USA > Texas > Eastland County > History of Eastland County, Texas > Part 4
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
Weddington grazed his catle in the northwestern part of the County, as also did his neighbors, Charnel High- tower, Billy Stevens, John, Crowd, Bill, Hilly and Joe Dennis and Joe Funk. Mr. Drake and sons settled lower down on the Leon.
In the Cisco Country were Messrs. N. Danvers, W. B. Cobb, Albert Stephens, Robert and Stuart Cone, N. Turknette, John Davis. Josh and John Morris, Lacy, Rhoads, Bunson, Townsend, T. E. Johnson, J. J. Wal- lace, J. P. Montgomery, John Lane, O. H. Lovelady, Frank Young, B. L. Pate, J. F. Loony, M. V. Palmer, Jim Caradine and M. B. Owens. *
Thus was the frontier line pushed farther and farther west, and the civilization of the Virginias. Car- olinas, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi found among this moving throng, tip-toeing to see across and venture on and on as the line strode westward.
CHAPTER II.
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.
The Thirteenth Representative District in 1870 comprised Johnson, Hood, Parker, Palo Pinto and Jack Counties with the unorganized Counties of Stephens, Fastland, Throckmorton, Shackelford. Callahan. Tav- lor, Jones, Young and Haskell attached.
*These names have been supplied by R. F. Weddington. R. G. Luse and I. Lamb. Doubtless there are many other names these gentlemen failed to remember.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
There came a time, however, when the citizens of Eastland began to want to do business at home. The odious State Police had been disbanded, and regularly appointed Rangers now guarded the rapidly moving frontier line. Hardy pioneers pushed westward and Eastland was no longer a frontier country. Many new settlers were coming into the County, land was being put into farms, substantial houses were going up, but for a time no man came forward to take the lead in the movement for organization.
The 12th Legislature, which met in 1872, had passed into history, but the prominent citizens of Eastland, all of whom devoutly wished for organization, had done nothing toward its accomplishment. This inactivity on the part of the older men nerved to action Silas C. Buck, a young lawyer living on the Davidson Ranch. He made his own plans, had himself appointed Deputy District Clerk of Palo Pinto County and went to work.
In Section 26 of Chapter 75 of the General Laws of the 7th Legislature, which met in 1858, an act creating Eastland and other counties, reads: "The County may be organized as follows : Whenever the bona fide, free, white male inhabitants thereof (including all such recognized as citizens by the Constitution of this State) over twenty-one years of age, to the number of at least seventy-five, may petition the Presiding Jus- tice * of an adjoining county, or the nearest organized county, asking such organization, and the person pre- senting the petition (being a creditable citizen of the
*From 1869 to 1876 there were no County Judges in Texas.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
county from which the petition emanates) shall testify upon oath and in writing before such Presiding Justice that the naines subscriber to the petition are those of bona fide inhabitants of such county, possessing the qualifications aforesaid, and were affixed to said petition by each of said persons himself; then it shall be the duty of such Presiding Justice forthwith to order an election in said county for county officers, observing the provisions, as far as applicable, of the general election laws," etc., etc.
The first thing to do, according to the foregoing law, was to secure the signatures of seventy-five "bona fide, free, white, male citizens" to a petition addressed to Presiding Justice J. H. Baker of Palo Pinto, asking for an election to be ordered. Armed with a six- shooter and bowie knife-for in 1873 there was still danger from Indians-Mr. Buck rode over the County, hunting all the bona fide citizens.
One afternoon he stopped at a little doggery a couple of miles from W. H. Mansker's, where he found several free, white, male citizens exercising their liberties. The boisterous sounds within the ten by twelve log room in- dicated an excessive nearness to shoals which warned the young lawyer to linger on the outside of the open door. Two of the men (called Tom and Mike because their names could not be learned), became involved in an altercation, and presently Mike got the drop on Tom und covered him with a pistol. No sooner did he ac- complish this feat, however, than he. in turn, was cov- ered by another man, named Stewart. At this moment. Buck became interested, and fingered his guns and felt
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
of his knife, as he watched and waited for a chance to help the "under-dog." Fortunately for all concerned, some adjustment of the difficulty was effected. The so- liciting petitioner went in and secured the signatures of the free, white males, and then turned in at Mr. Mansker's for the night.
When about sixty-five names had been secured, Buck, who did not know how the law read, exactly, car- ried the petition to Presiding Justice Baker, who or- dered an election to be held on December 2, 1873, with the following result :
1st. MicGough Springs-J. B. McGough, Justice of the Peace.
2nd. Flannagan's Ranch-W. F. Hale, Justice of the Peace.
3rd. Allen's Mill- John W. Gibson, Justice of the Peace.
4th. Hogtown- -- Watson, Justice of the Peace. 5th. Jewell-E. E. Head, Justice of the Peace.
H. Schmick, Sheriff; Clerk District Court, A. J. Stuart.
On February following, an election, which was held to locate the County Town resulted in Flannagan's Ranch being chosen and the name of Merriman was given to it. By some move, known, perhaps, only to as- tute politicians, although McGough Springs was des- ignated as the First Precinct, and J. B. McGough elected from that locality, yet, W. F. Hale, of Flanna- gan's Ranch was made Presiding Justice, and Merri- man became the First Precinct.
The citizens now felt secure in their organization
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
and were ready for work. Mart Owens and Miss Town- send went to Justice Gibson to get married. The Jus- tice refused to marry the couple, and said that he would resign his office before he would attempt such a thing. Mr. Owens, insisting, secured a form of ceremony from a friend, and after studying this all night, Mr. Gibson consented and married the couple.
Now came the startling news that that oracle of the law, Captain W. C. Veale, of Palo Pinto, had said that "the organization of Eastland wouldn't hold water." This statement sent young Buck to Austin. He inter- viewed Governor Coke, a personal friend, who sent him to his Secretary of State. Colonel DeBerry.
"Now, Colonel DeBerry," said Buck, "if you can't issue commissions to these officers who have been elected, I want this Legislature to pass laws that will legalize the organization so you can."
"Here, give me their names, I'll fix them alright," answered Colonel DeBerry, filling out the commissions and affixing his signature."
To make the organization doubly strong, Mr. Buck remained two or three weeks, and through Senator? Jack Ball of Weatherford and Major Erath of Waco. succeeded in having all the necessary laws passed. With copies of these bills properly signed, in his pocket, to- gether with the officers' commissions, the voung lawyer made his way back to Eastland.
When it is remembered that there were few news- papers, and that the railroad still lingered among the protecting pines of Marshall, Texas, this lack of knowl- edge of procedure in such an undertaking as the or-
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
ganization of a county is not surprising and one is able to more thoroughly appreciate young Buck's grit and nerve. *
CHAPTER III. SOME OF THE FIRST VOTERS.
JAMES HENRY CALHOUN.
Aside from the inherent manhood that came to him from a noble and godly ancestry, our present District Judge lies close to the hearts of the inhabitants of Eastland County from two primary causes. He is one of the first voters and has served the County and Dis- trict in an official capacity several times. Then, during the protracted drouth of 1886 and 1887, Judge Cal- houn, who was serving as State Senator from this, the 29th District, accomplished the creation of a special committee for the relief of the drouth sufferers, was made its chairman, and did more than anyone else in securing the $100,000.00 appropriated by the 20th Leg- islature for that purpose.
Judge Calhoun, who is a native of Georgia and graduated from Homer College in Louisiana in 1870, came to Texas in 1871 and located at Waco, where he read law under General Tom Harrison, and was licensed to practice August 8, 1873. He came at once to this County and was here when it was organized. In the
*Mr. Buck gave the above information in a personal in- terview, and it was corroborated by Judge Calhoun and others.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
election for officers in 1876, he was made County Judge -- the first to hold that office in Eastland. He has served two terms as District Attorney and has had an
J. H. CALHOUN. DISTRICT JUDGE, CISCO
extensive land practice, but has never confined himself to any particular branch of the profession. He is rec- ognized as a lawyer of eminent ability. In his oratory he is eloquent and impassioned, and merits all the hon- ors that have come to him.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
Judge Calhoun is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of the Masonic Fraternity, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
He was married to Miss Jennie Conner in Eastland City on January 1, 1882, and has three children. His home is in Cisco. "He is a true friend, a generous foe, and a lover of the pure and good."
WILLIAM ALLEN, STRAWN
In the Fall of 1858, Mr. Allen came from Missouri and stopped for a short while in the southern part of Palo Pinto County. He found the people to be brave and generous. The country, then, he writes, "Was thickly settled by bands of friendly Indians, who lived
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
by hunting wild game, all kinds of which were plentiful. During the year 1859-I had moved to Eastland County then-the Indians became very hostile and re- nained so for fifteen years. The settlers had to be con- tinually on their guard."
In 1865 Mr. Allen settled on a ranch on South Palo Pinto Creek (this County), which he still owns. It now aggregates nine thousand acres. He lives in Strawn, and has a wife and five children.
J. M. ELLISON.
At the time of the Indians' first raid through this County in December, 1859, they stole Dr. Richardson's horses. Mr. Ellison, with six others, followed them three days through a fearful snowstorm, without any success. "From that time on I was either on a cow hunt or an Indian trail. Two weeks was the longest I ever did without bread." Clothing was hard to get. Calico cost fifty cents a yard. Mr. Ellison was sadly in need of a suit of clothes. He writes :
"I went out one day and killed two bucks, dressed their hides and made me a pair of pants. Then I killed some doe, dressed their hides and made me a shirt- then I was all right for the brush, only I had no shoes. I dug a trough out of a cotton wood log, tanned the leather and made me some."
Mr. Ellison lives near Gorman, where he first set- tled in October, 1858.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
W. C. MCGOUGH.
In Twigg County, Georgia, December 11, 1836, Mr. McGough was born, and moved to Parker County, Texas, when twenty years old. On January 18, 1858, he was married to Miss Paulina Birch of Bosque County, and moved to Eastland November 1, 1860. He has lived here continuously-at MeGough Springs, near Eastland City, since 1863. He is a member of the Baptist Church.
W. C. MCGOUGH'S RESIDENCE
CHAPTER V.
FIVE GENERATIONS.
The accompanying illustration represents five gen- erations. Captain J. J. Keith, born in Alabama in 1822, and Miss Isabel Ely, born in Virginia in 1823, were married in Arkansas March 8, 1839, and emi-
FIVE GENERATIONS
1. J. J. Keith, 82.
2. T. E. Keith, 57.
3. Easter Grantham Keith, 26.
Isabel Keith, 81.
Caroline J. Keith, 52.
4. Crissie Richardson, 18.
5. Natha Richardson. 10 months.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
grated to Titus County, Texas, in 1844, thus becoming citizens of the Republic of Texas. While here, on De- cember 10, 1846, their oldest son, T. E., was born. In 1860, while living in Erath County, this family with the O'Neals and others, fortificd themselves at Dublin (thus founding that prosperous town) and remained there until April, 1863. They finally located at Mansker Lake, where Mr. Keith engaged in stockraising. Here their daughter Ellen, Mrs. Derrington of Sabanno, was born, who was the first girl baby born in the coun- ty. While residing in Erath Mr. Keith raised a com- pany of Rangers and was made their Captain.
This venerable couple have lived for the last twelve years at Curtis with their daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Pressley, and have more than one hundred descend- ants. On the 8th of March, 1904, they will have been married sixty-five years. Out of their thirteen children eight are still living.
Their oldest son, T. E. Keith, has been prominently connected with the history of Eastland since 1863, when he "scouted for Indians." On July 4, 1864, he was mar- ried at Mansker Lake to Miss Caroline J. Arthur, daughter of William J. Arthur. and now lives near Curtis.
"Uncle Tom," as he is familiarly called, has served the county as Commissioner and Justice of the Peace many times. When he realized that he needed the edu- cation that he had been deprived of by having been born and reared on the frontier, he set to work with rare en- ergy and tenacity of purpose to remedy the defect, and at the age of fifty-four was admitted to the bar after
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
satisfactory examination. Honor to such persistent ef- fort!
H. S. SCHMICK.
The first Sheriff of Eastland was born in Ar- kansas, December 28, 1842. He enlisted in the Con-
H. S. SCHMICK
federate Army (1861) as First Lieutenant in the 7th Arkansas Regiment, and served until the surrender in 1865.
In 1868 he came to Eastland and engaged in the cattle business. When the County was organized in 1873,
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
he held the office of Sheriff for eight consecutive years. He has been merchandizing since his term of office ex- pired. He is a member of the Christian Church.
THE STOCKTON FAMILY.
In 1868, Ike and Sam Stockton, accompanied by their two sisters, Amanda and Sallie Ivie, emigrated to Eastland and finding a desirable place near Desde- mona, put up a log cabin, and rested at ease. The game in the woods around them supplied the table, and the meal barrel and flour bin were full. Their ease was not at all disturbed when Sallie told the boys the salt was low. "Why, we can do without salt for two months," Ike insisted.
At last came a day when dinner was prepared with- out any salt. "My, what in the world is the matter with this venison?" Ike asked, when he began to eat.
"There's no salt in it," replied Sallie.
"Well, my gracious, make some mush." She did so. It was still worse.
"Red man, or no red man," the boy exclaimed, as he hurriedly saddled his horse, "this boy has got to be salted," and he rode to Stephenville after salt.
The family spent eight years in this lonely log cabin, with the shade of the green mantle of the oaks and elms as their summer rendezvous, and the babbling spring, one hundred yards away, as their watering place. They now live in New Mexico.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY'.
C. C. HIGH.
Mr. High was born in Georgia, March 7, 1851, and came to Texas with his father when only five years old. At the age of fourteen he served an apprenticeship in
C. C. HIGH, EASTLAND
a blacksmith shop in Crockett, where he was married at the age of twenty to Miss Elizabeth Howell.
He emigrated to Eastland in 1873 and stopped at McGough Springs. He served two years in the Texas Ranger Company "A" under Captain Walder. On the
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
lot he still occupies, Mr. High put up the first black- smith shop established in the county.
Mr. High is a pioneer Odd Fellow, and assisted in the organization of the first lodge in Eastland. He is a Past Grand and Past Chief Patriarch, and held the office of Treasurer in the Eastland City Lodge for sixteen years.
Mr. High is an open-hearted and typical frontiers- man, true as the steel which he hammers.
OSCAR COOK
Came to the county in 1872, and in the organization he held the election at Jewell. He writes: "I had to cake the ballot to Bill McGough's (twelve miles) and then Bill carried it to Palo Pinto to be counted. I was on the first Grand Jury of the first Court-which was held at Schmick School House. Then we held Court on the Colony Fork at Barny Bartholomew's and next at Eastland. It took nearly all of us boys to hold Court.
"I had to go to Comanche (thirty miles) for black- smithing and for bread. Thomas Mansker, Mr. Justis, Simp Evans, Will Thanish, Thomas Marsh, Calvin Wadkins, and myself were all who lived on the Sabanno then. Our nearest neighbors were six and twelve miles. The Indians took our horses from us twice before we had neighbors enough to keep them away A fellow felt skittish when out cutting poles to fence with. plow- ing, or going to mill. But after the county was organ- ized it settled up rapidly."
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
JOHN THOMAS TOWNSEND,
Who was born in May, 1830, was married to Miss Mary Josephine Jenkins in Kentucky, in 1854. Mrs. Townsend's father, Charles Jenkins, who was a delegate to the National Convention that nominated James K. Polk for President of the United States, died in East- land four years ago at the age of ninety-seven.
Mr. Townsend, with his brother, Ira Townsend, and others, located five miles west of Eastland City in 1872. The nearest neighbor (W. C. McGough) was ten miles away; supplies were hauled from Dallas, one hundred and fifty miles ; and the buffalo and antelope were still roaming the prairie lands. which have since been cov- ered with timber. Fifty wolves in one bunch, turkeys so thick on the trees the limb would break, and encounters with the Mexican lion are some of the experiences of this pioneer.
The unbounded hospitality of the Townsend Ranch was typical of the frontiersmen, and was the chief means for the dissemination of local news and from the world "back East."
No fences disturbed the freedom of the cattle in these days. "Grass and water were plentiful, land and cattle were cheap. Lands which are now worth from twenty-five to thirty dollars an acre could have been pur- chased then, at most, for from fifty to seventy-five cents an acre."
Dr. E. D. Townsend, a prominent physician of Llano, Texas, and Mrs. B. F. Kelly of Eastland. are Mr. Townsend's living children. One son, Dr. W. H. Townsend, died in Llano, August, 1902.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
Mr. Townsend, who lives with his wife at home in Eastland City, says: "If I could find another East- land County as it was thirty years ago, I would emi- grate to the hunter's paradise at once."
MR. J. L. DUFFER.
Mr. J. L. Duffer, who served on the first jury in Eastland, was the first man to be married in the County after it was organized, as the records in County Clerk Cox's office will show.
Squire Watson of the Alameda Precinct, ( Hogtown, the voting place), performed the ceremony, and Miss Mary Boling was the lady he married.
REVEREND C. BRASHEARS
Was born in Kentucky July 8, 1846. He came to Texas with his father, who located in Parker County in 1851, where he remained until 1872, when he settled in Eastland. Mr. Brashears was married December 22, 1863, and has six children, all reared in this county. He is pastor of a Baptist Church at Ellison's Spring, where he lives.
DR. JACKSON EVANS.
There was no physician nearer than Stephenville, Erath County, when Dr. Evans arrived in Eastland, March 10, 1872. He was called at once to see a very sick woman who, although she had been stricken with fever three weeks previous, had not been visited by a
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
physician. It is to Dr. Evans' credit that she was soon convalescent.
The territory coverd by this first doctor reminds one of the extent of the pioneer "circuit rider." From the North Fork of Palo Pinto Creek to Desdemona,
DR. JACKSON EVANS
and from Barton's Creek in Erath County to the limits of civilization in Eastland were the bounds of his calls. "My three children were then very small, but I had often to leave them and their mother alone when there was danger of Indians. We stopped near a cow-ranch for protection-as there was no town in the county --
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
and we are still at our old stand with all the practice I can do.
"Eastland was a paradise for hunters, when I came here-cougar, bear, deer and turkey in abundance. I killed all I needed for family use, while out visiting the sick. One day, just one mile from where I now live, a party of men (of which I was a member) killed four bear, while another party in hearing of us killed two more.
"Many jokes were perpetrated on Eastland County in those days," continues Dr. Evans. "I heard a trav- eler, who was passing along the road near my house, say, 'I would not have this County and one dollar.' We little thought then how valuable this shinery was."*
Dr. Evans and wife have five children.
JOSEPH PETER DAVIDSON
Was born November 5, 1828, and was reared in Giles County, Tennessee. He moved to Texas in 1853 and stopped two years in Bosque County. In 1865 he settled permanently in Eastland -"Davidson's Ranch" is one of the old landmarks of the county.
Until the year 1870 he engaged in the cattle busi- ness and farming, when he was appointed District Sur- veyor of the Palo Pinto Land District, which included
*It is interesting to note the ignorance of the early set- tlers regarding the productiveness of the soil. Then it was a cattle country and a "hunter's paradise," but it was also an unknown and undeveloped agricultural land, with the rich chocolate loams of the eastern part of the County, the sandy loams of the middle, and the light, enduring sand, with its clay subsoil, of the south and west, as the products raised in great abundance to-day verify,
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
Eastland. In 1873, when Eastland was organized, he was elected County Surveyor and held the office until 1878, when he declined to serve longer. Many old set- tlers testify that he helped them in locating good sur- veys without a thought of remuneration.
Mr. Davidson was a member of the Methodist Church, South, and a Royal Arch Mason. His chief characteristics were his patience, integrity, purity of life and boundless hospitality. Hospitality on the fron- tier has always cast a sheen and glamour of dignified nobility. but few carried that virtue so far as "Uncle Peter." For nearly twenty years on his ranch he kept "open house" for all who came or went-traveler, pros- pector, homeseeker, stranger, all were royally enter- tained.
He died at Strawn, 1897, and was buried by the Eastland Masonic Lodge, of which he was a charter member.
J. R. HIGGINS.
In the fall of 1872 Mr. Higgins settled on the farm where he now lives, six miles southeast of Eastland City on the Leon River. One year later he married.
"In those days we lived in log cabins, usually with one door, no window, roof weighted on, and puncheon floor. We went in ox wagons to Stephenville or Co- manche to mill. Stephenville was my postoffice."
Mr. Higgins owns a fine farm with a good home and plenty of stock. His wife is a daughter of W. C. McGough.
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
CHAPTER IV.
EASTLAND CITY.
"There is a tide in the affairs of man,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; We must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our venture."-Shakespeare.
Two young men in a land office in Dallas pondered over the truth contained in the quotation above as they again went over the map before them.
"We must take the current when it serves, Or lose the venture."
" 'The current serves' now, for they won't put up buildings at Merriman, I am told," said one.
"We must take it, then, or else lose our venture."
These young men, late of the University of Ken- tucky, had just bought from J. A. Speers the C. S. Betts survey, three hundred and twenty acres, centrally located, and had conceived the idea of moving the County Town from Merriman, and locating it on their own land.
On their way to Mansker Lake to have District Clerk A. J. Stuart, who resided therc, to record their deed, the young men met J. H. Ellison, to whom thev disclosed their purpose. "It can never be done," he said. The adverse opinion of the old frontiersman did not daunt them. They located the southwest corner of the C. S. Betts survey, selected a slightly elevated spot of ground between the North and South forks of the Leon River, made a rough sketch, and staked out
THE COURT HOUSE
etBE
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HISTORY OF EASTLAND COUNTY.
the public square of Eastland, (the name the Legisla- ture had provided for the county town), January 15, 1875.
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