Vol 21 No. 04 - January 1944

One Of Our Texas Queens

By J. Marvin Hunter

Account of Mrs. Birdie Crosby Harwood, of Marble Falls, Texas. Mrs. Harwood was perhaps the first woman in the United States, who ever held the office of mayor of her city, serving as Mayor of Marble Falls until she voluntarily retired from the office. Not only had she won political honors, but she also achieved much fame as a horsewoman, having ridden in parades in various Texas cities, and in New Mexico and Wyoming. Here is her story.

Further Mentions: the Bandera County Old Settlers' Jubilee * Mrs. Chas. Goodnight * Major Buck Walton * Captain Rufe Perry, John D. McCall, Ben Thompson * A. W. Terrell * Ophelia Cleveland * Charles A. Crosby * Stephen Crosby * Ira Aten * Captain Elgin * Ab Blocker * Mrs. Harwood was born and raised on a ranch near Johnson City, in Blanco county * Dr. George Harwood * Kit Carson

Desperate Fight On Devil's River

The following account of a desperate battle with Indians on Devil's river in 1857, was related to John Warren Hunter by H. G. Rust, in San Angelo, Texas, in June, 1911, and was at that time published in Hunter's Magazine.

Further Mentions: Hamilton county, Tennessee * the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma * General La Vega * Captain May * Fort Brown * Fredericksburg * Fort Mason * the Old Coffee Mill * Fort Mason, Fort McKavett, Fort Chadbourne, Fort Belknap, Camp Cooper and Camp Colorado * Fitzhugh Lee * Captain W. Bradford * John B. Hood * Fort Territt * Private Dick Hopkins * Sergeant Deaton * Corporal Henry Jones * John McGlothlin * Beaver Lake * a man by the name of Barry * Ryan * Camp Hudson *

WE STAND CORRECTED.

Mentions: Mr. Allan DeWitt * Coffeyville, Kansas * Jim Younger * Stillwater, Minnesota * Cole Younger * Bob Younger * Lee's Summit, Missouri * Badger Clark

COWBOY'S PRAYER.

A poem by Badger Clark. An excerpt:

"…But never let them say I'm mean or small!
 Make me as big and open as the plains,
 As honest as the horse between my knees,
 Clean as the wind that blows behind the rains,
 Free as the hawk that circles down the breeze!
 Forgive me, Lord, if sometimes I forget
 You know about the reasons that are hid.
 You understand the things that gall and fret;
 You know me better than my mother did.
 Just keep an eye on all that's done and said,
 And right me, sometimes when I turn aside,
 And guide me on the long, dim trail ahead
 That stretches upward towards the Great Divide."

Wild Animals I Have Tamed

By J. Marvin Hunter

"The boy who is raised in a city does not have the pleasures and enjoyment of the boy who is raised in the country, for the city boy misses many things that fall to the lot of the country boy. I was raised at Mason and Menardville, both country towns in what was then called West Texas, but with increasing population westward, these two towns are now considered in Central West Texas. Some of the sports and pleasures of my boyhood days were fishing, swimming, and hunting. There was plenty of game, too, and the Llano and San Saba rivers abounded in fish, especially perch and blue catfish. It was no trouble at all to go out before breakfast and kill a big turkey gobbler within a mile or so of where we lived, and as there were no restrictions on the number of deer or turkey, one could bag as many as he wanted. I generally kept a good coon dog, and my chums also had coon dogs, and during the winter months and in the early spring we went coon hunting at night. It should be remembered that in those days we did l not have automobiles and moving picture shows to indulge our desire for pleasure, but we had plenty of other forms of recreation, and coon hunting was one of them. To get out on old Comanche creek there at Mason, with two or three good coon dogs, was a delightful privilege, and we seldom failed to "tree" two or three coons, or two or three 'possoms and occasionally a bob cat, which provided plenty of sport and excitement. One night a group of boys, including Mick Hay, Wes Smith, John and Irvine Mayo and myself, with four dogs, went down in the Eckert pasture on a coon hunt. It was a cloudy night, and misting rain.. Our dogs soon "treed" something in a large, spreading tree, and we had some difficulty in locating the animal, because of the darkness, and the thick branches of the tree. At last, however, we discerned a bulky object…"

Further Mentions: Joe Winn, John Stanton, Tom Stanton * Brownwood * the old Millerken place * Pat Rogers * Heck's spring

The Famous Secession Medley

By Fred Mosebach

Article describing the political and social intensity of passion that attended the days leading up to the secession of Texas and the southern states from the union prior to the Civil War. All of these were exciting incidents, interwoven with those that occurred during the interim, when the famous "Secession Medley" was passed down the line through the Southern States, rallying these states to the cause of the Confederacy. This medley was a stirring composition, and was copied by Laura Freeman of Navasota, TX in March 25, 1864, to be preserved for posterity. Here it is, as transcribed from the dim tattered manuscript, reproduced in this great article.

Further Mentions: Madam Candelaria * Enrique Esparza * Pablo Diaz * the Battle of the Salado * the Austin Highway * Sam Maverick * Mrs. Sarah Eagar * Thomas J. Devine, Samuel A. Maverick, Sr. and P. N. Luckett * General Twiggs

"ONE SMALL KEY "' UNLOCKS MEMORIES FOR HER FRIENDS

Mentions: Mrs. Nettie Walton Watson, of Corpus Christi * Fayette Copeland * George Wilkins Kendall

From Cattle Range To Cotton Patch

By Don H. Biggers (Continued from Last Month.)

Excellent article giving ranch history of many prominent (and some not-so-prominent) ranches and Cattlemen of pioneer Texas. Includes an excellent account of the great cattle boom, which began in 1882 and collapsed in 1886.

Mentions: the Concho and Colorado rivers * the ranches of Captain Ike Mullin, R. K. Wylie, Colonel T. L. Odour, and Sam R. Coggins and Mody Coggins * the Jim Ned and Hoard's Creek * in Coleman, Runnels, and Callahan counties * the ranches of Jim Jackson, Clay Mann, G. K. Elkins, W B. (Uncle Smokey) Brown, the Windhams, Jim Barton, Tom Clark, W. C. Dunn and Sam Gholson * John Chisum was the pioneer cowman in that section, having established a ranch near Fort Chadbourne in 1862 * R. F. Tankersley, the pioneer ranchman on the South Concho * the Tankersley ranch * the Reed ranch in Stonewall * Stephens county * Taylor county * Texas & Pacific railroad * California creek in Stonewall county * the Lan C ranch * the Curry Comb ranch * J. B. and W. B. Slaughter * Clay Mann * G. K. Elkins and Uncle Smokey Brown * In 1879 the 22 outfit established their ranch * Crosby county * George Womack established the Diamond Cross ranch * John Beal established the Buckle B ranch * Willis Holloway located at the springs on Bull Creek * John Powers established the J Buckle ranch on the Double Mountain Fork * the Yellow House Canyon * the Nunn Brothers had a big ranch in Scurry county * Doak Good * the Fort Worth.& Denver railroads * Doak Good * Joe Stokes * Running Water * the P herd, owned by Jim Newman * Dick Ware * Mitchell county * the M- Cattle Company * Tom D. Love * C. A. O'Keefe * Buck Jones * Big Spring * William Holloway and Henry Mason * Beaver Lake * Bull Run * The Devil's River district, the Concho district, the Hackberry district, the Colorado district, the Sweetwater district, the Double Mountain district, and the Clear Fork district * Tobacco Spring in the Long S range

The Capture Of The Horrells

By Captain Dan W. Roberts

In 1867, during the reconstruction when Texas was trying to rebuild her torn-up government under a guard of United States soldiers, The Horrells - three or four brothers of them from Lampasas county who were all old settlers there and who had many loyal friends - were very zealous in keeping up strife over the "dead war" issues, and caused much trouble in Lampasas county and elsewhere. This is the account of their capture by Captain Tom Williams.

Further Mentions: Roswell New Mexico * Edmund J. Davis * John Chisum started his big ranch on South Spring river, four miles south of Roswell * Billy the Kid' * Richard Coke * Major Jones * N. O. Reynolds * was J. M. Hawkins, who was postmaster at Alamogordo, New Mexico * Sergeant Reynolds

The Story Of Old Glory

U.S. Marine account of the story of the origin of our National Flag which parallels the story of the origin of our country. As our country received its birthright from the peoples of many lands who gathered on these shores to found a new nation, so did the pattern of stars and stripes rise from divers origins back in the mists of antiquity to become emblazoned on the standard of our infant republic.

Mentions: American Bluejackets * Mrs. Betsy Ross * Samuel C. Reid * Henry Ward Beecher * Sir John Marshall * Mohenjo Daro * the Battle of Bennington * the Gadsden Flag * H. Bailey Carroll, editor of The Junior Historian

The Battle In Palo Duro Canyon

By Marvin J. Hunter.

Account of a fight with well mounted bands of Comanches and Kiowas of which there is but little known which took place in the Palo Duro Canyon on the Staked Plains in the waning days of September, 1874.

Mentions: John Warren Hunter * General Mackenzie * Captain George E. Albee * Captains Carroll and Heyl of the Ninth Cavalry * the North Fork of McClellan's Creek * Fort Richardson (Jacksboro) * Flat Top and Double Mountains * Macho Que * Boehm's Canyon * Tule Canyon * Lieutenant Thompson * Hurricane Bill * Colonel Beaumont * Henry E. Hard * Captain Wint

"Shot In The Belly, By Gosh!"

Written by John Warren Hunter in 1911.

On the first of April, 1865, Captain Mullins of Coleman was in command of 300 men, who were camped on Hoard's Creek, in Brown county. These men were part of what was known as the Frontier Battalion and had been organized for frontier protection. This story details the fight which ensued near the Tankersley ranch and the Hackberry Water Hole, near the road leading from San Angelo to Eldorado.

Mentions: Mr. J. W. Doran * Dove Creek * the Tankersley ranch * Totten * A man by the name of Hightower * Rogers and Winters * Jake Huffman * Will Woodward * John Robbins, Dave Connell * Briggs, and Bruce Beabout

Cole Younger Gets A Motor Ride

Mentions: Mr Edwin B. Barker of Crown Point, New York * Emmett Dalton * M. K. Wyatt * Bill Powers, Bob Dalton, Grat Dalton and Dick Boadwell * Port Henry, N. Y., * Sugar Hill Farm * the old Dillworth Cattle Co * John Talman-T Half Circle * Toni Padgett, saddle maker, Waco, Texas * Hariet Griggs Barker * Clell Miller * Jim Younger * Medelia * the Hayward Lbr. Co * the Nacogdoches Southeastern R. R. * the Frost Johnson Lbr. Co * Edwin Bogue Barker * Lew Nichols