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Edith L.Crawford
Oarrizozo,N.Mex.
PIONEER STORY
Words -1330
MAR 7 193„8
I,
Charles C. Roberts and I were married in Mason Texas, September 2,
1875. Er. Roberts was a farmer when I married him. He was also a
minute man, one who helped the rangers fight the Indians. In 1873
or 74 he helped in one of the lest fights with the Indians. It
took place on Pack Saddle Mountain, about 12 miles from Llano
Texas, on the Llano River. They killed most of the Indians and
got some of their bows end arrows and a lot of Indian trinkets.
We left Llano Texas in May 1880, with our three children, in a cov-
ered wagon drawn by two horses. tie had all of Our provisions with
us. There were four other families and six single men in our crowd.
Each family had a covered wagon. We camped out at night and when
we made cpmp the men always made a circle with the wagons and put
our horses inside the circle and the men took turns standing guard.
All the men always wore six shooters and some of them wore two guns.
Each man had a rifle that always hung on the back of the wagon seat
where they could reach it in a hurry if they needed to, for we were
always expecting the Indians to attack us at any time. We had heard
so many stories about the Indians killing the white people who were
coming west, and we were soared to death all the way out here.
The women did all the cooking. We made sour dough biscuit and
corn meal dodgers and baked them in dutch ovens. We used whet wood
we could find but most of the time we used cow chips to cook with.
The only fresh meat we had on our trip was what we killed on the
way, cotton tail rabbits and antelope mostly. Once in a while we
would buy a piece of fresh meat from some of the big ranchers.
When we struck the Horse Head Crossing in the Pecos River the men
caught some cat fish. We were almost starved for water when we
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sighted the Peoos River, but when we got to the bank of the river
and saw the water was as red as blood, whet a disappointed bunch
we were. We had to let the water settle before we could drink it
and then it was awful tasting and we did not like it. 'km had to be
awful saving with our drinking water as it was a dry year end there
was not neny watering places. ,e carried our water in kegs tied to
the side of the wagons. Ur. Roberts had the man who carried the
mail in a buck board from Government Springs Texas to Fort Stooton
Texas, to bring us e keg of drinking water each trip while we were
camped on the Pecos resting up.
All the soldiers et Government Springs were negroes. Every time we
came to good water we would lay over and rest for a day or so. The
women would wash and clean things all up and the men would. hunt.
We did not see any buffalo or Indians on our trip. We had cow hides
swung under our wegilms where we carried all our pots, pans, shovels
and tongs. I still have one of the rawhide bottom straight chairs
that I brought with me on that trip to this country in 1660.
One while crossing the plains we oould see some travelers coming
behind us. When they got close enough for us to see them it was a
bunch of Vexioans, driving burros to two wheeled carts with canvas
tops. he were all soared to death until they stopped and some of the
men folks went back to see what they wanted. They had a very sick
man end they did not know whet to do with or for him. My husband
stepped up to the cart end sew that the man had cramp colic, so he
came book to our wagon and asked ne if I had any medicine that I
could give this man to relieve the pain. I had a bottle of :amnia*
ginger, so I fixed him up a dose of that and Mr. Roberts gave it to
him and it releived him in just a little while. They were all so
grateful to us and just could not thank us enough for what we had
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Carrizozc,N.Itx.
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done for their sick friend.
From our stay on the Pecos our next stop was at Roswell New Mexico.
Roswell consisted of one family, a commissary blacksmith shop. There
were five big cotton wood trees. It was noon when we got there and
that night there was the hardest rain that I ever saw fall. The thunder
and lightning was terrible and we were all scared to death. The water
rose to the hubs of our wagon wheels and we thought we would be wash-
ed sway at any minute. The next stop was at the Casey Ranch on the
Hondo River. We bought butter and eggs from them and they gave us
a lot of milk. We traveled on up the Bonito River, which was a
beautiful sight to us. We passed thro Lincoln and Fort Stanton and
on over to Nogal Canyon. We stayed here two months and the men pros-
pected for gold. While we were here a baby girl was born to Mrs.
Irwin, one of the women in our crowd. We fixed her a bed under a
big pine tree, of pine noodles. We put her feather bed and some
quilts on the pine needles and she was very comfortable. She named
the little girl "New Mexico".
We went from Nogal Canyon to Lake Valley which was not very
far from Silver City. It was a mining town but we did not do any
good there so we went on to Georgetown New Mexico, which was on the
Mdmbres River. We did not stay there very long and name on back to
White Oaks, New Mexico, which was a mall mining town at that time.
de stayed there until April 1881 and Mr. Roberts decided to send the
children and me back to Llano Texas while he scouted around looking
for e plane to locate. An old an by the name of John Duncan (me
called him "Uncle Johnny" took um back to Texas in a covered wa-
gon. We passed through Lincoln New Mexico the day Billy the Kid
killed his guards mad escaped. We went through there in the morn-
ing and he killed them at noon.
Edith L.Orawford
Carrizozo,N.Mex.
4.
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We made our own candles out of beef tallow and wicks out of spun
cotton thread. We had our own moulds. Our candles gave out before we
reached New Mexico so we tore up old cotton rags and made what we
called grease lamps by putting the rags in a tin can and pouring lard
over them. They made a good light for one wagon and we depended on
our camp fires for light before going to bed.
I brought my Bible along with ne and at night I would read my
Bible and we all would sing sacred hymns. bometimes the men would
sing cowboy songs. Mr. Roberts went back to Lake Valley New Mexico,
after he sent us back to Texas and staked out a mining claim and did
his assessment work on the claim and waited around for awhile to see
if he could sell his claim for big money. Be got homesick and sold
his claim for ten dollars and started out horseback for Texas. Be
made the entire trip to Llano Texas by horseback. We stayed in Texas
for five years. Alen we returned to New Mexico at the end of that
time we found that the claim Mr. Roberts had sold for ten dollars,
turned out to be one of the richest which was struck at Lake Valley.
Narrator: Mrs. Alice Roberts, Aged 78 years. Garrizozo New Mexico.