USA > Texas > Johnson County > A memorial and biographical history of Johnson and Hill counties, Texas : containing the early history of this important section of the great state of Texas together with glimpses of its future prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens of the present time, and full-page portraits of some of the most eminent men of this section > Part 15
USA > Texas > Hill County > A memorial and biographical history of Johnson and Hill counties, Texas : containing the early history of this important section of the great state of Texas together with glimpses of its future prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens of the present time, and full-page portraits of some of the most eminent men of this section > Part 15
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The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Com- pany extended its line from Fort Worth southward through Joshua, Cleburne and Rio
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON
Vista to Temple, etc., in 1881, and this line was intimately extended to Galveston. It is now called the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad, and is a part of what is now briefly termed the " Santa Fe system." The long contemplated road from Dallas to Cleburne was not built until 1884, and then it was constructed by the Chicago, Texas & Mexican Central Railroad Company, who afterward sold it to the Santa Fe company, when it became a part of the Santa Fe system.
On these roads the citizens of Johnson county raised their quota, amounting in round numbers to about $100,000, and all this was puroly donation, not stock. This includes the right of way through the county, the depot grounds and 100 acres in Cleburne for shops.
About 1881 the great the Missouri Pacific Company built their road from Fort Worth, by way of Burleson, Alvarado and Grand View, and on through Hillsboro to Waco. This is now a part of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas system (M. K. & T.,-often euphoniously abbreviated to " Katy").
The branch from Cleburne to Weatherford was built in 1857, also by the Santa Fe Com- pany; and in 1858 the Fort Worth & Rio Grande road, through the northwestern part of the county, was built, with a depot at Cres- son in this county.
There are now ninety miles of main track in Johnson county. The assessment upon railroad property in this county in 1888 was $707,450. At Cleburne is a round-house with thirteen stalls, and also railroad machine- shops. Thus Cleburne is the end of four
divisions of the great Santa Fe railroad sys- tem, and abont 500 railroad men make their headquarters here, and about $37,500 per month is expended in Cleburne. This amounts annually to nearly half a million dol- lars; and the railroad business is steadily in- creasing.
AGRICULTURAL, Erc. THE SOIL AND IT'S FERTILITY.
The soil of Johnson county, geologically, has already been described. Agriculturally it is of three grades, the black-waxy, black- sandy and red-sandy. The first variety pre- vails on the prairie or western portion of the county and on the extreme eastern edge of the county, while the other two prevail in the Cross Timbers and bottom land. All these kinds of soil are very productive, and productive, too, of nearly all kinds of grain, fruit, vegetables and tiber. All of Johnson connty was regarded as only stock country up to about 1870. It was at first believed that it would never be a good agricultural section, Wheat was largely grown, but very little corn and cotton. Flour was the chief article of export, and this was hauled mainly to the south and southwestern towns, often as far as San Antonio. It was also taken to eastern Texas, and there exchanged for lum- ber. As late as 1874 the prices for unim- proved land were as low as $3 to $8 an aere.
The next year Colonel I. T. Goodwin, of the Rural Farmer, made a tour through the State of Texas, and wrote as follows con- cerning Johnson county:
"Johnson county is rapidly improving and filling up with good, substantial citizens.
AND HILL COUNTIES.
The town of Cleburne is a model beauty. 1 find that the people of this section of the State are generally good and successful farin- era, and many of them have learned to make money. To illustrate, I will give an instance of one citizen of that county, A. D. Kennard, who lives ten miles from Cleburne, becoming rich by farming: 180 acres of corn, 7,200 bushels at 50 cents, 83,600; seventy acres in wheat, 1,400 bushels, $1,400; thirty aeres in oats, 1,200 bushels, $600; seven acres in sorghum, 100 gallons of syrup per acre, at 75 cents, 8525; seventy-live acres in cotton, one-half bale per acre, at 11 cents, $2,000; 125 beeves sold annually, $2,500; sixty horses and mules sold annually, at an average of $50, 83,000; seventy-six head of hogs sold annually, $950; wool sold annually, 8400; total, 811,975, as the proceeds of a stock farm of 362 acres.
"It will be seen that in this calculation Mr. Kennard buys no horses, mules, beef, mutton, bacon, syrup, meal or flour. Add to this the milk, butter, vegetables and poul- try raised on this farm, one will see that he lives in luxury on his own home productions; and it takes a smaller number of hands to at- tend to this farm than it does to cultivate and gather from 362 acres of fand, one-half corn and one-half cotton, as is the general rule in some parts of Texas.
"Say now that Mr. Kennard uses 84,975 worth of grain himself (his meat being already furnished), he clears each year $10,- 000, less hire of ten or twelve hands, which cost about 82,000, leaving 88,000 net profit per ammmm."
Colonel Goodwin proceeds to contrast with the above the net profits of cotton-raising, which is scarcely anything. The cotton- raisers of this section will now (1891-'92) read the above item with considerable em- phasis, while they can sell their cotton for only half the above price.
The next year, 1876, this county in its agricultural productions exceeded every other in this Stato of the same territorial extent and population. That year it produced a surplus of 250,000 bushels of wheat; in 1874 it had produced a surphis of 50,000 bushels of corn, although a drouth had pre- vailed.
Johnson county is in the heart of the grain-growing region of central Texas. Corn will average, taking a number of years to- gether, thirty bushels to the acre, wheat twenty bushels, and cotton scarcely ever falls below a half bale. V. M. Hightower was the first to raise buckwheat in the county; stalks reached a height of five feet.
A Johnson county farmer states a fow facts in regard to some popular errors taught and believed by nearly all persons who have occasion to be brought in contact with them, either by experience or hearsay:
"It is believed that when wheat, for in- stance, is ripe, it must be harvested within a few days, else it is ruined or lost to the farmer. My experience is to the contrary. One year, when the wheat became ripe, I made everything ready to cut it; had hands engaged to bind, etc., and in the evening of the day before I was to begin took my reaper to the field and tested it so there would be
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON
no delay or hindrance. That night it began to rain, and poured down for six weeks, forty-two days, beating Noah's flood two days in point of time, but not in quantity. The wheat stood, and after the rain ceased I 'cut and threshed nineteen and a half bushels to the aere. It is true a great deal was wasted, but what I saved was line and not damaged in the loast."
COTTON.
Neither corn nor cotton is much affected by the usual dronth of summer. In 1890, when the drouth was severer than usual, the farmers raised a better crop than they had done in apparently better seasons. This of course was dependent upon other better con- ditions than usually prevail, and some of these conditions are not very apparent. There were shipped at Cleburne, during the fall and winter, 1890-'91, 14,000 bales of cotton.
FRUIT.
I saae Kelly was the first man in Johnson county to demonstrate the practicability of grape-culture, making of it a splendid in- dustry. E. C. Campbell, living two miles From Alvarado, has been for many years a successful fruit-grower and nurseryman, demonstrating that one can make a good livelihood by the former industry alone.
As in all other communities, the farmers are too much inclined to contine themselves to one or two specialties, and the more l'ar- seeing are advising the agricultural com- munity to adopt a diversity. Accordingly there is now a growing sentiment in favor of
a few other products than corn and cotton, namely, pecans, castor beans, etc.
The pecan orchards in Texas are attracting attention. In a few years they will prove a great source of income to their owners, and one of the largest is that of Mr. Swinden, in Brownwood, Brown county. A few years ago he grabbed ont 600 acres of land and planted it in pecans. Ile has now 11,000 trees, some of them in bearing condition, and already paying him twenty per cent. on the investment and twenty per cent. in the in- creased value of the land. In six or seven years Mr. Swinden expects to realize from all his trees, and estimates that, at a bushel a tree, he will have 11,000 bushels, which, at $5 per bushel, will be 853,000 annual in- come; 85,000 for gathering, hulling and pushing, will leave him a net profit of $50,- 000. Of course it requires time, exponse, eare and trouble to grow such an orchard, but what successful industry can be secured that does not demand all these conditions? Most of the streams in western Texas are lined with a gigantie growth of peean trees, but a portion of the nuts which they bear is lost in the streams, and fully half the value of the erop is lost in the cost of gathering; the nuts, too, are not so large and choice as those grown by cultivation. Those who are looking for easy and profitable farming should make the pecan industry a study, and the quicker they put it in practice the moro money will they make.
Pecans planted in the nut do better than those transplanted as young trees, for two obvious reasons: firet, no advantage acerne
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AND HILL COUNTIES.
to the tree in having its roots eut off as if it were undergoing a process of training as an ornamental tree; and secondly, in transplant- ing there is no care taken to keep the tree turned toward the same points of the com- pues as it naturally grew; and when a tree, for example, is turned with its north side to the south in transplanting, the sun injures it and it becomes stunted and diseased. In fact this is an injury to any tree taken to a new situation.
LIVE-STOCK.
The following account of one of the first importations of short-horn cattle from the North, by S. J. Chapman, in the Cleburne Chronicle of November 21, 1874, gives many useful hints:
" March 23, 1874, I received a fine milch cow of the Jersey family, and her ealf, eight days old, a malo. The eow died twenty-two days afterward, with acelimating fever. Her calf is now over seven months old, and is as fino an animal as could be desired, although he had the advantages of a suckling only twenty-five days. Ile is as large as any common Texas year-old past, with smooth, regular form, proving beyond all contradic- tion the superiority of the families he sprang from over our Texas cattle for any and all practical purposes.
" With the cow and her calf I received another male calf, six weeks old; and on the 22d of April I received six heifers and two males, making ten calves in all. The last re- ceived were from one to seven months old when they came to hand, but in such a bad
condition that I thought it would be impos- sible to raise some of them. Notwithstand- ing their low condition at the time received, and the extraordinarily hot, dry summer, they are all alive and in a healthy, thriving condition at this time, and can be seen any day on my farm, one mile south of Stubble- field. Seven of the ten had the fever during the summer, and recovered with very little treatment. My opinion is that they were too young to suffer so severely in acclimating as older cattle; and further, I believe the way I managed them generally greatly as- sisted them. I fed them on wheat bran and corn meal for three or four weeks, gradually, after ten days, deereasing till I quit feeding them entirely, except the three youngest. I kept them every day on the grass, bringing them water at noon and penning them every night to date.
"This way I have managed them and be- lieve I have had better success in keeping them alive than I could have done by any other plan. My reason for not feeding them and pushing them up in flesh was that I feared stimulating feed would have a ten- deney to increase their disposition to fever. I concluded that a living calf was better than a dead one, although lean and perhaps some- what checked in growth compared with what they would have been had I fed them freely, as has been the custom of most purchasers of fine cattle in this State. Iligh, stimulating food, fed in spring and summer to fresh im- ported cattle, has been one of the main canses of so much mortality and loss to the persons introducing fine cattle into this State, and
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON
not the want of hay or green pastures in winter, as supposed by some. Neither is it a poisonous plant that they gather with their food while grazing, but simply change of climate, their natural organization or physi- cal traits being constituted for a colder climate than ours, their blood thicker and their flesh and fiber perhaps firmer and less porous. Hence the disposition of fresh im- ported stock to fever, and the greater liability of matured eattle than calves. I am certain that all that is necessary to stock our country with as good cattle as can be found anywhere is time and patience, with a little good judg- ment.
" We have (in Texas) embarked in the fine- cattle trade without giving the subject the study and attention it so richly deserves: hence heavy losses have been the result in most instances. Importing fine cattle is one thing, but the acclimating of them is another. Then let us learn by the past and improve upon it in future, and not be too hasty to have the finest, but first secure the health of our stock, and then we ean feed and pamper to suit our taste.
" That the raising of fine stock in Texas will be a success and very profitable to the owner and to the country at large, I think is beyond a doubt."
Mr. Chapman's prophecy in the last sen- tenee has proved true. Many farmers have profited by his advice, and also by further in- formation gained from others, so that under the new regime of raising imported stock upon cultivated products and in enclosures there is far greater return for the money and
labor expended than under the old ranch sys- tem of wild grazing, especially when the in- creased value of land is considered.
G. W. MeClung, in the western part of the county, has demonstrated the profit of sheep- raising in this section of the State. At first he made a purchase of only sixteen head of sheep, but soon afterward he bought more, until he had a thousand. and ultimately even 1,- 800 head, which latter number he has had most of the time until the present. He is the principal sheep-raiser of Johnson county, and reports it profitable. Ile has no epidemic diseases among his flock to contend with, ex- cepting that they were troubled some with the seab about ten years ago. The greatest en- emy he has to contend with is the wolf; but animals of this species are becoming fewer almost every year, by the use of strychine. Dogs do but very little harm.
Hogs also can be raised at a great profit in this region; and the fact that the farmers raise so few here is explained only upon the theory, simply, that it has not yet become customary, like the corn and cotton indns- tries. Some of the farmers claim that pork is more cheaply raised in sections where it is the eustom to raise more corn and where labor is cheaper; and thus they can buy their pork in exchange for cotton more cheaply than they can raise it themselves.
The same may be said of vegetables, the present elass of farmers "not feeling like bothering with such small things."
FENCE LAW.
The propriety of adopting a law requiring those who raise domestic animals to keep
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IND HILL COUNTIES.
them within enclosures was discussed at great length a number of years ago, with many nice calculations whether financially it would be more protitable to adopt such a law. During the discussion, 1875-'77, an election was held with reference to the "hog law," to determine whether the "pen were mightier than the sword," as the Chronicle wittily ex- pressed it. But no general fenee law has ever been passed.
A local writer treats of the following pop- ular fallacy: The idea is not only entertained but deeply rooted, that a fenee made of cedar rails will last forever; but it is not a fact. We of this part of the country made our feneing out of cedar, hauling the rails from eight to twenty miles and putting them up in good shape. Now, in 1891, there is searcoly a fence left: rails all eaten up and worm holed. A bec called the "cedar bec," which resem- bles the bumble-bee, having dono the most of the damage. It has been, and is almost everywhere believed, that no insect would touch the eedar, except possibly to light upon it, and even that was thought unusual; but a few years ago a worm made his appear- ance and built his house over himself, after the pattern of a coat of mail, which he con- structed from the cedar he had devoured. This worm then attacked the shrubbery by eating the foliage during the hot, dry weather which killed the plants. Many old ideas thus perish under the scrutiny of relentless experience.
Fenee-machines are now being introduced for weaving smooth-wire fence, to take the place of the disagreecable barbed-wire now in
vogne. While it is a little more expensive some may prefer it.
THE WEALTH OF THE COUNTY.
It will be convenient to give tho assess- ment roll for 1879, as an intermediate mile- post between the pioneer period and the present time, by way of comparison:
Land, resident owners. $1,565,675
Land, non-resident owners 127,048
Town Lots. 197,070
Land Certificates
97
Wheeled vehicle3.
74,715
Machinery, etc.
50,913
Manufactured articles.
275
Horses and mules.
290,742
Jacks and Jeunets
3,690
Cattle 129,898
Sheep
2,782
Goats.
187
Hogs.
27,801
Goods, wares and merchandise. 130,179
Money 11,219
Miscellaneous 324,704
This was an increase over the preceding year of $310,668 and 483 more polls. The valne of machinery and tools increased twenty-five per cent; sheep fell off' about one-third; hogs, about four per cent; and on horses there was inerease of only two per cent; goods, wares and merchandise increased thirty per cent; and miscellaneous property grew one-third. The above valuations fout np 83,270,058, and it is understood that "as- sessed valuations" area bout forty per cent. of the full cash valuation.
The present (1891) assessed valuation of the county is $6,552,537, in the following items:
Real estate, country $3,331,895
Real estate, city 719,070
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON
Carriages, wagons, etc. . .. 77,920
Manufacturers' tools, etc
47,335
Ilorses and mules. 516,335
Cattle 170,127
Jacks and jentets. . 12,785
Goods and merchandise.
264,825
Money.
40,944
Miscellaneous property. 1,320,184
With the above should be compared the
POPULATION.
In 1860 the white population of Johnson county was 3,774; negro, 513; total, 4,287. The total population in 1875 was estimated at 15,000, and in 1876, at about 18,000, of which Cleburne had 2,000. According to the census of 1880 Cleburne distriet had 3,968, besides 1,848 outside of the corpora- tion; Alvarado census district, 3,010; Grand View, 2,861; Pleasant Point, 1,492; Camp Creek, 1,301; Marystown, 1,263; Caddo and Beat No. 8, 2,055; total, 17,835.
The census of 1890 gives the following table:
PRECINCTS.
Cleburne. 3.278
1. Including Cleburne. 7,760
2 1,601
3.
1,521 4. Including Alvarado. ·1,587
Alvarado. 1,543
5. Including Grand View 2,938
Grand View 257
6.
1,615
7.
1,156
8.
835
Total for the county. 22,313.
As to the character of the population by nationality, we can say that it is almost ex- elusively American. It is remarkable, by
the way, that there, as almost every where else in the United States there is a certain pro- portion of negroes and Chinese. This may be accounted for, by the fact that these classes of laborers consider that their services are required to some extent in every community, and accordingly they push themselves every- where in order to find employment in the readiest manner.
LOCUST PLAGUES.
"Grasshopper" raids occurred every two or three years in the early period of the set- tlement of this region, but none of conse- quence have appeared since 1873, excepting in the spring of 1877. Says a resident:
"In the fall of the year 1853, in Septem- ber, grasshoppers, grasshoppers, grasshoppers! around, above, below, grasshoppers every- where, and as to numbers, no estimate could be made; they were simply without apparent number. The appearance of their approach was that of a dark elond with a reddish tinge, in the northwest, which arose gradu- ally as though they were real clouds. By the time the cloud reached apparently the fourth of the distance to the zenith, a low, heavy sound was heard which increased as they approached, until it sounded like a henvy wind. Now and then a hopper would fall like single drops of rain from a passing low cloud, increasing in numbers until they amounted to a sprinkle, and still increasing till, like a heavy rain, they poured down, covering the earth a couple of inches deep in some places, and crawling and hopping and squirming like a mass of mammoth brown
1×1
AND HILL COUNTIES.
skippers. They pounced upon all vegetation, whilst the air as far up as the eye could pene- trate was filled with them, and so thick that they cast a dark reddish shade on the earth. The sun looked as though it was enveloped in a dense smoke, and gave a l'eeble, reddish light. The earth, which was covered with a heavy coat of vegetation, green and growing, after the arrival of the hoppers, about the third day, looked as though a fire had swept over it, not a spear of anything groen was to be seen. The invading host infested every house, entting clothing and even de- vouring grains of wheat and corn. We had to wait until they passed on before we could sow wheat, the voracious marauders prevent- ing all farming operations. They were of a dark brown or black color, and had a very strong, peculiar odor. llogs and fowls got fat on them, but the fowls, partaking of the same odor, they could not be eaten. The hogs were not tested at the time, and by "hog killing," later on, the odor had disappeared, if they had had it at all. The bulk of the hoppers left in about two weeks, but vast uumbers remained and died or were devoured by the lowls and hogs. They deposited eggs in the ground which hatched out the follow- ing spring, and the young ones destroyed munch vegetation as well as injured some wheat. Again, in 1858, the grasshoppers made their appearance, but they were not near so numerons as in 1853; also in the fall of 1867, they visited us, but they were not as numerous as in 1853. In the fall of 1573 they came once more, almost as numer- ons as in 1853, and the young next spring
destroyed the gardens; and as it was a drier season and consequently produced less vego- tation, the hoppers were more troublesome about the houses, cutting clothing and cating dry grain. We have not been much troubled since."
ANECDOTE.
A correspondent of the Cleburne Chroni- cle of April 21, 1869, writes that a wonderful invention had just originated in the brain of an old lady in his neighborhood which far outstripped the Stafford cultivator (then just introduced) and all other farming implo- ments, in the way of guarding corn and cot- ton against worms and insects. She had planted a small patch of cotton, and was in great dread of the cotton-worin; and, having also a maternal regard for her beloved sou,- not wishing to expose him to the terrible hardship of hoeing cotton,-conceived the plan of " physicking " her cotton patel. Ac- cordingly, she called upon a certain physician in Cleburne and proenred a supply of vege- table pills and vermifuge. The pills she planted promiseulously through the cotton, adding every now and then one tablespoonful of vermifuge. The old lady was sanguine of success, for the reason that if pills would purge and remove poison and obnoxious things from the stomach they would surely have the same effect in scouring cotton- fields; and if vermifuge would destroy and remove worms from different localities it would surely cause the cotton-worm to slide out of the field like a greased tape-worm!
In early times big prairie fires were fre- I quent, doing, however, but little damage, as
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON
there was but little property to destroy. During the intermediate stage of settlement, more damage was done; nowadays such fires cannot occur. A disastrous fire, however, swept over the prairie west of Cleburne, Oe- tober 21, 1575, consuming considerable prop- erty. The wind caused it to travel at about the rate of two miles per hour. The origin is supposed to have been a cigar dropped by a traveler along the road.
AGRICULTURAL FAIRS.
During the early '70s Johnson county, in the wake of civilization, whether good or bad, inaugurated the system of holding county agricultural fairs. An association was formed, which held its first fair in 1873. The details of this exhibition we could not obtain.
The second annual fair was held during the latter part of October, 1874, after a pro traeted drouth. There was a good average attendance each day, and no accidents or row occurred. The display of articles was good and there was quite a lively competition for premiums. There were four or five entries each in the list of preserves, jellies and cakes, showing that the ladies were disposed to make the matter interesting to the lookers-on, even if defeated in the premiums. The display in this department was very good, and the po- sition of the tasting committee was rather an enviable one.
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