Eastland County, Texas - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read), 1904

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read)

In 1858 the Counties of Denton, Parker, Palo Pinto, Eastland, Brown, Lampasas, Burnet, Gillespie, Kendall, Bexar and San Patricio marked the frontier line in

1'exas which, for twent}' years, made little advance. The Comanche Indians and their allies, the Kiowas, held undisputed sway over the remaining two-thirds of the State, with here and there a lone settlement of some venturesome pioneer. Between this frontier line and the Indians rode the dauntless and intrepid Texas Eanger, laboring day and night for the defense of the white citizens.

In 1865 the United States Government, having decided to pursue the policy of placing the Indians on reservations, established the Comanches - "the Arabs of the New World, whose hand was against every man, and every man's hand against them" - on a reservation on the Clear Fork of tlie Brazos River, about five miles from where Fort Griffin was located later. Forty miles below this reservation, and ten miles southeast of where Graham City now stands, and about the same distance below the junction of' the Clear Fork with the parent stream, was a second reservation, called the "Tonk Eeservation," containing, besides the Tonkaways, remnants of the Caddo and other tribes. The two reservations were connected, the former with Camp Cooper, and the latter with Fort Belknap.

The Comanches and Kiowas were always political allies and hated enemiies of the "Tonks" and Caddos. When this is remembered, tog-ether with the fact that the Tonkaways were mild, and in the main, friendly, it is not surprising that reinforcemients were frequently drawn from this reservation for raids against the treacherous, thieving, murderous Com'anches.

Fi\o hundred of the latter were fed at the upper reservation by the Government, and given horses and cattle, but it is estimated that tvi^o thousand were roaming the Western prairies as wild and untamed as the eagle in the clef ted rock of the highest peak.

The Comanches chafed under restraint and longed for the freedom of the plains - perhaps for the freedom of the scalping knife. In 1856 a few daring ones stole slyly out and made raids on the white settlements. In the early spring of 1857 the raids were renewed with sudden vigor, and were continued throughout the year.

An expedition, commanded by Colonel Eip Ford, was '='pnt out by the State in April, 1858, against a band of hostile Indians located on the Canadian River. One hundred friendly Indians from the lower reservation, under the Tonkaway chief, Placido, joined the expedition, which was under the command of Captain L. S. Eoss. The Indian scouts having located the enemy, the Comanches were attacked at daybreak May 12, 1858, the allies leading in the charge.

The Comanche chief, Prohebits Quasho, called "Iron Jacket," from the scaled coat of mail he wore, believing, it is said, that his arm'or bore a charm, rode in front, inciting his followers to deeds of bravery by his own cool daring. The bullets fell around him; i still he rode unhurt. At last an Anadarko chieftain among the allies, sent a well-directed rifle bullet which pierced the charmed armor, and Iron Jacket fell to rise no more. The Comanches fled in wild confusion, and several prisoners were captured, among them, No-po, the small son

Some months later, October 1, 1858, the same force again surprised the Comanehes at their homes just at sunrise. Lieutenant Van Camp and several soldiers were killed. The loss of the Indians was heavy. In this battle a Caddo ally recaptured s little white girl whose identity has not been determined.

N'otwithstanding the fact that the Indians had agreed that anyone found off the reservations would be shot, the year 1858 had barely ended when they were in Erath County stealing horses. From the years 1855- 1859 - the time when the government was attempting to herd the Indians, feed them,, and keep peace with them - there was continued and serious trouble between them and the white citizens, for the former would steal horses and scalp the whites nearly every light of the moon, and the latter would seek to repel and puni=h the invasions.

At last, however, matters reached a climax, and the Indians were remloved by the Federal Government across the Bed Eiver into the Territory, whej-e they have since remained. The Comanehes were not slow to see and act upon the existing fact that they had greater freedom, and depredations continued, becoming more frequent.

It was the custom in these turbulent times for neighbors to work together in clearing land, plowing and planting, the womep mi childrcp being placed in th^ nearest house,

Early in the year of 1860, (February 7th), close to tlie eastern boundary line of the County, Jim Stewart, with Mack Allen and Bethel Strawn, was clearing off underbrush about a quarter of a mile from his home. Xear by were Sam and William Allen and William Lewder.

In Mr. Stewart's little one-room cabin, with its lean-to, were his wife and Masses Emmaline and Martha Allen, the latter being a sister of William^ Allen.

While the two girls carded, Mrs. Stewart presided at the spinning wheel, all discussing, the meanwhile, the colors they would use in their new dresses.

"Don't," cautioned Miss Emjualine, afterwards Mrs. Bethel Strawn, who is still living. "Don't ! Wait until they try to get in !" This wise counsel prevailed.

The Indians kept up a hideous yelling all the while, presumably to frighten the inmates of the cabin, but, instead, it proved their salvation, for the men over across the ravine, heard the terrible noise and, recognizing it at once, feared the worst, and rushed with breathless speed to the rescue.

As the men came shouting together, and rushed wildly down the bank of the deep ravine back of the cabin, Mack Allen called in wildest frenzy : that a whole com'jiany of Rangers was rushing upon them from out of the wood, mounted their ponies, and were gone as suddenl)' as they came.

The men hurriedly followed. Upon arriving at the house of ilr. Woods, seven miles below, they found it deseited, and spurred their horses onward. Two miles further they came upon the dead bodies of Mts. Wood and 'Mts. Lemjey. Gently lifting and placing them in the limbs of the trees, far from the reach of the prowling wolves, they again pressed on for fear a worse fate awaited the Misses Lemley, who, at the time, were at Mjrs. Wood's home. Although the white men were reinforced as they pushed on, and made frantic efforts to overtake them, the Indians successfully eluded them and escaped.

The two girls were kept over night, robbed of their clothing, and turned loose with only one garment each to protect them from, the night's chilling frost or the norther's keen blast.

Think of it ! Before the hills and valleys and uplands of this beautiful country had ever been trod by the white man's feet; when the hungry coyote howled his mournful lamentation through the dreary night; when the panther and the catamount lay perched upon the limbs of the forest waiting for prey; alone, despairingly, shuddering over their awful fate, shivering with cold, not knowing which way to turn, possessed with a horrible sickening fear that the Indians would return - the two girls hiding among the rocks, running from one covering to another, finally made their way back to the

During the years 1857'-1862 the Indians were unusually active along the frontier. When one remembers the topography of the counties forming the boundary line of civilization, the numerous streams which cut their way through mountains, leap into canyons, and tumble out pell mell into the valleys, where they wind in sinuous, undulating way, is it to be wondered at that the red man of the forest yielded to the temptation of his environments and sought revenge for the appropriation of his domain to the uses of the white man?

Although the primal object of the Indians in making raids into the white settlements was to steal horses; yet, if there were the slightest pretext, they miurdered with all the zest of their ancestral inheritance. During these perilous years the pioneer settlers were forced to come together for mTitua,l protection.

-Messrs. William and Sam Allen and Bethel Strawn, who were in the chase after the Indians, are the authority for the above incident. Mr. Sam Allen lives at Van Horn, the other two gentlemen at Strawn.

families were forted at C. C. Blair's Eanch. The houses were built and the tents stretched around an open square, and these were enclosed bj' a close picket fence eight or ten feet high. The families living at Blair's Fort were those of Ellison, Kujkendall,' the Gilberts, Mknsker, C. C. Blair, W. ('. JlcGough, and a little later, William Arthur. There were others who found refuge in the Fort from time to time.

As the largest number of families were gathered here, and it was also a frequent stopping place for the Rangers on their journeys hither and thither, large supplies of bread-stuff and ammunition were kept on hand. * As the traveler went northward, however, he found Flannagan's Eanch practically unprotected, guarded only by an elderly man, "Bad Eeece," who was kept about the house. In the Allen neighborhood were three forted ranches - Allen's, Clayton's and Edwards'. Smaller ranchmen built their houses in groups of two, three or four. McCain in the edge of Stephens County, and Uncle Peter Davidson at the foot of the mountains in Palo Pinto County, both had their ranches well forted.

On Gonzales Creek, a little further up the countij-, in Stephens County, lived the pioneer settler, Mr. John Reynolds, whose sons, George, William' D. and P. W., have large interests in Cisco.

It was in 1860, shortly before Blair's Eanch was forted, that the Indians stole all the horses belonging to the Ranch. The men followed hard after them, and the women were left to guard camps. A daughter of the Fort writes : "We children were kept in a little two by four house, and the women sat under the wagons, expecting every minute to see the Indians come.

"By and by the Indians got so bad we all went to Stephenville and stayed six weeks. At that time there was one store, one drug store and a blacksmith shop in that town.

"On our way back to the old Fort we had a narrow escape from the Indians. We had just passed Mr. Ellison's, the only house between the two places, when his dog began to bark, and, as he stepped to the door, the Indians shot, one arrow striking in the ground at his feet. He had only to shut his door and get his gun. They left him, but, providentially, did not overtake us.

"When we reached home we found three or four hogs killed and laid in a heap, and one old sow walking around with an arrow sticking in her back. Presently a cow came running home with seven arrows in her. Poor thing! We had to pen her before we could pull them out. That is one time we expected every minute to be attacked."

Billy Cross and family, a wife and five children, lived at Mansker's Lake. It is presumed that it was these same Indians, above referred to, who stole sixty of Mr. ]\Ianskex'"s horses, and were pursued by Mr. Mansker, bis son, Tom and Billy Cross. They overtook them on Flat Creek and had a furious fight. Cross being killed, and Wr. Mansker's and Tom's mounts shot from under them. The Indians escaped with the horses, not one of them ever being recovered. Mr. Ma,nsker and Tom made their way home separated and afoot.

Shortly after this fight, M.T. Cross's family and a Mt. Dalton's at Blair's Ranch, moved back East. It was just about this time that the fort was built.

One night Jlr. and Mrs. Blair sat around their 0V.T1 hearthstone alone with their children. This was before the ranch was forted. A large and ferocious cougar, emboldened by hunger, came up to the yard fence and, catching a pig, made off with it. Both Mr. Blair and his wife ran impetuously after it, "sicking" the eager dogs on in their violent efforts to regain the shoat. The dogs outran them:, but by the excited barking they knew the cougar was "treed," and followed on to the creek. Not until the "nasty varmint" * fell, with a bullet through him, down among the tingling, quivering dogs, did this father and mother think of aught else.

"Lord a' mercy. Pap; the Indians!" screamed Mrs. Blair, and they ran, leaped and tore through the brush in their frantic efforts to reach their unprotected children. Mrs. Blair has always affirmed that the agonizJing fright of those few minutes frosted

*Next morning the cougar was skinned, his fat rendered to grease hides and his carcass given to the chicltens, as such meat and clabber were all they had to live on. The cougar's hide was stretched to the martin-box pole, and the skillet of rendered fat set outside the door. Not a hog was to be seen all day, an attack like the one the night before always frightening them into the woods. But towards sunset they came home. Mrs. Blair was alarmed at the vicious, ugly sounds she heard, and going to the door she found the hogs were acting like wild, tossing the skillet in their fury, rearing up to get to the cougar's hide, and "ughing" and "booing" in the most ferocious way. The children were brought in. The hide was taken to the field.

Daily contact inures one to dangers, yet quickejis one's instinct to watchfulness. This is strikingly true of the frontiersman. At this Blair's Fort a man would pick up his gun and go out .hunting alone, when it was well understood that when the light of the mioon should corme the Indians would be raiding the white settlements.

On a hazy October afternoon, when one of the men had just come in with a deer on his shoulder, Jim Mc- Gough went to the spring, three hundred yards away, to water his horse. While there he was attacked by the Indians, and attempted to outrun them to the gates of the Fort. In this short, but impetuous. face, the frightened animal pitched him into the brush. The Indians, endeavoring to head him off, chased up the other side of the dense thicket, but seeing the gates closed, they disappeared, when Mr. McGough came running up to the Fort with his face covered with blood.

skillet into which she had just put the "corn dodgers" to bake. "Found? A cougar or panther, like as not." Then noting the look of satisfaction on his face, she cried out, "Not a bee tree, Pa ?"

When one remlembers that on this far Western frontier, one hundred miles from the nearest mill, only necessities were provided - ^bread, coffee, beans, etc.; no sugar, no fruit - one can readily comprehend the glee of the small children at thought of a "tubful of honey," but may wonder at Sarah Jane crying, "Honey cakes, Ma! Honey cakes! Oh, think of it!" A bee tree wasn't found every day, and they had no cakes any other time. But a more subtle reason, still, existed and caused Sarah Jane's delight.

"But, honey, you have a pretty white * nainsook dress trimmed up in emhroidery, and made low neck and short sleeves. And another thing you have - I wasn't goin' to tell you 'til he was through with 'em - is such a pretty pair of shoes as Bill McGough is makin' you, the vamp all notched; and he's goin' to shine 'em up. and they'll look like real store-bought shoes." Now, that

Preparations for the great event to take place next Tliursday assumed a new dignity which was personified in beautiful Sarah Jane, for there was not a boy on the Sabanno, or in the Fort, but envied handsome Coon Keith. All the petty jealousies within those picket walls were for the time forgotten and everybody lent a hand in the preparations. Venison and turkey were brought in in the greatest plenty, and the men barbecued the lat mavericks.

Coon Keith and Jim McGcOugh, on good mounts, went to Com&nche town for the license, and on tire day of the wedding Joe Smith was delegated to go for the preacher, Eeverend Coker, who came alone from Comanche to Albert Sowles' on the Sabanno, where he was met by Mr. Smith. After a ride of a couple of miles the two men camie upon a fresh Indian trail, and they wondered if there would be any interference in the wedding arrangements. They halted presently where the Indians had had breakfast. There was the cow freshly slaughtered, part of her meat lying still in the skin, and the fire warm and glowing.

The men rode cautiously and slowly on. It was past the noon hour, and they had ten m'dlea yet to go. The wedding was to take place at four o'clock, and Smith was "best raian."

At last the trail made a sharp turn to the west, and the men rightly surmised that the Indians were going home on the Western route, and again spurred their horses onward, and were soon at the Fort.

At last the hour arrived. The long tables glistened when the sun fell on them through the thick-leaved branches of the sturdy oaks. The minister took his stand, and the couple to be married walked out into the yard.

Coon Keith, the man, was eighteen years old. He had black hair and eyes, cheeks like June apples, carried himself like the young Apollo he was, and was dressed in blue pants and black sack coat, with two big * sixshooters buckled around him. The girl holding to his arm so timidly, half frightened by the impetuosity of the man's eager love, looked like a unique lily. A faultless skin, without a shade of color, large, deep blue eyes, her throat and shoulders and arms rivaling her embroidered nainsook dress in whiteness, and crowning this, hei blood-tinged, yellow-brown hair combed loosely back and tied with white ribbon, made a picture that still lives vividly in the minds of those who saw her.

After the wedding, Reverend Coker wanted to preach. This, they would not allow on such a festive occasion, but gave themselves up to the pleasures of "Weavely Wheat" and kindred games until the yard was beaten into powder, and the cock was crowing for day.

In Steve Brandon's home everything was going wrong. His wife had been ill for two days. The four or five grown boys could turn "flapjacks" and make "corn dodgers," but their big hands were clumsy when they tried to "pat up" Ma's pillow, or give her a dose of medicine.

The sun shone from a clear sky on that memorable afternoon, December 15, 1860. Brandon was a brave man, but his heart was heavy with forebodings as he started on that fateful journey of five or six miles. As he went deeper into the wood, however, thinking of his sick wife and his own imminent danger (as it was the light of the moon) he realized, perhaps unconsciously, that nature is capable of restoring one's peace of mind and calming one's fears.

When th'ey had covered but half the distance they were most abruptly apprised of immediate danger. The air was cut by the whizz of an arrow, which lodged in a tree directly in front of them. The noble animal knew as well as the riders that an Indian was behind them, and plunged wildly down the homeward path in ;i race for life.

The hiss and sight of the arrow lodged in the tree instantly restored to Brandon's mind the gloom that . had rested upon his soul as he entered the woods from home. Glancing backward, he was tilled with unfeigned horror, for not one Indian, but twenty, swune into view, and came after them yelling like demons, the arrows playing about them thick and fast.

"My G-od !" he thought, "she is shielding me !" And as his gloom had been lifted by the sweet breath of nature in these woods a couple of hours before, so now, the responsibility for the life of this woman, on her errand of miercy for one he loved, thrilled him, angered him, lifted the burden from his soul, and in his restored manhood he thundered :

The Indians instantly recovered their ponies. On they came; on, on, like a horde of devils, while their infernal yells and hissing arrows environed their victims as with a funereal pall. The white man urged his horse forward. The air was thick with hideous sounds. He gasped for a good breath of God's air. The Indians gained on him ! The gloom was again settling upon 1)13 iiiiiil, whnn Mrs. Kohen cried out:

"Hold fast !" he cried, as he, wheeled and fired. The Indians repeated their former movement with greater agility, and the race was on again.

This appeal cleared the atmosphere for once and for all. How good was sweet nature's breath! With every barrel loaded, Brandon wheeled, and with a shout of

*There is a differencp of opinion about the kind of gun used. Messrs. McGough, Snm and William Allen. Smith and Strawn and Mrs. Parm of Cisco, a sister-in-law of Mrs, Kohen, are authority for th* Incident, defiance that startled tine woman into tightening her hold, he sent six bullets on errands of fate. Plope surged mightily in his bosom, as he shouted:

"Forward, Greneral!" The gallant steed seemed to have caught his master's spirit, as, unfalteringly, he once more threw himself into the race with death. Brandon's cries now came as shouts of victory. He gained on the Indians, and, coming in hearing of his home, he raised his voice and called loudly.

One of the big boys, out at the barn feeding tlie stock, for it must be done before night, heard the clattering of hoofs, listened, heard the yelling Indians, then his father's call. He rushed into the house.

"Jim, you stay with Ma. Come Steve, you and Tom. The Indians are after Pa." They ran out with their guns, making a great hullabaloo, whereupon the Indians fled, and the race was won!

Mr. Brandon was hit six times, and they pulled seven arrows from poor Mrs. K'ohen's back. Strange as it may seem, she recovered rapidly. Some time after this she became the wife of Mt. Clayton, * and now lives in El Paso, Texas.

That same night two men, Joe Smith and "Bad Eeese," working on the Flannagan Eanch, about twelve miles southwest of the Brandon Eanch, went out to hunt wild turkeys, thinking there was little danger, as no Indians had been seen for some time.

"Sh'. It's Indians, sure's you're born," said Smith, and, catching the other man's hand, that they might stay together, they took tv/o steps out from off the dead leaves on to the soft grass bordering the stream, and cunningly striding on up the creek, artfully dodged the red skins.

\¥hen they reached the ranch, and next miorning told the other men there, John Flannagan, his son, Golston, (riols), and Eal Smith, they were laughed at for their scare.

''It was Indians, I tell you, sure's you live," affirmed Smith. "I heard their steps. They were all about us. I believe they were in six feet of us. They'd 'skyed' us, you know, before we got too low down, and couldn't see us anymore. Oh, you can laugh, but it was Indians."

If the warning had only been heeded the two yoimg men - Joe Smith and Gols Flannagan - would not have been started out alone that morning to Blair's Fort, and the lone grave under the tree still bears testimony to the grim truth that "it was sure Indians."

The following account of the attack of these same twenty Indians who had chased the self-reliant Brandon, who had all but captured Smith and Eeese the same night, and now finish up their gruesome work, is told by Joe Smith, who lives at Victor, Erath County, seven miles from Desdem'ona,

"On the 16th day of December, 1860, Gols Flannagan and myself started in an ox wagon to Blair's Fort, fifteen miles away, for some bread stuff. iWe had only gone a mile when we were waylaid by Indians, who opened fire on us at close range from a little ravine by the side of the road, which we were about to cross.

"Fifteen or twenty red skins facing a fellow on a turn in the road is enough to make the cold chills run down any man's back - Gols was only nineteien and I was twenty - ^but we didn't have time for more than

" 'I'm shot!' I -exclaimied, falling backward in the covered wagon, and pulling a stinging arrov.^ out of my knee. Grols turned and looked at me in a dazed manner, not seeming to understand. There was a red spot on his shirt front, and I knew be was hit, too.

"The young oxen, at sight of the Indians, wheeled around and ran as if wild, followed by the howling fiends. Presently the animals left the road and took

The Lost Arrow Head

"I was nimble as a cat in those days, and the Indians having fallen some little distance behind, I leaped from the wagon and ran off in the timber. There I looked and waited for Gols, thinking perhaps he was hiding in a little hollow below me. My knee got to hurting me so bad I decided to make miy way to the ranch. Gols had not come in. 'Bad' Eeese went at once to look for him, and found him dead and scalped. Eeese and Eal Smith went out and brought him in on a horse. Early the next morning the men went to McCain's Ranch for help, and Mr. Highsaw and Lyman McCain came back with them and buried Gols, and wc all m.oved up to their forted ranch the next day. By April I was able to get around on crutches- From about the middle of Januar}' I was at my father's house in Parker County, and was disabled for six months.

"One day in 1886 somiething pricked m« on the under side of my knee. On examination, I found a sharp black point sticking through the skin, and knew at once that twenty-five years ago I had been shot with a double-headed arrow, and had only pulled one head out. Three wet'ks later, on February 21, 1886, after having carried it in my knee for twenty-five years, two months and five days, the arrow head came out."