became a cowboy. His interest in horses and his skill in riding them prompted him to specialize in horse-breaking - the keystone of all ranch work. In the seventy years that he spent within a radius of ten miles, he worked for some of the leading stockmen of this country, among them C. C. Cox, Dr. A. G. Heany, S. G. Miller, Isham Railey and Wm. Staples. He saw the country pass through all the phases of the horse, cattle, sheep and farming industry-and always from the back of a "potro." His life's work was that of a "jinete," that superior cowboy, the horse-breaker. This is his story. The Adventures Of A Buffalo Hunter The present article consists of personal reminiscences of the buffalo hunting days, furnished by Mr. Seth Hathaway, a buffalo hunter who was in the business for a number of years, and who also participated in many stirring scenes of Indian warfare and adventure on the western plains. Mentions: Edward Borein * John P. Wilson * Jerry Gardner * a German named Schmidt * Tom Cox * Willow Creek * Sear Creek * Cimmaron river * Point of Rocks * Tepee Creek * Palo Duro * San Francisco Creek * the Adobe Walls trading post * Seth Green * Coldwater Creek * Charlie Newell * a sharp eyed old fellow named Miller * Newell's camp on the Palo Duro * Billy Dixon * a man named Cunningham * Mr. Meyers * A man they called Dutch Henry * Gus Johnson * Tom Cox of the Gardner outfit, joined Bill Henderson's gang of horse thieves * Blue Creek The Taylor Boys Made Things InterestingJ. B. Polley Account of two very colorful characters, Hays and Doboy (Doughboy) Taylor. Their Confederate service was on the Texas frontier, in a company of rangers commanded by their father, who himself had served under the noted scout and ranger, Jack Hays, and had thought so well of that commander as to name his older son after him. Mentions: * Major Thompson * Wilson county * Captain Littleton of Helena * the home of his friend, Stannard, near Riddleville * Ecleto * Nockenut * the Old Gonzales Road * Colonel Castinado * Cottonwood and Sandy Elm creeks * Black Jack Spring * Littleton and Stanuard * Mr. Bell * J. B. Polley, Floresville, Texas * Sim Holstein * Surveyor's FightBy Marjorie Rogers, Marlin, Texas. Account of Joseph P. Jones one of the pioneers who blazed the path of civilization through Milam county in its early days. He was part of Colonel William F. Henderson's and Captain Neil's hand of surveyors, and along with fifteen other brave frontiersmen paid the price of his life that the virgin wilderness of Milam and Robertson county might be laid off into settlements, in one of the bloodiest battles in Texas history in Navarro county near the present town of Dawson. This is the story. Further Mentions: Jones Prairie * Edgar county, Illinois * Sarah Brimberry * Sallie Jones * Little River Church Cemetery, Milam county * "Old Franklin," the county seat of the new county of Robertson, * William F. Henderson (later of Corsicana) * Euclid M. Cox, Thomas Barton, Samuel Allen, Ingraham, J. Hard, Davis, Asa T. Mitchell, William Tremier, J. Bullock, Spikes, N. Baker, A. Houston, P. M. Jones, David Jones, Walter P. Lane, William Smith', Violet and Jackson * Richland creek * Rawhide Springs * Euclid Cox * William Love * Tehuacan Springs * General Lane * Parker's Fort * William Love * John P. Cox and J. Fred Cox * Dr. L. W. Hill * the W. N. Matthews farm * Colonel Henderson * the Battle Creek fight * "The Queen Of The Trail" Account of Mrs. Amanda Burks, known as "the Queen. of the Trail" who, "while still a young woman, joined to help drive four thousand steers to Abilene, Kansas. Mrs. Burks was versed in some of the sternest things of life. She knew war and motherhood and death-bed watching and the loneliness that follows. She also knew cattle and the men that handled them. She visioned the millions of Texas cattle that were to pass over the trail, and the development that was to come to the State as a result. It was a movement to be encouraged. With her to encourage a thing meant to walk beside it and let it breathe her faith. So when the herd was ready for the long drive, strange as it seemed to other women, to Mrs. Burks it seemed the natural thing that she should also be ready to go..." Mentions: Rev. Bruce Roberts * William Franklin Burks * In 1876 Mr. and Mrs. Burks moved up the Nueces River into what was afterwards organized into LaSalle county. On the bank of a beautiful lake they established the La Mota ranch. Within a few months, in January, 1877, W. F. Burks died. He was buried near the humble ranch house, and the woman was left to carry on alone. The nearest neighbor was eight miles away. Indian depredations were common. A sister-in-law, Miss Rhoda Burks, came to share the loneliness of her now left alone. This sister-in-law was afterwards married to John W. Baylor* Mrs. Willie Baylor Bell and Jack W. Baylor * The La Mota, consisting of 43,000 acres, came to be one of the best known ranches in Southwest Texas * AN OLD TEXAS WARRANT W. A. Philpott, Jr., a well known banker and numismatist of Dallas, owns a warrant against the government of Texas which is older than the Republic of Texas. It is an auditor's draft upon the Government of Texas and is for $…made out to Jethro R. Bancroft…" Tells Of An Indian FightA. G. Mills, Houston, Texas First-hand account of a bloody Indian fight in 1865 where the author, Mr A. G. Mills and his father Gideon Mills were engaged outside of the town of Stephenville, Erath county, TX. Mentions: half brother, Henry Mills, and John Woods, brother-in-law * a young man named Powell, who lived in Squaw Creek * A BIG RATTLESNAKE The following item appeared in the Hamilton (Texas) Herald, some time in the summer of 1884. "A man living in Kimble county killed the largest snake recently that was ever heard of in this country. The snake was found on the head of South Llano, in Crockett county, and it measured over eleven feet in length, twenty-seven inches in circumference, ten in diameter, and seven inches between the eyes. It had twenty-one rattles and one button. Its fangs were nearly two inches in length and a large knitting needle could easily be run through their tubes, through which the monster shot poison into its victim." A Comanche Raid In 1860Albert B. Reagan Account of an event in 1860, when a raiding party of Comanches killed and scalped Joseph Brown and shot his brother Frank full of arrows. This raid, which occurred on Hubbard's Creek, near where it enters the Clear Fork of the Brazos river in. Young county, Texas, was a. renewal of a series of troubles with, these Indians. Mentions: Tom S. Stockton, Elias Hale * John R. Baylor (afterwards General Baylor) * Hubbard's Creek * John Maudling * John Barclay Dawson, Tom Stockton, Elias "Armenous" Hale, "Min" Wright and, George Wythe Baylor. * Paint Creek * Fort Sill * Phantom Hill * Major Thomas * Josephus Browning * Law And OrderMax Coleman, Lubbock, Texas At that time very few people inhabited West Texas. Acquaintances were claimed for hundreds of miles around, and when a man rode up to your place you put the coffee pot on and sliced the bacon before taking time to shake his hand. Everything was wide open, and such a thing as locks on houses were unknown. In 1885, Crosby county was organized, and a postoffice established at Dockum's Ranch on Duck Creek in Dickens county. The building was in connection with a store which was operated more or less on the help-yourself plan, whether anyone was at home or not. The postoffice functioned the same way. At that time cowboys left for the spring work in April, and did not return to the home ranch until the November snows drove them in. The homecoming cowboy would visit the postoffice upon his return and coming by simply sort through it, and take what he wished. Such a thing as theft or robbery had, up to that time, never marred the entire country. One day in the year 1889, R. C. (Dick) Ware, was seated in the little postoffice building, reading a sixmonths old magazine. His feet were propped up on the counter, and as far as he knew, he was the' only person in all that vast domain of silence. Suddenly two transient cowboys, with whom he was slightly acquainted, stepped through the door, guns in hand. One was John Harvey, and the other was George Spencer. Mentions: Sam Gohlson, an old buffalo hunter * Joe Sherman, a deputy sheriff in Crosby county * Harry Brown * Yellow House Canyon * George Boles * the little Quaker settlement of Estacado * Rev. George M. Hunt * Amarillo * J. D. Caldwell * Joe Rosson and Ed Covington * John Harvey * Joe Sherman * Hon. J. V. Cockerell * Bill Ezell * HOW LEON COUNTY GOT RID OF A CARPET-BAG SHERIFFE. E. Barnes, San Marcos, Texas Sad indeed were those several years after the Civil War came to a close when the Union authorities had charge of the Southern States. These were the days of the carpet-bag rule, an imposed social injustice that exalted the lowest and most degraded of human authorities to run the lives of an oppressed and maligned southern society. These appointees were very unsatisfactory to the people. This account deals with a man named Conroe who drifted into Leon county, and was appointed sheriff and his inevitable conflict with a man by the name of Campbell, who had served in the Confederate army throughout. the war, who came there in hopes of recuperating the property losses he had sustained during the conflict, coming home like many others with only his horse and saddle. Mentions: H. H. Cook's store * An old slave-time darky named Harry Madison was appointed in his stead * E. J. Davis * Navasota WYATT EARP Mentions: Stuart N. Lake * Bat Masterson * Nick Mersfelder * Cal D. Hicks * W. C. Chevis * Alfred Garcia Pelligrin * W. K. Moorehead