USA > Texas > Wise County > Pioneer history of Wise County; from red men to railroads-twenty years of intrepid history > Part 15
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KILLING OF JOHNSON MILLER.
Johnson Miller was a bachelor between forty-five and fifty years of age. He had come into the county from Michigan, and was a skillful workman in wood, an occupation of much useful- ners in pioneer days. He had been employed at assisting to build the court house, doubtless doing the major part of the work. At the time of his murder he was at work in West Fork bottom getting out timber for making wagons, furniture, etc., but had been called that day to Decatur, March 25, 1866, to make a coffin for Mrs. Hardwick, who had died.
Bob Sensibaugh and - - Browder were at work with him in the bottoms and the doomed man had ridden Sensibaugh's fine horse to town, expecting to return upon completion of his task.
He had been quite careless about exposing himself to Indian attack and had been frequently admonished of the danger, but his reply had usually been of a frivolous nature.
On his return to the camp on West Fork this day, he was chased by the Indians, overtaken, murdered and scalped, and
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his clothing hung up in a tree, all within a mile or so of the camp. The Indians took his horse which, as was said, was a good one.
Miller was rather a mysterious character, but was hard work- ing and economical and is believed to have left a quantity of money buried somewhere in this vicinity.
BRAVE FIGHT OF FRANK COONIS.
One day during a period when the Indians had been very active, Frank Coonis left his father-in-law's home near Green- wood, and started to Hickory Plains, where he had been informed a white citizen had recaptured some stolen horses from the Indians. Coonis and his father-in-law had lost some horses the day before and he made the trip to Hickory Plains, thinking possibly some of the recaptured horses belonged to him.
Next morning he had not returned and the neighbors grew suspicious, wagging their heads over Coonis' probable fate. Wm. Weatherby, Sr., Ishmael Copeland, Jim Cooly and Montgomery started in search. Along the route the buzzards circled over the carcasses of horses killed by Indians on a ro- cent raid through the country. Arriving in the vicinity of the old Keep ranch house, which had been empty for two years, Weatherby was moved to ride by and look in at the windows. His attention had been attracted to the buzzards slowly wheeling about the house. Here he encountered a gruesome sight. Lying with his head resting on his coat was Coonis, with a great ugly wound in his neck and blood spattered about the floor. The window casings showed bloody imprints of hands as did also the parts of the neck about the death wound, indicating that changing holds of the casing and neck alternately with his hands, Coonis had fought the Indians a courageous fight from the window. The shells in the chambers of his two pistols were all fired, with the exception of one, which was snapped. Evidently he had bravely defended himself, but with what damage to the Indians no one knew.
Weatherby crawled upon the cornerib and signaled to his companions to come and assist in the disposition of their dead neighbor's body.
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DEATH OF GEORGE HALSELL.
The death of George Halsell occurred in Clay County in 1868. Accompanied by Pete Hardin and others, Halsell was in the employ of Pickett and Waggoner, cattlemen of Wise County.
The Indians had been harassing the cow camp for several days, when one day Hardin and Halsell were caught away and given a hard chase. Coming to a crossing of a creek, at which point the Indians were nearly upon them, Hardin dismounted and hastily secreted himself in some brush. He had hardly got in position when a big Indian dismounted near him and took deliberate aim and fired at George Halsell, who by this time was ascending the opposite bank. The shot took effect immediately, bringing instant death. Hardin lay quietly in the thicket with his pistol cocked on its only two loads, while the Indians tramped about in the brush in search of him. He remained here for perhaps a day and night, hiding in the brush and trees.
The body of George Halsell was brought to Wise County by Charlie Thompson and others, who volunteered to go after it.
PLEAS BRYANT WOUNDED.
The following brief statement is formed of Captain Charlie Thompson's and Charles D. Cates' deserpition of the engage- ment which resulted in the wounding of Pleas Bryant:
Quite late one night three young men, Charlie Cates, Charlie Thompson and Jim Beck, were returning to their home, a few miles south of Decatur, from a party given at the home of James Proctor, who lived then just on the east edge of the town. Reaching a point a little way from Proctor's, the group parted, Cates and Beck continuing on south to their homes in Walnut Creek Valley, and Thompson turning to the right to go to Mr. Hardwick's, with which family he lived.
Just as Thompson reached the edge of the timber and while riding leisurely in the night, musing over the lovely pioneer girls from whom he had but recently separated, he suddenly emerged into a large bunch of horses standing stock still and showing no sign of fright at his presence.
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He made some kind of noise, and as he did so a most unox- pected transformation took place. On the back of every horse a dastardly savage appeared, and in a moment more, Captain Thompson had yielded the quiet dreamings and musings of the night and was dashing post haste through the timber, with a bunch of yelling savages at his heels.
Knowing perfectly the trails through the timber, he soon eluded his chasers and passed on to the Hardwick home, where he placed Mrs. Hardwick and the two children, Frank and Charlie, in a cellar beneath the floor for safety. Then he set out to alarm the neighborhood. While going rapidly from home to home, his mind was in a state of great excitement, which enabled him to vividly recall his sudden encounter with the Indians, and the celerity with which the latter swayed to their saddles from their bent and hidden positions at the sides of the horses.
Further down in the valley he overtook Cates and Beek, who, learning the news of the Indians, set out down the prairie country towards Oliver Creek, informing cach settler whose home was passed.
The Indians passed down toward this creek and pieked up about 300 horses. Out on the prairie they circled to the north and took a course out of the county, that led them by the town of Decatur, whence they changed to a northwest direction.
Some time before sunrise a crowd had concentrated at De- catur and were soon out upon the trail, in an effort to retake the captured stock and kill as many Indians as possible.
By hard riding the Indians were overtaken just this side of Cumby's Prairie, about twenty miles northwest of Decatur. Here the Indians, upon discovering that they were being fol- lowed, ambuscaded themselves in a dry hollow and prepared. to defend themselves and stolen property. The band of Indians numbered about forty-five, whereas a very much smaller nun- ber of citizens were to fight them. The Indians had taken advantage of their forewarning, and when the settlers came up, were in a position from which they could not be dislodged, without great cost to the white men. Nevertheless they were
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boldly charged. During the onrush Milton Shoemaker's horse was shot from under him, and Pleas Bryant received a ball in his thigh. Great confusion ensued, but soon the settlers dis- covered the odds to be greatly against them and withdrew, leaving the Indians to pass out, apparently unharmed, carrying a large number of stolen stock with them.
CAPTURE AND DETENTION OF RAN VEASY.
The brighter side of life of the middle pioneer period is in- definably associated with the subject of this sketch. "Old Ran's " name and " fiddlin' " personality generates glad retro- spective visions of the stately reel and the delirious " do-se-do " of the old-time back country " square dance." Accomplished as a "fiddler" of the most enlivening dance music, he has been the dynamo of many frolicsome occasions, if not the essential personality of ahnost all the festal celebrations of the period through which he has lived to a present venerable age.
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Some know that in politics he is an old time Jefferson Demo- crat ; also that he served as a body guard to Gen. Cabell through the Civil War, being political convictions, by the way, and character of service, that endear his memory to Southerners. But there are others who do not know that upon a fresh, rosy, morning in April, 1868, Ran, then a strong young man, was suddenly pounced upon by the Indians and carried away into captivity.
The old colored veteran lived at that time on the line of Montague and Wise Counties, as an employe on a ranch and farm. About sunrise of the afore-mentioned morning, Ran and a white man went out a short distance from the house to unhobble and bring in the work horses. On the way out they had to pass by a clump of thickly grown timber, but nothing unusual showed about this this morning.
Reaching the horses Ran was down untying a hobble rope, when, on casually looking around he saw twenty Indians emerge from the timber which stood a few yards off, and come towards them. Ran told the white boy to grasp a post oak stick lying near and brandish it in order to simulate a gun play. As for
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himself he threatened the savages with his Winchester which he had at hand. The white boy answered by jumping off a bluff into a ravine and fleeing. The Indians came on up, some- thing in their demeanor causing Ran not to fire upon them. Reaching him a chief gruntingly enquired if "he would shoot em much," and made movements towards taking the horses. Ran resented the movements by again threatening with his gun which caused the redskins to hesitate and draw aside for a mumbled conversation. Ran's fate was settled at this council of war, for returning to the spot the Indians cireled him and the horses with a buckskin rope and proceeded to make all captive.
Ran was strapped astride a horse and placed under guard when the journey began. For three days and nights the direction of progress lay due north until the captive was brought to what he now believes was Medicine Lodge, Kansas.
On the journey he suffered severely, the lashes binding him to the saddle cutting into the flesh, and the muscles growing sore from confinement to one position. He was given very little water, but he states that at one point on the route the Indians thrust the ground with their spears and water gushed forth abundantly. Here a buffalo paunch was filled, from which Ran later endeavored to drink, but he had hardly raised the pouch to his mouth, when a big burly chief dealt him a stunning blow behind the car. Reviving, he became furiously angry at such brutal treatment, but knew his better part was to remain unresistful. For food the party had fresh killed buffalo meat ; this was cut in thin strips, wrapped round the end of a stick and broiled, then caten without salt. There was plenty of this for the whole camp.
Ran remained with the Indians about three months, confined all the while to the great Indian Village in the vicinity of Medi- cine Lodge. White traders did a flourishing business with the In- (lians while he was there. They brought trinkets and supplies of all kinds to trade for moccasins, beads and property stolen from the settlements of Texas.
After captivity of three months Ran's freedom was secured through the negotiations of Negro Britt, a famous character in the Indian history of this section.
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CAPT. GEORGE STEVENS' FIGHT ON THE WICHITAS.
Britt came to the reservation ostensibly to take up his resi- dence with the Indians. But his real purpose was to find the whereabouts of his wife and children whom the Indians had captured in Texas some time before. He brought along numer- our ponies, some of which had been turned over to him by Ran Veasy's friends in Texas to secure Ran's release.
The terms of freedom were decided upon and Ran was placed on a very poor animal and permitted to depart. At first the Indians denied him his gun, but just before he started, Chief Big Tree came to him and handed him the weapon. At Ft. Arbuckle he met his Texas friends who brought him back to Texas.
CAPT. GEORGE STEVENS, JOHN HOGG, AND THE JENNINGS BROTHERS' FIGHT ON THE WICHITAS.
One hot summer during the early seventies, when Capt. George Stevens was in command of the ranger forces in Wise County, three mysterious Indians were discovered prowling through the regions in the northwest part of the county. Capt. Stevens set himself to watch these Indians taking with him a small number of his men. Among these were Tom and Henry Jen- nings, John W. Hogg (of Decatur), Dave Manning, Archer Watson, John Gose, Sr., Jim McCord and E. R. Stevens. The Indians turned and left the country going in the direction of Buffalo Springs, the men following.
A distance of some seventy-five miles had been traversed, when one of the Jennings boys was taken ill, and it became necessary to contemplate the abandonment of the trail and returning home. This consultation occurred about seven miles beyond Buffalo Springs on the head of the east fork of the Little Wichita River, and- just at the moment the men had decided to return home, three Indians were observed to come out boldly on a neighboring hill and stand watching the men.
One of the Jennings spoke of a probable strategy on the part of the Indians, saying doubtless there were more Indians beyond the hill. But the intrepid Stevens gave the order to charge, and at the three Indians the men went. A short distance had
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been covered when suddenly a larger number of Indians joined their three companions. The men now halted and, seeing themselves outnumbered, retired into a grove of timber lying near at hand, alongside a small dry canon running up the slope, where they hoped to gain protection. Hardly had they gotten their places when with terrible and fiendish yells and rattling of shields, the band of Indians, numbering near forty, came tear- ing down the hill towards them, shooting into the brush all the while and creating unearthly noises.
Apparently their object was to frighten the men from the timber into the open, when they would be slaughtered, but the men, knowing the Indians' bluffing tactics, retained their places and returned such a fire as to hold the Indians aloof from the timber.
After having separated and charged around the grove the redskins passed on below and reunited, then circled and returned to the hilltop. Here, within sound of the beleagured men, a chief addressed the Indians. John Hogg asked Tom Jennings if he knew what the chief was saying. Jennings answered " No, but I know what they are going to do; they are going to run over us if they can." Capt. Stevens and Jennings then coun- seled coolness, deliberation and steady aim. The men realized their precarious situation and decided to sell out their lives as dearly as possible.
At this juncture three Indians departed from the main group and went back over the hill, but presently returned, bringing up a still larger number of their tribe. The hill was now black with Indians, numbering perhaps 100, and the little band of whites in the timber, who saw all, was now painfully conscious that only the greatest bravery and daring would save them their lives.
More speechmaking now occurred on the hill, and presently, when all was in readiness, the whole band of Indians swooped down on the grove, yelling and shooting until the atmosphere vibrated with a tempest of noises. The same tactics were pursued as before, but this time it was seen that sentinels had been dropped all round the hedged-in men, which convinced the latter that while the cowardly fiends were afraid to enter the thicket they had adopted means to prevent their escape.
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Until long in the middle of the afternoon the Indians made assault after assault, every one of which was repulsed by the nervy little band of whites. The Indians seemed to despair of ever being able to frighten the men from cover and began to draw away for the invention of new tactics.
At one of these unguarded moments, previously solemnly decided upon by the men, the latter abandoned all their equip- ments and horses and crawled away afoot into the little dry branch, taking only guns and ammunition, and strangely enough, if the Indians saw them they did not try to stop the movement, leading the men to think that they were afraid to come within shooting distance.
Capt. Stevens who had, as usual, exposed himself, was wounded in the hip and in the hand, and the ball from one of these wounds lodged in one of his boots. The men found great difficulty in escaping down the little ravine, it being neces- sary for two of them to support Capt. Stevens all the way. But miraculously enough, all did escape, traveling afoot all afternoon and all night until they came to Joseph Marlett's, on the head of Sandy Creek, Wise County. Here a doctor was brought from Decatur to attend Capt. Stevens. The long walk under so many trials had almost completely exhausted the energies of the men and rendered them so footsore and blistered that they were in a precarious condition for many days.
In late years Capt. Stevens and Mr. Hogg were awarded fine guns by the State Legislature in recognition of their bravery in this fight.
RAIDS AND KILLINGS IN SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST WISE COUNTY.
Some of the earliest settlements made in the county were those extending throughout the fertile regions of the south and southwest Wise County in the valleys of Salt and Garret's Creeks and West Fork River. The people were strong, original stock, with well equipped farms and large bunches of good horses and cattle. These settlements in Wise County, though sparse, extended from Paradise Prairie on the northwest, to the con-
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junetion of Denton, Tarrant and Wise Counties on the south- west. Through this region extended the rich valleys before mentioned and herein among the few but prosperous settlers the Indians found a foraging ground which tempted them to repeated attack, murder and pillage.
They began raiding and driving off the stock at about the commencement of the war. This soon brought on clashes with the settlers, and the Indians retaliated by inaugurating a mur- derous warfare, which extended over a period of several years and cost the settlements the lives of numerous of their best and bravest defenders. Jim Hanks' Militia Company of the Salt Creek region, and Ben Crews' company of Deep Creek, did all in their power to hold the Indians at bay, but in the face of the overpowering number of the latter and their stealth and subtle warfare, the minute companies were powerless to prevent the occasional murders and stealings committed. Some of the pioneers and descendants now living in those communities are Galley Stevens, J. K. Reed, Mrs. Adrena Wood, W. J. Mann, Paradise: J. K. P. Mathews, Soney Thomas, Opal: P. F. Lewis, Tom Geary, Newark; Mark Oates, Jim Hudson, Major Slimp, C. C. Leonard, Rhome: Andrew Mann, Jack and Dennis Pas- chall, and members of Boyd family, Boyd. From these the writer has obtained the following descriptions which constitute the essential points of the Indian depredations in these sec- tions.
About the first killing and capture occurring in that direction following the outbreak of the Indians, was perpetrated at the foot of Skeins Peak at the head of Salt Creek on the line of Parker and Wise County. Jim MeKinney was returning with his wife and four children from a visit in Wise County to their home in Parker County. They were traveling in an ox wagon, and when reaching Skeins Peak were suddenly assaulted by a murderous band of Indians, who had either been lying in wait for, or following, them. MeKinney and his wife and two chil- dren were shot to death and scalped, a little boy escaped into a branch, and the next, a little girl, was captured, carried seven or eight miles to Osteen branch, and murdered, her dead body
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being found next day by a party of scouts who were following the trail of the Indians.
One Sabbath day in the summer of 1863 a band of twenty-five Indians encountered a man named Long on the road in a region approximate to the present town of Paradise, close to what was known as the Vernon place. Long was killed and scalped, after which the Indians passed to the Vernon place, and finding three little children playing about the premises began to pour into their midst a hot fire of poisonous arrows. All the victims were wounded, and it is thought that one of them died later from the severe injuries. The same day the Indians ran onto a ·man named Buck Reynolds near the Jesse Kincannon farm and shot him .twice in the back with arrows, while he was fleeing toward Kineannon's for safety. Wm. Kincannon heard the noise and ran out with a gun and frightened the Indians away. Stock stolen on this raid included a fine thresher team taken from Galley Stevens.
Mrs. Adrena Woods, of Paradise, the widowed wife of Ab Wood, relates an exciting experience through which she and her husband passed during the raid of the Indians in which little Jesse Burress was cruelly murdered.
Mr. and Mrs. Wood had repaired to a plum thieket and were tranquilly pieking fruit in the spring sunshine when, without warning, the redskins appeared on the spot and sequestered their horses, after which they peered around in the bushes, hoping to find and murder the riders. Mr. and Mrs. Wood affrightedly observed their actions from a couple of "hog wal- lows" wherein they had quickly secreted their bodies. Not finding them, the Indians turned and rode away, but it was a harrowing experience for the plum gatherers, made all the more so by the fact that the "hog wallows" contained water. -
The Indians went on out in a northwest direction toward the home of Talse Burress, who lived about a mile northwest of Paradise Prairie. When about 200 yards this side of the house,
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between the latter and a little community graveyard, the In- dians came upon Jesse Burress, a small boy, while he was pick- ing berries. Very quickly and very brutally they shot and scalped the little boy, after which they passed out of the county.
Press Perkins met a sad and solitary death. He lived on Salt Creek, about four miles south of the present town of Cotton- dale; he was married and about 35 years old. The last seen of him in life was when he started out in the morning to round up and bring in the ox-team. The next seen of him he was dead, his body filled with bullets and arrows, on the spot where John Looman and others of Waggoner's cow-hands found him. The Indians were coming into the county on this raid, having passed Galley Stevens' place, where they took a fine mare, with sixty feet of buffalo-hide lariat tied to her neck.
These brief sketches point to one fatal and unerring conclu- sion, which is that the Indians never lost an opportunity to kill and murder the people of this section. During these long and unhappy years no settler nor any member of his family dared to place their bodies in exposed places for an instant's time. Think of the terrible effects of this constant fear and appre- hension on the heroic people who staid here to endure it all. Think how strong must have been their hearts, how muscular their bodies and how resolute their power of will. Think of them as the foundation of Wise County and the riddle of our present pride and growth is answered.
O. H. P. Reed, one of the very early settlers in the Paradise country, lived on Rush Creek during the time of Indian danger. His son, J. K. Reed, of Paradise, related a thrilling episode which occurred at his father's place. Johnnie Reed, a boy about 17,
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had gone a distance of perhaps 400 yards from the house to lariat some horses beyond a skirt of timber which fronted the house. Another little brother crawled up high on a stack of old wheels in the corner of the yard to watch his brother, and while he was there he saw the Indians charge Johnnie while he was tying the horses, and at the same time he saw Johnnie start toward the house on a dead run with a big Indian at his heels.
The little watcher sereamed for a larger brother in the house, who was crippled, but the latter hobbled out with a gun in hand and took in the situation at once. Seeing the boy and the Indian coming up the path toward the house, he placed the gun in the fork of a dead tree and leveled it straight down the path toward the Indian. The latter was intensely occupied and had not observed this occurrence. On he came, gaining on the wildly frightened boy at every step. He was a big, greasy- looking buek, and was about to nab the boy when he looked up and saw the deadly gun bearing down on him. His stop was so sudden that he disturbed several square feet of earth, and his surprise was so great that he could not suppress a great yell of fright. Johnnie came on to the house, panting for breath, the Indian went the opposite direction post-haste.
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