Document text
Words
EDITORIAL FIELD COPY
by
Mrs. Florence Angormiller, P.W.
Pioneer Experiences
Before and After 1875 REAL COUNTY, DISTRICT 410
Page 1
232
JAMES THOMAS WOOD.
"This is a sketch of my life from a child up to now, on the
frontier of Texas. I was born in San Saba County January 6, 1857,
end lived there until I was twenty-one years old. My father was a
among the early settlers in that aounty. I have been told by some
of my relatives that my sister, two years older than myself, was the
first white child born in San Saba County.
"My father had a large family. He was married twice and had
seven children by each wife. My mother had one girl and six boys,
end my sten-mother had four girls and three boys.
”my mother was like most other women of those days. They had
to card and spin and weave to make cloth to clothe their families.
They ,-.1so knitted all of the socks. People didn't buy everything they
wore then like they do now. They didn't have to have silk stockings
to wenr every day like,most of the ladies and girls do these days.
They wore good substantial clothes which they made themselves, and
they got along just as well as they do now, if not better. I don't
know how many pretty blankets and coverlets my mother had that she
made herself, but she had enough to keep her family warm in cold weather,
and plenty when company came to send the night. If the women got
new calico dreses in those days, they were just fine enough.
"My grandfather settled on a little creek known by the name of
Pioneer Experienaes T. Wood Page 2
Richland. He had quite a large family and owned several Negro slaves.
His children all married and settleddup and down the little creek, so
when his grandchildren owls to see him, they were quite a bunch of
little folks. He would get us all together and go fishing or plum
hunting, and we would surely have a fine time. He seemed to enjoy it
just as much as any of us. I thought there was no one on earth like my
grandfather. When he was with usl.we never thought of Indians or any-
thing like that, although they came in almost every light moon and stole
horses and often killed someone.
"As my grandfather died when I was small, I'll say something about
what my grandmother has told me of her experiences on the forntier.
Everybody called her Aunt Betsy and called Grandpa, Uncle Jimmie Wood.
"Grandpa cleared a little field and out oles and made rails and
f 'need it. He dug the lend up with a hoe, planted corn end raised it
for their br-ad. Of course, it wasn't much trouble to kill deer and
turkey for their meat, but they didn't have much fat about them, and
she had to have grease to make soap; so she saved all of the deer and
turkey bones, put up an ash hopper and filled it with ashes, poured
water on the ashes, which dripped lye, then made soap.
"7)aonle couldn't go to the store in those days, buy a can of lye,
and maal a pot of soap in a few minutes. They didn't know there was any
such thing as concentrated lye.
"My father was a blacksmith by trade, but he worked at it only at
times because the heat and dust from the forge seemed to injure his
eyes, so he followed the rPnch businec-, until after I was grown.
"People didn't f-rm much in San Saba County when I was a boy,
althougi it,is,a fine ff,rming country now. Of course, there was some
farming done then, but v Ty few farmed for a living.
Pioneer Bxperience F. T. Wood
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*MY father raided a few of all sorts of stock except goats. -He
raised a little buffalo calf on a cow, and it stayed with the cows just
like the other cattle. After it was tweroor three years old, he sold
it to Dr. Hudson for fifty dollars.
"Dr. Hudson wee starting to drive a herd of cattle to market, and
he took the buffalo with the cattle. The cattle stemneded one night
and the buffalo with them. The next day it went up to a man's house
with some of the cattle, and the men killed it, thinking it was a wild
buff,lo.
"My father was a great hunter, and he enjoyed hunting be9s, AS well.
One time he had been off on a hunt end found a bee tree. He didn't have
anything to p -It the honey in, so he killed a deer end °peed its hide,
then eat the bee tree, filled the deer hide full of cinb homey, end took
it home.
"One of the worst murders I ever knew about end one of the saddest
sights I ever saw happened there in an Sehm. Am old men crime in there
from up north who had some money. It was thought that he came there to
buy cattle, as cattle were being driven out of that country by thousands
after the civil War.
"There were two young men °erne In tbere, either with *his old man
or soon afterward. They claimed Viet t)Any were writing for the old man
to buy the cattle, and they were going to help drive them up the trail.
',my father and Dave Low ran a blacksmith shop in an Saba at that
time, and Mt. Low ran a hotel. This old man' slept in a little room in
the beak of the shol) and took his meals nt the hotel. One morning he
failed to' go to breakfast, and when they went to see about him they
found his dead. He had been gagged end robbed. The murderers hr,d'Aied
Pioneer Experiences Z. T. Wcod
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a big red handkerchief in his mouth and left him that way. I went and
looked at him just as he lay there. It was one of the most awful sights
I ever beheld.
"The we young men were mistAmg that morning, so the officers sus-
pected them of being the murderers, and they sent word everywhere to
watch for these two men. They were caught not far from Lampasas and
bought bf'ck.
"The sheriff wanted to chain them together, and he had Pa to make
some irons to go around their ntoks. Then he brought them to the shop
and had them kneel down while Pa braided the irons to their necks. I
watched him while he was fastening them together, and it looked awfully bad
to me to geo those men chained toqether.
"The smaller one of the two confessed to the murder, and they were
taken off 'somewhere and put in jell. The bigger one broke jail and ran
off, but the smaller one refused to go with him. I don't remember
whether or not they ever tried the little man for the murder.
"When we lived on Richland Creek, there was an old man by the name
of Poe who lived just soros the creek from Oir house. He gave me a
scare some way --I don't remember just how it hap7)ened. I was small and
every time he saw me he would halloo at me and I would run. I was so
afraid of him that I would watch for him, and if I saw hlm coming i would
run and crawl under the bed and stay hid until he left. He was the only
person I remember being afraid of when 4 WEI a little fellow. I don't
think a bunch of Indians would have scared me worse if I had se:,:n the
coming.
"This oli man had be n married and his wife was dead. His children
had all married and left home, and he married an old maid named Nary Gay,
a fine woman. I thought a lot of her; she was so good to eittle children.
Pioneer iixperiences T. good
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Sometimes old Grandpa TIoe mould go somewhere to be gone all night or
several days, and Ma would et me go and stay with Mrs. Poe, or Aunt
Mary as we called her, until he came back. I liked to stay with her, but
I would watch for old Gvitdpa, and if I saw him coming, I would run, or
slip ()if end go home.
"The poor old follow went on a buffalo hunt with his son, Jess Poe,
end some other men. He got tired of hunting and wanted to go home
before the rest of the party did, so he hitched his mules to his wagon
and started home. That night he camped and hobbled his mules out to
grazes The next morning it was foggy, and while he was hunting his
mules he becnae lost and couldn't find his way back to camp. He was out
several days without anything to eat or drink, and when the rest of the
party started home and got to where he camped, finding his wagon there,
they began to hunt for 'aim. They finally found him lying in the edge
of a little hole of water with his tongue so swollen that it stuck out
or his mouth. He was so weak from thirst and starvation that he was
helpless, and something had bitten him on the mouth they supposed it
was a skunk. They took him home, but he lived only a few days afterward.
"I was very small when the Civil War broke out, so I don't remember.
much about the first nart of the WRII; but I remember well when it was
over. Uncle Spence Wood was in the war, and when it was over, we heard
that he was coming home, and all that could went to meet him, we were
so glad that he had gone through the war and had come out without a scratch;
although he fought in several big battles. He said that the Yankees, as
they called the Northern men, came hear to cutting him off from his
command in one bntle. He was riding an old sorrel, streight-backed
horse that he °ailed Straighty. He just turned old Straighty loose and
outran them and got back to his commend safely.
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Uncle Spenoe was the only one of Pa's brothers who was in the
civil oar; the rest of them were on duty guarding tie frontier against the
Indians. Ly father belonged to the Uinute men. They served sa rangers to
scout after Indians, although they had to scout only ten dnys each month
unless the indiens made a raid in the country. Then they were sup”osed
to be ready to go at a minute's notice.
"Sometimes my father would be gone for two or three weeks, and there
was no one but my mother to look to for nrotection. But we felt safe
as long as she lived for she could shoot a gun ns well as any man, and
father said that she could beat iLn shooting a 'sixshGoter.'
"Ile didn't have as good schols then .es we do now. Generally, out
in the little country school, the term WPS very short, often not more
than three or four months. So m.7 schooling wrs just enough for me to
learn to rend, write, and spell, and some alithmetic. I just got to
division; so addition, subtraction, and multialication were about all
I learned in a-A.thmetio.
"I went to one school three miles from home after i WPS large enough t
carry a gun. Fo pa let me carry a gun, for, the Indians were coming in
almost every month. If they saw that a person tied a gun, they were not
so likely to run on to him. eesides, i could shoot very wall.
"There were lots of deer there, but I had never shot at one.
one evening on my may home from school I went hunting for a deer. I
saw a little buck under a tree hunting acorns, so I slipped up to a log
and lay my gun on it in order to take a rest to shoot. It started to
come toward me, so I waited until it got within seventy-five 'weighty
yards of me and shot at it; the deer ran a little way and fell dead.
"As i was the oldest boy in our family, I was the ux driver, or
bull whacker, as some called him. The last time I was in Austin, A
man named John Stevenson and I went with an ox team each from San Saba
nioneer Experiences J. T. Wood
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to Austin after a load of lumber. I think that the distance was n hundred
miles. I believe that we got one dollar per hundred for hauling the
lumber. It was in the winter and we weren't feeding our oxen. we
hobbled them out at night, as the range was fine, and they could get
plenty to art.
"Sometimes some of the old oxen would try to run off at night. They
would hit the road after dark and go just as far book toward home as they
could before daybreak. Then they would quit the road and go into athicket
and lie down. They mould lie no still that we could not hear their bells
ring re always had one ox of arch yoke belled. This may sound like a
big story to anyone who never drove an ox team, but those who have had the
experience of freighting with an ox team know thtir tricks.
',Before we got to Austin a big snow came and covered the ground several
inches deop. We stopped
believe it was called
110..
'Oliver. He let us sleep
at the edge of a little town —.Bagdad,
and bought feed for our oxen from a man named
in his barn, so we stayed there until the weather
got so we could travel. Then we went on and ot our lumber Pnd finally
got b.ok to san Snipe. I think that we were a month on the road.
"Another time we went from Ric4land Creek to the conch° River twenty
or thirty miles below San Angelo and gathered a wagon -bed full of pecans.
The country *nsn't settled up then; we seldom sew any ,ody or any sign of
a ranch. qo anyone could gather all of the Pecans he could find, as no
one claimed them. The ountry was full of all sots of game, so that we
could hunt when we wanted to kill as much game p8 we needed. nut we
didn't hunt excent when we needed a turkey or deer to eat.
wiNeworen't gone any longer on this trip than it took us to get our
load and get b-ok home, for it was dangerous to be traveling up in that
country because the Indians were passing through there often. We carried
Pioneer Experiences T. rood
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232
our pecnns to San Saba and sold them, i think that we get four cents
a pound for them.
"Two of rly uncles were killed by Indiens. Uncle John Myers wns
killed somewhere on the plains. We never knew for sure whether the
.1ndians killed him or not, but he was killed on 'Indian credit', as
many neople were killed in those days. uncle Boze was killed on
Richland Creak. he and Uncle Henry Wood were out north of Richland at
whet is called Pottonwood Ponds hunting, when the Indians got after them
and ttc7, d r r,Innina fight. uncle BOZO wps shut but gut home before he
died.
"Awhile before he was killed, he end his wife were dleeping out on
their porch' nnd lard two horses tied ()lose by their bed, so thrt they
could watch rnd try to keep the Indinns from stealing them. ¶ometimie
in the night the Indians slinped uo Pnd cut the ropes, end led the horses
away v.ithout p7InkenInc them or difiturbinfL soverrl dogs thnt were lying
about in the ynrd.
"A man by the name of Jackson drown lived on the creek two or three
miles above us, one dny an
Mr. ron, nd extended his
couldn't s)eak the Indian's
our languae, but there was
Indien boy walked into his y rd, approached
hand to shake hands. of course, ur. Brown
langure, nott%or could the Indian boy speak
a men on the creek named Jones who could sneak
seven different languages, so he was sent for. tr. Zones asked the boy
why he cnme, and he said that he had had a sore foot and tat the other
Indians had run off nnd left him. He didn't know where to go and finally
decided to i7o in to a white settlement and give himself up, and
Brown's ranch was the first one he came to. He didn't have his bow and
arrows with him and it. J_
on s asked him where they were. He said that
he hnd hidden them before he came to the house and went with them end
A.oneer txperieneeS J. T. ?;ood
showed the'. hers the bow and 9r ows were.
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one of the arrows had blood on
it, and Mr. Jones raked whet he shot with it, end he said he had killed a
little fwn with it.
"The next day Nuts Srown tok. the Indinn boy to town so that everyone
might see him and stopped at our house for us to look nt him. lie was the
first wild Indian ever sew, and I think that he was the lousiest thing I
ever saw. His hair nurv:: down on his b-ok, and I don't suppose that it had
ever had e comb Dulled through it. It UPS just covered with nits and lice.
lAe 10 town with tam, he hnd the boy's heir shingled off
short, and the doctor put something on his heed to kill the nits and lice.
Nuts got him some clothes and dressed him up so that he didn't look like the
same boy wlmn be tock h'm b'ok home. He stayed with ft'. Frown a lOnF, time
and seeed to very !?ell contented. !I'. !mown had some boys about is
size, and him number of times with them end snw him o swimming
\with the! -A. I believe thrt he 'ins still with Yr. T3rown when I left that
country. I beard afterward that some of Mr. Browns folks took him up to
San Angelo, and he wanted to sty there with the ”exicans, so they left him
there.
"A man by the name, of Iiley illiems lived at San 3:ba,who used to
stake his horse out on moonlight nights in an open nlane, hide somewhere
close by and weteh for Indians. One night he notir:ed something come up
close to the horse and henrd.something grunt or make a noise like a hog.
1
He looked carefully end it anneared to be someone on all fours. He shot
at it with a double—bnrreled shotEnn,-md it ran off. The next Morning
he trailed it and found a dead Indian.
nI remember of hearing my father tell of a soar -Any of Rellgers being
enmped close to a settlement. Some of the Rangers had families living
'in the settlement, and sometimes some of the men would go home to see
eioneer exPeriences I. T. Wood
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how their folks were getting along. One morning they heard n turkey
gobble ia the direction of the settlement and as one of the
going to see abut his femlly, he teld them that he would go by the
turkey roost where they lied heard the turkey gobble, and if he
killed the turkey he would bring it beck to camp. After he hPd been
gone a little while and had hnd t;'Ime to get to where the turkey had
gobbled, they heerd a shot. The man didn't oome beck to oemp with the
turkey, and they supeosed thet he had missed it and eerie on home. es
he had told them he would do if he failed to kill the turkey.
"The next day they herd the turkey cob le at the same place.
Another one of the een rented to go to see his ferny, so he told them
would go by the turkey roost end that if he killed the turkey he would
bring it beck to camp, and that if he miseed it he would go on home.
After he had been .ene n little while they heerd another gun -shot.
The men didn't return to camp, end they sueeosed he had gone home.
"The third morning the turkey wee still gobbling Pt the same
place, and another one of the nen told them he wanted to eo home
and would tio by end see if he could kill the turkey, It wasn't but a
little while until they heard him shootond -pretty soon he came back
to on without the turkey. He had killed it, but it wns a buck Indian
insteed of a turkey gobbler. He had hid in an old hollow stump that
had been burnt on one side and would wetoh in the direction of the Ranger
oRnal end was able to see anyone approaching from thet,direction. He
had a hole to eett his run in end shoot through. So he hed il1ed the
first two men. But the third elan bed come up on the wrong side of the
stump end seied the Indian in there and had killed his.
"I suppose thet this men had suspected that there was something
wrong ebout the turkey and went Pround on purpoee, or the Indian might
he i
Pioneer Aomeriences I. T. lood
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232
might have gotten his semi!). Ifo the Tndinn 1:tad gotten two scrans, and
lost his on life with it by ettenntin,7 to get the third one.
'fAttor .mother's death, my fntlior married a girl by the nnme of Warren.
Her nether was a widow and lived In ilurnett County. One tine father and
my step -mother left us older children at home to tr'Ke cPre of the place'
while they went on a visit to ,urnett County to see Grandma Tarren. They
were gone several dnys, and oneli)ight while they yore nwny we heard our
two dogs b-rking ,;ust like they v;ere bnying at something in our ynrd.
(le lived in c bottom where the ti Oer riPde so much shadethat It was very
dark in there at alht.) .3() I .Telled at the dogs and hissed them, end
they barked like they were about to te-r something to pieces. The next
morningnre found either sock trPcks or moccasin tracks in the yard. "!e
forlost
had lum bushes set out in the yPrd, and one of than ,!-r
twisted cfl it t;h: iround. 7ve thought that the Indian, or whoevel. it was
had tvie'.1 to bre:Pk the Uum bosh off to fight the dogs with. Te always
thought tHrt it was an Indien hunting for horses, as neola ususily tied
their hhrss u- at hit,;ht in shAe A.ree to try to hide then: tron the Indians,
esPecinlly on moonlight nights, or when they thought the 71dians were
liable to :eke a rid in the country.
"My father had a mare rith a very Pretty little colt, nand he took her
off one night rind tied har in 8 botton here he thought she would be safe
if the Ind inns came around. The next ,:orning nhen we rent to see about
her, the little colt hnd gotl,en the rope around its neck end choked to
death. I was like most children end thought it w -s awfully bad that the
colt choked to death.
uliThile we lived in San Sabn, before my mother's dent, my father had
pone of the prettiest yellow dun mares; she Was lust as nretty nr a picture.
He staked her out one night right in the edge of town, not over 300 yards
iloneer ',xperiences T ood :)nce 12
trom where tne aourtflout t The IndiPhs erme ond cut the
rcpe phd lel her off. 7:e he -rd Le d,:x4 b-rF(11,/T nil over town Prid
herrd horses trnveling erosuad town, 1.t M3 supposed thet it MPS 33M001143
living t::-Isre
V't 1 J
Led boon pepy nnd ;4pra returlinp. The next :-Jrnirtg our
horse wee (pie, -rik sever -1 3trU nd be n stolen thrat night from other
;)ersons.
"I remember bo,ng Pt ;7rnndprais once when P little boy, rnd
we c i1ciec ut 1:errc mcone I lloing ewry off e.T,
ttiow1 e wr' n dibtrees, but toing sv11, we dldn't rlf,y mch nttention
it. v ,lupt 71ryed on, end"but tan o'clock, toet -:,ornnc someone
cpgle nnd tr:!10 thpt te Inrlirne killf4,e old -ten re9rdy firll out
nenr tLe rc)un.d ount!'in one out there thett 'Ioreing
to se% n1)..itZaflOnoval Pnd lit le 71 -6 tint he hPd out there. X. surose
trint ;ie a'ns flcsd].ac them the A..'11. The 17..ttle round mountrain
wuu abr.:11'4 oetweeu 1ichl:Pnd '4..o..fk end the .;?,-n :111be Piver. .P,nyone
cuuld on the lit -le r,Juad .;',Int-in Ind n,.,t-) -1 n47, =Inv In sve-y direction
C
•osed tht theL.e Aidirao here on tLis ountein lookinF; Gut to se
if tLe-," cPIld lk,crte o bunch of horses pnd am), 7;4*. Jell, ralirned up on
,re !urdered his. Of aource, t took hin seri' so thet when they
,rot 1,on tit
eoulet 1..eve dnnt:e, r V.Int wfts their elstom
%hür4 tAey -1rCe e rrid rrd killet payone.
"Ale of the uArs's f,e,,roti I ever got 4 the indinns wnv when I WPV
e'oout tW-rt yo,rs old. 'bout seventy-fivp Indiens cnrle down Pichlrand
no d -y. The flmt Piro° thoy crue to eps cl6se to the d of
t erlF1
t!le door
•;Pri qPmed ret Judnon lived Vlore. He 4es stending in
;ley ro4e by. They stooped rand loe -r.lony off thnt he hpd
steked close to the ond rcAle (11,4n to Nhere ft fnmily of children
I 116,3
livod tle nem. of Herkey. There we. -e twelv OF tlirteen of these
Pioneer Xxnerienees T. Wood
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232
children; both the fetter end mother were- deed. But 'some of the
ehildren were growneso,they still eteyed on the homesteed. some of
the children were pleying out on the rorel; when theyeenr the Indinns
coming they ell reel to the house except ens little ir she climbed
up in en old live onk tree that leened over the need, thinking they were
covhunters,until they were almost under her. She just set still and
the Indinns rode under her without seeing her. As they pessed the house
Joe Parkey got he gun end ehot et them two or three times, bet the
Indians rode .on without paying nay attention to him.
"A little ferther down the creek they ren on to eleve fifteen cowmen
who hnd bunch of cettle rounded up and had a bettle with them. It
faster
WA$ about emile from :)ur nlmce. Al could her the guns shooting/then I
ever henrd 31Arle shoot before, or heve since. It eesn't long until we
could heev the horses runnine, end in a few eonents we bee the cowmen
coning ns fest et their horEes could run. 161c 11#111 Wq.1 in the lead. es
soon Re he eot close onoueh he wAled to tether nnd eeld, 'John, you
ell better hide; there ere n hundnetLindians after us., So we boys, or
the lergest ones, just rem throvmh the high_ woods in the fields as faatels
we could end reel ncrosn,the creek to where ',mole livod. in
a few minvtey Pm ene the rest of the forelverme over there :nd the cowmen.
with them all but a men nemed earner. They eta& the lest time they saw
Boner the indiens were right on his heels and that they Werenetiefled e
that the_Id1ans had killed him.,
"in those times everybody used whet were Galled eap-and bell guns
end pistols, sot it took some tome to reload a gun or Pistol. So the *ow-
men.got powder, Caps and bullets fromile and reloaded their guns end
Then they all wont down on the river where their families lived
Pioneer Mxperienees J. T. Wood
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252
except 4.wo—they left Parson Davis with us and another man to wait on him.
The Indians ha* lanced Parson Davis, under the arm, but he soon got over it.
"lie all stnyed at uncle Spends** that night. Uncle Spence lived in a
field, and about ten o'clock that flight we heard someone halloo down back
Boner
of the field, and Pa stepped out.and asked, 'Is that you, Bomari"jenswerod,
'Yes.' Pa seid, *I thought you were deed.' 910,1"Ae said, Aint dead.'
So he came_on.ins The Indians hr,dn't even soratohed him. 'Mr. Bomar said
that the Indians crowded him so close that he ran to the ',reek, jumped off
his hcros t -Ind rrIn under a little bnnk in the edge of a hole of. water. Be
stayed there a few minutes and listened, and soon as the 4idians quit making
noise, he slipped out and went into the post oaks and climbed up into
thick-t'Jpped eita true and stnyed until after dark. Then he got down and came
on in, l!he hole of water he hid in yrs called the boner sole otter that,
and the flat where they had the brt'ae with the Indians wee called the
Bomar flat.
'In the b;Atle the cowmen had with the Lad/ans, if they killed an'
Indian, the Indians carried him off, as they always did it they could.
They found blood on the trot). the Indians took, so we supbosed they had
wounded some of them. These Indians had robbed the Widow Lindley's house
and burned it as they came in up on the Colorado close to Triokum, The
Widow and children happened to be away freilhoma, or they might have beaS
murdered.
"Capt. Wood was in this brittle, and he shot at an Indian who had a
dress skirt of Mrs. Lindley's on his he -d for a headdress. He either out
it off his head or made him dodge till he lost it, for it was left lying
on the battle *round.
"After this raid, the few families that lived on Riohland_Greek
decided that it wasn't sate to stay there because the Indians were coming
naneersExperionees T. J. Wood
Page lb
often and in sueh largo buds, and that the few neighbors up and ein
the creek wouldn't have rauch chance to defend their fr,milles agfiinst one
of the large bands of Indiana. So we all moved down on the river close to
Sen Frbe town where it wa* more thickly settled, so we would have m6ro
protection. :tan we moved, we crossed the trail the Indians made that had
the battle with the cowmen. It was so plain that we could see it for a
hundred yards or more ahead of us.'
"Sometime after the battle on Bomar Flat, was horse hunting one
morning in the Bomar .Clet and I looked up the creek and sae Sam
come riding down tile road. As I was afoot, I thought that I would sit
down by the aide of the road and wait until he ORme up to -pie. He saw me
and thought that I was en Indien sitting there and raised his eun to shoot
at me. ;;io I got UD end stepped out in the road where he could sea me;
then he (same on to ,fie. Ai told me that the Indians were in the country
and said for 41* to be very careful. Ii. uaid that he ORME, very near shooting
me.
"As soon as the Indians quit coming in such large bands and so often,
we moved back on Richland Creek. at our old home. But they made several
raids aft(ir that, off and on for several yeers. My fnther had a nice
bunch of horses, and they kept stealing them until the/ got nearly all
of them.
“I had claimed several horses, but the Indians had stolen them. so
I *ought a pony and Pe bought a fine mare at the same time. We had had
them only about two weeks when the Indians stole them one night. aDme
neighbors followed them the next morning, overtook them sometime that
day, and captured all of the horses except the ones the Indians were riding.
The Xndiana saw the men coming after them, and they ran and made their
amp*. Then the ,-14 grove the horses back and put them in a pen and
notified the people to dome and get their horses. I vent that evening and
Pioneer nporiences J. T Wood
Pogo 16
BBB
got my pony, but pa didn't wit his mere. We supposed that an Indian was
riding her, as she was a good animal, and the Indians always rode tho,boat
horses they had when they thought there was any danger of Nang overtaken.-
A short tips attar that the report got out that the Indians worip in t
the country again and some of the neighbors got up a little squad of men
and boys to go up on the head of Rishland to look for than cad UT to'
catch them as they went out, or try to strike their trail. I wont along
with thou; i think that there wens about twenty of us. I was about flits.*
years old then, and there more son. more boys in the little band about sty.
age. Ts rode all day and didn't see any signs of Indian..
"About dark sone,cf the men dooided that there wasn't any use in
staying out that night and *aro in favor of &Pig home. uowevar, acme
wanted to stay all night and said that they were going to do so. Then
those in favor of going home docided that they would stay to; if they woul4
all hobble their horses and herd them. Bo everyone agreed to the propc-
sition, and they unsaddled their horses and hobbled thom4all (wept my
horsi and Bill Shipman's we wen, going to take the first turn herding the
horses. By the time we were ready to go on herd, some of the first horses
that were hobbled out had grazed off somadlOtance, so we started out to
round them back and get them all together again so thit'we could herd
them. Bill Shipman wont west or the camp and I,weat east. In a tow
minutes Bill ran back to camp and said that he had ,ha) seen a man out
there on a hors., and the men ill got their bridles and *wan to catch
their horsei and paddled up. ,Jim Markey got his horse saddled first and
galloped out in Us direction that Bill had seen the man,' and he saw a
man on a hors* in the direction that Bill had seen the man, in Ur, shads
or a 'tree. The man ran, and.ita:thssed him some diatonic* and shot his
pistol empty at hill, but he soon disappeared in the brush.' After we a4
wrinrkwitfirmemir
Pioneer lxperiences J. T. Wood
Paso 19
*52
got ell of the .horses rounded up and eaught, we deeided that it would
be 'Ibest to tie then and guard than so that the Indians couldn't run
in and stampede than* So we guarded than the rest of the night, end
the next morning we hunted the country all around there to try to find
sons trail of the Indians, but we felled to find any trail that we could
follow so we eve up the hunt, and wont hone*"
PART TWO TO YOLLOW.