USA > Texas > Cherokee County > A history of Cherokee county (Texas) > Part 6
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Ladies' hoops were selling at $1.50 to $8 per pair.
Numbers of out-of-the-county lawyers and doctors inserted professional cards. New Orleans and Shreveport firms led out- of-state advertisers. From the amount of space taken they must have found Cherokee patronage a significant source of income. Measured by modern standards, however, none of their ads would be effective. Few buyers of today would take time to read a single column of fine print.
A large number of columns in each issue were devoted to adver- tising patent medicines which were to cure any and all Cherokee ills. Balsam and Cherry and Tar was a "safe, speedy and certain remedy for coughs, colds, asthma, sorethroat, bronchitis, con- sumption and all pulmonary complaints." Extract of Sarsaparilla and Yellow Dock was a most unfailing remedy for diseases of the blood and bilious complaints. The popularity of Mexican Mus- tang Liniment was "coextensive with the civilization of the globe." A single trial would "convince the most skeptical that there is unequalled virtue in the Red Jacket Stomach Bitters."
The following editorial comments on Cherokee styles in 1867 :
"Clothes may cost higher now, but little more of them are worn than by Mother Eve. Bonnets are the size of a 3-cent postage stamp. Dresses without sleeves, low in the neck and short in the skirts, constitute the full dress of a modern lady of fashion. And even in such costume they look, oh! how pretty."
The same issue carried an announcement of an improved mail schedule for Rusk.
"Galveston mail arrives Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 p. m. and departs Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 6 a. m.
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EARLY DEVELOPMENTS (CONTINUED)
"Shreveport, Marshall, Jefferson and Henderson mail arrives Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 6 a. m. and departs Mon- days, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 p. m.
"Palestine mail arrives Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays and departs Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays."
It took the Houston Telegraph four days to reach Rusk. Thirty- six hours' running time were lost by lay-overs at Navasota, Hunts- ville and Crockett.
LODGES
The lodge was another institution which bound Cherokee pio- neers together. The first Masonic lodge in the county was char- tered in Rusk, July 15, 1848, as Euclid Lodge No. 45, with the following members: M. H. Bonner, John N. Thomas, G. A. Evarts, Duncan McEachern, Andrew Jackson, James U. Parsons, James B. Harris and W. P. Brittain (Worthy Master). Rusk also had the first chapter of Royal Arch Masons, Cherokee Chapter No. 11, chartered June 25, 1851. In 1854 Rusk was host to the Seventeenth Annual Communication.
During the '50s other Masonic lodges were organized at Larissa, Jacksonville, Griffin, Social Chapel on Box's Creek, Pine Town near Maydelle, and Alto. Upon the enlistment of almost its entire membership in Confederate service, the Griffin Lodge ceased to function in 1861. The Dixie Lodge, chartered at Knoxville two years later, gained its surviving members. As population shifted to railroad centers, the lodges were also moved : Larissa to Jack- sonville, Knoxville to Troup, Pine Town to Dialville.
Other fraternal organizations followed the Masons. About 1853 the Washington Lodge No. 17, I. O. O. F., was organized at Rusk, but subsequently forfeited its charter and was not reor- ganized until 1870. About 1854 the Frank Patillo Temple of Honor No. 20 was also organized at the county seat. It dissolved in 1858.
MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
The first members of the Cherokee County medical corps were Doctor A. C. Denson of Lockranzie, Doctors T. J. Moore, J. H. Vaught and Cosby Vining of Rusk and Doctor Jackson of Jack- sonville. Among newcomers during the next three decades were Doctors E. W. Jenkins, Toliver P. Hicks, William Finch, Charles B. Raines, S. J. Lewis, M. W. Armstrong, C. C. Francis, J. S. Wightman, Wallace McDugald, H. L. Givens, L. R. Peacock
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
(surgeon dentist), D. Castleberry, J. R. Vaughn, I. K. Frazer, T. Y. T. Jamieson, W. G. Jameson, Charles A. Wade, Charles Cannon, J. T. Wiggins and J. Pat Clark of Rusk; Doctors J. S. Lindsey, John Ray, A. K. Middleton, B. F. Brittain, J. B. Fuller, T. K. Chester, J. H. Stuart, W. R. Cloud, L. Lloyd, Chapman, Shelton, Black, Taylor, Fowler, Johnson, Robinson, Porter and Smith of Jacksonville; Doctors P. H. Butler, W. L. Kirksey, M. A. Gaston, A. F. Wilson, John Collier and J. M. Noell of Alto; Doctors John A. Shamblin, R. D. Bone, William H. Camp- bell and U. G. M. Walker of Larissa; Doctor J. M. Brittain of Griffin ; Doctor J. T. Rountree of Knoxville; and Doctor Edwin Hendricks of Box's Creek. A number of these, including Doctors Brittain, Lloyd, Frazer and Fuller, served their communities more than half a century. Doctor R. T. Tennison of Summerfield is the dean of the present corps of Cherokee physicians. After graduation from medical school in 1878, he returned to the farm on which he was born and shouldered the ills of a territory fif- teen miles square. He is still there, dispensing medicine from the same little bottle-lined office.4
CHEROKEE COUNTY BAR
While William C. Daniel has the distinction of being the first lawyer to open an office in the county, he was soon followed by S. L. B. Jasper, Joseph L. Hogg, Rufus Chandler, R. H. Guinn, Samuel A. Erwin, S. P. Donley, M. H. Bonner, A. H. Shanks, W. B. Davis and F. W. Bonner. Among other early comers were Thomas J. Jennings, E. B. Ragsdale, T. T. Gam- mage, Thomas J. Johnson, John T. Deckard, J. J. A. Barker, Abraham Glidewell and G. K. Grimes. In the '60s additional names appear-Jefferson Shook, M. D. Priest, S. A. Willson, E. L. Gregg, T. R. Bonner, J. H. Cannon and others. Among outstand- ing lawyers of still more recent date are J. E. Shook, J. P. Gibson, James I. Perkins, Sr., S. P. Willson, Charles H. Martin, E. C.
4The 1934 membership of the Cherokee County Medical Association is as follows: J. L. DuBose, Wells; J. B. Ramsey, Forest; J. M. Crawford, W. A. McDonald, and John L. Hatch, Alto; Charles W. Evans, Fastrill; J. M. Travis (president), R. T. Travis, L. L. Travis, W. H. Sory, F. A. Fuller, Fred Fuller, R. F. Brake, John B. McDougle, J. N. Bone, and C. H. Stripling, Jacksonville ; Thomas H. Cobble (secretary-treasurer), E. M. Moseley, R. C. Priest, J. F. Johnson, William Thomas, Lawrence Smith, C. A. Shaw, W. F. Perkins, E. W. Burnett, and Roy C. Sloan, Rusk; D. F. Gray, C.C.C. Camp.
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EARLY DEVELOPMENTS (CONTINUED)
Dickinson, J. F. Beall, M. J. Whitman, F. B. Guinn, Lee D. Guinn and C. F. Gibson.5
Since R. H. Guinn opened his office in Rusk in 1847, members of the Guinn family have continuously practiced law in the county seat. The firm is now composed of M. M. and E. D. Guinn, two of his grandsons. The Shook family for four successive generations has been represented in the legal profession-Jeffer- son Shook, J. E. Shook, W. H. Shook and John Louis Shook.
5The 1934 Cherokee Bar includes W. T. Norman, B. B. Perkins, M. M. Guinn, E. D. Guinn, J. W. Chandler, Jr., W. E. Stone, Frank L. Devereux, G. W. Gibson, S. A. Norman, E. B. Lewis, H. T. Brown, John B. Guinn, W. J. Gar- rett, James I. Perkins, Jr., John C. Box, Sr., John C. Box, Jr., Thomas Shearon, D. L. Harry, W. H. Shook, and Ray H. Odom. As will be noted, many of these are descendants of pioneer lawyers.
CHAPTER V
SNAPSHOTS
ONE of the joys of the quest of material for this volume has been the formation of delightful friendships with the oldest Cherokeeans. Graciously delving into long-undisturbed places, flitting here and there among memories, these silver-haired men and women have rendered invaluable service in this effort to draw a true picture of the Cherokee pioneer. Most of them too feeble to have a part in the world's activities, their eyes too dim for much reading, they find their chief pleasure in reminiscence. To them should be credited the real authorship of these sketches of yesterday.
The chapter makes no pretense at unity. Like the Walrus' con- versation, it deals with many things-
"Shoes and ships and sealing wax And cabbages and kings."
Despite relatively sparse settlement and the absence of the automobile, pioneer folk had their share of good times. Social customs, however, were strikingly different to our own.
"Dates" were made by note :
Compliments of John Doe to Miss Blank Will be pleased to call-evening And see you to --.
The messenger brought back the formal, dignified reply :
Miss Blank returns the compliments of Mr. John Doe And will be pleased to accept --.
Or the young lady may have had cause to decline. A previous engagement. Or take the case of a too youthful suitor to whose very proper note came this scathing answer :
Miss Blank returns the compliments of Mr. John Doe. When you have learned to button your trousers to your waist I shall consider accepting your company.
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SNAPSHOTS
In either case, partially through the inventive genius of a cer- tain Alexander Graham Bell, the system has changed.
And who ever heard of a party without "Weavilly Wheat" and "Old Sister Phoebe" ?
Picture the scene. A line of young men and women, facing each other. The head couple dances down the aisle and back again, then goes foot. The second couple does likewise. So, on and on, until the party's end. All the while the crowd singing lustily-
Charley, he's a nice young man, Charley, he's a dandy ; Every time he goes to town, He brings the girls some candy.
I won't have any of your weavilly wheat,
I won't have any of your barley ; I'll take some flour in half an hour, To bake a cake for Charley.
Or perhaps the tune changes- -
Old Sister Phoebe, how merry were we The night we sat under the juniper tree, The juniper tree, heigh-ho.
The modern punch bowl and chicken-salad-potato-chip plate were conspicuous for absence. Only on extra special occasions were there refreshments of any kind. Then tea cakes and lemon- ade, minus lemons! Escorts went to the sideboard, filled a glass with water, sweetened it with lemon sugar, flavored it with drops from the little phial of lemon extract which always came with the sugar, and gallantly served the ladies.
On cold winter nights, when fires roared in huge fireplaces and candles flickered and flared while skilled fiddlers wielded their bows and prompters gaily called signals, young and old shared a favorite amusement-the pioneer ball. An oft-told story has to do with Cherokee County's celebration of secession by the famous "Secession Ball" at Old Jacksonville.
Although polo, golf and tennis were unknown terms, the pio- neer had sport a-plenty. A shooting match champion was a community hero. In lieu of a loving cup, he accepted a quarter of a beef as a trophy ; his gun was always named. Dashing over
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
red hills on the back of a thoroughbred was a pastime shared by both men and women. A partridge drive on a misty autumn day was another ideal sport.
Partridge catching equipment consisted of a funnel-shaped net, eighteen feet long, knitted from twine the color of fallen leaves, and held open by hoops of graduated size. Fastened to the ground at the open end, the net was stretched full length and covered with leaves. Gradually closing in on them, the hunters drove a covey of partridges toward the snare. Unsuspectingly they entered and continued their course until caged at the other end. Often twenty-five or thirty were captured at one drive.
While intercollegiate football and baseball were unknown, the pioneer college student needs no pity from the modern sport fan. For modern track there was fox-one player being given five minutes' start on the mile of woodland course, the balance fol- lowing in wild pursuit. Cat and bullpen afforded variation when players were limited, but townball was the chief sport. "Stealing drygoods" was a game which kept the co-eds physically fit.
"Our infare dinner!" Turkeys and chickens baked to just the proper shade of brown, big juicy hams, cakes and pies. The tables groaning beneath their loads. Everything and everybody doing their utmost to give the bride one perfect day. Small wonder old eyes still sparkle at the thought of it. All the thrill of a 1934 honeymoon trip pressed into that one glorious day, the day after the wedding, when the groom's family entertained. Not surpris- ing that a bit of the pride of long ago creeps into the description of "my infare dress," always close rival of the wedding-gown itself. Evidently no length of years can blot out an infare triumph.
Shades of modern drug store counters! Can it be that milady of the '40s had only a starch-bag? But what bags! Not mere scraps of cloth tied with strings, but works of art into the making of which went all one's ingenuity in needlecraft. A richly embroid- ered white flannel bag was the style de luxe. When such a bag could be filled with crushed "bought starch" instead of the face- powder made by drying grated corn and sifting out the husks, feminine aspiration could go no farther.
The accomplished pioneer woman must learn to spin, weave, knit and sew. Perfect sewing meant taking the tiniest of stitches by hand. Styles of the day multiplied the number required. Tucks were much in vogue. Babies were swaddled in much-tucked skirts. Even the bosoms of men's shirts were finely tucked and then still further ornamented by tiny ruffles with rolled and
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SNAPSHOTS
whipped hems. Dyeing thread-wool for winter, cotton for sum- mer- to just the right shade for knitting her two-tone stockings was a matter of grave concern. Note "hose" was not in her vocabulary. Her hat, often made of corn shucks, wild palmetto, or rye straw, was probably trimmed with feathers from barnyard, fowls. Almost always her everyday shoes were made of home- tanned leather. Woe unto the wearer whose shoes got wet!
The pioneer with money was often no better off than the pio- neer without it. Many desired goods were simply not purchase- able in frontier communities.
Probably on account of fear of fire, the kitchen was usually built at some distance from the house. Bills of sale always listed both kitchen and household furniture, but the former never included a stove.
Yet what delectable food came from those huge, open fireplaces ! Ash cake, corn lightbread, johnny-cake made of meal and baked on a board before the fire; spareribs roasted on strings; chicken pie, not the pale baking-powder biscuit variety but pie whose crust was yellow with richness ; deep, juicy fruit cobblers; enor- mous pound cakes, and so forth, and so on! "Best cooking ever tasted." Again and again these men and women of yesterday declare it. What right have we to deny it?
In a few Cherokee pantries of today, by the side of bright aluminum and gayly-colored enamel ware, may be found a gourd vessel, relic of pioneer days when such containers for sugar, salt, soap, lard and so forth were in common use. Cherokee gourds grew in abundance to unusual size, some fifty-nine inches in cir- cumference. When the tops were cut off in notches, they could be easily kept in place as covers. Smaller gourds made excellent dippers.
Piggins, noggins, keelers and cupping horns. What curious terms creep into conversations among old-timers-new to most of the present generation. But to those readers who scoured to shiny brightness the brass hoops on cedar piggins once filled with creamy milk or clear spring water; those who have sleepily pro- tested washing dusty, childish feet in little cedar noggins and keelers; those who have submitted to being cupped for various aches and pains will smile knowingly and slip away on trails of reminiscence.
The drug store was "all out-of-doors." Slippery elm bark soaked in water was given for nausea; dogwood, white ash and cherry bark in whiskey for chills; dried may-apple root, beaten into powder, for purgative; goat-weed tea to sweat off fever; bear-foot
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
tea mixed with grease for rheumatism. In addition to these wood- land supplies, medicinal herbs-thyme, tansy, sage and senna, mint and sweet basil, rue, garlic and what not-found a place along the back walks of the vast, old-fashioned flower and vege- table garden so dear to the heart of the mistress of every Cherokee plantation. Stored away in carefully picked bunches, these herbs awaited the development of an ache or pain.
Dyes also came from the woods-maple and sweet gum, set with copperas, for purple; a combination of pine, red oak and plum for slate; indigo for blue; the clay hills for yellow. Maple and sweet gum also furnished ink.
With the cost of living a subject of paramount interest, a glimpse of pioneer prices may prove encouraging. In 1849 calico was selling in Rusk for twenty-five cents, gingham for thirty-eight cents, and drilling for twenty cents per yard; two cards of hooks and eyes cost seventy-five cents. In 1853 two chickens sold for "two bits." In 1857 meal was seventy-five cents per bushel, thread ten cents per spool. In 1858 red flannel was thirty-eight cents, pink flannel fifty-four cents per yard. In 1860 Dallas flour was advertised in Rusk at four dollars per hundred pounds. In 1859 oranges were one dollar per dozen.
Everywhere was a spirit of neighborliness and trust. Houses were never locked; the latchstring was always out. Pop-calls had no place in the social calendar. Whole families, crowding into wagons or rock-a-ways, drove miles to spend the day. Nobody thought of charging for milk and butter, a setting of eggs, or garden produce. Neighbors miles away came to sit up with the sick. When a neighborhood had only one rocking-chair, it passed from house to house for the use of convalescents.
By many of the surviving pioneers lack of something to read is one of the most vividly remembered hardships. Through failure to understand the limitations of frontier markets and because of the difficulties of transportation, relatively few books were brought from old homes. Irregular mail service made papers and magazines uncertain. For isolated families long intervals passed without a trip to the distant post office. "We almost forgot how to read," says one book-lover recently celebrating her hundredth birthday.
Cherokeeans of today carelessly discard a partially used sheet of writing paper which to the pioneer would have been a treasure. Notes for hundreds of dollars were written on mere scraps of paper. Receipts were crowded on the tiniest of fragments. Even
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SNAPSHOTS
a person who entrusted a valuable document to the pioneer mail accepted in such form a certificate of having mailed it.
The pioneer as trail blazer and wilderness conqueror has been duly recorded in song and story, but a bundle of faded letters written by a young Virginian1 on the Texas frontier, doubtless typical of many others, reveals a little-sung note in pioneer life- the poignant homesickness of pioneer women. The nostalgia, bravely concealed from the young planter husband, battling with drought and limited equipment, crept into these letters to mother.
Mails were irregular. Hungry for news. More letters a constant plea. Coarse diet a-plenty failed to efface the memory of Virginia dainties. Always love was sent to longed-for old servants. Babies came. Help was scarce. Disease took its toll. "Two lone graves in the wild woods of Texas." Weary vigils over another sufferer "slowly wasting away." Each year hope of a visit home. Again the seven hundred dollars, the carefully calculated cost of the round trip, were not forthcoming. "Texas is a poor man's country. You have no idea how many poor men are here. They spent all their money coming and can't leave." At last hogs and cattle in great numbers. "All that Texas can afford" was theirs, yet no satisfaction. "I'd rather be poor in Virginia than rich in Texas."
Her granddaughter supplements the letters with the tragic con- clusion of the story. After a joyful start on the yearned-for visit home, her grandmother took pneumonia and died without reach- ing Virginia soil.
Reading the many yellowed letters graciously unearthed from almost forgotten trunks for the author's benefit, has been one of the joys of the collection of material for this volume. Those bearing the earliest dates, some being written in the '30s, had no envelopes. The writer signed his name, folded the sheet of paper, fastened it with sealing wax and wrote the address on the outside. Often it was transported by a "passenger to Texas." If sent by mail, payment of postage was indicated by the notation, "Paid .25," written in the corner where a modern stamp is placed. Later home-made envelopes of brown paper protected the letter. A village store, or perhaps a blacksmith shop, housed the post office.
Outgoing mail was also of tremendous importance. Relatives of the daring emigrant fearfully awaited letters from the wild frontier, eagerly read every scant news dispatch relative to little- known Texas. Accustomed as we are to thinking of San Jacinto as history, it really was once "spot news." Concerning the Texas
1Grandmother of Mrs, J. S. Sherman of Maydelle.
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
Revolution, a sister of William Roark, a Tennessee emigrant of 1834, wrote as follows:
"I congratulate you and other friends of civil liberty on the result of the late struggle, a result that clearly proves that the transplanting of the descendants of the heroes of '76 but gives a new spur to their patriotism and when their rights are invaded they can yet do deeds of noble daring unparalleled in the annals of heroism. May the administration of your government be as wise as its establishment has been glorious."
CHAPTER VI
THE CIVIL WAR
WHILE Cherokee County was peacefully establishing itself in the late '40s and early '50s, ominous things were happening else- where, events destined to draw Cherokee citizens into war between the North and the South.
In the eyes of the majority of Southern people everything, in- cluding their allegiance to the Union, depended upon the outcome of the 1860 presidential election. In Cherokee County, for the most part typically Southern, excitement was intense. The seces- sion question was publicly debated. On the streets, in the saloons and hotels, wherever Cherokee citizens gathered together, the Constitution and its guarantees, state rights, abolition and kindred topics were subjects of heated discussion. Men, meeting each other on the road, stopped to ask, "What will happen next?"
Added to political apprehension was a dread of the abolitionists inciting a negro uprising. To guard against such tragedy the com- missioners court increased the strength of the patrol companies, locally known as "Pat Rollers," entrusted with keeping watch over negro activities in the various precincts. Armed men were on guard day and night. "No man can walk fifty steps during the night without being hailed by one of these vigilant sentinels," reported the Rusk Enquirer, August 11, 1860. A stranger who could not give satisfactory account of himself was in real danger. A slave caught off his plantation without a pass was subject to severe whipping. In Jacksonville it was reported that on a certain day the slaves would revolt. Many white families sat up all night with arms in hand. The actions of an old Rusk negress having aroused suspicion, the "Pat Rollers" investigated her case, de- clared her guilty and administered thirty blows with a strap as her punishment.
Travelers arriving at the county seat soon after final election returns were announced, were greeted by a strange sight. Over the courthouse waved the Lone Star flag of the Texas Republic. From the limb of a sweet gum tree, in the northwest corner of the square, hung in effigy the president-elect.
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A HISTORY OF CHEROKEE COUNTY
Concerning this event John B. Long, a prominent Rusk pioneer who afterward rendered gallant service in the Confederate army, wrote: "As to the hanging in effigy of President Lincoln, which I personally witnessed, I did not approve it because such a policy discounts high standards of ideals and robs us of all true con- sideration of the facts involved in the issue before us."
As early as January, 1860, a company of sixty-seven mounted men had been organized in Rusk, with T. T. Gammage as captain. Soon after it was known that Lincoln would be the next occupant of the White House, the "Lone Star Defenders," a company of Rusk volunteers under the command of General Joseph L. Hogg, began drilling. Preparedness became a slogan.
South Carolina, seceding in December, invited other southern states to join her in forming a confederacy. Without waiting for Texas to determine her course of action, some of the more im- petuous Cherokee citizens decided to proclaim their position by raising the Lone Star flag in the center of Old Jacksonville's public square.
On the appointed day the people flocked in from every direction. After some oratorical preliminaries, the pole was hoisted. Anvils were fired. The crowd cheered. Suddenly the flag-rope broke. The seventy-five foot flag-pole, made of two pines spliced together, defied all the young men's attempts to climb it. Yet superstition said it would never do to quit. A little negro boy saved the day. The flag was raised.
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