USA > Texas > Wise County > Pioneer history of Wise County; from red men to railroads-twenty years of intrepid history > Part 2
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The state census of 1850, quoted below indicates the degree of settlement attained in the counties immediately contiguous to Wise County, before the latter county was entered:
County.
Population.
Acres in Cultivation.
Dallas
2943
7305
Grayson
2008
5891
Cooke.
220
433
Collins
1950
6697
Denton
641
2131
Tarrant .
664
1726
2
18
PIONEER HISTORY OF WISE COUNTY.
In 1855, according to Mr. Paddock, the frontier line was on the north in Grayson County, thence extended through Denton, Wise, Parker, Palo Pinto, Eastland, Brown, Lampassas, Burnett, Gillespie, Kendall, Bexar, and south to San Patricio. Because of the beginning of Indian hostilities at this point in the march of immigration, the above line remained stationary for twenty years. It is thus shown that Wise County occupied a position in the chain of frontier counties that bore the brunt of frontier hardships longer, perhaps, than fell to the lot of any other Texas county. Denton County was organized in 1846, ten years pre- ceding Wise. At that time the county supported three villages, Pilot Point, Denton and Alton, and numbered five hundred and three souls. A writer of the time describes the county's afflic- tions as follows: "Bear are plentiful but not profitable, being very destructive to corn and hogs."
Cooke County was created from Fannin County in 1848, and the town of Gainsville was established about that time. The boundary limits of Cooke County as described at that date are as follows: "Beginning on Red River at N. W. corner of Grayson County, thence S. to N. line of Denton County, thence W. to N. W. corner of Denton County, thence S. thirty miles to S. W. corner of said Denton County, thence W. sixty miles, thence N. to Red River thence down Red River to place of beginning." Within these boundaries which extended to Red River lay the territory of Wise County, which was attached to Cooke County for judicial purposes. The law at that time pro- vided for the division of exterior territory into counties in advance of settlement, and contemplated their being at- tached for judicial and land purposes to the most convenient county or counties. So far as the exercise of local admin- istrative power was concerned, the unorganized county was generally treated as a part of the county to which it was attached. But in matters affecting lands and surveys in Wise County, Cooke County shared her control with Denton County, there being district land offices at both Denton and Gainsville. An air line ran centrally through Wise County from east to west and the northern part of the county lay under the control of the Gainesville office, while the southern portion applied to the
19
INTRODUCTION.
office at Denton. By her organization in 1856, Wise County withdrew from the authority of both Cooke and Denton Counties.
The original pioneer who entered Wise County embarked from Ft. Worth, then a promising little village left behind by the United States garrison which had advanced to Ft. Belknap. Due to the protection afforded by the garrison, quite a com- munity of settlers had congregated in the region, and its central point, the fort, bid fair to become a prosperous town. On vacating the fort buildings, the soldiers turned them over to store keepers, and within a short while several prosperous stores were established. Ft. Worth was the most promising vil- lage in this section when the first white settler left it for Wise County.
As was stated, Wise County retained her vexatious situation as a frontier county for about twenty years. During this lapse of time the only community that achieved promising strength to the west of her was the settlement surrounding the fort at Belknap, where protection was afforded by the soldiers. Jack, Clay and Montague Counties were weakly fortified with white citizenship, and at the approach of the war and Indian diffi- culties they became nearly abandoned.
The above remarks are indicative of the position of Wise County immediately preceding and following her first settle- ment.
PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE COUNTY.
No better description of the general and special appearances of the country are obtainable than those which Mr. Paddock has embodied in his history of Northwest Texas, as the observations of two of the earliest settlers of Tarrant County, namely, Captain Ed Terrell and Dr. Carroll M. Peak. Captain Terrell writes of date 1843, and his remarks apply with equal force to Tarrant and Wise Counties. He says: "In those days this country was infested with Indians, and herds of buffalo were all around us. There were more panthers in these parts than I have ever seen either before or since. Antelope without number, wild turkeys in every tree-in fact, in those days this was God's own country."
Dr. Peak, settling at Ft. Worth in 1853, writes: "With not a
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PIONEER HISTORY OF WISE COUNTY.
tree felled, with every shrub and leaf and flower still here, with scarcely a blade of tall grass missing, how grandly did it seem to the visitor." In another place, speaking from his position at Ft. Worth, he says: "Still northward and circling to the east lay the grand prairie whose grass, long forsaken by the buffalo,* only yielded to the tread of the fleet-footed deer and startled antelope, and whose vast expanse was relieved only by the graceful windings of Marine Creek, with borders fringed with wooded cliffs and the great elevation of the blue mound? to the far north. On the eastern boundary of this lovely landscape stood the cross timbers, belting the state from Red River and running across the state, was one of the most singular provisions of nature in the midst of a treeless stretch of prairie. Game was very abundant and the streams then abounded in the finest fish of greater variety than can now be obtained."
Two early visitors to the territory of Wise speak as follows: both came in from an eastern direction which led them to pass over the prairie sections of the county. One says: "I cannot find words to describe the beauty of this Western country; its grandeur and sublimity are beyond my powers of expression, the valleys alternately none the less attractive, the level land, too, covered with green grass and native blooms so early in the season. No fences of wire, but so much open range for miles." That the natural beauty of the uninhabited domain attracted all beholders is also reflected in the remarks of the second visitor, who spoke as follows: "When I crossed Denton Creek and emerged from the timbers and gradually ascended the gentle rise out upon the wide-spreading prairies, my eyes beheld a scene of splendor such as nature only can produce in such lavishness, a perfect wilderness of flowers swaying in the soft breeze as though keeping time to the music of the larks and the tribes of feathered songsters whose notes made the balmy air redolent with sweetest music. It was a scene to entrance the artist or charm the enthusiast as he looked upon the beautiful outpouring of nature's God." The traveler states that he grew
* Buffalo had at that date been driven farther west.
+ This mound is situated in Denton County.
21
INTRODUCTION.
so enraptured in contemplating the scene that he became oblivious of the danger of Indians which threatened him. Both these visitors came to the country during its spring-time glory, as is indicated by their poetical descriptions, and the last quoted visited the country during the days of Indian attack, as is also indicated by his remarks.
From many sources it is learned that every species of animal and fowl life indigenous to the zone existed here in the greatest profusion, with the one exception of buffalo, which had been driven farther west by hunters prior to the time of entrance of the first white settlers. In the list of animals is included deer, antelope, bear, wolf, panther, wild cat, and all the smaller tribe, together with the fowl kingdom, of which the larger varieties were turkey and prairie chicken; the numerous smaller varieties of the winged kingdom existed in the greatest abundance.
TRADITIONAL RECORDS OF LIFE AND ACTIVITY BEFORE SETTLEMENT.
Both traditional and authentic history have bequeathed to us records of a varied and active life occurring on Wise County soil before it became dedicated to the uses of civilization. Phases of it were dramatic and spectacular in the extreme, as will be evidenced by the following remarks:
The conference of President Houston's commissioner, Joseph C. Eldredge, with the wild tribes in Wise County, as is recorded in John Henry Brown's History of Texas, reads like a page from a work of fiction. Eldredge and two companions were dis- patched on a long and dangerous tour of the Northwest, with a view of acquainting the warring Indians with President Hous- ton's peace proposals. This was in the early forties, a full de- cade before white citizenship began to emerge into the wilds of Wise County. Eldredge's first pause after leaving the old state capital at Washington, was on the banks of the West Fork in Wise County. Here he anticipated calling the delegates of the wild tribes together for a conference, with a view to securing their attendance upon a peace conference arranged to occur at Bird's Fort, in Tarrant County, a few months distant, which was to be attended by President Houston in person.
22
PIONEER HISTORY OF WISE COUNTY.
To this first camp on the West Fork a band of peaceful Dela- wares had attended Eldredge as guides and interpreters and had consented to go out in search of the wild tribes and invite them to visit the commissioner in order that he might inform them of President Houston's desires. But from some unknown cause the Delawares rebelled at this point and refused to further prose- cute the plans of the commissioner. According to the historians, this desertion left Eldredge and companions "stranded in an unknown country, among hostile Indians and far from the habi- tants of civilization," a statement quite significant for Wise Countyians as showing the status of this country in the early forties. The remaining facts of these daring travelers are ob- tainable from the volume mentioned above, and the records upon which the narrative is based are regarded as important historical documents in the departments of the state capitol.
John Henry Brown's second reference to early activity in Wise County deals with an ill-fated ranger expedition which came to grief here at the hands of hostile Indians, an instance that is further indicative of the warring spirit of the savages prior to the coming of the white man.
During David G. Burnett's administration as president of the republic, a ranger expedition made a tour of the southwestern frontier, and when returning down the Colorado River, Lieuten- ant Benthysen and twenty-two companions separated from the main group and made a wide detour to the northwest. In the course of their wanderings they came into the territory of Wise County, where they came in conflict with a band of hostile In- dians. Nine of the men, including Lieutenant Miles, were killed, says the historian, and several others wounded. "Those who survived," concludes the writer, "escaped on foot and after much suffering, halting for two or three days where the city of Dallas now stands, reached the settlements below."
The above facts are the authentic reports of history. From tradition we get details of another sanguinary occurrence-a hand-to-hand encounter between a savage and two white settlers. Prior to the time when white settlers had reached into Wise County, the Indians made a raid on the settlements on Village Creek, Dallas County. The Indians in turn were chased by
23
INTRODUCTION.
the settlers, the pursued and pursuers running in a northwest direction which anon brought them into Wise County. In their flight, and under the hot pursuit, the Indians became badly scattered, and at a point on a hill a few miles east of Decatur, just above where the upper Denton road crosses Cottonwood Creek, a deadly hand-to-hand encounter occurred between a lone Indian and two white men. At this point the Indian saw that he was beaten in the race, so leaping from his horse, he backed against a live oak tree and unsheathed his knife pre- paratory to a determined resistance. The Indian fought grimly for his life, but the outraged white men gave him no quarter. Soon he was killed and scalped and a modicum of revenge for the cruel deeds perpetrated by the savages achieved. The imagination paints a gruesome picture as the mind contem- plates this tragic episode occurring back in those far stilly times when none but the eyes of heaven saw the terrible con- flict waged below between earth's racial brothers.
Remaining evidiences of early activity are obvious only by in- ference .. The fact that only an occasional stag of the great buffalo tribe was found by the first settlers bespeaks the enterprise and energy of the hunter, who, coming in from the eastern counties, had killed countless numbers and driven the remainder to seek safety at distances further west. Lieut. Van Benthysen's exploit in the county also leads to the conclusion that this section was not unknown to the visitation of the daring ranger forces which came here on punitive expeditions against the red foe of civili- zation.
However, the highest and most encouraging order of enter- prise remains to be mentioned in conclusion. These were the land-locating labors of the classes who had by one means and another gained certificates of location from the state. Wise County, at that time being public domain, was subject to the various provisions of location and pre-emption which a magnan- imous state, rich in lands but poor in money, had contrived to pay the debts it owed for service in its wars, and as contribu- tions to the promotion of industrial enterprises, principally railroads.
Numerous large railroad grants were located in Wise County,
24
PIONEER HISTORY OF WISE COUNTY.
and smaller claims were spread here without number. These were the first real signs of a changing order of events. Civiliza- tion could not be far behind when prairie and forest wastes began to attract the attention of the speculator and prospector.
The foregoing paragraphs constitute a recital of a moving and temporary form of life, and unless viewed in the proper light and perspective, a delusive idea as to the true conditions will be received. There was no union, nor cohesion, in all the phases of activity that have been described; there was no stationary life or population and no vestiges of effort to convert the country into a civilized dominion. The events described were widely separated in time and occurrence, and intervening between was the eternal, brooding silence of a lonely and unpeopled land. Upon the latter the sun looked down by day and the moon and stars by night. Its pristine beauty remained undefiled by man and the grimy accoutrements of his civilization. Embalmed in that
"Sleep that knows not breaking, Morn of toil, nor night of waking."
it lay awaiting the touch of the minions of development and civilization, but beneath its roses of beauty slumbered the thorns of its adversity-the pricking evidence of nature that she does not surrender her best and fullest without exacting trial, afflic- tion and mortal toil as her compensation.
CHAPTER I.
THE COMING OF THE FIRST SETTLERS-FIRST HOME AND EN- VIRONMENT.
While in a reminiscent mood, ex-Governor Bob Taylor gave utterance to the following expression: "When I was a bare- footed boy away up among the mountains where nature sings her sweetest song and brawling brooks laugh in the sunshine and dance in the shadows, I used to sit on the banks of the river and watch the caravans of covered wagons creeping like mammoth snails with their shells on their baeks, southward to the wilderness of Texas. I did not dream then that the ragged, rosy-cheeked children who crowded under the wagon covers were the prophecies of wealth and power and glory of the great- est empire that was ever born on this continent. But so it was. The caravans landed their precious freight in the wilds of Texas. The blue smoke began to eurl upward from the cabins of the pioneers, * * * the little ragged, candy-haired children grew up into a race of the fairest women and the bravest men that the sun in heaven ever shone upon."
In Governor Taylor's remarks we have a poetic description of two significant events-the abandoning of an "old country" and the settlement of a new. The scenes there depicted were enacted true to life in Wise County. We find the first blue smoke curling upward here in the autumn of the year 1853, but only that of a camp fire, around which were gathered three lonely individuals who had been attracted to the country as prospectors. The actual settlement was delayed until 1854, when the blue smoke began to emerge from the chimney top of a pioneer cabin and the settlement of the county was inaugu- rated.
Sam Woody was the individual whom fate had selected to stand on the threshold of the county as the advance guard of the thronging civilization to follow. Fate laid her hands upon him in the mountains of his Tennessee home, and directed his
(25)
26
PIONEER HISTORY OF WISE COUNTY.
footsteps hither to this region where a glorious new community was to be established.
When Woody had reached about the age of twenty-one, the mountains of Tennessee seemed to grow more perpendicular- the valleys narrower and the opportunities for a livelihood scantier, and he became possessed of a restlessness to scale the heights in search of a broader and freer land. His desire took form in action, ending in his embarking with his wife and
SAM WOODY.
MRS. SAM WOODY.
meager effects on a raft on the Tennessee river, on which he floated down to the Mississippi and thence down that stream to the Louisiana banks, from where he went across country to Shreveport. His first temporary destination in Texas was in Upshur County, but he did not remain there long, for in 1849 the grand onward march to California set in and swept him as far west as the little village of Ft. Worth in Tarrant County.
27
THE COMING OF THE FIRST SETTLERS.
Fate was gradually drawing him toward the region which he was to enter as the original occupant. He remained in the vicinity of Ft. Worth, an undecided and prospective immigrant for some time-to be exact, until the autumn of 1853, when, in company with two others, Jim Mann and Ben Crews, he ap- proached the Trinity River at Ft. Worth and followed its wind- ing course up stream until he emerged into the then territory of Wise County in its southern part. Prospecting about, he came upon a beautiful valley, afterwards called Boyd's Valley, about three miles north of the present village of Aurora, and there he located the magnet that had drawn him from his Tennessee mountains to the teeming wilds of the Southwest. This proved to be a level stretch of rich soil surrounded by timber and water, which abounded in game and fish of the greatest variety.
At its sight his restlessness grew quiescent, and he knew that he had stumbled upon the fulfillment of his hopes. Returning to Ft. Worth he spent the remainder of the winter in prepara- tion, and in April, 1854, he again approached the Trinity River, this time accompanied by his wife and two sons, Will and Drew, and an Indian guide, and returned to the spot he had selected for a home. When, behold! rising from a fire built close to a lean-to camp structure was the smoke of another pioneer-an invader who had come in and laid the claim of proprietorship over the very spot which had appealed to him on his first journey.
The new arrival gave the name of Tom McCarroll and Dallas County as the point of his embarkation for this territory. Woody acquiesced in McCarroll's claim and set about to seek a new location. McCarroll proved to be genial and accomodating, and directed Woody to a region further to the north, which he thought to be a fit substitute for the location which, coinci- dentally had enticed the two primary citizens with its attrac- tions. At present this latter spot, a rich and productive farm, is known as the old John Prunty place.
Guided by McCarroll's directions, Woody went north until he came to the untamed region in question, when he was again pleased by the surroundings. The soil spread out in the valley was rich, the forests virgin, the environing prairie hilltops
28
PIONEER HISTORY OF WISE COUNTY.
1
-
PIONEER HOME OF SAM WOODY.
(First house built in Wise County.) Mr. and Mrs. Woody on porch.
29
THE COMING OF THE FIRST SETTLERS.
bedecked with flowers and tall waving grass. Down through the valley coursed a creek of ever-flowing water; its banks were deep, perpendicular and precipitous, from which formations it gained its name, Deep Creek.
Here on the banks of historic old Deep Creek, the first real home, the first house and the first farm in the history of the county were established.
As soon as possible Woody began to build his house, being assisted in the work by his kinsmen, Jim and John Woody, original settlers of Parker County, who had come over to help hew the logs and place them in position. The house was built solidly of logs, and still stands as a monument to that bygone period. A photograph of same accompanies these remarks. It was a one-room structure, sixteen feet square, in which all the household occupations were carried on. At one end a large open fire-place was built with a chimney reaching outside. The house faced south on the public road and a small porch faced in that direction.
When finished, Woody's home was the one lone habitation in a wild territory hundreds of miles square which had already begun to attract the attention of Eastern and Southern immi- grants. A few of these began to arrive in the fall of the year, and with them land traffickers, prospectors and investigators. Among them was Senator Robert Tombs, the famous Georgia statesman, who, as a member of the firm of Crawford, Tombs and Catlett, had located many hundred of acres in the territory and came here repeatedly to attend to the interests of the firm. Senator Toombs was a guest in the humble home of Woody for many weeks. As has been said, Mr. Woody's home was the one abode to which the incoming prospectors could resort for comfort, cheer and protection. On a dreary winter's night, just before Christmas of the first year (1854), eighteen tired and weary guests lay down to slumber in this sixteen-foot room. Wrapped in their blankets, they lay stretched before a roaring fire, which was fed throughout the night by the genial and hospitable host: here they slept and dreamed of golden conquests in a land of fresh opportunities.
30
PIONEER HISTORY OF WISE COUNTY.
Mr. Woody has said of the motives that brought him hither :* "The prettiest sight I ever saw is a new country, where man has never been and which is just as the great God of Heaven left it: where every stream is full of fish and every hollow tree is gorged with honey. The wild life and nature at first hand suited me." And describing the early life he says further: "It was easy to live in those days. Sow five or six acres of wheat and it would often produce -fifty bushels to the aere; cut it with a cradle, tramp and fan it out, then once or twice a year load up a wagon to which five or six steers were hitched, and after a week's trip to Dallas you would have enough flour to give bread to your own family and some to the neighbors for a number of weeks, until it would be the turn of some one else to make the trip. If we had bread enough, game was always plentiful. Hogs would get so fat on acorns they couldn't walk. After marking them we let them run wild, and trained our dogs to run them in whenever we wanted a supply of pork. Now and then we sent a wagon to Shreveport or Houston for coffee and sugar and such groceries, but we did not use sugar much. I paid a dollar for a pint of the first sorgum seed planted in Wise County, and molasses was the commonest kind of "sweetening." When we got tired of game and pork we killed a beef. By swinging a quarter high up to the limb of a tree it would be safe from wild animals and would keep sweet for weeks, and it was a common sight in our country to see the woman of the house untying the rope and letting down the meat to cut off enough for dinner."
Speaking of the Indians at that time he said: "I reckon I didn't know the disposition of the Indians. I was never afraid of them, didn't have sense enough, I guess. I used to trade with them at my house until they got hostile, and for a little corn they would give me the finest buffalo robe or moccasins you ever saw. I only wish I had kept some of those things, they would be worth lots of money now."
With all the free domain stretched out before him and he alone to partake of it wherever he would, it is rather singular that this pioneer citizen encountered two obstacles that re-
* Paddocks "History of Northwest Texas."
31
THE COMING OF THE FIRST SETTLERS.
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