Vol 20 No. 09 - June 1943

Incidents Of The Buffalo Range

By John H. Cook, Author of "The Border and the Buffalo."

"Most all the big-game hunters were men of adventure. They loved the wild, uninhabited region of the great Southwest. Nearly all of them had read of Daniel Boone wandering alone in the wilds of the then uninhabited lands east of the Mississippi. Most of these men had passed through the War of the Rebellion, on one side or the other. They were of necessity self-reliant, and could and did meet every emergency as a matter of course."

"Take the incident of Ben Jackson. He left his lonely camp, 200 miles from Fort Worth, with a two-horse load of buffalo hides, and twelve miles from his starting point three Indians made a running attack on him. He killed one of them, and the other two ran out of range of his gun. He was on the divide between North and South Pease rivers. After traveling a mile or so from the dead Indian, he noticed the other two paralleling him, one on either side, and just out of range. All at once "kerchug!" and down went the left front wheel of the wagon. The sudden drop brought Ben to the ground; also his gun, mess kit, bedding and ammunition box. He was nearly a mile from wood and water. The two Indians saw the predicament he was in and they circled in between him by the South Pease river. He unhitched his team, hobbled them close to the wagon, laid down flat on the ground, crawled like a snake towards a break to the right of him, and when about 300 yards from his outfit he wriggled himself into a deep buffalo wallow in the edge of a prairie dog town. And here he lay, peeping out on the flat and waiting events."

"The hill in the break towards which he had been crawling was less than 200 yards from him. While lying here his alert ear and steady eye taking in everything around him, and his mind busy evolving a way out of his present predicament, a large diamond rattlesnake came crawling obliquely just in front of him from a nearby prairie dog hole. Not wishing to disclose his position by shooting the snake, he suddenly …"

Mentions: "Limpy Jim" Smith * Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos * Fort Elliott * Kiowa Peak * George Bellfield of Adobe Walls and Casa Amarilla * Joe Rutledge and Frank Lewis * Cranky McCabe *

Antonio, The Cabin Boy

By Ted Manzano

Story of Antonio, the cabin boy, (Antonio Navarro) who was engaged in a struggle for Texas liberty, though his story begins thousands of miles away from his native Island of Corsica.

The Man Who Lives In A Cave

Mary E. Sullivan

Account of J. C. Tilton, nicknamed "Jake,", long-time cliff dweller of South Texas, whose "cave" was located in Live Oak county near Simmons.

PIONEER MOTHER, AGED 105, DIED IN MASON COUNTY

Account of Mrs. Clarintha Draper, pioneer who lived to be 105-year-old. She and her husband, George Washington Draper settled in the late 1860's on Cold Creek, Llano county where they had a successful ranch for many years.

Further Mentions: Mrs. Katie Sessom * the Pontotoc community * Dawson Draper, Millard Draper, and E. A. Draper * Mr. and Mrs. Ephriam Choat * George Washington Draper *

Reid's Tramp

A Ten Months' Trip Through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and Mexico in 1857

By John C. Reid

(EDITOR'S NOTE.-This is one of the most remarkable and interesting stories of Western travel ever written. The book was published in 1858, and we are printing it in Frontier Times as a serial, but not in full because of space, omitting many of the incidents of lesser importance. It will run in this magazine six or seven months, and those who read every installment will gain a knowledge of much hitherto unpublished history. Coming first hand as it does from a man who participated in some of the historical incidents mentioned, it is authentic and reliable. Remember, it was written in 1857.)

(Continued from Last Month.)

Mentions: Messrs. Nave and Turubow * Chiliad * White's ferry * the Guadalupe river * Victoria * Messrs. Lowry, Parker and Hodge * Manahuila creek * La Bahia * Colonel Mayn * San Pedro creek *

Early Schools And School Books

By Mrs. Ida Babcock Hall

Mrs. Hall, whose family came to Texas in 1850, describes first-hand look at characteristics, techniques, and lifestyle in pioneer Burnet county school days where she grew up.

Mentions: McGuffey's Reader * Quackenbos' arithmetic * Maury's Manual Geography * the Hesperus * Mr. Toil * Lippincott's reader * Barnes United Staten history * Thrall's Texas history * Smith's grammar *

Entertains The Old Texas Way

By J. Marvin Hunter.

MentionsL Captain Ira Aten, former Texas Ranger, who fought Indians and outlaws in Texas in the early days, and later moved to California to become identified with the Imperial Valley Irrigation Company * Ira Aten's ranch, north by east of El Centro * Chief Coffee Wrangler Dan Wiest

Land, Productive And Eternal

By W. C. Moore

Mentions: Col. Tom Pierce * the G. H. & S. A. Railroad * Mr. Kingsberry * James J. Hill, president of the Northern Pacific Railroad * The great Indian chief Tecumseh * Governor Harrison of Indiana *

Indian Fight On The Concho Plains

By Captain Dan W. Roberts.

Account of an August, 1875 engagement between Roberts and his men near the line of Kimble and Mason counties which was precipitated by two long-time captives of the Indians - one a white and the other a Mexican.

Mentions: C. C. Smith * Major Seth Mabry * a white boy named Fisher - actually Herman Lehmann * Los Moras * Fort McKavett * the little Lipan Mountains * Lipan Springs * Kickapoo * DeLong's camp * Staked Plains * John Bright * old Magooshe - a Lipan * Jim Hawkins, Paul Durham and Nick Donley * Rans Moore * Sergeant Ed Seiker and J. B. Gillett * Wash DeLong's camp * Delmonico's * Fort Sill * Rudolph Fischer * Miss Fannie Light of Mason county * Loyal Valley

J. Riley Green's Negro Sermon

This negro sermon by J. Riley Green, was sent in to Frontier Times by Harry Rand, of San Antonio. The subject was "The Prodigal Son"

OUR TEXIAN GOVERNOR COKE R. STEVENSON

By Nettie Walton Watson.