USA > Texas > Early pioneer days in Texas > Part 6
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Grandfather and Grandmother Ramsey; they are grown and still live with their grandmother. Wal- ter married Tennie Crabb; they live at Farmers- ville, and have two little girls. Herbert married Ula Brown, who died, he then marrying Lizzie Roberts; they have six children, and live at Chil- dress, Texas. Joe married Sally Cole; they have seven children, and live at Vernon, Texas. Tom married Hardin Watson; they have two children, and live at Bantam, Texas. Elmer married Effice Craddoc; they have one little girl, and live at Lone Oak, Texas. Annie married L. D. Terrell; they have one little girl, and live at Vernon, Texas. Susie married Sam B. Lock; they live near the old home. Nute is single and lives with his old mother.
Lem Ramsey was a good man, good citizen, a very devoted husband, a kind, loving father and a true Christian; he loved his church, in which he was steward and Sunday school superintendent a good part of his married life. He loved to do any kind of church work, and never failed to go to the quarterly conference as long as he was able ; he would have his children take him to church and Sunday school when he was so feeble he could hardly sit up all day.
In the spring of 1910 his health began to fail; he gradually grew worse, and on September 1st he passed away. He was seventy-six years and seven days old. His wife is still living at the old home, but is very feeble.
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CHAPTER VIII.
JACOB RAMSEY.
Jacob Ramsey was born in old Virginia, Pitt- sylvania County, in 1812, and was raised in that county. In 1833 he married Miss Barbara Ram- sey, a distant relative; they raised eight children, five girls and three boys. They had a nice little home, but that old country was poor and thickly settled, it taking hard work and close economy to make a living. He decided he would move to Texas, and in October, 1852, they started in wagons. They were on the road about two months ; they landed in Fannin County, near Allen's Chapel. He stopped at his brother-in-law's, Armsted Ram- sey, who was very sick, and who died a few days later. Then Uncle Jake rented land near Meade Springs, living there one year. In 1854 he bought a farm near Allen's Chapel, from Tolbert Myers. The improvements on the place were a log house, partly finished. He and his boys went to work and soon had a good house, good stables and cribs ; the farm in good shape and were raising crops.
He was a hard working man and a very suc- cessful farmer. He and his good wife were mem- . bers of the Baptist church when they were young. After they settled here they joined the church at Vineyard Grove and were faithful Christians and loyal to their church. They had a nice family of children, nearly all members of the church. They had a happy home, and many of the old preachers who preached at Vineyard Grove loved to come
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to Brother Ramsey's and eat dinner and stay all night, and have a good religious feast with that good family. Everybody around loved to come to Uncle Jake's, being known as "Uncle Jake" for many years.
The children all married and settled not far from them, and they would often come home and have a family reunion. The grandchildren thought grandpa's was the grandest place on earth, the old folks were so patient and good to them. The old folks went to heaven thirty years ago. The children are all gone, but there are many grand- children here who love and cherish the memory of dear old Grandpa and Grandma Ramsey and the sacred old home.
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CHAPTER IX.
J. E. DEUPREE.
I was born on November 22, A. D. 1840, in Pickens County, Alabama, where both my par- ents died during my infancy and childhood.
In 1847 I was brought to Texas with a large company of my near relatives, led by my grand- father, Colonel Nathan Smith, who had served in the Creek War under General Andrew Jackson, and also in the Alabama Legislature. They all settled in Harrison County, near Marshall.
Later, my uncles, Colonel Gid Smith and Dr. J. C. Smith (my guardian) moved to Fannin County, the former in 1851, and the latter in 1853. I first saw Fannin County in 1852, when Dr. Smith sent me and others with a herd of cattle to Colonel Smith, they then being partners in the stock busi- ness.
In Fannin County a good part of my youth was spent on the Smith farms on Red River, now owned by John E. Roach and J. E. Spies. During parts of the years 1854-5 I was in the old McKen- zie Institute, near Clarksville. In 1856 I went to school to the lamented Ben Fuller in Bonham ; but I was mainly educated in Baylor University, then located at Independence in Washington County, Texas, where I graduated in 1859.
In 1861 I was at the law school in Lebanon, Tenn. When the war broke out and broke up the school, I went on a visit to relatives in Noxube County, Miss., thinking to return home via Mo-
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bile, New Orleans and Jefferson. But in Missis- sippi I found the whole country aflame with ex- citement over the great impending war. The boys
OLD DELAWARE RATS
Reading from left to right: J. E. Denpaee; aged 73 years; J. E. Log- gins, aged 69 years; H. W. Graber, age 72 years. Taken on Oct. 18, 1910.
were forming companies, and the pretty girls were giving picnics, and threatening to send hoop- skirts to all who failed to join the Southern army. So I soon caught the war fever, and on the urgent solicitations of my gallant cousins, I joined the
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"Noxube Cavalry," which later became Company G of the First Mississippi Cavalry, on the firm promise from the captain (H. W. Foote) that I should have a transfer if I ever found a Texas company that suited me.
I served with those gallant Mississippi boys twenty months, being with them in the great bat- tles of Bellmont, Shiloh, Corinth. Britton's Lane and many smaller engagements. On January 1st, 1863, I was transferred to a cavalry company in Waul's Texas Legion, which company was from Washington County, and contained several of my old Baylor schoolmates.
I served with this Texas company until June 17, 1863, when, by mistaking foes for friends in the darkness of night, I was captured near Pa- nola, Miss. I was then kept in prison for twenty- three months, most of the time at Alton, Ill., and Fort Delaware. This long confinement was by far the most trying part of my war service. I never could feel contented in prison, but kept planning and trying to escape until I finally succeeded.
In one of these efforts I, with five other Texas boys, swam the bay from Fort Delaware to the Delaware shore, on the night of July 1, 1864. I was the only unlucky man in the bunch, as I was re-captured and carried back to the fort, while the others made good their escape and safely re- joined the Southern army. One of this crowd was Ed Welch of Honey Grove, who was killed in one of the last battles of the war. Strange to say, three of these nocturnal swimmers kept together clear across the bay, and, landing in a perfectly nude state, they wended their way southward,
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hiding by day and marching by night, for there were six who would undertake this dark and dan- gerous undertaking with the hope of finding friendly shelter among the good Southern people of Maryland. I have never heard how the other two fared en route; I only know that, like myself, they became separated from the others and that separately they reached the Southern lines. Of the 150 Texans at Fort Delaware, there were only six who would undertake this dark and danger- ous swim, and of this six there are now only two alive, viz., Dr. J. C. Loggins of Ennis and myself. For the first time since we parted on that dreadful night at Fort Delaware, I met Dr. Loggins, by agreement, at the Dallas Fair, three years ago; and we sure had a glorious good time, being guests at the elegant and hospitable home of Gen. H. W. Graber, another old Fort Delaware prisoner. While there we had our pictures taken together, and as you have asked for my picture, I send this group, it being the only one I have of convenient size for sending, and as owing to the bad roads I can't tell when I will be able to find an artist.
After the aforesaid swimming episode, I still continued my efforts to escape from Fort Dela- ware, and finally I succeeded by getting myself exchanged on the name of a dead man, for whose command a special exchange had been arranged. I left Fort Delaware on April 10th, 1865, and on May 10th was exchanged at the mouth of Red River, under the name of E. Wood, of Gordon's Arkansas Regiment. At this time Waul's Legion had already surrendered east of the Mississippi, and as the Western Department had also surren-
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dered when we reached Shreveport, we were sim- ply turned loose and told to go home, which we did at our own expense, and as best we could. I reached home on June 7, 1865, about the same time that the other prisoners whom I had left behind were released from Fort Delaware.
Yes, I knew your good old father well, as did most of the old settlers of Fannin County. "Uncle Wilce," as we called him, was indeed a grand old man. I have met him often in Bonham; also once at Red River, and at my own home, and at the State meetings of the Texas veterans at Paris and Sherman. He was utterly void of vanity, and was one of the most interesting and impressive men that I ever heard talk. He was much like old Judge Simpson in this respect, and they both re- minded me of old Gen. Sam Houston, who I often saw and heard during my school boy days at Bay- lor University. There was weight and wisdom in their words, love in their hearts, and music in their voices, and hence their hearers were always fond admirers. I never knew your father to loose his temper or urbanity, but he was sure emphatic on the subject of reconstruction. And he could picture to perfection the words, ways and looks of the negroes who once bossed our elections in Bonham; and he would grow warm when talking of the general trend toward the confiscation of our homes, and the destruction of our liberties. He and other old heroes (too many to name here) favored moderation and a reliance on civil meas- ures. They urged us to take the oath, and quali- fy as voters, and when the militia was forming under E. J. Davis, they told us all to join in, and
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capture the organization, which we did; and the militia companies of Fannin County were all offi- cered by true Southern men and never could have been used for the oppression of our people.
If I were asked at what time in life I had ren- dered the most efficient service to my country, I could readily answer that it was during the dark days of reconstruction.
Yes, dear reader, it was the unflinching brav- ery of the Confederate soldiers, curbed and guided by the cooler judgment of older heads, that res- cued our State from carpet-bag rule, and restored popular government throughout the South.
If God did not favor the South during the war, He has certainly done so since, and now we re- joice in the fact that the great American Union is reunited on a firmer, broader, and better basis than ever before.
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CHAPTER X.
DR. JOHN CUNNINGHAM,
Ravenna, Fannin County, Texas.
This pioneer was born midst the dark green valleys of old Kentucky on the 21st day of Sep- tember, 1836. In the early days of his youth he labored in the fields of corn and tobacco along with the colored servants. His education consist- ed of a training in the subscription schools of Trigg County and later in the Bethel College at Russellville, Kentucky, where he earned his own way through. He studied medicine in Pope's Med- ical College in St. Louis. After practicing a year the war broke out and he enlisted as a soldier of the Confederacy, where he commanded a com- pany at Shiloh.
After the war, some two years, he started for Texas, landing at Jefferson, Texas, early in March of 1867, on board the steamer Frolic, from New Orleans, La., where, being without money, he was compelled to walk from Jefferson to Old Warren, in Fannin County, about 140 miles. A caravan of five or six wagon teams were heading for Weatherford, in Parker County, who were haul- ing flour down into Fannin County at Bonham. The road led through an open prairie almost the entire distance, and on the way we passed through Sherman, which was then a small town of about 500 people. Fort Worth was then, when we were on our way through there, only a town of 300 souls, and Pilot Point, in Denton County, about a
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hundred people, while at Bean's Station there was only a handful. When we reached Weatherford we found a town of four or five hundred, where there were two old-time flouring mills. Most of
DR. JNO. CUNNINGHAM AND VALET, JNO. REEVES Taken at Austin, 1812.
the grain raised in this section of Texas was wheat. The few settlers along the road lived in pole or log cabins, occasionally one or two rooms would be finished with pine planks hauled in wagons from Eastern Texas, two or three hun-
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dred miles away. The settlements on the road were ten or fifteen miles apart, each house hav- ing an enclosure of about fifteen acres, where they raised wheat or corn or kept a cow lot, though they scarcely ever had a garden. Cattle and horses could be seen in every direction, and jack rabbits, wild turkeys and prairie chickens were abundant everywhere. Deer was plentiful, but mostly in the cross timbers, while wolves, wild cats and prairie dogs held high carnival at night. The elk and buffalo moved westward as man ap- proached, and the blood-thirsty savage, with his tomahawk, bows and arrows, and later the deadly rifle, receded, leaving a trail of blood along his path.
Upon my arrival in Fannin in March, 1867, I found the following towns: Bonham, the capital, with a population of five or six hundred souls. The prairie grass surrounded the town almost waist high. On the north side it almost ap- proached the present plaza. Honey Grove came next in size, with a population of about three hundred; Ladonia third, with a population of about one hundred fifty ; Orangeville, Kentucky- town and Coontown were only respectable broad places in the roads. Bonham, Honey Grove and Ladonia have held their own and grown to be re- spectable towns and small cities. But since that date many towns and villages have almost, as if by magic, sprung up in various parts of the coun- ty, as follows: Leonard, Trenton, Savoy, Win- dom, Dodd City, Monkstown, Telephone, Tulip, Ivanhoe, Ector, Ravenna, Randolph, Edhube, Bailey, Lamasco, Hudsonville, Carson, Lanius,
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Bantz, Self and Needmore, all flourishing young towns and villages ranging in population (we sup- pose) from 200 to 2,000, Leonard leading. There were no railroads then nearer than Hempstead, two hundred miles south, but now the county is passed through by the Texas & Pacific, Cotton Belt and M. K. & T. enters the county from Denison by Ravenna to Bonham. The population of Texas at that time (1867) was 600,000, but now it is over 4,000,000 and growing rapidly. Fannin County then had only about 13,000 population, and now has some 60,000 or 70,000 and rapidly absorb- ing more through immigration and home produc- tion.
The doctor, after making this trip, borrowed a wild mustang from Dr. A. H. Henry-one of na- ture's noblemen-and began the practice of medi- cine without a dollar in his pocket, having pro- cured his medical supplies by pawning his army pistol to a druggist named Gray, in Bonham, and for thirty years practiced among the people, the pauper and the well-to-do, whether he was paid for his services or not he treated all alike.
Four years after landing in Texas he was elect- ed, over five other better men than he, for the 13th Legislature, in 1872-the year Horace Greely ran for the presidency. One of the proudest votes he cast in the 13th Legislature was when he voted for Hon. John Ireland's bill, giving one-half the public domain of Texas to the free school chil- dren of the State, amounting to over one hundred million dollars. In the same Legislature he had incorporated into the free school curriculum a work on anatomy, physiology and hygiene, which
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is still used by the schools. The work of the 13th Legislature turned the State over to the Demo- cratic party in 1874, and it has remained there ever since. In 1900 the doctor was re-elected to the Legislature of the State of Texas by a plu- rality of fifteen hundred votes over two opponents, and again re-elected in 1902 over his opponents by two thousand. Upon the winding up of that Legis- lature they presented him with a gold-headed ebony cane. His wife thought it was worth $500 -the doctor never told her any better.
Since the doctor has been in Texas he not only has been engaged in the practice of medicine, but has also been engaged in farming, merchandising and in the cattle business and made a reasonable success out of all of them. In 1912, at the age of 77, the people of Fannin County called on the doc- tor to stand for a fourth term in the Legislature. He consented and was opposed by a better man than the doctor -- so the man said in the race. Early in the doctor's campaign, one evening as the shades of night came on he stepped from a porch, thinking it a foot and a half to the ground, but when he landed the distance proved to be three and a half feet. In landing, the doctor re- ceived a broken hip bone, from which he suffers today, having to travel in a push chair, but is one of the most regular attendants in the House. He goes to the House in the morning and remains until taking out time at night. John Reeves, his colored valet, goes to his boarding house and brings his dinner, which he eats upon his desk.
The doctor, after serving in four Legislatures, does not hesitate to say that the present House is
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superior to all the Legislatures in which he has served (and the accomplished Speaker, Chester Terrell, may have had some equals, but never a superior) except the old Thirteenth, all of whom, except about forty Republicans, were men who wore the gray, and served in times that tried men's souls, and their acts and their votes gave the second freedom to Texas. Sam Houston, in the battle of San Jacinto, freed Texas first from Mexican subordination. Reconstruction, through the acts and laws of scalawags, carpet-baggers, coffee-coolers, State police and the Twelfth Legis- lature, which was composed of a large majority of Republicans and colored politicians, the people of Texas had become almost enslaved again. Through the action of the Thirteenth Legislature, assisted by a few noble-hearted Republicans in the Senate, one of whom was the Honorable Web Flanagan, a leader with a great big heart, Texas, received her second freedom. The doctor thinks the Thirty- third House to be a superior body of men. They all seem to have their individuality. They do their own voting. They are not swayed by United States Senators, the Governor or any one else but their own conscience. When they believe the Gov- ernor is right they endorse him; when they be- lieve the Governor is wrong they oppose him, just like the Governor does the House, showing that both have their individuality and use their own minds. The doctor is proud to say that all the acts of the former Legislatures in which he served were generally approved by the people of the State. He trusts that the 33rd may occupy the same proud position. Almost every member of
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the House is a pretty fair orator; many of them are first-class, with the exception of the old doctor. Some of them are really eloquent and are fit sub- jects for Congressional or United States Senatorial timber in the future. There is a fair sprinkling of young men in the House, mostly from what was once the wild and wooly west, but they are all up- to-date, up-headed young men of above average ability. They are nearly all good speakers. The Legislature seems to have great progressive ways, passing laws with advanced ideas demanded by the people. As time rolls on and scientific prog- ress and the world moves forward, new and pro- gressive laws will be demanded and will be given by future Legislatures, just as they are doing to- day.
The doctor believes, owing to the great natu- ral turn in political affairs and the election of Woodrow Wilson to the presidency, the disposi- tion to enforce the Sherman and other anti-trust laws, the nation has taken on a new lease of life. It seems that things are now working on the Lord's side and the interest of the great mass of plain people of this great country,
The doctor does not endorse the treason, brib- ery and political corruption and murder of their rulers, practiced by our sister republic of Mexico. It seems that Mexico has fallen into the hands of men that know very little about Republican gov- ernment. It seems like a great mass of people in Mexico had rather make a living by war than labor. Should Mexico only demonstrate the fact, and it seems like she almost has, that some other means should be set on foot giving her a better
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form of government. The Monroe Doctrine cuts off all European nations from helping Mexico. America claims to rule the roost over all Ameri- can nationalities. Many believe that the opening has been made in Mexico for Uncle Sam to try his hand, should he and his patriotic sons so desire.
In the Twenty-eighth Legislature the doctor had the life-size portrait of that great jurist, statesman, diplomat and most eloquent orator placed on the walls of the House. We mean Judge Alexander W. Terrell. It happened this way: The judge had invited the doctor to dinner with him. He saw the portrait. He decided immediately that that picture should grace the walls of the House. That evening, without consulting the
judge, he wrote a resolution consummating the same. The resolution was introduced and carried unanimously-hence the judge's portrait on the walls of the great Capitol he had planned and caused to be erected.
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CHAPTER XI.
CAPTAIN A. J. NICHOLSON.
Captain Nicholson was born in 1831 and emi- grated to Texas from Arkansas in 1837, with his father, six brothers and two sisters. One of these sisters-Martha P. Nicholson-was the mother of the compiler of this book. She married my fa- ther, W. B. Allen, in 1838.
Captain Nicholson was a brave, active and fear- less Indian fighter, and had many an encounter with the ferocious wild beasts. In 1848, Decem- ber 20th, he married Miss T. C. Parishin, (born 1832). From this union there were born seven children, four girls and three boys. All grew to mature age, except one, who died in infancy. The Captain followed as a vocation the life of a stock raiser and farmer, and was very successful. When the call of Sam Houston was made for vol- unteers to deliver Texas from the Mexican yoke he enlisted and served with honor and distinction in the war, making many a hard, forced march, and hazarding his life in the effort to establish freedom, liberty and independence in Texas, the homeland-land of the free and home of the brave. He fought at Monterey, Buena Vista and San Ja- cinto, in bloody battles, shooting in such rapid suc- cession that the barrel of his gun was always hot. His disposition was to be humorous and jolly, and the camp-fire enjoyed his mirth, and the com- pany was thrilled with laughter by his joviality, and the relation of merry anecdotes. General
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Santa Anna, the Mexican general, learned to fear the cowboy warwhoops of our Texas cowboys when going to battle-the cry, "Remember the Alamo," "Remember Goliad," was always fresh.
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CAPT. A. J, NICHOLSON
They never forgot how brave David Crockett and the brave heroes of the Alamo were slain by the cruel Santa Anna and his hosts. Nor did they forget the noble Fannin, whose name our county bears.
Capt. Nicholson was hospitable and charitable.
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No needy person was ever turned away who ap- plied to him for help. His delight in helping those with whom he had to do, and many a heart and hand found life easier because of his good
MRS T. C. NICHOLSON
offices. God blessed and prospered him in basket and store, and he gave of his abundance, both in means and service. When the Civil War broke out he volunteered and enlisted in Colonel Young's 11th Texas Regiment, as captain; served honor- ably and well, was badly wounded in the Elkhorn
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engagement and taken prisoner for a considerable time ; finally exchanged and came home to recuper- ate. He afterwards joined Col. Bowlins' regiment and served to the close of the war. After the war and the cause he espoused being a lost one, he himself penniless, his negroes set free, and his stock gone, but he did not lose heart, and proceed- ed to regain, as thousands of others did, his lost fortunes. His cheering, encouraging ways and his voice is now stilled.
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