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Urse /loran*. Aagerrniller P. W.
Pioneer t.xperienees* WALDE OUUNTY040SMOT #10
TOM H. WILLY
Uvalde IWO&
,N1th a telephone by his aedside, PNI *m.2ly has not lost tomoh
wittLIAls hoe town, but rather keeps &WWI% of times as tAorouJaly as
the up-and-i-oing. Having been eonfined to is aed sontinuously for
tLe ,41St tarez! years, he finds life retber interesting rina tallcs with
sandor nad enjoyment or the old days when he first aeto Uvalde.
"1 guess we are Irish for my mother said we Ca_le from Ireland and
it took tAree weeks to make the voyages:1S* the water. They settled
in Virginia where .I was born, ivly birth late Ives December 13, 1858e
don't renember Vie trip to Texas for I lee only two or thre years old
when ttley desided to move west. But my family took a boat at New
Orleans, lewcing my father at the mout* Of Med River to brinE the five
or six -.hundred head of sheep across sweeter to our new koi4e. Ve same
on around b- boat to Galveston and then 10 to Boston where we took
ox-wagom; for Lavelle County. We got thoisley the time my fqther did.
ue settled within aCout eii:At miles of MOWLettaville and there la where
learned to handle sheep.
"herding sheep became second nature tome. 1 WRS red-headed, bare-
footed, hmd plenty of freskles and never relled a pair of shoes till
was nine ye -x. old. Well, I didn't eeei eely and after a kid goes
barefoot a lung tiAe, shoes really are kart to weer. Of soorse we were
proud of our whoes la those days for we 41W% get a pair very often.
Pioneer Ex0erienses Toll H. is Melly
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"By th?- tIAJB I twelve years oid, I could sheer sheer end I soon
went to shearing whole flocks. I got five cents a head for sheering sheep.
Yes, it was hard to work with hand sheers. The wool was thick and greasy
and our sheep always had heavy fleeces. I remember that two Jews eame
there afoot once to buy our wool. VA rounded up the sheep and the Jews
7arted the wool on their batiks and offered us forty-five *ants a pound
for it. That was an unheard-of prise then. le went up to Old Man Chansey
-Shepherd's rinse and asked him shout it. We had his sheer on the shares
and he said he believed he'd take it. W011„ they paid that price for it
end we delivered the wool after we sheared, reseivIng the gloney-in silver.
They had it done up in twentredollnr packages and had it lying in a seek.
Tbly told me to niak it up and take it over to the bank end I thought
could, but when I tried to lift it, I couldn't lift it at all. It wes
noon end time to go to dinner and they left that money lying on the floor
till they same beck from lunch. Then they took it over to the bank and
had it changed to gold and that bundle wasn't light, I can tell you.
After we got that price for our wool, it was the first time we had ever
been able to buy a wagon.
"Men I WRS Irowint, up, I was so bashful I was afraid to look at.
a girl. Taking a men's rinse at the mush didn't help me in the girls'
preserve. Ale day, my father sent me over to a neighboring reneh to
buy SOPC busk sheep. I didn't know they had a boarding house for girls
till I got there and I wouldn't go in Where they were, but sat out on the
porch and looked through the window. A sure was a pretty sight. I'd
never seen such a pretty table or so many pretty girls. Mien they same
out on the porch, they discovered me and began talking baby -talk to me.
nerr14 died ,)f emberiessmant. They galled me 'honey' and risked me why
I wes so seared. They said they wouldn't let any_of those old bad 'aria'
'Pioneer Xx7)erienses Tom H. Melfelly
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kisc. Ne. ,f‘ter tie y finally went on out of the yard and across the street,
I managed to get my legs to take me into the dining. -roam to eat a few
prd Pb soon as the Negroes got the bucks up,, I bought them and
got away froN there.
ni WPS out 23 years old when I same to Uvelde. It was in '81.
I drove soetLing like two -thousand head of sheep through the country
and went on west of Uvalde to theitrlo-(Mtela Moo -la) settlement
where I stayed about a year. I built a little asal (heel') over on
the ";11.ieun went of the ,MArlot and lived there while I had my sheep there.
"There Li vhere A. east my first vote. I voted for Clevelend and he
turned right r,round end ruined the sheep balsam's. I was really glad
later on, onset' e I went into the settle buisness then and lade moiv money
out of tilem than sheep.
"old Aan John Fenley and his wife kept the puct-offise and a store
and inn there on the 'Murlo.' fhen the mail etme in on the stage coach,
every fellow dived in and got his own mail. There were three Fenley sons
living there, too, they were Joel, Damp and Jim. Joel had the best horses
I ever sow seeued like a thousand head and he raised lots of good rauats
too. Ine.'t Was one thing 1 did like and that was good horses. But the
pretuiest taint; on Joe's remit was his daughter, Laura. ,he was the
pretti,-ut woman .1. Over spw but she was surely a flirt. I went to see
her oht ;DA: ;.:FIrried Jim Langford, ft cowboy on another ranch.
"AftEr I sold uat
below t:Jsre. I leh4ied
Cross b. i could have
on the 'Mario' I moved down to Wilderness Lake
up about 3,b00 acres that extended down to the
bought all that land at my own prise then but it
lookeArolish to invest in land those days when range was free. It was
a tinl;ry 1E11.4 was goad. I had some good horses while I
rahched there and i rude lam too. I'd like to !)e 1,-sk Viere now.
!Aoneer :(;)erienees Tom H. MiNelly
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"1 was married to ts Laura Yihite in 18924 he passed *ay in 1902
leaving me with f/70 small shildren, Rosalie, Maude, Howard, trom and
Bowman. in 1907, I 'yes aarried to Miss Rule Xing of Dallas. She is the
mother of 3art and Jae, my two youngest boys.
"After i =cored to town I still invested in the wattle bullOess. I began
to tske in native 1,Ittrest in the loan butaness in town so Ilgradually got away
from th.. rnaeh. If we'd had telephones and ears in those old days 11 m we
do now, we'd surely have made the _oney, but we And tio go
and it to.k n longti o l'iake the rounds.
clreelionsk then
",n 12115 'L w4,s named President of the First .t te _innk ofilv 14e. It is
not in JJLi,te.loe nOw irlit i. have kept up the loon buiwnes sl4 along. The
money I iae on e.ttle is still intact but I }coop it loaned fit all the tire.
"1 nave been in tied for :about three years but I hay.ve telephone
here beside :a and see so many of my old friends who dror, to see me,
that 1 don't .,tind so mush. ncuever, when alring )ens up fine I get ttrough
shedding, I'm going t3
111)o"