Eastland County, Texas - Chapter 2, 1904

Chapter 2

The Thirteenth Representative District in 1870 comprised Johnson, Hood, Parker, Palo Pinto and Jack Cou.nties with the unorganized Counlies of Stephens, Eastland, Throckmorton, Shackelford. Callahan. Taylor, Jones, Young and Haskell attached.

*These name.s have been supplied by R. P. Weddington, R. G. Luse and I. Lamb. Doubtless there are many other names these gentlemen failed to remember.

There camo a time, however, when the citizens of Eastland liogan to want to do business at home. The odious State Police had been disbanded, and regularly appointed Rangers now guarded the rapidly moving frontier line. Hardy pioneers pushed westward and Eastland was no longer a frontier country. 'Many new settlers were coming into the County, land was being put into farms, substantial houses were going up, but for a time no man came forward to take the lead in the movement for organization.

The 12th Legislature, which met in 1872, had passed into history, but the prominent citizens of Eastland, all of whom devoutly wished for organization, had done nothing toward its accomplishment. This inactivity on the part of the older men nerved to action Silas C. Buck, a young lawyer living on the Davidson "Ranch. He made his own plans, had himself appointed Deputy District Clerk of Palo Pinto County and went to work.

In Section 26 of Chapter 75 of the General Laws of the 7th Legislature, which met in 1858, an act creating Eastland and other counties, reads: "The County may be organized as follows : Whenever the bona free, white male inhabitants thereof (including all such recognized as citizens by the Constitution of this State) over twenty-one vears of age, to the number of at least seventy-five, may petition the Presiding Justice * of an adjoining county, or the nearest organized county, aslcing such organization, and the person presenting the petition (being a creditable citizen of the county from which the petition emanates) shall testify upon oath and in writing before such Presiding Justice that the names subscribed to the petition are those of bona fide inhabitants of such county, possessing the qualifications aforesaid, and were affixed to said petition by each of said persons himself; then it shall be the duty of such Presiding Justice forthwith to order an election in said county for county officers, observing the provisions, as far as applicable, of the general election laws," etc., etc.

The first thing to do, according to the foregoing law, was to secure the signatures of seventy-five "bona fide, free, white, male citizens" to a petition addressed to Presiding Justice J. H. Baker of Palo Pinto, asking for an election to be ordered. Armed with a sixshooter and bowie knife - for in 1873 there was still danger from Indians - Mr. Buck rode over the County, hunting all the bona fide citizens.

One afternoon he stopped at a little doggery a couple of miles from W. H. Mansker's, where he found several free, white, male citizens exercising their liberties. The boisterous sounds within the ten by twelve log room indicn,ted an excessive nearness to shoals which warned the young lawyer to linger on the outside of the open door. Two of the men (called Tom and Mike because their names could not be learned), became involved in an altercation, and presently Mike got the drop on Tom i.nd covered him with a pistol. ISTo sooner did he accomplish this feat, however, than he, in turn, was covered by another man, named Stewart. At this moment. Buck became interested, and fingered his guns and felt of his knife, as he watched and waited for a chance to help the "under-dog." Fortunately for all concerned, some adjustment of the difficulty was effected. The soliciting petitioner went in and secured the signatures of the free, white males, and then turned in at Mr. ^lanskcrs for the night.

When about sixty-five names had been secured, Buck, who did not know how the law read, exactly, carried the petition to Presiding Justice Baker, who ordered an election to be held on December 2, 1873, with the following result :

On February following, an election, which was held to locate the County Town resulted in Flannaoan's Eanch being chosen and the name of Merriman was given to it. By some move, known, perhaps, only to astute politicians, although McGough Springs was desi.smated as the First Precinct, and J. B. McGough elected from that locality, yet, W. F. Hale, of Flannagan's Eanch was made Presiding Justice, and Merriman became the First Precinct.

and were ready for work. Mart Owens and Miss Townsend went to Justice Gibson to get married. The Justice refused to marry the couple, and said that he would resign his office before he would attempt such a thing. Mtr. Owens, insisting, secured a form of ceremony from a friend, and after 'studying this all night, Mr. Gibson consented and married the couple.

isow came the startling news that that oracle of the law. Captain W. C. Veale, of Palo Pinto, had said that "the organization of Eastland wouldn't hold water." This statement sent young Buck to Austin. He interviewed Governor Coke, a personal friend, who sent him to his Secretary of State. Colonel DeBerry.

"Xow, Colonel DeBerry," said Buck, "if you can't issue commissions to these officers who have been elected, I AN'ant this Legislature to pass laws that will legalizp the organization so you can."

To miake the organization doubly strong, Mr. Buck remained two or three weeks, and through Senator.- Jack Ball of Weatherford and Mjajor Erath of Waco, succeeded in having all the necessary laws passed. With copies of these bills properly signed, in his pocket, together with the officers' commissions, the young lawyer made his way back to Eastland.

When it is rememhered that there were few newspapers, and that the railroad still lingered among the protecting pines of Marshall, Texas, this lack of knowledge of procedure in such an undertaking as the or-

Aside from the inherent manhood that came to him from a noble and godly ancestry, our present District Judge lies close to the hearts of the inhabitants of Eastland County from two primary causes. He is one of the first voters and has served the County and District in an ofiicial capacity several times. Then, during the protracted drouth of 1886 and 1887, Judge Calhoun, who was serving as State Senator from this, the 39th District, accomplished the creation of a special committee for the relief of the drouth sufferers, was made its chairman, and did more than anyone else in securing the $100,000.00 appropriated by the 30th Legislature for that purpose.

Judge Calhoun, who is a native of Greorgia and graduated from Homer College in Louisiana in 1870, came to Texas in 1871 and located at Waco, where he read law under General Tom Harrison, and was licensed to practice August 8, 1873. He came at once to this County and was here when it was organized. Tn the election for officers in 1876, he was made Coiinty Judge - the first to hold that office in Eastland. He has served two terms as District Attorney and has had an extensive land practice, but has never confined himself to any particular branch of the profession. He is recognized as a lawyer of eminent ability. In his oratory he is eloquent and impassioned, and merits all the booprs that have come to him,

He was married to Miss Jennie Conner in Eastland Jity on January 1, 1883, and has three children. His home is in Cisco. "He is a true friend, a generous foe, and a lover of the pure and good.'"

In the Fall of IS-'iS, Mr. Allen came from Missouri and stopped for a short while in the southern part of Palo Pinto County. He found the people to be brave and generous. The country, then, he writes, "Was thickly settled by bands of friendly Indians, who lived by hunting wild game, all kinds of which were plentiful. During the year 1859 - I had moved to Eastland County then - ^the Indians became very hostile and renained so for fifteen years. The settlers had to be continually on their guard."

In 1865 Mt. Allen settled on a ranch on South Palo Pinto Creek (this County), which he still owns. It now aggregates nine thousand acres. He lives in Strawn, and has a wife and five children.

At the time of the Indians' first raid through this County in December, 1859, they stole Dr. Richardson's horses. Mr. Ellison, with six others, followed them three days through a fearful snowstorm without any success. "From that time on I was either on a cow hunt or an Indian trail. Two weeks was the longest 1 ever did without bread." Clothing was hard to get. Calico cost fifty cents a yard. Mr. Ellison was sadly in neid of a suit of clothes. He writes :

"I went out one day and killed two bucks, dressed their hides and made me a pair of pants. Then I killed some doe, dressed their hides and made me a shirt - then I was all right for the brush, only I had no shoes. I dug a trough out of a cotton wood log, tanned the leather and made me some."

In Twigg County, Georgia, December 11, 1836, Mr. ^IcGough was born, and moved to Parker County, Texas, when twenty years old. On January 18, 1858, he was married to Miss Paulina Birch of Bosque County, and nxoved to Eastland November 1, 1860. Pie has lived here continuously - at McGtough Springs, near Eastland City, since 1863. He is a member of the Baptist Church.

The accompanying illustration represents five generations. Captain J. J. Keith, born in Alabama in 1822, and Miss Isabel Ely, born in Virginia in 1823, were married in Arkansas March 8, 1839, and emi- grated to Titus County, Texas, in 1844, thus becoming eitizens of the Republic of Texas. While here, on December 10, 1846, their oldest son, T. \^., was born. In l8()(), while living m Erath CViunty, this family with the <,)"Xeals and others, fordficd themselves at Dublin (ihus founding that prDsjjerous town) and remained liiere until 'April, 1863. Thiy limdly located at Mansker Lake, where Mr. Keith engaged in stockraising. Plere their daughter Ellen, Mts. Derrington of Sabanno, was born, who was the hrst girl baby born in the county. While residing in Erath iLr. Keith raised a company of Rangers and was made their Captain.

This venerable couple have lived for the last twelvr years at Curtis with their daughter. i\Irs. Elizabeth Pressley, and have more than one hundred descendants. On the 8th of March, 1904, they will have been married sixty-five years. Out of their thirteen children eight are still living.

Their oldest son, T. E. Keith, has been prominently connected with the history of Eastland since 1863, when he "scouted for Indians." On July 4, 1864, he was married at I\lansker Lake to Miss Caroline J. Arthur, daughter of William. J. Arthiir. and now lives near Curtis.

"Uncle Tom','"' as he is familiarly called, has served the county as Comiaissioner and Justice of the Peace :nany times. When he realized that he needed the education that he had been deprived of by having been born and reared on the frontier, he set to work with rare energy and tenacity of purpose to remedy the defect, and at the age of fifty-four was admitted to the bar after he held the office of Sheriff for eight consecutive years. He has been merchandizing since his term of office expired. He is a member of the Christian Church.

In 1868, lice and Sam Stockton, accompanied by their two sisters, Amanda and Sallie Ivie, emigrated to Eastland and finding a desirable place near Desdemona, put up a log cabin, and rested at easL'. The game in the woods around them supplied the table, and the meal barrel and flour bin were full. Their ease was not at all disturbed when Sallie told the boys the salt was low. "Why, we can do without salt for two months," Ike insisted.

At last came a day when dinner was prepared without any salt. "My, what in the world is the matter with this venison?" Ike asked, when he began to eat.

"Eed man, or no red man," the boy exclaimed, as he hurriedly saddled his horse, "this boy has got to be salted," and he rode to Stephenville after salt.

The family spent eight years in this lonely log cabin, with the shade of the green mantle of the oaks and elms as their summer rendezvous, and the babbling spring, one hundred yards away, as their watering place. They now live in New Mexico.

Mr. High was born in Georgia, March 7, 1851, and came to Texas with his father when only five years old. A.t the age of fourteen he served an apprenticeship in

He emigrated to Eastland in 1873 and stopped at McGough Springs. He served two years in the Texas Ranger Company "A" under Captain Walder. On the

Mr. High is a pioneer Odd Fellow, and assisted in the organization of the first lodge in Eastland. He is a Past Grand and Past Chief Patriarch, and held the office of Treasurer in the Eastland City Lodge for sixteen years.

Came to the. county in 1872, and in the organization he held the election at Jewell. He writes: "I had to cake the ballot to Bill McGough's (twelve miles) and then Bill carried it to Palo Pinto to be counted. I was on the first Grand Jury of the first Court - which was held at Schmiick School House. Then we held Court on the Colony Fork at Barny BartholomeAv's and next at Eastland. It took nearly all of us boys to hold Court.

"I had to go to Comanche (thirty miles) for blacksmithing and for bread. Thomas Mansker, Mr. Justis, Simp Evans, Will Thanish, Thomas Marsh, Calvin Wadkins, and myself were all who lived on the Sabanno then. Our nearest neighbors were six and twelve miles The Indians took our horses from us twice before we had neighbors enough to keep them away A fellow felt skittish when out cutting poles to fence with, plowing, or going to mill. But after the county was organ ' ized it settled up rapidly."

Who was born in May, 1830, was married to Miss Mary Josephine Jenkins in Kentucky, in 1854. Mts. Townsend's father, Charles Jenkins, who was a delegate to the National Convention that nominated James K. Poii for President of the United States, died in Eastland four years ago at the age of ninety-seven.

]\fo-. Townsend, with his brother, Ira Townsend, and others, located five miles west of Eastland City in 1873. The nearest neighbor (W. C. McGongh) was ten miles away; supplies were hauled from Dallas, one hundred and fifty miles; and the buffalo and antelope were still roaming the prairie lands, which have since been covered with timber. Fifty wolves in one bunch, turkeys so thick on the trees the limb would break, and encounters with the Mexican lion are somie of the experiences of this pioneer.

The unbounded hospitality of the Townsend Hanch Avas typical of the frontiersman, and was the chief means for the dissemination of local news and from the world 'nback East."

No fences disturbed the freedom of the cattle in these days. "Grass and water were plentiful, land and cattle were cheap. Lands which are now worth from twenty-five to thirty dollars an acre could have been purchased then, at most, for from fifty to seventy-five cent.=i an acre."

Or. E. D. Townsend, a prominent physician of Jjlano, Texas, and Mrs. T?. F. Kelly of Eastland, are Mr. Townsend's livinsr children. One son. Dr. W. IT. Townsend, died in Llano, August, 1902.

Histor Y Of Eastla Nd Co Untt

Mr. Townsend, who lives with his wife at home in Eastland City, says: "If I could find another Bastland County as it was thirty years ago, I would emigrate to the hunter's paradise at once."

Mr. J. L. D^ifEer, who served on the first jury in Eastland, -was the first man to be married in the County after it was organized, as the records in County Clerk Cox's office will show.

Was born in Kentucky July 8, 1846. He came to Texas with his father, who located in Parker County in 1851, where he remained until 1872, when he settled in Eastland. Mr. Bra shears was married December 32, 1863, and has six children, all reared in this county. He is pastor of a Baptist Church at Ellison's Spring, where he lives .

There was no physician nearer than Stephenville, Erath County, when Dr. Evans arrived in Eastland, March 10, 1873. He was called at once to see a very sick woman who, although she had been stricken vrith fever three weeks previous, had not been visited by a

The territory coverd by this iirst doctor reminds one of the extent of the pioneer "circuit rider." From the Forth Fork of Palo Pinto Creek to Desdemona, and from Barton's Creek in Erath County to the limits of civilization in Eastland were the bounds of his calls. "My three children were then very small, but I had often to leave them and their mother alone when there was danger of Indians. We stopped near a cow-ranch for protection - as there was no town in the county -

Bis Tor Y Of Ea Stl And Co Unty

''Eastland was a paradise for hunters, when I came here - cougar, bear, deer and turkey in abundance. I killed all I needed for family use, while out visiting the sick. One day, just one mile from where I now live, a party of men (of which 1 was a meniber) killed four bear, while another party in hearing of us killed two more.

"Many jokes were perpetrated on Eastland County in those days," continues Dr. Evans. "I heard a traveler, who was passing along the road near my house, say, 'I would not have this County and one dollar.' We little thought then how valuable this shinery was."*

Was born November 5, 1828, and was reared in Giles County, Tennessee. He moved to Texas in IS-'iS and stopped two years in Bosque County. In 1865 he settled permanently in Bystland - "Davidson's Ranch" is one of the old landmarks of the county.

TTntil the year 1870 he engaged in the cattle business and farming, when ho was appointed District Surveyor of the Palo Pinto Land District, which included

*It is interesting to note the ignorance of the early settlers regarding the productiveness of the soil. Then it was a cattle country and a "hunter's paradise," but it was also an unknown and undeveloped agricultural land, with the rich chocolate loams of the eastern part of the County, the sandy loams of the middle, and the light, enduring sand, with its clay subsoil, of the south and west, as the products raised in great abundance to-day verify.

Eastland. In 1873, when Eastland was organized, he was elected County Surveyor and held the office until 1878, when he declined to serve longer. Many old settlers testify that he helped them in locating good surveys without a thought of remxineration.

Mr. Davidson was a member of the Miethodist Church, South, and a Eoyal Arch Mbson. His chief characteristics were his patience, integrity, purity of life and boundless hospitality. Hospitality on the fronlier has always cast a sheen and glamour of dignified nobility, but few carried that virtue so far as "Uncle Peter.'' For nearly twenty years on his ranch he kept "open house" for all who came or went - traveler, prospector, homeseeker, stranger, all were royally entertained.

In the fall of 1872 M*. Higgins settled on the farm where he now lives, six miles southeast of Eastland City on the Leon B,ivor. One year later he married.

"In those days we lived in log cabins, usually with one door, no window, roof weighted on, and puncheon floor. We went in ox wagons to Stephenville or Comanche to mill. Stephenville was my posfoffire "