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November 2012

Chasing our tales

North Texas Sta


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November 2012 NORTH TEXAS STAR STORYTELLER & RAMBLER Page 2

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Mary Jo Watson [email protected]

Mary Gray mgray@mineralwellsindex

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North Texas Star OUTDOORS ALONG THE BRAZOSDon Price

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THE SAGA OFROBERT SIMPSON NEIGHBORS

Jim Dillard

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CHASING OUR TALESSue Seibert

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DOWN MEMORY LANEWynelle Catlin

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B y D o n P r i c e

Fifty years ago technology didnt seem to in uence the lifestyles of youngpeople as much as today. The nineteen fties and sixties saw a period of limited TV reception, and video games hadnt come along with their marketshare.

So when the local American Legion was holding an outdoor Turkey Shoottwo weeks before Thanksgiving, it was something the area sharpshooterswere talking about.

It was a great idea for a local community project, and it didnt requirea lot of preparation; expenses for the local American Legion post were

inimal, and pro t for the Legion was worthwhile.So the Yaycees followed with their successful Turkey Shoot, followed by

the Brazos River Gun Club. Several other local organizations also tried it.And if the weather held, turnout was good and pro ts were made.

These Turkey Shoots became so popular they sometimes lled theweekends from the middle of November through December.

The following clipping appeared in the Mineral Wells INDEX in theovember 5th, 1963 issue:The Brazos River Gun Club will hold its annual Turkey Shoots at the club

ange, one-half mile north of Seybold Guest Ranch, Sunday at 1 pm.Matches will be held for .22 caliber rim re ri es, high power ri es,

shotguns, pistols, muzzle loaders, and bows and arrows.Some of the matches are quite colorful such as:Shooting at the running deer target or seeing how many times you can hit

the miss-and-out target without missing or Cut-the-String shoot [simply cut

the string and you win a turkey]. Its loads of fun!Also bow and arrow contests will be held and many more contests too

numerous to mention in this short column.Elmer Seybold will show the fans a bit of keen marksmanship and

exhibition shooting with his trusty muzzleloader.A Winchester Model 94 lever action carbine in 30-30 caliber will be given

away at the Turkey Shoot to some lucky person. So come on out to theBrazos River Gun Club Sunday.

You may be furnished a gun by a club member if you do not have one.Everyone is invited to attend. So come on out and enjoy the fun.

(Authors ad lib) Many local sharpshooters began looking forward to thefall of the year, as these Turkey Shoots were popular for a long time. One

particular local expert comes to mind. At the time he was a trooper withthe Department of Public Safety. You sure wanted to avoid his relay whenthe competition began on the ring line, whether it be a ri e, handgun or shotgun relay. His name is Bill Carter, and it didnt take but one or twoshots for you to realize youd made a big mistake to compete against

trooper Carter. Snake HuntThe following article appeared in the March 17, 1965 issue of the Mineral

Wells INDEX. It has been paraphrased.After the 1920s things shriveled, with there being plenty of time to spit

and whittle... but once again this coal country caught re, at least for aweekend.

Excitement was in the air. Everything seemed tuned to a feverish pitch,See page 4

Outdoors Along the BrazosTurkey Shoots & Snake Hunts

N b 2012 NORTHTEXAS STAR STORYTELLER & RAMBLER P 4


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From page 3with there being noise, danger, and close quarters. Never had Strawn(pop 817) seen so many people in a weekend, anyway, since 1910.

Instead of grimy miners pitching coal in a bin, hunters pitcheddiamondback rattlesnakes in a pen.

An estimated 2500 people from out of town came for the weekendfrom far and near; sixty-two registered hunters participated in theroundup, contest prizes also.

Reptiles were collected. A chef was on hand. So several spectatorssampled snake stakes (pun intended). Delicious, one said, tastes likechicken.

Shellie Downs, Jr., the well-known reptile collector from Micanopy,Florida, milked the reptiles, extracting the venom from 250 westerndiamondback rattlesnakes.

These reptiles were captured within a 50 mile radius of this quiettown, which lies in the southwest corner of Palo Pinto County.

Bill Ransburger, herpetologist from Sweetwater, and his sons werethere to identify and record the snakes as they were brought from the eld.

Prize money was given for the longest diamondback, a 64 incher, byChuck McBroom of Ft. Worth.

A tie occurred for the most rattlers, 13 in all. Lython Fowler, of Strawn, brought in a diamondback with 13 rattlers as did D.W.Beardens hunting party from nearby Mingus and Gordon, Texas.Local hunters had the edge.

D.W. Beardens hunting party also took prize money by bringing inthe most reptiles during the 2-day contest, 152 western diamondback rattlesnakes.

Fifty dollars was offered for the rst coral snake; the sponsor, thelocal American Legion, retained the money as not one hunter broughtthe deadliest of all reptiles to headquarters.

This was our rst hunt and we think it is a huge success, said KeithMcDonald, Strawn High School agricultural teacher, who did a lot of leg work in getting the hunt organized.

Doyle Combs, editor-publisher of the Strawn Reporter, was pleasedwith the publicity, both for town and paper.

The American Legion is already planning ahead for next year. It will be an annual event.

Autumnal AppreciationIt begins before you know it, a aming dot here, an orange daub

there, with interspersed gold, bringing before a mortals eye a mottledcoloration yet to be captured on Claude Monets canvas.

The season picks up momentum (its November now): there aretwo dots of scarlet, two daubs of orange, two of heavy gold; beforeyou blink again, there are too-many-to-count jewels as the crest of color is here, if well take only a moment to notice.

And it will crest, this autumnal coloration, some years morestrikingly than others, if well take only a moment to look...But in our culture of competitiveness, some folks have a habit of

progressing haphazardly, often without a plan. This is human nature(the early bird gets the worm).

In his haste to become successful without realizing it manpossibly disturbs precious top soil and tree roots. It takes years toheal, likely more than a lifetime for one single live oak to mature.

Realizing an average lifetime is very short, man develops aninsatiable appetite within his timeframe for wealth and power. It

looks as if man will never become completely satis

ed as long as helives; perhaps hell harm himself with nothing more than excessiveambition; and in his haste to reach the plateau of accomplishment,he could unintentionally harm the rest of us.

Rather than pursue excessive ambition, which could shorten alifetime in many ways, how does the switch to moderation soundinstead? Is this a worthy subject to be discussed among thinkers?


November 2012 NORTHTEXAS STAR STORYTELLER & RAMBLER Page 5


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I posted a query about William AlfredBarber in my August column, and asI havent heard a word from anyone, Ithought I would do a little research myself to see what I would discover.

William was born in Texas on July 6,

1873, and he was living with his family inPanola, Texas, in 1880 at the age of 7. Atthe age of 23, he married Nannie E. Paxtonin De Soto, La., and in 1900 he was livingin Shelby County, Texas, at the age of 27.At that time he was listed on the censussheets as being an owner of a sawmill.

By the time the census was taken in1910 he, along with Nannie and their three

children, Willie, Eva, and Thomas, wereliving in Tenaha, Shelby County, Texas,and his occupation was listed as a vehiclesalesman.

By 1920, the year after Nannie died,William, with Eva and Thomas, had movedto Mineral Wells, Palo Pinto County,Texas, living close to his daughter and her husband, Lyonell and Willie Barber Green

and the Charlie Majors family.At the time of his death on Aug. 14,1931, William was living in WhartonCounty, Texas, and his children, who werestill living in Mineral Wells, brought his

body back. He was buried in the ElmwoodCemetery.

William was the son of Cullen AndrewBarber and Martha Ann Bowen.

Cullen Andrew Barber was born inCoosa, Ala., on April 23, 1843. He movedto Panola, Texas, when he was age 21 andmarried Martha Ann Bowen. He was a

farmer. He and Martha lived in Panola untilshe died in 1884. They had seven children.William was their middle child.

After Martha died, Cullen married JuliaEchols in 1884, who died in 1885; MirandaJohnson in 1885, with whom he had two

children; and Alice Adeline Perry, withwhom he had ve children.

Cullen was the son of John Barber, 1807-1862, and Lucy Jane Allington, 1818-1891.Lucy was Johns second wife. It appearsthey had 18 children, and it also appearsJohn had seven children by his rst wife,Catherine.

There is a story about William Barbers

brothers and many others which was published by the East Texas GenealogicalSociety in it s East Texas Family Records.The story concerns the Battle of Mans eldduring the Civil War and the Red River Campaign of 1864, which was an effort

by Union troops to occupy Louisiana andTexas. Both the battles of Mans eld andPleasant Hill, La., took place that year, and

it is said that the roar of battle could beheard 30 miles away.The commander of the Southern troops

was Gen. Richard Taylor, a Louisiananative, and although the North occupied

New Orleans, Taylor and his men had keptthem from advancing to the central andnorthern parts of the state.

It is said that when the Northern troops

began to build up in New Orleans, their commander, Gen. Nathaniel Banks,stated, There wont be a Rebel left ineither Louisiana or Texas by the end of

April (1864). For he expected to attainShreveport by April 10, and Banks thoughtto make good on his words, for Taylor hadretreated to form a more favorable position,and Banks was aware of the retreat when hesent a probe to Alexandria, La.

Therefore Banks sent Gen. A.L. Leenorth in early March, and at the same time,about 10,000 re-enforcements from Gen.Shermans march to Vicksburg arrived inLouisiana to join Banks. For this Taylor

paid a heavy price and a fatal blow wasstruck to the Stone family of PanolaCounty, Texas.

Peter Wynn Stovall Stone, the youngest

son of John Stone, of Panola County, waswith what was called the best artillery battery in Taylors army. The bat tery wasat Fort De Russy near Marksville, La., andBanks Cavalry captured that fort, taking allthe soldiers there prisoners, along with 250of Taylors Calvary, while Taylor retreatedfurther north toward Shreveport.

Peter Stone was con ned as a rebel

prisoner on March 14, 1864, and was sentto a New Orleans prison camp. There hefought malnutrition and disease. He wasalready weak, as he had just returned to hisunit from a 45-day recovery period fromwounds he had received eight weeks earlier.

Stone and 44 other men had beenstationed at Fort De Russy endeavoring tohalt the approach of the Northern army.

Within a few days of his imprisonmentStone was sent to the prison hospital with pneumonia, and within three days of hisrelease from the hospital he contracted a

Chasing Our TalesBy Sue Seibert



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deadly case of typhoid fever, which he had probably got ten while in the hospital . Hedied Mary 29, 1864, but his fate was notknown by his family for over 100 years,until a writer investigated records anddiscovered it.

While Peter Stone was in prison anddying, his cousins and friends preparedto defend their homes along the SabineRiver in Texas. And as re-enforcements began to arrive to replace the cavalrymenlost at Fort De Russy, Taylor sent hismen to Natchitoches, La., and the Texastroops began to gather at Nacogdoches,Texas. As the Northern troops advanced,Taylor pulled out of Natchitoches andsent the Texans north to join two of hiscommanders, Mouton and Walker.

Then Taylor sent Tom Green, hiscommander of the Texas forces, to helpgenerals Delray and Major who had not yetcrossed the Sabine. Their orders were tocross the river and lie up at Mans eld, thusavoiding contact with Banks until the timewas right.

Banks delayed the occupation of Natchitoches long enough to hold LoyalistElections, while Texans swarmed acrossthe Sabine unhindered by real opposition.

Taylor decided that Mans eld MossPlantation was the best place for a battle,and the Confederates, who now numbered11,000, were still far outnumbered bythe 40,000 Union soldiers. The Texanssucceeded in stopping the Union frominvading East Texas and NorthernLouisiana, however, many men werewounded and carried their scars until theirdeaths.

On the day of the Battle of Mans eldall the southern troops were praying forvictory, and the men were in high spirits.Taylor appealed to them to draw rst blood in defense of their homes andhearths, in aming them to ght likesavages.

By mid-morning, April 9, 1864, scouts,hiding in the tall pines along Stage Road,used mirrors to ash that the Yankees werecoming. The Confederates pushed theattack with extremely erce ghting, anda southern reportedly wrote, Through the

woods and along the road, our Cavalryand Artillery completely slaughteredthem ... men and horses rolled down inhundreds. The road was red with their blood.

The battle lasted from dawn until

dusk, and though the southerners wereoutnumbered, Taylor was the master of the eld. He lost about 1,000 men whilethe Yankees lost over 2,000. In Moutonscharge that pierced the Union line, manyTexans, including Mouton, were killed. Ahorrible price was paid for the victory, andit was said of the Confederates, never inwar was a more complete victory won. Invain were fresh troops brought in. Your

magni cent line, like a restless wave,swept everything before it.Gen. Banks retreated to Pleasant Hill,

10 miles back, and there was yet another battle, fought on April 9. Texas was notinvaded from the Red River Campaign.Wounded and dead rebels were removedto Keatchie where a hospital was set up inthe old Keatchie College. The dead were buried in a cemetery

nearby where thegateway is markedConfederateMemorialCemetery, andmassive tress andunderbrush make itnearly impossible tolocate graves.

Among those

wounded or killedwere two of CullenBarbers brothers.Others who arenamed were W.M. Corley, whowas placed on theConfederate Rollof Honor; E.T.Crawford, who

was wounded;Dave McCormack,husband of Sarah E.Leslie, who as killed; Joseph N. McNeely,from OchiltreeCounty, who was

killed; William Tell Pou, who returnedhome to discover his family had heard thesounds during the battle; William Ritter,of F Company, 10th Texas Cavalry, whowas killed; William A. Norman, who waskilled; Pinkey F. Taylor, who was seriously

wounded and whose father-in-law, RichardGolden, took a slave with him to the battle site to bring him home, although hedied three days after reaching home; andCaptain H.A. Wallace, who lived as a yearas a prisoner and was paroled at the end of the war.

Others in the battles were Robert BobWyatt, who was one of the older men inPanola County. At the age of 47 he had

enlisted speci cally to ght in the Battleof Mans eld to stop the Union fromentering Texas. He lived through the war.Ebenezer Newton, in Capt. A. W. DeBerryscompany, was wounded.

Thus ends one story, of part of onefamily, who later settled in Mineral Wells.Isnt history interesting?

See ya next time!



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By Jim Dillard

(This is Part 5 in a series of articles onthe life of Robert Simpson Neighbors, whowas a soldier in the army of the Republicof Texas, Texas Ranger, prisoner of war,legislator, and Indian agent for the Republic

of Texas and State of Texas.)At last Maj. Robert S. Neighbors dream

that the Indians of Texas would one dayhave their own land came to fruitionon Sept. 19, 1853, when United StatesSecretary of War Jefferson Davis wroteTexas Gov. Peter Hansbrough Bell, urginghim to establish reservations for them inTexas. He saw this as a solution for the

defense of the Texas frontier that wouldhopefully ease tensions and assimilate theagrarian and nomadic tribes into the cultural ber of the state as self -sustaining people.

On Feb. 6, 1854, after reviewing the joint resolution passed by the last TexasLegislature on the matter, Gov. Bellforwarded a copy of a law passed that day

by the current session of the Legislature

to United States Indian Commissioner Manypenny whereby Texas granted 18leagues of unallocated land to the United

States for use by Texas Indians.

Once again Neighbors knowledge of the landscape of the Texas frontier andthe Indians that occupied the regionwould prove pivotal to accomplishing hisnext mission: to assist in locating landssuitable as reservations for the Indians.He was noti ed on April 16, 1854, byCommissioner Manypenny that he andCapt. Randolph B. Marcy had been selected

to locate lands for the reserves as soon as possible.Captain Marcy, a graduate of the United

States Military Academy in 1832, hadspent much of his military career on thefrontier including exploration of the upper reaches of the Canadian, Brazos and RedRivers of northwest Texas. He had led animmigrant train of California gold seekersfrom Fort Smith, Ark., to Santa Fe acrossthe Texas Panhandle in 1849. On his returntrip, he explored a new route from DonaAna (southern New Mexico) back to FortSmith. In 1851 he escorted Gen. WilliamGoldsmith Belknap to a site along that routein present Young County near a crossingon the Brazos River where Fort Belknapwas established. He would later serve inthe United States Army during the CivilWar and as a brigadier general on the Texasfrontier following the war.

He left New York on May 4, 1854, andtraveled to Fort Smith, Ark., and arrived onMay 18th. After gathering adequate suppliesfrom the quartermaster at Fort Smith for theexpedition, he set out on June 1, 1854, with15 men, nine wagons drawn by three yokesof oxen each, 10 horses, and an ambulancedrawn by two mules. They arrived at FortBelknap on July 12, 1854, where they met

Maj. Neighbors with his Indian guides

who would lead the expedition. Whilethere Neighbors and Marcy held a councilwith the chiefs of the Ionies, Anadarkos,Caddos and Wacos Indian tribes that werelocated on the Brazos in the vicinity of FortBelknap. They welcomed the establishmentof a reservation for them with the desirethat it be located below Fort Belknap,which would provide them protection from

the hostile plains Indians to the north andwhites settlers in the area. Since much of the land in that region had been claimed bysettlers, the expedition would rst explorethe region to the north and west along theBig Wichita River and higher up the Brazosand its tributaries for suitable lands.

The reconnaissance expedition left FortBelknap on July 15, 1854, and explored theriver courses of the Wichita, Little Wichita,Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos andClear Fork of the Brazos rivers and their tributaries of present Archer, Wichita,Baylor, Knox, King, Stonewall, Haskell andThrockmorton counties, returning on Sept.7, 1854. No unallocated lands suitable for the relocation of the Indians could be foundin most of that vast region.

A reservation for Comanche Indianstotaling 18,576 acres was nally selectedand surveyed in present southernThrockmorton County along the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. Another 68,120-acrereservation was selected and surveyed in

present southern Young County south of Fort Belknap for the Caddo, Anadarko,Waco, Tonkawa and small groups of Shawnee, Delaware, Choctaw andCherokee. Four leagues immediately to the

See page 10

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From page 8 west of the Young Countyreserve was also surveyed for relocation of the MescaleroApaches. But that tribe, thenlocated along the Pecos River

in southwest Texas, was never relocated there.A detailed account of this

expedition was recorded in thediary of W.B. Parker. Parker, a

New York City businessman andclose friend of Marcys who hadyearned for an adventurous tripto see the vast southwest, was

invited to accompany Neighborson the trip. Fortunately, he kepta daily diary of observations he made on the trip which was later

published as Notes Taken During the Expedition Commanded by Capt . R. B. Marcy, U.S.A., Through Unexplored Texas, In theSummer and Fall of 1854. The book was reprinted in 1990 by theTexas State Historical Association, Austin, Texas, and reveals afascinating account of that expedition including notes on geography,geology, wildlife, plants, Indians, cowboys and weather.

While the surveys of the two Indian reservations were being nalized and preparations made to move Indians onto them, Neighbors returned to San Antonio on Sept. 4, 1854. A report onthe expedition made by Neighbors and Marcy and surveys of thereservation lands were forwarded to Commissioner of Indian Affairsand to Texas Gov. Pease for recording on Texas General Land Of cemaps so others settlers would not locate on the same lands.

A daughter was born to Neighbors and his wife on Oct .8, 1854, and was christenedFrancis Elizabeth Ritchey

Neighbors in the MethodistsEpiscopal Church of Seguin.Sadly, she lived only a shorttime and died Dec. 1, 1854,after Neighbors had alreadydeparted on Nov. 10, 1854,on one of his tours to visit the

prairie Indians.He rst visited Fort

Chadbourne, where he found just a smal l band of theComanches. From there he

traveled with Agent Hill on to FortBelknap, where the whole band of Southern Comanches numbering1,200 Indians had assembled. Theyhad ed there for protection, fearingrumors of an attack by troops

assembling at Fort Chadbourneunder United States Army Capt. W.J. Newton. While Neighbors in hisrole as the federal Indian agent wasendeavoring to calm the Indians onthe Texas frontier and settle themon reservations, state and federalmilitary units were being sent to theregion at the same time to chastise

hostile Indians. The problem wasthat no distinction was being made by the military between those that were friendly and those that werehostile.

Maj. Neighbors left for Washington, D.C., to confer withCommissioner Manypenny on the business of settling the Indianson the reservations in Texas and arrived there on Jan. 25, 1855.His report was accepted and approved, but back in Texas militaryunits had attacked and scattered several bands of Southern

Comanches contrary to instruction left to Agent Howard thatthey not be molested. In addition, Agent Howard had failed toassemble the Tonkawa Indians at Fort Inge (also known as CampLeona in Uvalde County that was established to protect theSouthern Overland Mail route between San Antonio and El Paso)as instructed and exceeded his orders by making a contract withhis protg and retainer, Robert W. Keyworth, to supply the 250

Tonkawa Indians from the time theyleft the Nueces River until their arrival at Fredericksburg.

Neighbors ar rived at Fort Ingeon April 5, 1855, to discover that afew days prior to his arrival a bandof white men had assembled andthreatened to steal all the Tonkawas

ponies. The Tonkawa Indian womenand children were sent to themountains and a standoff betweenthe two groups occurred. With thethreat of a larger force of whitemen returning, the remainder of theTonkawa Indians ed and could not

See page 11



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From page 10 be located by Maj . Neighbors. He then returned to San Antonioith the intention of starting a wagon train with supplies for the new

eservations in north Texas.On March 1, 1854, Major Neighbors made a contract with Charles. Barnard to furnish 100,000 pounds of beef monthly to the new

eservations. Agent Hill was authorized to begin moving some 800addos, Ionies, Wacos, Anadarkos and Tawacanos located near Fortelknap onto assigned locations on the Brazos Reserve to start farmingnd constructing agency buildings. One hundred-eighty Comanchesnder Chief Ketumshe were also temporarily moved onto the reserve.By May 1, 1855, Maj. Neighbors found that 550 Indians were

ettled on the Brazos Reservation. The quarrelsome Comanches under etumshe were sent on their way to their own reserve on the Clear ork of the Brazos since Agent Hill expected an additional 450 Indians

o arrive at the Brazos Reserve the next quarter. Two hundred-ninetyve acres of corn had been planted at the governments expense and andditional 100 acres by the Indians. Agent Hill resigned his positionffective June 30, 1855, leaving Neighbors to attend matters at thegency until a replacement for Hill could be appointed.John R. Baylor, a former member of the last Legislature from Larange, was appointed as special Indian agent for the Comanche

See page 12



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From page 11Reservation and Capt. Shapley Prince Ross, a former Texas Ranger and friend of Neighbors then living at Waco, accepted his appointmentto the Brazos Reservation, arriving there on July 31, 1855. Baylor arrived at the Brazos agency on Sept. 14, 1855, and was sent on tothe Comanche agency on the Clear Fork to assume duties there. Theagencies were eventually staffed with interpreters, farmers, laborers,

sutlers, carpenters, contractors for corn, beef and supplies, and later with teachers and missionaries to instruct and assist the Indians. Agency

uildings were constructed on both reservations.By the end of 1855, agent Ross reported that the Indians on therazos Reservation had worked their crops together and built 15 logouses with others under construction, as well as approximately 190ome-shaped thatched grass houses typically used by those agrarianribes. They also planted 800 peach trees, began construction of fencesnd were taking care of the cattle given them. On the Comanche

eserve Agent Baylor reported there were 450 Comanches under chiefsetumshe and Sanaco that were tending their cattle and pleased with the

prospects of farming the following year.Four companies of the Second United States Cavalry under Maj.illiam J. Hardee arrived at the Clear Fork Reservation on Jan. 3,

1856, and established Camp Cooper to protect the Southern Comancheands located there from northern bands of Comanches. Hardee woulde replaced by Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee on April 9, 1856. Two years of

relative peace would follow implementation of the two Indian reservesin North Texas and arrival of the military units. Neighbors receivedclose cooperation from the military during this period but it was not tolast.

Just at the military units arrived at the Comanche Reservation,agent Baylor took an unauthorized leave of absence to his home inFayetteville, Texas, where he arrived on Jan. 16, 1856, to visit his wifewho was pregnant with child. Due to Baylors absence, some of theComanches became unsettled and left the reserve, fearing reprisals fromthe newly arrived military units.

Neighbors had been in San Antonio and Aust in since Dec. 8, 1856,attending to agency business and working with the Legislature thatwas in session. Just before he leftAustin on Jan. 25, 1856, to return toFort Belknap, his rst son, RobertBarnard Neighbors, was born inthe home of his grandparents near Seguin.

Signi cant legislation was passed by the Texas Legislaturethat session, including a lawauthorizing the extension of theUnited States intercourse laws over the Texas Indians, particularly the

prohibition of the sale of ardentspirits to them. It also created areservation of ve leagues westof the Pecos River for the Lipanand Mescalero Apache Indiansthen located in the Davis andGuadalupe Mountains.

Maj. Neighbors arrived back at the BrazosReservation on Feb. 16,1856, to nd everything

in a good state of affairsexcept for the bitterly cold

See page 13



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From page 12 weather, which had put a stop to all farming activities by the Indians.He traveled on to the Comanche reserve on February 16th and remainedfor eight days. Five inches of snow fell on March 1st. Agent Baylor hadstill not returned but a letter was received stating he was on his way.Since many of the Indians on the Comanche reserve were suffering fromvenereal diseases, Neighbors asked the Commissioner of Indian Affairspermission to expend funds for medical services to those who wishedtreatment. He returned to the Brazos reserve on March 5th, whereBaylor arrived on March 10th.

During June 1856 Maj. Neighbors sent Gov. Pease a specimen of stonecoal discovered near Fort Belknap. Fifty years later a railroad line wasconstructed to the area and a thriving coal mining operation developedthree miles north of Fort Belknap around the town of Newcastle, lasting

ntil oil was discovered in the area. He also sent a large meteoriteweighing around 500 pounds to San Antonio found along the Red River in Wichita County. It was later moved into the State Capitol in Austinand survived the re that destroyed the building in 1881. The meteorite

as also sent on tour with Texas Exhibit to the St. Louis World Fair of 1904. It is now located in the Texas Memorial Museum at the University

f Texas in Austin.With relatively peaceful conditions among the Indians prevailing on

the Texas frontier during 1856, an increased number of settlers beganmoving into the region around the Brazos Reservation. The countiesof Erath, Parker, Jack, Palo Pinto and Young were created by theLegislature as more and more settlers ventured west. Maj. Neighborsreturned to San Antonio to visit his wife Elizabeth and their two youngchildren at their home then located on Soledad Street next door to theMethodist Episcopal Church, South. During that stay in San Antonio

Neighbors drew up his last will and testament due to the certainty of death and the uncertainty of life before returning to the frontier.

He arrived back at the Brazos Reservation on Sept. 5, 1856, andtoward the end of that month traveled to Dallas to open bids for supplying 182,000 pounds of our to the reservation Indians. There had

been an increase of 434 Indians on the reservations by the end of theyear and by all accounts his dream of settling the Indians of Texas onreservations appeared to becoming a successful reality. He now hopedto obtain adequate funding from the government to provide teachersand missionaries for the two reservations to further educate the Indianchildren in the English language.

To be continued ...(Sources: Robert Simpson Neighbors and the Texas Frontier 1836-

1859 by Kenneth F. Neighbours; Rip Fords Texas by John Salmon Ford;Through Unexplored Texas by W. B. Parker; The Handbook of Texas Online(www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/index) and other Internet sources.)



14/20

By Wynelle Caitlin

When we were young my brother and I we livednear the foothill of Squaw Mountain in Jack County.

We couldnt see it from our home, but my motherwas able to, every day of her life until she married andmoved away from her family home. Squaw Mountainwas just a mile to the north of the cabin where she wasborn. (The restored Powell cabin is now on the groundsof the Jack County Museum in Jacksboro.)

Though she looked at Squaw Mountain every day,she never climbed it to see the grave of the Indianwoman. Why an Indian woman was killed and buried

there was, and is, a mystery. One rumor says an earlysettler shot and killed her. Another rumor says, beforesettlers came to the area, a Ranger saw smoke comingfrom the mountain, rode over to investigate and shotand killed, her thinking she was a warrior. Another saysthere was a skirmish between Rangers and a band of warriors, and she was shot and killed. Still another saysthat settlers and a band of warriors had a battle there.

All the rumors leave a lot of unanswered questions. Itis an accepted fact that an Indian woman was killed andburied on the mountain, thus giving it its name.

The nearby community, alsocalled Squaw Mountain, began as astagecoach stop where tired horseswere exchanged for fresh ones. Thecommunity grew and, during itsheyday, had a post office, a black-smith shop, a general store, cottongin, telephone exchange, dippingvat, coal mine and a school. Bothmy parents graduated from theeighth grade with a well-rounded

education in math, English andEnglish literature, which includedthe classics, spelling and handwrit-ing.

My mother walked a mile ormore to the school from the cabinwhere she was born. Rain, shine,cold or heat, she and her siblings walked down the hillfrom the cabin, crossed Cameron Creek near whereLynn Creek merges with it, across flat prairie land tothe school.

Once, when Mother had

outgrown her shoes,Grandmother got her a newpair. But they were boysshoes and Mother wouldntwear them to school. So whenshe got to the creek, she took the new shoes off, hid them ina hollow tree and went on toschool barefoot. Shed putthem on again when she camehome in the afternoons.

When my brother and Iwere youngsters we, with ourparents and three older sib-lings, lived in the dogtrot logcabin which had been home tomy father, his parents andeight siblings. We couldnt seeSquaw Mountain from there,but we could, and did, walk across a flat, cross Lynn Creek and go up a hill toGrandmother Powells.

The cabin we lived in, hadhad the dogtrot enclosed tomake an entry hall. The fire-place room to the right wasour parents bedroom and alsoserved as a parlor in cold

weather. At warmer times, the men sat on the frontporch to visit, and the women tended to gather in thekitchen, which had been added to the back of the cabin.

The room to the left was the bedroom my older sisterand I shared, just as my four aunts had. The tacked-onsleeping porch, the domain of my father and his fourbrothers, was now my brothers and our two olderbrothers room. By the time we lived there, in the1930s, most of the community of Squaw Mountain,was gone. We rode the school bus eight miles toAntelope to attend school. Today, theres only a churchand scattered houses remaining in the Squaw Mountaincommunity.

MemoriesI invited my brother, Fearl Smith, of Jacksboro, to go

with me to take a picture of Squaw Mountain.When we go places where weve spent time in the

past, we go down memory lane.We went north from Jacksboro up the highway and

turned to Shannon, where my Uncle Olas house stillstands. My brother and a cousin were good buddies sohe spent a lot of time at their house. Down the roadapiece, there was a field where Uncle Ola grew cornevery year. One year he put the boys to hoeing weedsout of new corn, but my brother was soon exemptedfrom that chore. If he kept on there wasnt going to beany corn left.

The road went through the community of Oaklandwhere Mollie, my sister-in-law, grew up. As we wentup one steep little hill, my brother remembered that,when he was courtin Mollie his car, so he said,would barely make it up the hill and he would have topull over and park at the top to let the car rest. Goodexcuse, wasnt it?

Mollie is no longer with us, but the memories are.

D OWN M EMORY L ANE



15/20

We stopped to visit with AnnCrowley, who looks daily atSquaw Mountain that is practi-cally in her backyard. Shes livedthere many years and passedalong some of the rumors.

Down the road we stoppedso I could take a picture thatwould set Squaw Mountainapart from all the other hills

in the area. Impossible task they all look alike.Not much further was the

road through a pasture thatled to the site where the cabinstood the one my motherhad been born in. It was on private property and we didnt turn up that road.The cabin was no longer there, having been moved to Jacksboro and restored.Only memories of my grandmother and her dog, and my Aunt Bert who fol-lowed turkey hens to find their nests and get their eggs. I wrote a childrens

book, using her experiences and the cabin setting. And memories of my cous-in Bobby. When he was a baby, with his bright blue eyes, I thought he was a

big doll for me to carry about and play with.We turned down Lynn Creek Road, which runs past the dogtrot cabin welived in when we were small. The cabin is no longer there but memories are.We walked from our house, across a field with the Seven Sisters pecan trees,waded across Lynn Creek, went up a hill and we were at GrandmotherPowells cabin. Where there used to be a field of sugar cane is where the millwas set up to make molasses syrup. A barn stood away from the house andwe kids played there. There I milked a gentle old cow, putting my head upagainst her flank and got lice.

She was a gentle cow and didnt pro-test anything I did. One day I got braveand decided to milk another cow. I waslittle and didnt know right from leftyet, and she protested when I sat downon the wrong side to milk her. Shekicked the milk bucket away andscared me. I didnt try to milk heragain.

My brother remembered going with

Mother along a nearby fence picking blackberries and family get-togetherswhen aunts, uncles and cousins came.We were a large family. There were 50or so when we all gathered. Food was

placed outside on trestle tables that were covered with tablecloths and wefeasted. But we kids had to wait until Daddy and all our uncles had filledtheir plates. I just knew there wouldnt be enough left for me!

I remember getting to crawl up on one of the work horses when Daddycame in from working in the field, taking the horse down to drink in the stock pond and being afraid Id fall in when he stooped over to drink.

I remember that same pond being frozen in winter and being cautionedabout walking out onto the ice. A neighbors child had walked out on ice,which broke with him and he drowned before they could rescue him.

Everywhere we looked my brother and I there were memories. Whenwere young, we always look forward, to the exciting days or years ahead.Then we reach an age when were looking back. And our memories of times,places and people keep us company and comfort us.

And so it is with memories of the time we lived near the mountain wherethe Indian woman was killed.

Wynelles Mother



16/20

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Place in TimeNOVEMBER 6, 1957Ed Dismuke dies at 97 after falling and breaking a hip. A former Waco druggist, Dismuke, in1904, founded the Famous Mineral Water Company in "The City Built on Water." Famous isthe sole remaining purveyor of mineralized water in Mineral Wells.NOVEMBER 9, 1929Baker Hotel opens in Mineral Wells. Though it opened just days before the stock market crashof 1929, the Baker was successful through the 1930s as a major mineral water/spa destinationin the "City Built on Water." The famous and well-to-do ocked to this North Texas town. Thegrand hotel got its "second wind" when Camp Wolters was established. The Baker went into

decline following the second World War, experiencing a brief upswing in the early '50s whenFort Wolters was reopened as the Army's primary helicopter training base. It closed in 1972.NOVEMBER 12, 1940Ground broken on the Infantry Replacement Center (Camp Wolters) at Mineral Wells. Due torain, work proceeded at a slow pace until early 1941. More than 19,000 men worked to readythe camp for soldiers.NOVEMBER 22, 1929The Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells formally opens.NOVEMBER 26, 1957First class of the U.S. Army Primary Helicopter School in Mineral Wells reports for training.The class consisted of 34 Warrant Of cer Candidates (WOCs) and one Chief Warrant Of cer.NOVEMBER 29, 1846Palo Pinto County rancher Jere Benjamin Hart is born in Butler, Bates County, Mo.



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