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Gc 976.4 AL45E
REFERENCE
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 02524 6478
Gc 976.4 AL45E ALLEN: JOHN TAYLOR, 1848- EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
Early
Pioneer Days in Texas
×917.64 Als3e
By J. Taylor Allen
Allen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
COPYRIGHT, 1918 BY J. TAYLOR ALLEN
PRINTED BY WILKINSON PRINTING CO. DALLAS, TEXAS
1228852
Dedicated to the Memory of Our Pioneer Fathers and Mothers
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
Page 1
Early Times in Texas
CHAPTER II.
Indian Songs and Dances.
25
CHAPTER III.
Hunting in the Early Days
29
CHAPTER IV.
Ten Years a Cowboy in the Wild West
37
CHAPTER V.
Biographical Sketch and History of My Father, W. B. Allen, as Told by Himself. 47
CHAPTER VI.
John Taylor Allen
73
CHAPTER VII.
Lem Ramsey
83
CHAPTER VIII.
Jacob Ramsey 86
CHAPTER IX.
J. E. Deupree.
88
CHAPTER X.
Dr. John Cunningham 94
CHAPTER XI.
Capt. A. J. Nicholson
Page
102
CHAPTER XII.
Joe Spence 109
CHAPTER XIII.
Wm. Spence
117
CHAPTER XIV.
Capt. Shelton
122
CHAPTER XV.
C. C. Yoakum
133
CHAPTER XVI.
Capt. W. Underwood
136
CHAPTER XVII.
Pioneer James Baker
137
CHAPTER XVIII.
Tribute and Eulogy to Uncle John Jones
140
CHAPTER XIX.
Mrs. N. C. Jones
143
CHAPTER XX.
Honey Grove
146
CHAPTER XXI.
To My Children and Relatives
148
CHAPTER XXII.
Tribute and Eulogy to the Good Ladies and Beautiful Flowers 151
CHAPTER XXIII.
Page 154
Our Soldier Boys CHAPTER XXIV.
The Religion of Today 156
CHAPTER XXV.
For Speedy Reformation
158
CHAPTER XXVI.
To Our Friends and Loved Ones in Heaven
161
CHAPTER XXVII.
To Our Soldier Boys and Many Relatives
163
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The College Dude
165
CHAPTER XXIX.
To Our Many Friends and Relatives
170
CHAPTER XXX.
Christian Unity
171
CHAPTER XXXI.
Better Than Bonds or Gold
176
CHAPTER XXXII.
Some Reminiscences of Early Pioneer Days ......
178
CHAPTER XXXIII.
History Repeats Itself 180
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Greatest Good to the Greatest Number
182
CHAPTER XXXV.
War Clouds
183
CHAPTER XXXVI. Selected Poems and Contributions by J. Tay- lor Allen and Others 185
ERRATA
J. Taylor Allen was born October 29, 1848, in- stead of 1840.
On page 146, in the write-up of Honey Grove, line 21 should read: the city of Honey Grove shipped, instead of Bonham shipped.
In the write-up of C. C. Yoakum, the author de- sires to mention that he was often with him in his last days and conversed with him freely as to his future hope. Mr. Yoakum said he had been a very wicked man. The author told him our Sa- vior came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, and that there is more joy in Heaven over one sinner than the ninety and nine that went not astray. That all that was required was true repentance, and faith in the atoning blood of Je- sus. He said he was sorry for his sins and would trust in Jesus. Thus Mr. Yoakum became recon- ciled. We shall meet him with the redeemed in the home beyond, where no sin, sickness or death ever enters.
J. TAYLOR ALLEN, Author and Compiler.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY TIMES IN TEXAS.
Friends, early pioneers and settlers and a few remaining schoolmates of our log cabin school days: I write these lines in commemoration of the days of long ago; the days that were spent in preparation for the glorious results which have come to Texas and her people. The younger gen- eration cannot know nor understand the dangers, nor the inconveniences, that beset us in the early days; neither can they comprehend how tedious was the slow and labored journeys we had to make to go from place to place. Now it is an easy task to travel two or three hundred miles a day, and at little cost, but in those days when we had to pick our way through vast country expanses and find our road the best we could as we went along, it was a tedious and expensive journey, both because of expenditure of energy and of means as well.
I have thought it would be a benefit to humani- ty, a testimony to the self-sacrifice of the fathers, and a monument to the virtues and bravery of those noble men who blazed the trail to make Texas habitable, to record some of the early ex- periences, episodes and primitive modes of life in the early days of Texas.
When my father left old Tennessee to come to Texas, it wasn't in one of those wagons that run smoothly along the road, with springs to take
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EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
away the jar off the bed, but one of those old- fashioned kind that jerked and jolted at every step the oxen took. That was the kind that brought the families out here. Nor were there so many of them that the dangers and loneliness was removed. Prairie schooners were as scarce then as the ships on the open sea, and every out- fit had to carry enough grub and camping equip- ment to keep them until they could locate in the country to which they hoped to make their home.
Along the line of their journey there were no stores, nor stations, where they could stop and stock up and what little they could get to eat or drink they had to depend on what they had with them, augmented with what they could pick up on their way. Just a few miles a day is all they could hope to make with their patient ox teams, and it was then considered a long journey to travel what we can now do on the train in a few hours.
Of course, all the pioneers didn't come in ox wagons. Some of them came with a pack on horseback; some only had a blanket, a pot and a skillet, a sack of flour and a little salt, coffee and bacon, depending on the game they could kill for food. Lying down on the ground wrapped only in a blanket when they were ready to sleep. Those who had wagons, usually carried camp outfits with them and would pitch their tents for the women and children.
The way was beset with countless difficulties, such as fording creeks and rivers, making their way through brush and briar and timber and un-
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EARLY PIONEER PAYS IN TEXAS
inhabited country and the ever present dangers from the marauding, thieving and treacherous Indian. It can be said for the Indian that he was always watching to rob the defenseless pioneer and he would lie in wait to surround and capture the weaker camps and steal their belongings, or, if in larger numbers would catch the campers un- awares, kill the men and rob them of their horses and cattle and carry off captives their women and children. If some of the sticks and stones on Texas prairies could testify to the things the In- dians did in the early days it would make one's blood boil with indigation, and while I shall try to tell some of the experiences under my personal observation I cannot begin to tell any fractional part of the horrors and atrocities that were per- petrated on the brave and hardy settlers who first came to habitate on this noble land of ours, this, the Lone Star State of Texas.
Our first houses were on the old original primi- tive style-pole cabins with the cracks chinked with split out timber, daubed with clay, mortar, and sometimes boards pinned on same with wood- en pins-there being no nails then-covered with boards held securely in place by weight poles. Clap board doors hung on wooden hinges, the old string latch, the string of which always hung on the outside, which was always free and more than welcome for anybody to enter and partake of the generosity and hospitality of the inmates. The chimneys were of sticks and dirt; wide fire places, around which encounters of brave, dan- gerous, heroic, daring deeds were rehearsed.
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EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
where anecdotes were told and the latest news from home rehearsed, or where some traveler stopped to tell of the happenings in some distant part of interest, the happy group would sit around eager to hear it. Good, hearty meals were always enjoyed. The houses had split out puncheon floors when there were any kind at all. Stools on which were placed dressed buffalo robes or bear skins constituted the seats. The tableware and cooking utensils consisted of a coffee pot, frying pan, old-fashioned ovens, skillet and lids, and in the absence of these the old time hoecake and ash- cakes were baked around the fire. Gourds or tin cups were used to drink out of wooden pails; and when there were not bowie knives and wooden forks to use they generously sopped the pan and feasted and fared sumptuously by using nature's own wild production. Bedsteads were made in one corner of the cabin by placing the ends of two poles in large augur holes in the poles of the wall and the other ends in one upright pole log, and narrow strips of rawhide corded across and on this were placed dressed skins of buffalo, bear or deer skins with the hair left on. When they did not have this kind they slept on buffalo robes or bear skins on the floor.
They used sleds drawn by oxen until they could make their old-time native wagons. The war whoop of the Indian, screams of the panthers, and howling of wolves on every side was heard. The clothing consisted of dressed deer skin, hunting shirt, pants, vest, leggins, moccasins and coon skin cap.
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EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
Later on more substantial hewed log cabins and other and better necessaries and conveniences were used. Progress upward and onward with enterprise has ever characterized our Texas peo- ple. Our first plows were rudely constructed, be- ing made of scraps and bits of iron with a good portion of wood to complete. Our harness for horses was rawhide, and yokes and log chains for oxen. Grass of the finest quality, also an abund- ance of cane, was the only thing necessary for the stock after being worked or used in any way. Our good women, without which our big world would be a blank and a failure, were always first and foremost in every good deed and act. When she steered the craft, progress was rapid and sure; the hum of the spinning wheel, the bang, bang of the loom, the old-time carding, warping, reeling and coloring of the good old-time cloth; the wash- ing, ironing, mending, housekeeping, milking, churning and thousands of other things too nu- merous to mention-hardships and dangers en- dured that this, our glorious and grand Lone Star Texas homeland State might be settled and devel- oped by the progressive, the true, the enterpris- ing and the brave. All these and more should be commemorated and ever be as a memorial unto her who has ever proved faithful and true. God bless the women. Our Texas would never have attained to what it has had it not been for them.
A pioneer family by the name of Yeary settled south of where Honey Grove is now located. The family was composed of the old man, a grown daughter and two small children, and they had a
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EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
good, faithful old negro man. They broke a small patch of ground with oxen, fenced it with old- fashioned fence made with rails on one side and good brush fence on the other side. The patch was right on the edge of the famous Journigan thicket, a dense tangle of briars, vines and brush thorns. In this brush innumerable wild animals, like panthers, bears, wild cats, wolves, etc., and an abundance of game, made their nests there.
Old man Yeary built him a log cabin with the assistance of his negro servant and roofed it with split boards held in place by heavy poles. In those days there were no nails. For bedding, dressed hides of buffalo, bears, deers, panthers and wolves were used. Stools were used for chairs and the cooking utensils consisted of skillets and frying pans ; gourds were used for dippers and pails for carrying water were home-made. Even their clothing was made at home, usually from the hides of animals, and sometimes cloth was sent in from the East.
While hoeing the corn one day they were start- led by the frequency of what sounded like gobbling turkeys and hooting owls; it became so noticeable that the negro became alarmed and fearing the approach of the wily treachery of the Indians, he urged the old man to retreat to the cabin. The old man told him to keep on hoeing the corn, himself believing the sounds were from the gobblers and owls, but as they reached the end of the row, near to the thicket, a blood-curdling yell of the treach- erous Indian warned them, and the savages rushed on them, and shot their arrows at these two de-
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EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
fenseless men, many of the arrows penetrating the bodies of Yeary and his faithful darky. Yeary was not dead, but he lay as though he was, play- ing possum to deceive the Indians. The old darkey, before he fell, said: "Massa, I done made one In- jun wall his eye." He had crushed an Indian's skull in a hand-to-hand battle with his eye-hoe. The Indians pounced on their bodies, and one big In- dian cut a scalp, running his knife rapidly around and putting his foot on Yeary's head, gave it a jerk, and took a piece of scalp about as big as a silver dollar.
Seeing the woman and children passing the woodpile, they ran yelling toward the house. The woman picked up an ax as she ran toward the house and closed the door in time to escape. The Indians battered at the door, and when they put their heads in the door she chopped off the head, and two of them were beheaded.
The savages finally withdrew with two of their number killed, and the woman went and dragged the old man into the house, cut the arrows out of his body, dressed his wounds, and he finally re- covered, but the old man was the worst scared man, father said, he ever saw. The negro was killed.
On another occasion, near this same place, there were two families, if my memory serves me right, one of them was named Cameron, the other I have forgotten. These families camped for a while, but finally built a strong log cabin with loop holes to place their guns if they should be at-
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EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
tacked by the Indians. Around the house they built a high, strong fence as an added protection. The women, one day, seeing the approach of the blood-thirsty Indians, rushed to their husbands, who were herding a small bunch of horses and cattle a short distance from their rudely con- structed fort, but the Indians were on them, and a short, fierce battle ensued. The men were killed · and scalped. Several of the Indians were killed. The women had, in the meantime, reached the fort, and after slaying the men, the Indians made a rush for the fort to kill the women and chil- dren. The women were good shots, and the In- dians were disappointed, for as they scaled the fence the women, with determined and steady aim, killed the Indians one by one, as they got over the fence, until the Indians, finding they had a dan- gerous task, hastened from the scene of danger.
The poor, disconsolate widows, after the retire- ment of the savages, were bewildered and borne down by sorrow, but their bereavement increased when they heard the howling and screaming of the wild animals approaching towards where the bodies of the fathers and husbands lay dead, in their scent for flesh and blood. Says one of the women to the other: "I will take my two chil- dren and defend the bodies while you go up the bed of Bois d'Arc Creek until you come to the trail made in crossing the creek, then follow this trail until you reach Throgmorton's, our only neighbor. Tell them of our disaster and ask them to come and help us." Each woman took the part thus arranged, and as the woman followed the trail she
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EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
was attacked by the bear dogs of Throgmorton, who rushed toward the woman with great fury. The brave little woman, in her fright, climbed a tree to get out of reach of the vicious dogs, and remained there till the old man, hearing the noise, grabbed his gun and calling his boys, anticipated what he thought was the approach of the Indians, and cautiously crept to where the dogs were bark- ing. Soon they heard the cry of the woman, and fearing the Indians had captured a woman, they hastened to where she was, and seeing her in the tree, asked her why she was there. She related the experience of the night before, and begged him to come and help them. Of course, the old man told her that his life, and the lives of his sons, would be given to protect them if necessary, and urged her to go and stay with his folks until they could go and help her friends, but she said, "No, I'll go with you and help my dear friend and chil- dren to bury the bodies of our dead husbands."
When they arrived at the desolate homestead, they found the bodies of the men laying in their own blood, and the lonely, brave woman and little children standing guard over the bodies, keeping off the hungry animals with her apron in hand. The bodies of the dead men were wrapped in sheets and buried in a deep grave near the fort, to sleep until the resurrection morn. History does not record braver nor more heroic deeds, nor greater sacrifices, than does the deeds and sacri- fices of the pioneers of the men and women who first settled Texas.
There was a family of hard-working, indus-
..
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EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
trious people came to Texas when school houses were very few and far between. They had been used to hardships and came prepared to forego the disadvantages and the dangers and inconven- iences of pioneer days, to build a home and settle a country where Indians roved in wild and blood- thirsty pusuit of greed and gain-using treach- ery, subtlety and cunning in their murderous pur- suit of the defenseless, and scalping and killing men, women and children.
This family built a little log cabin and had a few head of horses and cattle and two bright little tow-headed boys who were the delight of their parents-whose childhood days were spent in ig- norance of the dangers that confronts the pio- neer in a territory infested by the blood-thirsty savage. My father says the family's name was Cox, and one night the war-whoops of the Indians went abroad and the homes of the settlers were set on fire, their cattle stolen and the defenseless women and children killed and scalped or stolen. These two boys of the Cox family were taken in one of these raids and carried away by the Indians when they were mere children. The anguish of the parents cannot be expressed in words. Search- ing parties were organized to go after them. My father was one of this party and he has told me of many experiences he had in his dealings with the savages. Many of his brave comrades were forced to kill Indians and fight many a fierce battle, both by day and by night, and often were the struggles a life and death occasion. The sneaking Indians would crawl and skulk around the camps and try
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EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
to steal the horses that were lariated where they could eat the nutritious grasses, almost under the white man's eyes. On one occasion at Old Warren, on Red River, two of the party were on guard, while the remainder slept, resting from the toil and troubles incident to their warfare with the ever pestilent Indian. These two guards were stationed in a peculiar position, having perched upon an unfinished log stable. Suddenly the bear dogs began a fearful barking, the horses snorted and neighed, and became very restless, running backwards and forwards in the lots, or around and around the post to which they were lariated. This was, to the minds of the two pickets, an in- dication of the proximity of the Indians. The two guards moved over on the poles that had been set for the loft of the stable, and in doing so, lost their balance, came tumbling down in one great crash-men, guns, poles and all. Picking up their bruised and bleeding bodies, they rushed to their sleeping comrades, warning them of the Indians' approach, who, when awakened from their slum- bers, found the imprint of the moccassined feet of the Indians that had run for their lives from the places where they had intended to steal the horses. Father always said the only thing that saved those horses from being stolen was the noise of the fall- ing roof and men on the stable.
Four years elapsed before the Cox boys were found and returned to their parents. They were bought from the Indians by a government agent in trading, and restored to their home. The par- ents rejoiced exceedingly, but not for long, for
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EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
when they found the dead restored to life, imagine if you can the bitterness of feeling to find that their boys had adopted the savage life and pre- ferred to cast their lot with the Indians. So the boys ran away and joined with the savages and never returned again. They were better suited with the savage life than the life of the pioneer and settler.
The early settlers used to gather round the camp fires, and it was always in order to tell tales of Indian fighters and fighters of wild animals. Sometimes some of the party would rehearse their own experiences of previous danger and hard- ships. In one of these gatherings a trial was held. Some vicious wolves had chewed the rawhide lariats that held the horses and had driven the horses away. The charge was made that the wolves had been trained by the Indians to sever the lariat so the Indians could capture the horses, as they came where they were secretly hidden from the much feared white man. The judge and jury, after hearing the case, agreed that it was true that the Indians had trained the wolves to gnaw the lariat so they could steal the white man's horses. The finding of the court was that not only did the Indians feloniously engage the wolf to aid them, but rewarded the wolves with generous supplies of fresh bear, buffalo and deer meat, and thus making an ally for Heap Big Scalp Taker Indian. Thus did the treacherous Indians to the white man in the early days.
Times have changed since then. No longer does the wily savage live off the toil of the brawny arm
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EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
of the cultivator and home builder, nor is his ally the wolf permitted to roam abroad a menace to the home and faithful heart that helped to build the home and prepare the ground so it may be fruit- ful, but in its stead I fear there are some other enemies in the land where our forefather's blood was spilled that coming generations may have peace and comfort. These enemies do not slay de- fenseless women and children, or unarmed men, by stealth and cunning, nor take their scalps as did the treacherous Indians, but, does not some of the heartless gambling exchanges, with their trained wolves, go forth seeking to devour the toil- ing millions of hard working men, women and children by crowding the prices high on what they buy, and lessening the value of what the la- bor produces ? Is not our civilization a farce when these enemies price and sell a million more bales of cotton than the world produces, living off profits that never exist, while the producer ekes out a mere existence, unappreciated and un- thanked ?
In this scene of plutocratic, aristocratic, graft- ing oppression the Son of Man will come again- He who scourged the money changers; He will bring to account the men who make money their god. The rich man who has gained by ill-gotten ways, will realize too late the utter folly of in- dulgences in avaricious extortion from the hard- earned toiler, and will, like the rich man being in torment, long for the comfort of the drop of water and the opportunity of warning those dear to him deluded with the view that success and honor comes in gain and wealth.
.
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I call to mind an old man and his wife, who, by rigid economy and self-sacrfice and thrift, accum- ulated means enough to send one of their boys to college. The boy was glad to be free from what he considered the drudgery of clearing new ground and building fences, digging up stumps and escaping the heavy burdens incident to the making of a home such as pioneers built in early days, and such as are being built by honest men today. This young man wanted a safe, secure and easy way of making his way as do so many of our young dudes and dudesses, who acquire an edu- cation usually at enormous cost of the self-sacri- ficing parents, failing as so many do to appreci- ate the privileges that have been made possible by these dear ones at home. After this young man had been at college a couple of years the folks at home concluded they would examine their in- vestment, so they hitched up the ox team and took a five days' journey over the rough roads to see their son in the closing exhibition at school, feel- ing sure he would be pleased to show them what he could do and be glad to welcome them after all they had done for him. When they camped and visited him in the college ground, imagine their feelings when he scorned his folks-his own mother and father, his own brothers and sisters -turning to his college chums and professors, declaring he did not know them.
The poor old father was a very practical man, and did not propose to return on his long journey home without first having an understanding; so he said to the mother, and other children: Fol-
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EARLY PIONEER DAYS IN TEXAS
low me. The family marched into the hallway, and when the bell resounded for the gathering of the classes, and the young man came in, they all with one accord proceeded to give him such a trouncing as he deserved. Of course there was a scene, and the father was arrested, fined and forced to make a mortgage to pay it, but the young man was tamed and ready to return to the family home and take up his duties with humility ; ready to do his share of the work, and properly considered what he owed to those who were of his own blood.
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