Denton County, Texas - Chapter 15, 1918 (part 1 of 3)

Chapter 15

For a long period the savage Indian, as a satanic majesty, hung Hke a cloud of gloom and despair over the visions and dreams of the watchful mothers of our fair county. They, with fresh news from the fields of carnage, fancied scenes of cruelty and piercing screams of tortured children which would startle their midnight slumbers and turn them into hideous hours of silent, watchful listening. Their very heart throbs would sound like the approaching, stealthy tread of the cruel savage and the visions of the torch and tomahawk would almost unbalance the mind.

But, alas, it sometimes proved too true, and the carnage was rehearsed from settlement to settlement, the gloom settling like a mighty fog over the weary heart of the fond mother, and increased the intensity of the maternal care for the children clinging to her bosom.

The wily savages' signal "hoot" (in imitation of the owl) would rend the air and immediately the lights were extinguished and silence, darkness and dread would bring shivers to the stoutest heart. There was a dread even worse than the torch and tomahawk - the mother weeping for her girl carried into captivity and into "squaw life," to which even death was preferable.

Cynthia Ann Parker and many others were taken and as their screams grew fainter and fainter and the distance between grew greater and greater, the fond mother would faint into a realm of unconsciousness only to revive again, only to hear the echos reechoed on and on through life's memory as a blight to the once happy life and the extreme measure of the sufferings of a human soul.

But, hail happy day, the moccasin tracks are now gone, the Indian's war-whoop has ceased to come, and the hoot of the owl has ceased to alarm, and the bruised souls begin to heal. But few who suffered these horrors are left to tell the tale. (In the city of Denton we have but one). The government has taken the Indians under their control and the old savage generation has passed away. The new Indians are being sent to school and educated into useful lives.

T. R. Allen'S Interesting Letter

"In the latter part of August, 1847, or sixty-nine years ago, ibout twenty or twenty-five families of us left Monitea County, Vlissouri, bound for Denton County, Texas. How we knew there ivas such a place the Lord only knows. This little colony was 3omposed of the following-named families who were most all related to each other by either blood or marriage. Grandmother A.llen and her three married sons, Jesse, Thomas and Richard, Grandmother Medlin and her three sons, Lewis, Charles and Hall, and Uncle Cage Reynolds and his two sons, Sam and John, Daniel Barcroft, Ranos Niece, Owen Dunham, John Freshour, A.be, Joe and Jesse Loving, Taylor Stewart, Archie Robertson, Mr. Ellis and a Mr. Revis, and perhaps some others who my treacher- 3US memory will not now recall.

"This was quite a long and tedious journey. Think of twenty-five or thirty large freight wagons on a six-hundred-mile journey being drawn by work oxen and milk cows. What! milk cows did you say? Yes that is just what I said, we could use the cows that way for a two-fold pui"pose, they helped to draw

"After many days of tiresome travel we reached Red River at a little trading post called Preston, and at this place Uncle Cage Reynolds accepted a position in a blacksmith shop and we left him and his two sons, Sam and John, there and at Sherman.

"We next stopped on Holford Prairie where we found some settlers, including Uncle Peter Harmonson and his two sons. Jack and Perry, and Andy Holford and a few others whose names I do not now recall. Here we pitched tents to rest a while and take our bearings. A few days later Grandmother Allen and her two sons moved a few miles south and west, pitching their camp on the northwest end of a beautiful long, narrow prairie, which for many years went by the name of Allen's Prairie. From these two camps the men went on a prospecting tour along the west edge of the lo\ver cross timbers, where they found suitable locations. They went back for their families and each pitched his tent on the particular grounds chosen by him for a home. Here we found the country which had been most wonderfully blessed by the great Architect of Nature, a soil as rich as the craving of man could wish for, and timber, water, and grass in an abundance, and sufficient evidence of the sunshine and the showers, besides the woodlands were lined with wild deer and turkey, and fine herds of antelope on the piairies the year round, the buffalo was there during the winter season. The only serious question was where our bread would come from until virgin soil could be prepared and made to supply our wants.

"Here was the most wonderful and beautiful sight our eyes had ever beheld. Here we could view the beauties and grandeur of nature before they w^ere bespoiled by the woodman's ax or the surface of the earth was furrowed by the plow or by the surging waters. Our people passing over to Collin and Dallas counties in search of bread, told what a wonderful country we had found, and soon the little colony began to grow.

over and settled among us and Uncle Cage Reynolds and his sons, Sam and John, whom we had left at Preston, came on and joined the colony. Again, and still later, Dr. T. H. Callaway, Mr. Kelsey, Mr. Rayborn, Mr. Hutto, Mr. Joice, and Mr. Hoover made their homes among us and about this time a party of surveyors came along locating the boundary line between Denton and Tarrant counties. Then we found that Grandmother Allen and her son, Jesse, Owen Dunham, and Daniel Barcroft had taken their homesteads just over the line in Tarrant County and Abe Loving, Jim Revis and Mr. Ellis had gone on to Fort Worth, where they located.

"A history of the separate families who composed this little colony and the development of the country must be left for a pen guided by a more brilliant mind. Suffice it to say that these old settlers have surely left their footprints on the sands of time, as a very large per cent, of the population of the southwest portion of Denton County is composed of their descendants.

"We found upon our arrival in this section two small bands of natives, the Caddos and Seminole Indians, who had been at war with the stronger and more war-like tribes who had beaten them back to the edge of the white settlement. They were friendly disposed with us and so remained for many years, staying close around the United States fort. When the troops were moved from Fort Worth to Belknap they went along, the government using them as guides for the army.

"During, and for several years after the Civil War, the wild tribes of Indians went on the warpath and gave us no little trouble. In 1868, a large band of the Comanches came down into Denton County and gathered up a large number of the peoples' horses, some four hundred or more, and not far from the northwest corner of Denton County they met Mr. William Mundy and his daughter, Julia, who had left their home to go to Pilot Point to visit some relatives. The Indians chased them several miles and Julia being on a small pony her father saw that she could not get out of the way and he took her off the little horse and carried her behind him to a place of safety.

"The Indians encountered a man by the name of Frank Cunnius and ran him to the old keep-house in the upper edge of Denton County; before he reached the house they wounded him in the neck. Though wounded and bleeding as he was, he fought the Indians away from the house, but died before his friends found him. Two miles farther northwest the Indians killed Severe Fortenberry and went on west driving a very large herd of horses.

"About three or four miles below Forestburg the white men overtook them and captured most of the horses, returning them to their owners. Following this raid there were several others made in the same region, but I am sure a more gifted pen will write of them.

"In 1870 a band of about forty Indians came down through the timbers on West Fork of the Trinity and crossed over to the head of Morris Branch and camped for the day in the upper grove of timber on that branch. During the day Nick Dawson rode out to look for some of his horses and seeing the Indians' horses grazing about this grove supposed them to be cowmens' and rode down to inquire of his horses. When he was very close the Indians discovered him and mounted their horses and gave chase, after running him about three miles they overtook and killed him.

"This was near the close of the Indian troubles. The last raid was made on August 23-24, 1874, when the Indians came down by Decatur and swept north along the line of Denton and Wise counties, going out the divide between Denton and Catlets Creek, carrying about 135 head of horses. About eight miles northwest from Decatur just at sunrise on the morning of the 24th they came to the home of Mr. Huff and there being no men at home they killed Mrs. Huff and her two daughters. The mother was killed under the floor where she tried to hide and one of the girls was killed in the yard just in front of the door. The other girl was killed nineteen yards northeast of the house. The mother and the girl that was killed in front of the door were both scalped but the other one was not. You will notice Bedford's History of the Indian Troubles and the Wise County History says that she was scalped but the writer was there and helped to carry her into the house and she was not scalped. She was a beautiful brunette and had as pretty black hair as the writer ever saw and I remember that we concluded that her hair being so pretty and black was what saved her from being scalped - the mother and other daughter were blondes.

Aged Pioneer Tells Of Indian Raid In 1868

"I see in the Denton Record-Chronicle some one writes (failing to give his name) of the big Indian raid in 1867 (or, if I remember rightly, it was in 1868, in the month of October) .

"George Shearer, C. L. Smith (now dead) and the writer were on our way to Denton when we crossed Little Elm and had ridden out on the prairie just south of where the Lloyd store now is, when we saw a lady coming towards us, running and waving her bonnet at us.

"We halted and Shearer asked her what was the matter. She said a courier had passed down the prairie from the Cooper crossing on Big Elm saying that the Indians were crossing Big Elm three hundred strong murdering and scalping all the settlers they saw. Her husband had gone to Little Elm to the gin and she and the children, she said, were certain to be scalped. We thought it must be a mistake and told her so.

"The lady was Mrs. Albert Miller, long since dead. We decided to go in the direction of Cooper crossing and after traveling half a mile met Mr. Howell and his family coming on horseback, bareback, towing a mule packed with bedding and chuck. We tried to reason with him. asking if anyone had seen the Indians. He said no, but that the courier had said that the Indians were coming and had left no one alive west of Elm as far as the head of Hickory creek. We told him that we were going to see the redskins before we ran.

"He thought we had better go home; ridiculed the idea of three men unarmed meeting three hundred Indians. We were practically unarmed; only an old cap and ball pistol, without a cartridge in the crowd, but we detei'mined to go, scalp or no scalp.

"We took the trail two or three miles down and met no one but a man. He was not actually running, but he was letting no grass grow under his feet. He had a cap and ball rifle and a shot pouch. We asked him if he had seen any Indians, and he said. no, but that they were there on Big Elm. It was Marion Smith. We all turned to the crossing and went on and reached Denton without seeing any Indians, kept our scalps and were still alive.

"The report had got to Denton that all the Shahans had been massacred, and a posse had gone from Denton to seek vengeance on the red men. They returned home without seeing any Indians, but reported that the inhabitants of Shahan Prairie were all gone.

"The Indians had passed up Hickory and Denton Creeks and had stolen a drove of horses and killed a man on the Chisum ranch and also Mr. Fortenberry. We were late getting home, as we had to have our pistol fixed and a cap and ball put in it. We started home, sixteen miles east, prepared to scalp any Indian that came our way. It was dark when we got to Big Elm. and the creek was up. We walked down to west bank and crossed and dismounted and walked up the east bank. We came to Shahan Prairie, just beyond the Allan Bell place, at the corner of the field.

they had started with a fice dog, but that she was afraid it would tree a squirrel and the Indians hear it bark, so they hung it. We told her who we were and showed her where she was, and then started home.

"When we got there the report had got out that all the Shahans had been scalped. J. D. Hawkins, knowing our families were alone, and in distress, had taken them to his home.

A communication from an old Denton County settler, W. P. Bates, now of Vernon, Texas, but one of the 1851 settlers of the county, tells of the struggles of the early pioneers, and of the gradual spread of civilization along the then frontier country.

"I was born November 22, 1837, in Barren County, Kentucky, and when in my fourteenth year my father. Rev. W. E. Bates, on the 15th day of September, 1851, emigrated to Texas.

"There were three other families in the emigrant train - Smoot, Carter and Gounds. We landed in Texas November 1, and rented the Tom West place on Barksdale Creek, in the southeast corner of Denton County, near the present town of Hebron. Mr. Carter returned to Kentucky; Mr. Gounds went to his place in the southwest corner of Dallas County (and one of his sons now lives in the city of Denton) ; J. M. Smoot sold goods at Alton and later at Denton when the county seat was moved, and was burned out in August, 1861. He helped to establish the Odd Fellows cemetery at Denton and is buried there.

lloor, cracks chinked and daubed with mud. Tom West lived in the house at the time we moved in, and remained some time before he moved out. Two families in a small log house created an over-crowded situation, but the sight of a little log cabin here looked mighty good then.

"We found here at that time Mrs. Bridges and her two sons, William and Dave Bridges, Sam and Jim Chowning, Peter Teel, Joel Clark, John House, Joshua Zumwalt, and the McNeils.

Game Plentiful

"There was plenty of game of all descriptions. My father and I were on the hill (that J. D. Hawkins afterwards settled on) and counted 115 deer in sight, the largest bunch had fifty-two in it and the wild turkeys were here by the thousands. The first mill was what we called a 'steel mill' and was like a large wall coffee mill fastened to a tree or post. Mr. J. D. Hawkins had one bolted to a large post in his yard. He converted his into a 'windmill power' by attaching a wheel with canvas sails, but it was not a success. Mr. Wilson had a tread wheel mill on Wilson Creek and Jake Baccus had a water mill on Rowlett's Creek in Collin County, while 'Hamp' and 'Press' Witt had a mill on the Preston road ten miles north of Dallas, and there was built in the early fifties a flouring mill north of Sherman on the Colbert Ferry road (just south of Red River). Myself and Brance Rodgers took two yoke of oxen and a load of gi'ain to this mill. We were gone five days on the trip.

"Shreveport and Jefferson were our market places then, and the goods were hauled with ox teams mostly, five and six yoke to a large wagon. It took from four to five weeks to make the trip. In 1860 R. H. Bates and myself hauled goods from Jefferson, Texas, to J. M. Smoot at Denton for $4.00 per hundred pounds. Goods were hauled only when green grass could be had to turn the oxen on at night, and if the small home merchant ran out of an article of merchandise he remained out until next year when he could send an ox team to Jefferson again. And to illustrate how the people talked about it, you could often hear such expressions as this :

" 'They say you can get coffee at McKinney again,' or 'tobacco' or 'cotton warp.' What few people we had here then gladly passed the word along the line and all seemed to know just what they had on sale at Dallas, McKinney and Denton.

Before The Railroads Came

"Rough pine lumber could be had in East Texas then on a small scale and generally green and very heavy to haul, but it was far better than no lumber at all and the people soon began hauling with those great ox teams. The prices ran from $4.00 to $7.00 per one hundred feet for rough lumber. Salt had to be freighted in the same way and was worth $6.00 and $7.00 per one hundred pound sack.

"The first school house built was called Bethel. It was weatherboarded with four-foot boards, covered with two-foot boards, dirt floors and clapboard door. It was used for school and church purposes, and in the fall of 1853, for about two months, W. E. Bates and family occupied it until he finished his house.

"The first church built was at Bethel in about 1855. The people sent ox teams to East Texas for lumber (it was considered at that time a large undertaking) .

"As I now remember, I went and hauled a load and Al Rogers (with J. B. Rodgers' team) and others constituted the ox train that was out for a 'church' and they succeeded in building a very respectable church.

"My father brought his chest of carpenter's tools from Kentucky with him which proved to be a valuable asset to the country at that time. He was a carpenter, and in 1852 built a house in Piano for Mr. Foreman.

"Doctor Dye was practicing medicine at Piano and was our family physician, fifteen miles away, and sometimes hard to find, as he covered about thirty miles square. We had a great deal of sickness the first and second years. The second year we lived just north of Little Elm town, and he had to travel about twentyfive miles to see us. Our doctor's bill at the end of the second year was $500. We had lost one brother and were somewhat

A Pioneer Home

"We built our house in 1853 and moved into it. It was above the average at that time - two rooms 16x16, framed out of hewn timbers, weatherboarded with four-foot boards shaved and planed, and floored with ash plank which we got at a sawmill on the East Fork east of Dallas.

"That fall, 1853, Harry Hawkins and his sons, Jehne D., Samuel J., John H., and his younger sons, and W. H. Bates, Tom Button, J. T. Landrum and Charles L. Smith, his son-in-law, came and settled by us. They had been our neighbors in Kentucky, but had stopped at Nacogdoches the first year out.

"Married men were entitled to 320-acre preemption surveys of land and single men 160 acres, but were required to build a house and open improvements on it and live on the same for three years, which we all did. My headright (160 acres) was located on Panther Creek where Zion church now stands. It was an elm log house 8x10 feet, five logs high, ridge poles, board roof, dirt floor and one log cut out in the east end for a door, but no shutter, as under the circumstances it seemed useless, as dogs could pass through the cracks anywhere at their pleasure. This was sufficient to meet the requirements of the State of Texas for a patent, and of course I did not live there - only slept in it occasionally.

Joining The Army

"In May, 1861, I enlisted in 0. G. Welch's Company E (at Fort Wichita, I. T.) in Stanweighty's Indian Cavalry regiment. I enlisted for twelve months, served fifteen months and the company was reorganized by Mat Daugherty. I joined Tom Daugherty's Company A, 29th Texas Cavalry and was disbanded at Hempstead in May, 1865. Was at home fifteen days during this time on leave of absence to recover from a wound.

"Press White, Captain C. W. White's negro man, in the summer of 1863, was charged by Mrs. James Stewart with assault with intent to rape. He was carried before a justice of the peace and adjudged guilty and turned over to Mr. J. W. Stewart, who shot him to death in Lighter Hoffman's pasture on Stewart's Creek. This incident being the first of the kind in that section of the county, it created a profound sensation and was the county's talk for years after.

A Menu Of 1851

"Now back to the food supplies of 1851 : We had plenty of beef, pork, venison, turkey, and prairie chicken, and milk, fish, butter, cheese and wild fruits, such as persimmons, plums, grapes, and red and black haws ; pecans and several varieties of acorns.

"These wild fruits were in abundance and the hogs and game would get very fat on them in the fall of the year, but they sometimes failed, and then our pork was short and lean.

"Denton County was very dry in the summers during the early fifties. The grass would grow knee high during the spring months and in June, July and August the intense heat would crack the black land prairies and cross-crack it every few feet, and often you would see cracks that you could put an eight-foot rail its full length down in them. At such times it was dangerous to ride over the prairies on account of the cracks, and prairie fires were considered most dangerous as the flames, fanned by the winds, would lap over and catch the grass forty and fifty yards ahead. I believe the crumbling in of the dirt at these cracks when the rains came made the 'hog wallows.' These are some of my personal experiences and memories of Denton County which I delight to recall. - W. P. Bates."

Early Day Marriage Celebration In Denton

" How a marriage party that escorted "Billy" McCormick and his new bride from her home to his in the early days turned into a party of Indian hunters, "generaled" by Crow Wright - The rescue of a driver lad.

"More than forty years ago a party of boys and girls, who were Gallatin Kirby, Tarleton Bull, now of Oklahoma, George Bull, now of Thurber, George McCormick, Jr., now of Krum, C. A. Williams of Denton, Berry Orr, Jim Daugherty, now of

Black Hawk Ranch, near El Paso; Misses Laura Hembry, now Mrs. John Hudson of Denton, Lizzie Hembry, now Mrs. Lizzie Elms of West Denton, Bettie Lacy, now Mrs. P. C. Withers, and Nannie Lacy (deceased), and Anne McCormick, accompanied by the latter's brother, 'Billy' McCormick, for the past many years Squire William McCormick, who presides in a little Justice of the Peace's office on the third floor of the courthouse here, and his new bride from her home three miles southeast of Bolivar across the country to the home of George McCormick, Sr., father of the groom, the distance about ten miles.

"As automobiles wei'e in those days still many years in the future and buggies an almost unknown luxury, we were all mounted on good saddle horses and rode horseback. The Mc- Cormick home was located near where the Santa Fe railroad now crosses South Hickory Creek, and when we got there a party of us spent the night. The next morning we were awakened by a man named Jackson, who had come over to tell us that a band of Indians was in the valley below his house, which was located a short distance on the opposite side of the creek, and that he had heard them shooting and yelling, and they seemed to be driving horses.

"Just after daybreak the redmen came in sight - two or three hundred of them, with more than four hundred head of horses. So four of us - Billy McCormick, George McCormick, Berry Orr, my brother, and myself followed them. We were joined along the way by others until by noon our band numbered thirty-three. The Indians had kept a northerly direction along the divide between Denton and Clear Creeks, and shortly after noon they crossed a small creek with a little timber here and there. When they had gone a little way they stopped and formed a line of battle. By this time we, too, had crossed the branch. Our leader. Crow Wright, ordered us also to form in line for battle, but on second thought told us to fall back to the creek and fight from there. Before we reached the creek they charged, and some of our men, knowing that a stand would be useless against so many, kept on, while others stopped and opened fire on the Indians.

"When we finally got together a quarter of a mile from the place where we had taken our stand, we found that George Mc- Cormick had lost his horse. He had jumped up behind his brother, Billy, when his own horse was shot, but the horse was not used to carrying double and he threw them both, and got away. They got up behind other men and rode out safely. Berry Orr's horse was slightly wounded, and Bill Eaves had been shot in the hip with an arrow, (but the wound was not serious) and one of our number, a man named Fortenberry, was missing. We went back and found Fortenberry's body on the opposite side of the creek, where he had evidently been killed when the Indians charged. They had stripped him and scalped him. We were not certain that the Indians had lost any of their number, but it was a custom of theirs to never leave a dead body behind.

The Driver Lad'S Rescue

"Some of the men went for a wagon with which to take the dead body of Fortenberry to his home, while about fifteen of us followed on after the Indians, without any definite object in view. We were somthing like a mile behind them along in the afternoon when we caught sight of eight or ten men riding hard from the east. They seemed to be trying to get in ahead of the Indians who were ascending a hill. The white men passed out of sight on the north side of the hill and then emerged, riding hard, in the direction from which they had come, with some of the Indians yelling and shooting, close behind. We could see that one of the horses carried double, and that the white men were making a desperate effort to reach Clear Creek bottom, but we were completely mystified as to what had taken place. The Indians followed the little band of white men about a mile, then turned and joined the others who drove the horses.

"We kept on until we reached the north side of the hill, hoping to learn the cause of the white men's rush, and there we found a wagon with four dead oxen and a load of wheat and corn, emptied out on the ground. We then turned and started back, but we could not catch up with the other party of men. The next day, however, we learned that the small band of men we had seen in the strange up-hill maneuver had been riding to the rescue of the driver of the ox-wagon, who was only a lad, and unaware of the red men's approach, as he was driving up the north side of the hill while the Indians were ascending the south side. The little band of white men, in the valley below on the north side of the hill, had seen the Indians going around, knew of the boy's danger. They got safely away.

"The same day a party of Denton men who had heard the Indians were in the country but who had not been able to catch up with the main band, surprised a lone Indian who had got separated from them and shot him. So the 28th day of October, 1868, came to a close, with an Indian raid and two lives lost - one a white and one red man." - PEYTON Orr.

"In 1846 my father, J. B. Rogers, came to Texas to look out a home for himself and family. He purchased 320 acres of land near New Alton, on Hickory Creek.

The Move To Texas

"He returned to Tennessee with the expectation of moving his family to their new home the following fall - 1847, but the death of his father delayed their coming until 1850. September 1 everything was in I'eadiness for making a start for our new home. He, with his entire family, was on the road ten weeks, landing in Texas in one of the worst blizzards I ever witnessed.

"He bought 320 acres of land on Stewart's Creek, Denton County, near wheie Fiisco now stands, more especially to get the use of two log cabins, already erected on the place, for a place to winter in.

Pioneer Cabins

"These cabins had dirt and stick chimneys, with the chinking all out of the cracks, covered with boards which were held on by weight-poles - no nails then - and a dirt floor - but it was home.

"Doubtless we were prouder of and appreciated more our simple home than many people do now-a-days a fifty-thousanddollar mansion. We first bought eight hundred pounds of pork

"Only eighteen acres of our land were in cultivation, with eight of it already sowed in wheat. In harvest time (necessity was the mother of invention) my father stocked his own cradle and cut and bound it by hand. He cleaned off a spot of ground and circled the wheat with wooden pitchforks and then winded out the chaff. By this time we were all getting hungry for a biscuit (cornbread being the main ration).

Going To Mill Then

"My father had filled a two-bushel sack and sent the oldest child, myself, on horseback fourteen miles on the head of Honey Creek to Squire Hart's one-horse mill. The capacity of his mill was ten bushels per day. While the miller was grinding I was busily engaged bolting the flour by feeding with one hand and turning the bolting chest with the other. By economizing my time I made it back home the same day. Being a growing lad and having gone that distance, I had my best appetite. This was one of the few times my mother violated the long-kept custom of biscuit for Sunday breakfast only, and had hot biscuits for supper.

"Some time later it happened that our neighbor got out of breadstuff the same time we did. and being deprived of the privilege of borrowing, we must do something at once. Again the big big boy of the house, together with negro Al, shouldered a bushel of wheat and walked three and a half miles to a steel mill (something similar to our coffee mills), bolted on an elm tree. The hopper held nearly a peck of wheat. We took turn about turning, and by late dinner time we were on our way home again. The children had gotten so hungry in the meantime mother had cooked some bran biscuits. To a hungry man at two o'clock in the evening a bran biscuit looked very good. As usual, I held my reputation as an eater, but alas! my feeling a few hours later. From that day to this I haven't had the respect for bran biscuits I once had.

The New Home

"In the meantime father bought a new place where I now live - and in the spring of 1851 we began the erection of our new home. A building sixteen feet square with a shed room across back and porch on front. Weatherboarded with four-foot clapboards and roof of two-foot boards. Nails had come in fashion now and my! what an improvement. Studding the rafters, elm poles ; puncheon floors, and beds made of elm poles corded up with rawhide. Many of our mothers' beds had only one leg.

"Doors were made of clapboards and peep-holes for windows. Glass was not known here then. We had stone chimneys, stone quarried at where the upper part of Main Street in Frisco now is. Sure-enough we were in a mansion now.

"We must now make prepartion for breaking some prairie land. We were now able to own a Carey turning plow, a big wooden plow, wooden mouldboard and steel point. When the point got dull we carried it sixteen miles to McKinney, that being the nearest blacksmith, to be sharpened.

"We used four yoke of cattle for breaking. This being a drougthy year, we made very little on our new ground. The ground cracked until you could stick an eight-foot rail the full length in the cracks. It was really dangerous for horses to travel at night on account of the cracks.

Building The Community School House

"About this time we began to feel the need of a school and a place of worship. In 1852 the neighbors met to discuss building such a house. A house 18x20 feet was soon built, getting all the material in Elm bottom. Board walls and roof and split-log benches, with pegs driven in them for legs, and a dirt floor. This building was used for three or four years, with the following teachers: John L. Moore, - . - . Seawright and W. F. Rogers. This building was also used for church purposes, w^th the following preachers : John L. Moore, Joab Biggs, W. H. Hughes, William Bates, and J. B. Tullis as presiding elder. We held protracted services in the summer time with gracious results. These revivals added strength to our church and also the community be-

"This church was organized by Joab Biggs in 1848 with seven members, as follows : Willam Rogers and wife, Peter Teel and wife, Jonathan Clarke and wife and Elizabeth Rogers.

A New Church

"In 1855 the neighbors decided to build a larger house, a building 30x40 feet. Times had changed some now, and sawed lumber was heard of in the distance. J. B. Rogers and Charles Rector proposed to haul the lumber with their ox-teams from the pine mills 125 miles away. Others worked on the building, and so on, so as to use as little money as possible. The framing timbers, however, were hewn out in Elm bottom. This was the task assigned B. L. Rogers. William Rogers was head carpenter. Old man Hyde, on Elm, cut the shingles for the house. Before the house was entirely closed in a cyclone blew it down. This was a pretty hard blow, but these pioneers never knew what it was to give up. After taking the remains to pieces they found a great deal of their framing timber not badly damaged, so in a reasonably short time our building was again in place. The church was dedicated by W. H. Hughes.

"In the year 1857 or 1858 we began having camp-meetings. For years and years we used an arbor, but in later years we built a large shed. We held three district conferences here. Bishop Pierce presided at one, W. C. Young, the next, and Bishop Key in the third. These revivals from year to year were very successful, having from forty to one hundred conversions, and many young preachers were going out to work in the Master's vineyard as a result of these services.

New Flour Mill

"In 1856, after having some trouble in getting foodstuff, J. B. Rogers, George Wear and B. L. Rogers decided to build a mill. The dimensions being 20x24 feet, two-story. It was a tread-mill and the big shed over the tread-wheel was forty feel' square. The material was all hewed out in Elm bottom, taking twelve months to get out the material and build the mill. John Cummings was the millwright. This mill for years and years was the last mill to the west, drawing trade from Denton, Wise, Jack and Parker and Tai-rant counties. The capacity of the mill was seventy-five bushels per day.

"In 1858, J. B. Rogers, Coleman White, William Rogers, and B. L. Rogers bought and started a saw-mill on Elm, but it nevei proved the success we had hoped for.

"We hauled our groceries from Jefferson and Houston for a number of years. A little later the merchants of McKinney be-i gan to keep a full supply of groceries. Dry goods were nearly' all made at home. Most of the early settlers did a great deal ot their own shoe work, but there were three prominent shoemakers in the country, namely : Joshua Zumwalt, Smith James, and Jim Hawkins.

"In 1850, when we first came here, there were two bunches of mustangs near Elm. Buffalo were plentiful just west of Denton. Antelope, deer, wild turkey, bear and panthers were plentiful. Fresh wild meat was plentiful everywhere. When we got out of meat it was an easy matter to kill all we needed. Our Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys were always fat and plentiful. I guess a two-horse wagon wouldn't more than hold the wild turkeys I have killed, first and last.

Bethel Church Ministers

"A list of preachers of Bethel church up to 1870 follows: J. A. Biggs, Andrew Cummings, J. W. Hardin, Harvey Cummings, W. E. Bates, Alexander Hinkle, W. K. Hasten, W. S. Malugen, L. R. Dennis, A. C. McDougall, J. W. Chalk, George S. Gatewood, Henry W. South, John Beverly." - B. L. Rogers, in Denton Record-Chronicle. I et greatest grazing country in the world. The prairies were open and covered with stock, and the grass was sufficient to feed and keep in good order all the stock that ran on it; and there were thousands of horses and cattle. There were at that time a numoer of men in North Texas whose cattle ran up into the thousands.

"Denton County had the honor of having as one of her citizens, a man who, with perhaps one exception, owned more cattle than any other man in the world. His name was John S. Chisum. He came to Denton County from Lamar County in the year 1854 and settled on Clear Creek, three miles above the town of Bolivar, at the place now known as the Waide place. Chisum was there when the writer came to Texas in 1857. Mr. Chisum, as I have been told, before he came to Denton County, was county clerk of Lamar County, being then a young man. Steve Fowler of New Orleans, a rich man, bought three thousand cows, and employed John Chisum to bring them to Denton County and put them on the range and gave Chisum one-half of the increase to look after them, and allowed Chisum to mark and brand his half in his own mark and brand. The other half of the increase were to be each year marked and branded in the partnership mark and brand. This kind of proposition was greater than being county clerk of his county, hence Chisum became a stock raiser in Denton County. Many old-time citizens yet living knew John S. Chisum personally. Many people who never knew him have heard of the Chisum trail. Many people have heard of the Lincoln County war in New Mexico, in which John S. Chisum took a prominent part; the war in New Mexico was started by one of Chisum's cow hands,, known as 'Billy the Kid,' who afterwards became a noted outlaw in New Mexico and was finally killed by United States Marshal Pat Garrett. Any one who ever read the life of 'Billy the Kid' has heard of John Chisum, who is one of the principal characters mentioned in the book.

"John Chisum raised stock in this county for a number of years, and finally moved his stock from this county to the Concho River in the years 1864 and 1865, moving out of this county over 100,000 head of cattle and leaving a remnant of at least

30,000 in Denton and adjoining- counties. He afterwards moved his cattle to New Mexico, where he continued the cattle business until his death. At the time of his death he was a millionaire, and having never been married, his estate went to two of his brothers, Pitser Chisum and James Chisum.

"Other prominent stockmen who held large herds of cattle and horses in those early days were Sam Doss of Cooke County, S. F. Reynolds of Denton County, George Light, Felix McKittrick, George and John Downard, Dumas and Emerson, Tobe Paine, D. D. Clampitt, Perry Harmonson, E. Wantland, the Medlins, Steve Curley, Madison Rawls, Col. W. T. Clark, Jule Gist, R. G. Johnson. E. B. Peter and Christopher Fitzgerald.

"The" next largest cattle raiser was perhaps Sam Ross or Dave Light. Nearly all of the men named were large cattle owners, their cattle numbering up into the thousands of head, but Chisum was considered at the head of the list, as the great cattle king of North Texas.

"Those stockmen had their ranches located at suitable nlaces. and stock pens constructed for marking and brandino-. In the sDring and summer, when the calves be<^an to come in. thev would start out on the ran""e to round up the cows a^d cah^es and drive them in to the stock pens, takinfr about fifteen or twentv hands with them, and round un artd drive everv cow and calf thev came to. and pen from three to four thousand head at a time, cutting out the calves and unbranded stock and runninp^ them into a separate pen from the grown cattle, when the branding commenced. Someone built the fires and kept the branding irons hot, while others who were expert at throwing the rope roped the calves and held them until someone ran in. p-rabbed hold of the animal and threw it down, holding it until someone marked it. The man with the red hot branding iron ran up and put the branding iron to it and the poor animal bawled from the torturinghot iron. This process was kept up all day until every animal was marked and branded.

brand all of Doss', and Doss would brand for Chisum. This was a rule made among all stockmen, to brand each other's cattle and keep an account of the number of calves branded that belonged to the other, when they would then get together and settle up with each other and square accounts. To an observer who knew nothing of the arrangements made between those stockmen, it would look like theft, but it was not. They understood each other, and it was an honest business transaction, made and fully understood by all of them. Of course, there were occasional mistakes made by them. They would get hold of some man's yearling, who was not a stock raiser, and put their mark and brand on it ; in that case all the owner had to do was to go to the stockman whose brand was on it and call his attention to it, and he would either pay for it or tell him to go out and mark and brand one of his in its place. The stockmen as a general rule were an honorable, upright class of men. Once in a while, some thief who did not own any cattle, would mark and brand other people's cattle, and by that means accumulate quite a bunch of cattle, but he was under the ban of all the stock raisers and all good citizens who knew him. Many of the men who attempted to steal themselves rich were caught up with and hanged to a tree limb, but no one ever knew who did it. A few of such characters escaped the rope and got rich by stealing, and when one did so, his money covered all his many sins. He was then recognized as a good citizen, a great financier, and by the rules of society it was wrong to mention the means by which he accumulated his wealth. There were but few of such characters among our great stockmen of an early day. Dan Wagoner, another great stockman heretofore not named, lived in Wise County. Sam Ross in Cooke County, Dave Light in Grayson County. Chisum in Denton County, Downard in Cooke County; McKittrick, Curley, Gist, Paine, Clark, Fitzgerald, Johnson, Peter and the Medlins were all citizens of Denton County.

"Among the horse raisers in the county were George Mc- Cormick, J. M. Waide. W. C. Wright, Robert Wriq-ht, Edward Forrester, Brawley, Old Man Kale, and Old Man Ruth. E. M.

Kelley of Cooke County was also a large horse raiser. McCormick took the lead in the number of horses he had on the range. Crow and Bob Wright had the next largest herd of horses, and Brawley perhaps was next in the number of horses. Then J. M. Waide and Kale and Ruth each had smaller herds. E. M. Kelley of Cooke County had about three hundred head of horses on the range. Numbers of other men in the county had small herds, say from twenty to forty head each. Most of the horses were Spanish stock except Ed Forrester's, who raised the best breed of fine Eastern stock.

"The Spanish horse made the most serviceable horse for cow horses, and was preferred to the larger horse by nearly all stockmen. This horse was better adapted to hard use and was quicker than the large horses to run after cattle. As time rolled on the country became more densely populated, and the introduction into the country of barbed wire caused the prairies to be fenced into farms, which caused the larger herds of cattle to be taken out, and many thousand head were shipped and sold in the Northei-n markets for beef, and the large cattle industry was soon destroyed.

"Texas in the early days was evidently the greatest stock country in the world, but that industry has disappeared and farms have taken the place of stock raising, and the Spanish horse has disappeared. Nearly all of the great stockmen that once lived and i"an the range after theii' cattle are now dead and only live in the memory of those who knew them." - Denton Record-Chronicle.

"In the winter of 1867 the people living in the northwest corner of Denton County and the western portion of Cooke, Wise and Montague adopted a plan to prevent the Indians from stealing our horses by organizing minute companies to go out during the light of the moon into camp at such places as we would be most likely to intercept the Indians on their way into the settlements. This plan was thought ieasible, as we knew the routes the Indians usually came into the settlements, which were, either through Wise or Montague counties. If they came in through Wise, they would come down Denton Creek or Black Creek, and strike the Grand Prairie about where Stony is now located, gather up horses on the range by the light of the moon and then go out before day, either the way they came in, or by way of Spring Station, in Montague County.

Indian Routes

"If they came in through Montague they would come down by way of Victoria Peak, just northwest of where the town of Bowie is now located, and strike the headwaters of Denton Creek and follow that stream through its dense jungles down as far as Greenwood and then come across onto the Grand Prairie on the head of Hickory Creek about the place where Slidell is located and come over into the settlements on Clear Creek, steal horses during the night and go out before day by way of Spring Station. Or if the Indians came across Red River north of the town of Montague, they would strike the headwaters of Clear Creek and follow it down to the settlements in Cooke County and the northwest corner of Denton County and depredate on the settlers during the early part of the night and then go out with their stolen property. The time most likely for them to come in was about the time the moon stood perpendicular overhead at dark; the first part of the night in moonlight, the after part in darkness.

Company Organized

"During the month of February, 1867, our immediate neighborhood organized a company of citizens of about twenty men, among whom I now remember were A. J. Nance, Felix Grundy, Joel Holder, J. L. Marcus, Louis Finley, J. M. Waide, Sr., Thomas Knight, Andrew Grundy, William Grundy, Wit Cannon, I. D. Ferguson, and a number of others whose names I can not remember. A. J. Nance was selected as our captain. We selected our camp on Clear Creek at what was then known as the Masoner place about twenty miles north of Bolivar. The Masoner house was empty, the occupants having fled from the Indians. There was only one other house in that section of the country occupied by the owner. It was about one-half mile south of our camp and was the residence of John Carter. His bai-ns and cribs were full of corn and feedstuff for our horses and he gave us permission to use all we needed free of charge. We took possession of the old Masoner house for shelter from the storms. Tom Palmer was the captain of another company composed of the settlers living in the southwest corner of Cooke County and the southeast corner of Montague County and was stationed about six miles west of us on the breaks of Bingham Creek, a tributary of Clear Creek, that has its headwaters in Montague county. Palmer's camp was about four miles south of Jim Ned mountain, a high peak standing about one hundred feet above the level of the surrounding country in the upper cross timbers seven miles southeast of the town of Montague. The country where Palmer was camped was densely wooded and the bottom land of Bingham Creek was an almost impenetrable thicket of red haw and green briars.

"The country where we were camped is broken and hilly, with high, precipitous hills enclosing the valley of Clear Creek. The whole face of the country made a wild, picturesque looking scene, a country where th^ Indians could steal into the settlements most anywhere without being seen.

"To the east of our camp several miles, George Downard was the captain of another company of citizens camped on the waters of Pond Creek, in Cooke County, to catch the Indians if they should come down or go out up Big Elm in the direction of Gainesville. On the Wise County trail where the Indians came in and went out. Captain Ed Blye, in Wise, had a company of citizens of Wise and Denton counties to catch the Indians if they came in or went out through Wise County. With this cordon of pickets stretched across the country, it looked like it was impossible for the Indians to come in or go out without being caught in the net somewhere along the line. We established a system of patrols between the different stations which consisted of about four or five men, who left camp each morning to meet a like number of men from the other company at a designated point on the halfground between the two stations, for the purposes of ascertain-

Spared By Companions

"About the third day after going into camp at the Masoner house a severe snowstorm set in, covering the ground white with snow, making camp-hf e very uncomfortable. In a few days the snow had disappeared, but the weather was still cold and disagreeable. One morning our camp was thrown into a panic of excitement by a report that a company of United States troops was approaching for the purpose of arresting us. The Federal commander of this department of Texas had issued a proclamation to take into custody all persons found congregated together with arms in their hands, as rebels against the government. On this morning, A. J. Nance, J. L. Marcus, J. M. Waide and W. N. Cannon had gone out on the usual patrol toward the camp of George Downard. Instead of meeting the usual patrol from Downard's company, the whole company had come out with a view of paying us a visit at Camp Masoner. They were all supplied with Federal blue overcoats, and they conceived the plan of giving us a scare, and sent A. J. Nance and J. M. Waide ahead to notify us that the Federals were coming to arrest us. We saw Nance and Waide coming in a run and we thought that they had discovered an Indian trail as we did not see Cannon and Marcus with them, we supposed that they had remained with Downard's scouts. They dashed up to camp and said, 'Get your guns and horses quick, boys; the Yankees are coming to arrest us.' We did not believe it, and told them so, but they said it was true, and that they had captured Bud Cannon and J. L. Marcus, but that they had escaped, and come to notify us of our danger. In not longer than a minute we saw Downard's whole company coming around the point of the mountain in double file in a lope with their blue overcoats buttoned around them, about six hundred yards from us. We were then satisfied that they were Yankees, and such a stampede as occurred in our little camp is difficult to describe. Men rushed for their guns and some of them cut loose their horses and jumped on them without saddles and attempted to get away. The greater portion of us saw we could not escape and ran into the house to make a fight. When they got close to us Mr. Marcus commenced to halloa and laugh, and we discovered the joke and began to subside to our normal condition. The boys that had tried to run off soon came sneaking back to camp, jeered by the outburst of roaring laughter from the crowd. One man, Joel Holder, got mad and wanted to tight, but he soon cooled otf, and subsided to his normal condition. Downard's company took dinner with us and then returned to their camp.

Find And Lose Indian Trail

"Just about two days following this affair, early in the morning, a runner from Tom Palmer's camp brought the news to us that the Indians had slipped past his camp during the night going into the settlements, that they had passed in two hundred yards of his camp in the night and had tried to steal their horses and were fired on by the guard. We sent word to Downard's men to look out for them and head them off as they were going in the direction of Blocker Station. Our company saddled up and went under whip and spur to Palmer's camp. The trail of the Indians was easily followed when the two companies united. Tom Knight and the writer were selected as trailers. We had to go ahead of the company about two or three hundred yards, so that if we should lose the trail, we could find it again without stopping the pusuit. The trail of the Indians when it struck Bingham Creek turned down through the dense jungles and low thickets, where it was so difficult to travel that the Indians had made a narrow trail and had in several places cut away the brush to get through. The trail was fresh. We found an Indian quirt dropped on the trail and we stopped to let the crowd catch up with us, as it looked dangerous to us to push too far in advance of our men, in this dense jungle where an ambuscade might be set for us. When the company caught up with us a line of skirmishers was dismounted and pushed through the brush on either side of the trail for a considerable distance until we reached more open ground. The Indians had followed the bottom for about a mile but had made no stop, and passed out onto the prairie be- tween Clear Creek and Blocker Creek. We here took up the trail again in a lope. They had reached Blocker Station, a small settlement just before day and had stolen a lot of horses. The trail had gone out on the prairie east of Blocker Station for about a mile and then it disappeared so that it could not be followed. They had evidently scattered to keep from being caught. We made a junction here with Downard's company. We then had about one hundred men in the pursuit but with all our efforts we never could find the trail any more. They had scattered and come together again several miles away, and passed out of the country through Wise County.

Blye Company Has Fight

"A runner had been sent from Palmer's company to Captain Ed. Blye in Wise County to look out for them. The Indians had come together somewhere on Denton or Brack Creeks and on the way out Captain Blye's men had an encounter with them somewhere northwest of Decatur, and Bob Wright of our county who was with Blye's men charged in among the Indians and got his horse's leg broken by a gun shot from them and would have resulted in Mr. Wright being surrounded and killed, but for the timely aid of some of the other men who ran in and brought him out on another horse. The full particulars of this Indian fight the writer never learned. Some of the men who were with Blye must be still living and could give all the particulars.

"It has been long ago since all these things occurred, it was a time when men living on the Texas frontiers had to be called into requisition to defend their homes and fireplaces, and to protect their property from the predatory raids of a savage foe. For us it was a duty and a necessity. We had come from the eastern states to the great west to find homes, and had found them. We were here to stay and wait for others to come to us, and help us in our struggle to make Texas what it is today, and what it will be in the future." - Denton Record-Chronicle.

The Silent City And The Sleepers There

of old soldiers who lie buried in Denton's Silent City - the City Cemetery - a number of those who attended the services in the old graveyard and noticed the unkempt, neglected condition of the grounds, raised a protest which grew until it reached the ears of the City Commission and Mayor Foreman. The people protested because it has recently been brought to light that the graveyard was originally deeded to the town of Denton on the agreement that the town should keep it in condition, and take proper care of it. Hiram Cisco, who made other gifts of lands to the town of Denton, also deeded the cemetery plot to it, making the verbal agreement with the city council concerning its care. The deeds were burned up when the old courthouse burned, but old settlers, among whom who knew about the terms upon which the gift was made are C. A. Williams, Mrs. John Allen Withers, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Clay Withers, and Judge I. D. Ferguson. Others were familiar with the terms and anxious that they should now be adhered to.

"At the time of the Confederate memorial services the condition of the grounds was very much regretted by those who went to honor with flowers the sunken graves of men who gave their best services to their country for four long years, and that Sunday a number of old settlers talked the matter over and recalled the old terms of the gift, few of them however, remembered which of three or four men it was who had made it. The graves were in a deplorable condition, many of them so overgrown with weeds that some of these had to be removed before the flowers could be put on.

"Other graves were in the same condition; graves of early settlers who had much to do with the metamorphosis of the wild country within the boundary line of Denton and Big Elm Creeks, into the little townsite of Denton and its surrounding towns and communities. Many of these lie buried here; men of the muscular and mental strength demanded in those pioneering days, when the 'protector of the home' found that protection no such easy task as it is today, with settlers miles apart, and visits from the Indians to the little huddled communities a danger to be put up with by only the strongest hearted. Others, too - men who formed the first courts of Denton county, and men who had struggled along with the common portion of the community preacher ; men who helped reclaim the county for a fertile, peaceable unit of the South during the days of Reconstruction, when Denton had no very small share of the troubles and indignities of that period.

"Many of them lie out in the Silent City - where only within the past few weeks any effective work has been done by the city. It is being done now, however, the City Commission having set apart $100 for the care of the cemetery for the next two months, and Mayor Foreman having assigned the money to the best use. The care just now is consisting in a general and thorough cleanup, under the direction of Mr. Foreman, and the walks are all to be laid out nicely and weeds and grass done away with, and the graves cleaned off. After this is done it is supposed a janitor will be appointed by the city to take active care of the cemetery by the month, and keep it in decent condition.

"The natural beauty of the grounds is great; it is a grove of large post oak trees, where the sun finds the rose trees that were planted many years ago, and the tangles of the wild flowers and tame flowers in great profusion at the first break of day, and sends its last smile over the western prairie down into the lonesome little city -

"For here the souls at rest must have the longest hours of day The stillest, darkest hours of night; the dawns all rose and gray, And shadows, deep and soft and cool, and peaceful, quiet hours, To slumber in their last long sleep out there beneath the flowers."

"There is a thought - it can hardly be called more than that yet - 'on foot' to appeal to the Commissioners to have the name of the -cemetery changed, as the name 'City Cemetery' is not pleasing to most people. The history of the old grounds and the incidents connected with the lives of some of the people who are buried out there has been written, and is given below :

AMoNc thp: first who came "The world is forgetful of the services of the men and women who came here in an early day and cut away the brush and laid out the street and erected the first houses that made Denton a town. The first business men in Denton when it became a town have long since passed. away and their remains are deposited in the city cemetery, a burial place for the dead of the town of Denton, located many years ago south of east of the public square of Denton on Pecan Creek, a beautiful grove of postoak trees. Among them are Jud{^:e J. M. Blount and his wife, J. M. McNiel, W. J. McNiel, Alex Brown,, J. M. Mcllhaney, C. C. Scruggs, Henderson Murphy and his wife, L. L. Fry, Dr. G. W. Hughes, Jefferson D. Blount, Stephen Hyett, Dr. Robert Mcllhaney, Colonel Lacy and his wife, E. D. Barb, Col. T. G. C. Davis, W. P. Withers, John Allen Withei's, and several of Mr. Withers' children.

"Judge J. M. Blount was one of the first business men of Denton. He came from Mississippi in an early day and settled in the town of Denton in 1857, and was elected county judge of Denton County. He was also elected State Senator to the Texas Legislature, and served his county in the Legislature until he was removed by the Federal government during the days of reconstrution, at the same time Governor Throckmorton was removed. Judge Blount was afterwards elected Justice of the Peace for precinct No. 1, and held that office for several years; was also engaged in the sale of goods in Denton for several years, and did as much to build up the town as any man that ever lived in the city. Judge Blount was recognized by all who knew him as one of Denton County's best citizens.

"J. M. McNiel, who lies buried in the city cemetery, was, in his life time, one of our best citizens; was at one time county clerk of Denton County and made Denton County the best clerk we ever had in the office. He was also one of Denton's best business men and was engaged in the mercantile business in Denton at the time of his death. Everybody who knew Mr. McNiel loved and respected him. He was a devout member of the Methodist church and was known all over Denton County as an excellent

Christian gentleman. At the time of his death he was in excellent health to all appearances^ but on Friday before his death on Saturday night, he seemed to have a premonition of his approaching dissolution. He had his son to get his horse and go over to Lloyd and get the Rev. W. E. Bates to come to Denton and preach for him on Sunday. Mr. McNiel said he 'wanted to hear Brother Bates preach one more time before he died.' Rev. Mr. Bates complied with Mr. McNiel's request and came to Denton on Saturday and stayed at Mr. McNiel's store until night and then went home with McNiel to stay all night, intending to preach at the Methodist church at 11 o'clock on Sunday. After going home from the store, McNiel and Bates after supper went out on the porch with their chairs and talked until about nine o'clock, and then retirod, McNiel showing Bates his room and retiring to his own room. He had not been out of Bates' room over five minutes when Mrs. McNiel ran into the room where Mr. Bates was and told him to 'come quick, as Mr. McNiel, she believed, was dying.' He ran in where Mr. McNiel was sitting on the edge of the bed, struggling for breath. Mr. McNiel reached his hand to the preacher and said, Treacher, goodbye ; I am goin.' He fell back on his pillow, dead. It was a great shock to the town when the. news went out that McNiel was dead. The next day, on Sunday, at eleven o'clock. Rev. Mr. Bates preached for Mr. McNiel, but it was his tuneral sermon. A great crowd of people collected at the Methodist church and heard the sermon. It was the greatest sermon I ever heard in Denton. A large funeral procession of sorrowing friends followed his remains to the city cemetery where they rest beneath the tangled growth of weeds and grass. But the soul of this good man who did his part in building the tov/n has passed on to reap its reward for the good he did to his fellowman v^^hile in the body.

"D\\ G. W. Hughes, another of Denton's early settlers, lies sleeping beneath the sod of the city cemetery. He, too, like Judge Blount, helped to build up Denton and make it a town. Doctor Hughes was a valuable, good citizen, a good physician and at one time engaged in the mercantile business in Denton.

Where he came from I never learned ; he was in Denton when I fiisl knew him, in 1872 and 1873. He was an alderman for the city, at which time the city council was composed of the following men : I. D. Ferguson, Mayor ; T. W. Daugherty, G. W. Hughes, Henderson Murphy, W. H. Mounts, aldermen; W. S. Fry, city marshal, and Emory C. Smith, city attorney. All of the aldermen a'-e dead and two of them lie in the city cemetery. W. H. Mounts was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery and T. W. Daugherty at Abilene, in Taylor County.

"W. J. McNiel, a brother of J. M. McNiel, who also lies in the city cemetery, was at one time county clerk of Denton County and for several years tax collector of the county. His remains lie by the side of his brother, with several others of the McNiel family.

"Col. C. C. Lacy, one of the first builders of Denton, who was a district surveyor, who helped survey out the town of Denton, the father of the late W. J. Lacy and of Mrs. P. C. Withers, lies sleeping in the city cemetery beside his wife, who ran the Lacy House, where the May Building now stands.

"It is impossible to call to mind all of the many once prominent people who sleep in this cemetery. The ground for this graveyard was donated by Hiram Cisco when the town was first started, and the first person to be buried in the city cemetery was a Mrs. Wilson, whose grave is marked with two large stones running the full length of the grave in the shape of the roof of a house, and can be located by any person visiting that lonely place. Another partial list of names of men and women who were the citizens of Denton who lived and died in the early days after having helped carry on the business of the town and county and build up the town as best they could, turning it over to the present generation for us to take hold of and carry on the work which they began and make it better than they could with the means they had at hand, is as follows :

"All of the Bains family lie buried there; Mrs. Nemo, Mrs. Herndon, the mother of Col. W. S. Herndon of Tyler, Texas ; J. C. Carter and wife, Old Man Sams, John Price, Mrs. Coleman, Wil- liam Street, Walker, Robert Mayes, William Mayes, Mrs. Lucy Evans, Dave Teague and wife, Mr. Cobb, the father of Richard Cobb, Miss Bettie Cobb, Wilson Dunbar and his daughter, Mrs. Peter 0. Riley, Paul Fay, Mrs. E. C. Smith, wife of the Rev. J. C. Smith, Frank Hunter, John M. Patrick, who was killed at Denton, and D. Clardy and wife.

"Henderson Murphy, whose name appears above, ran the first hotel in Denton, situated on the lot where the Finer block stands. It was a log house when Murphy ran it. He was a man in good financial circumstances, owning large cattle interests in the county as well as real estate, at one time owning all of the property lying just north of the public square, including the county jail property. Mr. Murphy raised a large family of children and was the father of the first white child born in the town of Denton - John Murphy, now dead.

"Why have we forgotten these people? If the ghosts of all these dead should come back to us and ask us that question, what answer would we give them ? We would want to do as King Saul did when confronted with the ghost of the prophet Samuel - fall down on our faces and weep. Fifty years from now all of t}ie business men of mature years will be sleeping with the dead, and other people will have taken our places and be running the city and all its business. Would we like for the people who succeed us to forget us, and allow our graves to sink down into pits and grow up with weeds and brush ? If not, then we should do for the past generation what we hope the next generation will do for us."

Richard And John Christal

"In the month of February, 1870, there was no such a place in Denton or Wise counties as the town of Slidell. The town has come into existence subsequent to that date. It is situated on the head waters of Hickory Creek on the line of Wise and Denton counties. At the time mentioned, that particular section of the country was generally known and referred to as the Hackberry

Crove, on account of the existence of a grove of hackberry trees on the prairie just below the present town of Slidell. About three miles east of the hackberry grove was a large frame building known as the Keep place, and one mile east of the Keep place was the Foster place. With the exception of the two houses mentioned, not a house or fence could be seen on the Grand Praii'ie. It was an open grazing ground for horses and cattle, and a man could ride all day on the grand prairie without seeing a house or fence.

"The principal settlements that then existed were along Clear Creek in Denton County, and Denton Creek, Black Creek and Hart's Creek, in Wise County. The range was good, and numerous herds of horses and cattle grazed upon the prairie unattended by their owners. The Indians still depredated along the frontiers and pillaged the country for horses. In February, 1870, a company of rangers, twelve in number, young men from Guadalupe County, made their appearance in Montague County, They were armed with Winchester rifles, the first improved firearms ever brought to North Texas.

"Just at the time this little company made their appearance in Montague County, a band of about fifty Indians passed do\\Ti through Montague County in the night, heading in the direction of the grand prairie after horses. They had stolen some horses on their way down in Montague County, which apprized the citizens of their presence in the country. The little company of rangers was notified, and John Harwell, a citizen of the county, and a brave scout and good trailer, volunteered to go with the rangers and trail for them. (At the time the writer was living about four miles east of Hackberry Grove, at a place known as Keep's Mill, on the breaks of Clear Creek.)

"The rangers followed the trail of the Indians until they reached the head of Hickory Creek at a point west of the hackberry grove where the town of Slidell is now located. To more particularly locate the place, it was at the place where the Slidell schoolhouse now stands. Here at this place they came onto the Indians; twenty-five in number; they had killed a beef and were dismounted and down in the ravine eating from the beef they had killed. The rangers did not think they were strong enough to fight them; and sent Mr. Harwell over to Keep's Mill to get reinforcements, promising that they would hold the Indians at bay until reinforcements could be had. Harwell came to our place about three o'clock in the evening and notified the citizens that the State rangers had a band of Indians at bay just above the hackberry grove, and wanted all the help they could get, and as soon as possible a runner was sent down the creek for help, and I got on my horse and returned with John Harwell to the rangers.

"When we came in sight of the rangers and Indians, we were about a mile from them. We were in a fast lope, and when we got within about five or six hundred yards of them, the Indians began to move out from the ravine south up the prairie slope. The rangers mounted their horses and followed them. As we neared them, them, they disappeared over the brow of the prairie hill. Just as we crossed the branch where the Indians had killed the beef, and started up the slope after them, we heard the reports of the guns in rapid succession, and saw the white smoke rise up in the air just over the brow of the ridge, and heard the yelling of the Indians. In less than a minute the rangers came in sight, retreating from the Indians, who were coming directly toward us, v/ith twenty-five mounted warriors and twenty-five or thirty on foot in close pursuit. Before the rangers could get to us they were surrounded by the Indians. The boys dismounted from their horses and commenced firing with their Winchesters. The Indians were so close to them that in the shooting some of the Indians were burned with the powder from the rangers guns. At the first heavy volley fired from the Winchesters the Indians ran back away from the rangers to the top of the ridge, leaving four dead Indians on the ground not ten steps from where the rangers were standing. One ranger had been shot in the hip with a pistol; this was all the injury sustained by the rangers.

meet them. One Indian on a gray horse, seemed to run over, or through the boys, coming directly toward us at top speed; we opened fire on him, and his horse ran to pass us on our right, within twenty steps of us. Just as he got even with us, he dropped over on the side of the horses as if to screen himself from our shots. His saddle turned with him under the horse's belly, and the animal commenced kicking the Indian with both hind feet, and kicked him loose, saddle and all, and ran away. We fired several shots at the Indian, and seeing that he was dead we went up the hill to the other boys, where they were still standing, shooting at tlie Indians on the hill. The Indians stood back to get out of range of the guns and made no further effort to attack us. The young man who had been shot was suffering for water, and was as pale as a corpse. We fell back down the hill to the branch where we could get some water for him, and passed the Indian that we thought we had killed. We examined him to settle a dispute between us and a German boy, one of the rangers, who claimed that he had killed the Indian on the gray horse. He said the Indian tried to ride over him, and he threw his Winchester up and jabbed the Indian in the face with the muzzle of his gun and fired, shooting him under the left eye ; that he knew he shot him through the head, and he could not have been alive when he reached us. When we examined the Indian, we found him powder burned under the left eye and a bullet hole in his face, passing up through his brain and coming out at the top of the head. This settled the dispute ; the German boy had killed that Indian. The Indian was dead when Harwell and myself commenced shooting at him; we found him tied to his saddle, and that accounted for his staying on his horse so long. This was the fifth Indian killed inside of two minutes after the boys dismounted. It terrified them and kept them at a safe distance from us. We stayed there and held them at bay until sun-down, waiting for reinforcements to come, but none came and we then left the battlefield, taking the wounded boy to the Keep House, which was occupied by Doctor Jay.

that Doctor Jay himself was not at home, and had to send five miles to the little town of Bolivar to get a doctor. D. H. Waide and myself made the trip and brought Dr. W. C. Bobbitt to see the young man, whose name was Billy Sorrells. I never learned the names of the other boys who were in the fight, as they were strangers in the country. Large reinforcements came in during the night to the Keep house, and by daylight were at least one hundred men ready to follow the savages. When we reached the battle ground next morning, we found that the Inidans had come and taken away their dead, but had left the settlements without taking out any stock, showing that they were badly demoralized. There was at the time of the fight a herd of Crow Wright's horses at the hackberry grove not over half a mile away, but they did not try to take them.

"After following the trail about a mile the other side of where Slidell now is, we found the Indian that the German boy had killed, where they had left him and spread a buffalo robe over his body. About thre«? miles further the other four Indians were found a few days after where they had left them in a deep ravine. We followed the trail of the Iiidians through Wise County until they had reached the head waters of Big Sandy, which point we learned they had reached just before daylight the night before. Seeing that we could never overtake them, we turned back for our homes.

"Whatever became of this little band of Southern Texas boys that made this gallant fight I never learned ; but we learned that the Winchester rifle was the gun that we all needed on the frontier at that time.

"Many people now living at Slidell do not know that a battle with the Indians was fought where the town is located. Had the settlers in North Texas been armed with Winchesters instead of shotguns the Indians could not have succeeded so well, and would have been defeated in nearly every engagement.

"In 1862, Silas Christal, one of the most esteemed and substantial of the citizens of Denton County, resided on Denton Creek about twelve miles west of the town of Denton and operat- ed a mill, to which many of the early settlers carried their grain to be ground for bread. Mr. Christal raised a large family, and among the oldest of the boys were Isom, John, Richard and James Christal. At the time of the incident here to be related, all four of them were grown men ; Isom, John, and Richard were married and had families. The Christal family, by reason of the mill, was well known to a large portion of the population of Denton County.

"Tlie young men of this family had inherited from their parents all of the qualities that go to make up the very best type of manhood and citizenship of our country ; they were brave and courageous and knew no fear in times of danger. It was the custom at that time among the settlers living on the frontier for several of the men in a neighborhood to get together in the fall of tlie year and take wagon and team, guns, ammunition and all necessary camp equipage and saddle horses to go west into the bufialo range on a camp hunt and spend two or three weeks killing buffalo and deer to supply their families with meat for the winter. In the fall of 1862, the Christal boys, John, Richard, Isom, and James, made their arrangements for a trip of the kind described.

"The four brothers had no thought of danger in making the trip, as hunters before that time had never seen any Indians, or been molested by them on their trips. The four Christal boys, with their wagon and team and all camp equipage, started out on their journey to the west for about three weeks' camp hunt. The country at that time west of the upper cross-timbers was a wilderness, uninhabited except by a populous multitude of wild game, such as deer and antelope and thousands of buffalo that grazed upon the Texas plains from Red River to the Rio Grande. It was a vast happy hunting ground, not only for the early settlers living on the frontier, but for all the wild tribes of Indians that infested the Texas frontier.

"The Christal boys, in order to place themselves in the buffalo range where the game had not been disturbed by other hunters, did not stop until they reached the big Wichita River, not far from where the town of Wichita Falls is now located. Here they selected a suitable camping place on the bank of Holiday's Creek, which runs into the Wichita River. The buffalo at this place were numerous, hundreds could be seen grazing unmolested, like herds of sheep, as far as the eye could see across the plains. It was late in the evening when they went into camp; the sun was just going down in the west, looking like a great ball of fire. The boys unhitched the horses from the wagon and staked them out on the grass, started a fire and commenced to cook their supper, when they saw a herd of buffalo coming down the prairie slope toward the stream about a half mile above their camp, John and Richard took their guns and told Isom and James to go ahead and cook supper and they would slip along up the edge of the timber that fringed the bank of the stream and try to get a shot at them. They had not been gone long before the boys at camp heard a gun fire in the direction in which the boys had gone to intercept the buffalo ; and in a short time a second report of a gun was heard. By this time the sun had disappeared and twilight had set in, and it soon became dark. The boys at camp had completed their supper and waited for the others to return. After waiting until eight or nine o'clock and the hunters still did not show up, they concluded that they must have got lost, being in a strange country, and failed to find their way to the camp, so they gave several loud yells to attract their brothers' attention to the camp. No response came except weird howling of the wolves from every hillside, as if to mock at the failing efforts to attract the attention of the lost.

"Hour after hour of the dark night wore away like centuries to James and Isom Christal, waiting in great anxiety for the return of their brothers. They fired signal guns for them during the night, which had only the effect to rouse the wolves into their weird chatters, and make the night more gloomy, wild, and lonesome. When daylight at last came they saddled their horses and went in the direction their brothers had gone after the buffalo. In the search they found where the hunters had killed a buffalo and had partly skinned it, and where one of the boys had gone to the creek bank, as to get a drink of water, the trail affirmed by a pocket handkerchief that he had lost on the way through the brush to the creek, but no other sign of John and Richard could they find.

"After searching the country for four days for their missing brothers, and failing to find them, they returned home to carry the sad news to their families and to get more help from the settlements to make further search. In hunting for them about a quarter of a mile above where they had shot the buffalo they found some moccasin tracks in the sand along the bank of the stream, which might have indicated that they had been captured by the Indians and probably taken off and put to torture and death ; where, no one will ever know.

An Unsolved Mystery

"When they returned home for help, the news of the loss of John and Richard Christal spread over the country creating great excitement, and a company of about fifty men, well-armed, went with James and Isom Christal back to the Wichita River and searched the country far and wide, but it was a fruitless search. They could not be found. The dark curtain of mystery still hangs over their fate; fifty-two years have come and gone and the question has never been answered; 'what became of John and Richard Christal?' The Indians killed them it is almost certain, but where? No man knows. J. R. Christal, vice-president of the Exchange National Bank of Denton, is a son of Richard Christal, and several of the Christal family are yet alive. Mrs. J. W. Cook of Denton, is a sister of the two lost men, and Granville Christal, Sr., of Decatur, is a brother, and Rowlad Christal of Caldwell County, is a brother. The two brothers who were with John and Richard at the time have both since passed beyond the River of Time, and have met their two lost brothers in a brighter and a better land and have solved, no doubt, the great mystery, which those yet living have never solved.

"It was my good fortune to serve in the same company and regiment with four of the Christals, Isom, James, Rowland, and Granville, during the War, and better, braver soldiers were never jailed to arms in the defense of their homes and country; they ivere not only good soldiers, but good citizens. The above is A^ritten from my memory of the incident in Denton County his- :ory as it occurred at the time, and from what was told me by Fames and Isom, who went with John and Richard on the fatal trip to the waters of the Wichita."- - Denton Record-Chronicle.

Cedar Creek

"As my wife and I are entitled to some of the glory of the jarly days, I will give you a short sketch of our lives. I, J. M. kVaide, was born in Rusk County, Texas, January 31, 1851, and noved to Denton County in the fall of the year 1861. I have ived in the county fifty-five years, and stayed on Clear Creek luring all of the Indian raids.

"I was out on the divide between Clear Creek and Hickory >eek about sun-up the morning they made the big raid in 1868. ; ran the whole bunch of Indians four miles, but I worked in the ead until I got into Clear Creek bottom. .

*Tn the fall of 1872 I left Denton one evening for home. Nhen I got on the divide between Milam and Moore's branch, iight Indians got after me. I had a roll of forty-eight yards of iomestic tied behind my saddle, and after the Indians had run ne about a mile, the domestic came untied. I happed to be siting on one end of the roll, and the rest of it was sailing out belind me in the air. When I looked back it looked like a streak )f white a mile long. The Indians quit the chase. I guess they ;hought I was going to explode.

"I have been in two or thi-ee shooting scrapes with white nen, but I can tell you that a bunch of Indians can scare a man vorse than a buffalo lifting his coat tail at every jump. I know, 'or I have been there. I put in three years guarding the frontier luring the light moons.

"I was married to Lucy Fortenberry in 1870. Her father vas killed and scalped by the Indians in 1868, and was the last vhite man killed in Denton County by the Indians. Lucy Forten- )erry was born in Denton County in July, 1855, and is now past lixty years old and lives within half a mile of the place where

"The morning that my father was killed the Indians had just passed our house. Father counted eighteen shots. He climbed on top of the house and came down and said to mother, 'Jane, I must go.' He picked up a squiirel rifle and got on a young horse that belonged to L. S. Forester and started. He went about a hundred yards from the house and came back for something. I said, 'Father, you never will come back.' He said, 'You don't know child.' It wasn't long until v\e heard he was killed. In a short while we could see an old rickety wagon coming with poor father's corpse lying in the bottom of the wagon bed. lie was taken out and laid out in the east room for us to take our last look at that good face. There he was, scalped and blistered by fire, with his blood running across the room. I thought I never could get over it.

"IVIi's. Jane Howard was born December 3, 1830, and moved to Denton County in 1854. She is now in her eighty-fifth year. She remembers the Indian raid which took place the first Sunday in January, 1868. The savages came down Clear Creek, killed a Mr. Long, burned the dwelling of a ]\Ir. Wilson, abducted a young lady, passed by Fort Blocker, killed Joseph Menasco, captured his daughter, Mrs. Shegog, killed her infant and captured two of her nieces and a little negro boy. Several white men among the settlers, Messrs. Cogburn, Williams, and Jones, charged on the Indians and in the encounter the young woman's horse ran away with her, and in this way she made her escape.