Vol 18 No. 07 - April 1941

Some Songs of Yesteryear

THE OLD STEP STONE - JOE BOWERS - N'GER ON THE RUN

Battle Between Rangers And Comanches

J. W. Wilbarger

Account of battle with a band of Comanche Indians, December 23, 1850, near the Neuces river, 75 miles south of San Antonio, involving a detachment of Texas rangers under command of Lieutenant Ed Burleson, Jr. The detachment of rangers under Burleson were on their way to Fort McIntosh, at Laredo, to spend the Christmas holidays. It was a cold morning and the rangers rode together in happy mood in expectation of a merry Christmas with comrades at the fort. Instead, they encountered the Comanches - here are the details.

Mentions: Lieutenant Ed Burleson was the son of General Ed Burleson who commanded the first regiment of volunteers in the Battle of San Jacinto * Warren Lyons * Baker Barton and William Lackey * Alf Wilkerson, Toni Wilkerson and Jim Wilkerson * Jack Spencer * Fort McIntosh *

Dedication Of Monument Recalled

By Adolph Huffmeyer

Account speaks of the Trail Drivers' monument at Doan's Crossing on Red River. This beautiful monument was erected by a a handful of North Texas trail drivers and patriotic citizens of Vernon and Oklahoma, the largest subscriber being P. P. Ackley, who donated $1,000 It was built by George W. Backus of Vernon out of Texas gray granite, and is 10 feet 6 inches high, 5 feet wide. and 12 inches thick.

Further Mentions: Mrs. Bertha Ross of Vernon * George W. Saunders * the Gunter Hotel * Kerrville * Boerne * Comfort * Frank L. Wilson * Fritz Hotel * E. A. Roebuck of Lockhart * Old Man C. F. Doan * Soy Shelly of Seguin * J. D. Jones * C. W. Chamberlain * Bob Lauderdale * Webster Witter * B. H. Kohl * Sykes Butler * H. H. Weber * W. L. Adams * G. W. Barnett * John M. Doak * J. P. Towns * J. G. Towns * Ab Blocker * Rev. Bruce Roberts * Sam Keno * L. O. Miller * Jim Harry * N. C. Pike * W. A. Tinney * A. A. Weiden * Monte Price * P. P. Ackley * Bob Lauderdale * Webter Witter * J. Frank Dobie * W. S. Ikard * Jim Harry * N. C. Fike * Hugo Milde * A. A. Weldon * Sol M. Jackson. * Tom Hoben *

Since that happy occasion the following members have paced on to their last roundup. Penn be to their ashes: President Gorge W. Saunders. John Kenny, C. F. Chamberlain. John J. Little. Dave Stroman. W. H. Adams, J. P. 'towns, and P. P. Ackley.

A QUEER CHARACTER

Mentions: Mr. Edwin Starkey of Oklahoma City * old Bill Wharton ranch west of Kerrville * Frank H. Bushick * Judge C. A. Goeth * Reed Calhoun's ranch near Sonora * Dr. Travis M. Harrell, veteran physician, of Corpus Christi, Texas * Mr. Javan Jackson * J. T. Jackson * Tobe Jackson * San Saba town * Dr. Harrell * Fred Mosebach * Charles K. Harris *

Two Famous Sons Of A Famous Father

By Mrs. Maude Wallis Traylor, Cuero, Texas.

Account is biographical sketch of Captain Samuel Highsmith's two famous and very worthy sons, Captain Malcijah Benjamin Highsmith, and Captain Henry Albert Highsmith - both very early Texas Rangers. Includes account of H. A. Highsmith's involvement with the shooting of Sam Bass.

Mentions: Capt. Kige Highsmith * Old Caney, now Brazoria county * Green DeWitt's Colony * Capt. John S. (Rip) Ford * John Salmon Ford * Mr. Hardy * August Harmuth * Higgins * Maj. La Motte * Miss Evaline Coupee * Mrs. Teresa Highsmith * I. Bernstine & Co. of Galveston * Billingsley, Campbell Taylor, Martin, Walker, John Caldwell, Burtons, Menefee, Jenkins * Teresa (Williams) Highsmith * Salado, Bell county * Albert Burleson * Miss Sarah A. McCutcheon * Wilbarger's Bend, Bastrop county * Parson's Seminary * Capt. Wheeler * Round Rock, Williamson county * Sam Bass * The Williamson County Sun of Georgetown * Hutto * Ahijah A. Grimes * Davis Hotel * Sheriff Grimes * Capt. Wayne Graham and Mr. By Asher * P. G. Peterson & Son * Brushy Creek * Sergeant Ware * Buckhart's Barber Shop * H. Koppel * Adjutant General Jones * Dudley Snyder's pasture * City Marshal Stubbs * Mrs. S. C. Downing of * Mrs. I. F. Holt of Hutto * Capt. and Mrs. Henry Albert Highsmith had two sons, William Samuel and John H * Benny * Jessie * Fannie * Rosa *

Some News Items Of Long Ago

Mentions: George Thompson and Jim Foster, of Greenville, * W. W. Schermerhorn, an attorney of San Angelo * Memph Elliot * Will Jacobs and Frank Rhodes * Col. John Watkin * John Davidson * Sam Suttlemeyer *

Heroines Of The Hills

By T. U. Taylor, Austin, Texas

This account of EARLY KIMBLE COUNTY TEXAS HISTORY has valueable genealogy and very early historical information.

Mentions: George C. Kimble, who fell at the Alamo under Colonel William B. Travis * William Potter, county judge ; Dr. E. K. Kountz, county clerk ; Frank Latta, sheriff ; N. C. Patterson, county treasurer; W. F. Gilliland, county assessor; M. J. Denman, county surveyor; William Graham, county attorney; J. A. Burt, inspector of hides * J. R. Steffey, Felix Burton, Henry E. Pearl and A. Vancourt * Kimbleville * Judge W. A. Blackburn * Hon. O. C. Fisher * The first settler on the Colorado, Reuben Hornsby * Raleigh Gentry was one of the first settlers in Kimble county * he settled on Bear Creek * North Llano * Allen, Lee, Guliford, William, George and Jack * Nancy Frazier * Gentry's Creek * Felix Hale * the Gentry Creek cemetery * John Bate Berry * Rance Moore * The Gibson brothers * Rance Moore, Billy Waits, and Charley Jones * Andrew Jackson Nixon * Charles Gibson * Mrs. Elizabeth Lambeth Gibson * Loyal Valley in Mason county * Charley Jones * James Bradbury * the valley of the Gabriel in Williamson county * Bate Berry * Ira Kirkpatrick * Jane Bradbury * Alvin Clark * Nancy Bradbury * Eugene Houghton * James Bradbury, Green Bradbury, William Bradbury, Frank Bradbury, and an only daughter, Rhoda Bradbury * Jobe Fisher * Rhoda Clark * The Millers arrived in Kimble in 1874 * John A. Miller * the A. P. Browning family * Martha Browning * William Miller, the father of John A. Miller, and Jerry Roberts * Frank Miller and George Miller * Alfred Miller, Leander Miller, Larkin Miller, Mrs. Mollie Wright * Mrs. Jack Jobes, Mrs. Ernest Burt, Mrs. Doug Jobes and Mrs. Nettie Hodge * Johnson Fork * Fort McKavett * Menard * Valley of the Guadalupe * Martha Browning Miller * Jennie Coalson * Nick B. Coalson * Jennie Blackwell Coalson * Copperas Creek in the western part of Kimble county * Tom Baldwin * Charley Mann * Joe Harris * Alwilda Mcdonald

* Johnson Fork * Wiley Joy * John Joy, Tobe Joy,Troup Joy, Charles Joy * the James River community * Lafe McDonald * Monroe McDonald * the Monroe McDonald ranch * An old man, Matthew Taylor * Banta Creek * John Jolly * ranch on the Big Saline in the northeastern part of Kimble county * Frank Hardin * Rance Moore of McLennan * his wife, Permelia * Annie Moore Eliza Moore, William Moore, Daniel Moore, Elizabeth Moore, Leaf Moore, Ella Moore * Mary New * James Moore, Robert Moore, John Moore, Thomas Moore, Creed Moore, Lillie Moore, Josephine Moore, and Kitty Moore * the Bear Creek ranch * farm on Johnson's Fork of the Llano * Creed Taylor * Jim Pope * Mason Sharp and Henry Sharp * Mary E. New, a daughter of William New * Hallettsville * Hope * Mary E. Bell * Big Saline Creek *

Swimming Cattle Across The Canadian

By Ira Aten

Vivd and detailed account of the cattle drives made by the mighty XIT drovers and especially of the process of driving cattle across the Canadian River.

Mentions: In 1898 there were three divisions of the XIT ranch lying south of the Canadian River—the Escarbada No. 5, Spring Lake No. 6, and Yellow House No. 7. * Buffalo Springs division * Channing * Trujillo 5-wire * the Rita Blanca * Ealy Moore's horse pasture * Dalhart

Peregrinations Of A Pioneer Printer

By J. Marvin Hunter

Hunter reflects on the changes that have come to printing since the 1890's when he began to set type on the old Menardville Record at Menardville, Texas.

Mentions: than N. H. Rose, the famous old time photographer * the Boynton Brothers * Irvin Boynton * the Comfort Times * the Cochiti mining district * Kimble County Crony * Shropshire & Hughes, a Brady law firm * Mason Herald * the O. D. Mann Hardware Co. of Brady * John Schaeg * newspaper men, Riddick and Roberts * Garden City * Sterling City * Will Gregg * Guion Gregg * Jim Bigham * W. D. Riser * Miss Lola Spring * The Concho Land Co * the Hughes Headlight * H. L. Blankenship * Warren Hunter * Harold Dietel * Ozona * the Ozona Optimist * The Ozona Kicker * Claud Hudspeth * M. L. Burchett * the Big Lake Crony * Bud Russell * the New Era, at Sonora, with Christian Meyers in charge * D. W. Russell * the Melvin Advocate * T. A. Buckner * Bandera New Era * Mr. R. W. Mcitzen * Leslie E. Short *

The First Protestant Church In San Antonio

By Colonel M. L. Crimmins, San Antonio, Texas

The First Presbyterian Church was started in San Antonio in 1846 by Rev. John McCullough and it was the first Protestant church erected in the Alamo City. When Rev. John McCullough first came to San Antonio in 1842, he wrote that there were only three or four American families here and half a dozen reckless young men. He came here again in April, 1844, with Rev. John Wesley De Vilbiss, a young Methodist preacher.

Brother De Vilbiss was to preach and Brother McCullough was to close the service with a hymn and a prayer. Just as De Vilbiss was about to start his attentive host placed a bottle of port wine on the table, to the pronounced embarrassment of the young preacher who thought that now his congregation, the first Protestant congregation in San Antonio, would consider him a hypocrite, who preached against drinking and then drank himself. He asked his host to kindly remove the bottle, but his host demurred and said it was a really fine quality of port and in his country it was the custom to provide a bottle of wine for their preachers, as it usually improved the sermons and this was "a first rate article."

Rev. John McCullough followed Brother De Vilbiss and this is the story of the first Protestant service in San Antonio.

Further Mentions: John McCullough was descended from George McCullough, who was born in Scotland in 1700, and came to America in 1730, locating at Lower Oxford Township, Pennsylvania, now called Elkton, Md * Lorena Sayre of Columbia, Texas * Margaret J. Riddell of Pennsylvania * Mrs. Sarah Eager * John Warwick McCullough * William McCullough of Brownwood * Anton Lockmar, an Italian-Austrian from Dalmatia * the old Veramendi Palace * the Clegg building at 130 Soledad Street * Mr. and Mrs. Charles D. Sayre * Rev. Witham Young * Mrs. Mary Ann Bennett * John Clanton * General Zachry Taylor *

She Danced With Sam Bass

By Lynn Eliot

Account of a San Antonio woman who said she danced with Sam Bass three nights before he died at Round Rock, Texas, from effects of Ranger George Harrell's bullet. Mrs. Rebecca Nelson, then Miss Rebecca Stephens, was attending a dance at the Eppler farm house near Red Rock in Bastrop County, on Thursday night, July 18th, 1878, when a stranger rode up. Some of the young men went out to talk with him and when they came back they seemed excited. "It's Sam Bass," they told the girls, "and he wants to dance. It would be better if you girls will dance with him." Here is Mrs. Nelson's account of that event.

Further Mentions: Jim Murphy * Seab Barnes * Joel Collins * Ranger Dick Ware * Rebecca Stephens *

A Correction By Worth Ray

A correction to the story by Dr. A. B. Reagan, entitled "A Journey on the Historic San Saba.," in which mention is made of the running fight of "G. W. Morrow and Bill Miller" on their way home from the Rose Mill, when attacked by a band of Indians January 17, 1868. Account further includes more details on Morrow's life as well as first hand account of the fight between Morrow and his companion Miller and the Indians, written by A. W. Morrow in 1888, and which has never before been published.

Further Mentions: Pleasant Valley, in Burnet county * Alexander Washington Morrow * Rutersville, in Fayette county * John Rabb and Abner P. Manly * James Lambers Morrow, John Donald Morrow and William Joseph Lapsley Morrow * William H. Blair * Melissa Crownover * Mrs. Laura Fry, of Burnet * Bertram and Liberty Hill * Mrs. L. A. Marcus * Morrow was Master of Blazing Star Lodge A. F. & A. M., * Marble Falls * . Mr. Isaac R. Hitt * William J. Miller * Rose Mill * the Rabbs and Castlemans well known pioneer families of Fayette county * Lloyd Benjamin Streeter * Carl Coke Rister * Leroy R. Hafen

The Daniel Boone Of Texas

By Grace Miller White

Account of notable Texas frontiersman, Indian fighter, soldier, Ranger, and hero William Alexander Anderson Wallace, (Bigfoot) a young man of twenty, who could not forget the brother and the cousins who had gone out to Texas a short time before and suffered a cruel fate at the hands of the bloody butcher of Goliad. War with its hideous consequences was not new to this family, but they could not reconcile themselves to warfare where prisoners were ruthlessly slaughtered. Wallace men for generations had been large powerful men and bold warriors. They were direct descendants of those Wallace men renowned in Scotland's turbulent history. In early 1837, young William soon announced to his family that he was going to Texas and spend the rest of his life there killing Mexicans, hoping that among them he might meet some of the executioners of Goliad. Though briefer than Sowell's or Duval's biographies of Wallace, this account is a faithful and delightful picture of the man who was Texas' own true "Daniel Boone."

Further Mentions: an Austin girl, Mary Jackson * Captain John Coffee Hays * Mexican General Adrian Woll * Nathan Mallon * Colonel Matthew Caldwell * Colonel William S. Fisher * General Ampudia * General Huerta * Colonel Mejia * Miss Nora Franklin * Mrs. McCormick, of San Antonio * John C. Duval * Wharton J. Green * J. W. Perkins * A. J. Sowell * J. R. Clinton * Ad Gillespie * a family named Cochran

THE EDITOR'S BOX

Mentions: an old Burnside rifle * C. W. Hanley of Fort Worth * E. L. Moore * Henry Williams, Sr * Guy Sinclair, Jr * Eugene Stovall * Mrs. P. Geo. Maercky * Clarence Robichaud * R. G. Kimball of Altus, Oklahoma