Document text
P06011,07%,
MOs Effie Cowan,
4oLentan Chanty, Texas,
Ditstrio18.
N. Of Ordsol),S-O
-rle NO. 240'
Page NO. 1.
Reference,
Interview with Dr William W. Wood, White Pioneer, Waco, Texas.
"I wqs born in Coosa County Alabama October 7th, 1862. My father
was Pr 3aeon B. Wood, a practicing physician and slave owner and planta-
tion operator in Alabama. My mother was Miss, Sarah Barrett, a daughter
of James Barrett and wife...Tames Barrett died and my grandmother came to
Texas with her sons Prank, Reneau and Thomas. Mother died in 1899 at
the age of fifty years and. at er,raiggpnZife ember of 1907. Their
..taAjoe•-v"-"/
children were,
7-ffragenees'
My father preparet for his mediced profession in Jefferson Medical
Oollege, in Philadelphia, graduating in 1856. He practiced in Coosa County
only abandoning his profession when he retired to his farm because of ill
health, after coming to Texas. During the war between the states he served
in the aastern l'epartment of the Confederacy ad eaptain, we* captured and
sent a prisioner to Johnson's Island, Lake Erie. He was interested in ed-
uoation and belonged to the Baptist church, of which he was an active
member.
I was a small boy when we left Alabama but 4 can remember crossing
the iiissippi river at Vicksburg, and as we reached the opposite side,who
should be standing there but one of our former slaves, on seeing as he
cried out" Hello Massa, 'die de fast time I is see any of youlns sPie I
lef' fur de war wid MaAe Henry, I wuz wid Mars Henry Wen de iankee's
kill him, an' I see him pat away, jes4as I promise him I would".
FOLKLORIC?
.Miss Riffle Cowan,
Molgennan county, Texas,
District 8.
Pile NO: 240.
Page NO. 2.
"When we left Alabama we earns by wagon train driving oxen and males,
there were twenty -five families in the train. We reached the Trinity
6 O
river in about sixty days after crossing the MissitP4OV,m4he whole country
was ander water and we had to wait for the water to recede before we could
cross and made camp where we remained for about two reks. Then we drove
into Athens Texas, where we lived on a rented farm/ne*or two years
"My father practiced medicine here with a -r Gardner and my mother seoured
the couttry school and taught for a time.
"About this time my t4.t$r decided to leave the timber country and moved
to Hill county and bought a farm of two hundred acres., sig miles east of
Mount Calm Texas. We children attended the school at Habbard which was also
near aslAntil we were old enough to attend college. Oar fathers brother-in-
lawUr Barrettpilso bought two handsed acres and lived near as.
While we lived in the Navasota bottom Ben Wallace homesteaded land, and
no better man ever lived are+,., had such a noble wife, we called her Aunt Mary
Jane. Now they are all gone, but we cherish their memory the children alsoo
While living there and making a crop the men wigigme to the prairie and
built three log houses, split rails and improved their homes, on the prairie
"I can emnember how it began to snow while we were in OaMP before oar
homes were built, and how 'one of the oxen froze to death in the nightjand
the next day when we went back to our home in the bottom we rigged up sleds
and teams and sharpened our knives ready to akin dead cattle we dressed
them for a week 11„; skinned them and sold the 'hides for a goodiprice and
FOLKLORE
Miss Effie Cowan,
McLennan County, Texas,
District 8.
File NO. 240.
Page No° 3.
it enabled as to purchase rations and supplies which were so much needed.
Turkeys were wild bat were plentiful everywhere. Grandmother Barrett's
gandmother took a string and fastened it to a crib door where she could
see it, and when forty six wild turkeys went into the crib for feed she
closed the door on them and we had plenty of trukeys to eat for some time.
I recall my iincle building a turkey pen of rails with a tunnel leading into
it, he baited the roads leading to the pen and caught a,pen full, I can
remember hovicin his haste he hurried into the trench and the turkeys gave
him quite a lashA4f. When we went back to work on the prairie houses
we left a servant girl to sprout the ground ready for planting, she heard
the dogs barking at something and they had a deer cornered in the creek
bed. Ste took the woode* rake and helped the dogs to kill the deer. This
goes to show that we reached Texas in time for the wild turkeys and deer°
Another incident of my yrlath which impressed me was my father sending
me to Waco to purchase a cog for our sorghum mill He had given me a
pony and I rode him over to *WO good ride), The foundry was located
on the bank of the Brazos river and I spent the night in a hotel .on,Frank-
li4 street, I can remember how a live oak #ree grew tip thro the porch
of the hotel, and have often wondered what became of this place. When I
went back halime I tied the cog to the saddle and the Anistion of the horse
ruined the cog as well as blistering the horse s shoulder.
"It' 1879 fatter sent rather and myself down to Waco to place me in Baylor
University, paying my tuition with a load of bacon we took with us.1I went
home for the holidays, so happy with so mach to tell, 'ben I returned the
Folklore,
Miss Effie Cowan,
Uctennan County, Texas,'
District 8.
File NO.'240.
Page NO. 4.
first of January)I rode horseback to Waco and on arriving I turned the
horse loose with a note 7:pinned to the saddle saying" Please let this hor4e
with saddle pass. to farm'ofAir B.B.Wood unmolested". Three weeks, later
father came down and said the horse had not returned and on making inquiry
we found him it East Waco, just as' he bad: left.
An the summer father sent pie to touidiana with horses we bad bought
in Mexico we had 117 head We went down Jacksons traa and came to
a house where we camped that nightiI had sOme corn for the horses,, and
found aH. man just returnrtn from a drive with a big back.I traded the
corn for a whole ham of the back oarried•this to camp and with a long
pole passed 'thro'. the tem-String,I barbecued it and today I can say it
was0h4e, best barbecue I ever ate.
We cooked at the camp and made clothes out of wagon sheets that served
118 well, but they sometimes became so fall of grease and dust -they almost.
stood on endt(after being removed9I recall the night after the heavy
snow I mentionedIcwhen the cattle froze. I could not find my socks and
shoes while trying to make the fire so had to proceed to.a neighbors,by
name e 301) ianew,barefooted. When we returned homtgra Pane made_ me wear
her stockings and shoes, after giving as a lovely dinner. Long after -ward
when I was practicing medicine I often reminded her of her ktndness in
lending me her foot wear. 4his also reminds me of the fate of oar $oke
of oxen which bro,aght ail from Alabama. We would hobble them at night
together so they could not stray far from camp. One morning when we found
FOLKLORE
Miss Effie Cowan,
UcLennan County, Texas,
District 8.
iile NO. 240.
Page NO. 5.
them they were both dead from eating frozen mustard Oh, how sad- we
were and lnnely with Buck and Bill gone,0what shall we do/ was oar cry.
rather made the best of our hard luck and'said"we will skin them and
buy coffee' which we did, and things took a turn' for the better.
Another time my father was oat of to:Sips:coo it was 25 miles to the near-
est market,Mexia, I had instruction to start to town bat if I met any
one who had any tobacco to ask for some, I met another old-timer and.
heighbor Bill Powell, and secured an abundant supply and thus thro'
the neighborly kindness was saved the trip.
"Time passed on and I completed my course at Baylor University at Wacoj
Texas,taaght.a yearithen,attended my fathers Alma -Mater the Jefferson
(p44,24.132.4v•-
41edioal Oollege and coMpleted my coarse there in 1887. I graduated from
Baylor in 1885 Afterwards took pos/gnadaate work in the New York Poly
-clinic in the New Orleans Polyclinic and two courses in the Chicago
Institute of that olass.
In January of 1910 our firm of Wood and Wood purchased the property
of the Hubbard Hot Well and sanitarium, which represented the investment
of thirty-five thousand dollars, and at the time was one of the leading
health resorts of the state. As all of the medeoal profession)hmore, I
have stored in my memory many amasing incidents connected with my pro-
fession.,One of the most impressive incidents was when I first commenced
the practice of medicine and meeting an older doctor in consultation,
POlklore,
Mips Effie Cowan,
Meenhaft Comity, Texas,
District 8.
Pile NO 240.
Page NO.6.
a man whom I loved honored and respected. After disonssing the case
before as heisaid" I would give him this and that', remidies for the
particular case, to which I oonsented; then I saggested something else
to meet another symptom. The old doctor said" No, we have given him enough
lets give him a chance to get well".
"I recall another instance which impressed me in one of my patients,
He _had a malignant type of trouble and I told him soialso that it was
unnecessary for me to call every day, but he insisted and his good wife
always had the best of. eats, snobk fritters, chicken, steak, pease and
cakes,With something hot to drink. The minutia she ,:entered with a platter
of these eatables be would begin:Mollie I am a very -sick meal your limn-
_tlty takes my appetite" ;ben I would try to go: and he would say"I do love
to see you oome anOate to see you go", but thought it time to go:
blue day be said" Bring your bill tomorrow, I want to see you paid before
the triggers fall, you. know I have some sons -in--lawl I knew them and
decided to present my bill as' requested., once before be insisted on pay-
ing me with twenty-seven pigs and said" You know that a man with twenty
seven pigs and nothing to feed them is broke and convinced me it was
my duty to accept the pigs:
,1
I married on the 4t of April 1888, -iss Nina J.ynn Jamesona daughter
of Dr James who came to Texas from Georgia. N e lived at Hahhard,where
I practiced medicine with my father until our children were ready to
enter college, It was with a feeling of sadness that we left this little
town .of good people which bad been our home for so long.
Folklore,
Miss Effie Cowan,
McLennan County, Texas,
District 8.
File NO .240.
Page NO. 7.
"Our children are Nina Lynn Wood Friley(deceased). She died of/Influenza
at College Statitm, Bryan, Texas in 1918. Her husband was Chas. E.
Priley who is now President of Iowa State University at Ames Iowa.
Our other daughter was 41allie Byrd who died at the age of four years.
My sons 'are William gaxwell who is in the live -stock business at Gallup
New Liexico. James lenneth Wood and family of two children Zenneth and
Lydia Iynn live at Corsicana, he is in the investment business.
David Eason Wood and wife Gecil live at Shiro and both are teachers.
Eugene Carroll Wood lives in :6eattle Washington and is a lawyer. Walter
Putnam Wood lives in Waco ard is in the investment business.
In 1904 to lessen my expenses and place my children in Baylor 'Maly-
-ersity I sold out my Sanitarium and other holdings at Hubbard and moved
to Waco, Texas, where I am now living. When the World war included our
country and the army camp and base hospital were located at Waco, there
were around fifty thousand soldiers at one time. During the winter the
influenza epedemic was raging and civilians and soldiers alike were dying
like sheep. We held a medical convention and diseased what steps could
be taken to reduce the death rate. We had a regime prescribed by one of
the army men, but it did not stop the epedemic.
"At •the meeting I could not keep silent and arose and stljd" It is not
customary to digress from the visiting doctors prescribed treatment, but
if I am allowed the orivilige of speaking if you will open the doors
and windows and give them plenty of fresh air, I will be responsible for
Folklore,
Miss 3ffie Cowan
McLennan County, Texas,
Disttict 8.
'File NO: 240
Page NO. 8.
the reduction of the death rate& There were cries from all over the
house of "Amen, Amen". The suggestion was adopted and after the treatm
omit was changed in favor of fresh air the death rate began to subside.
In the year 1914 I attended the American Surgical Convention which
met in London, my wife accompanying me. We boarded the Celtic leaving
"cow York and arrived at Cherbonrg Prance our first stop. I had a pecnl-
-iar experience on the vessel. My friends had fillet my valiale with good
cigars to enjoy on the tripotefore arriving in France we were advised
that we should pass our smokes aroun.d to our friends on the boat because
the duty on that was so great that it would be prohibitive to smoke Amen-
-can tobacco abroad. I did not like the European tobacco s so I gait smok-
-ing andhave not, done so since.
When we arrived in Paris the mail carrier at oar hotel brought- our
mail and said; I bring you geetings from home, I pope it is pod news".
We later learned that this was the only English that he could speak.
4fter seeing France we went to Vienna,and in crossing the Danube river,
a man with a megaphone callefut.to as to,xook to oar left and see the
Saroophaygi that.tommorrow would contain the remains of i4erdinand and
Sophie who were murdered at Sarijaril% And this is said to be the canoe
of the world war.
on our way
The next day we proceeded to Vienntxto the hotel after driving for
some time in a taxi, I inquired of the driver as to the extent of the trip.
Re advised me that he was making a circuitous route of fifteen miles to
avoid contacting the Royal Funeral, to be held at midnight. I told bin not
FOLKIJOR3
Miss Effie Cowan,
gotennan County, Texas,
District 8.
Pile RO. 240.
Page NO. 9.
to carry as to the hotel but let as see the funeral. He drove as on and
put as out just in front of the procession/which contained two hearses,
one for Ferdinand and the other for Sophie, followed by Prances Joseph,
the Emperor.
"This was the first time we realized that war was impending for Fran-
-cis Joseph constantly remarked to his subjects on either side, I was in
hopes that I would be spared seeing my people thrown into another war".
he city was in total darkness as was the castitm at Royal Funerals.
Only long torches were carried by the footmen who were guarding the two
hearses. 'fie Americans were restless and of course began to whisper, bat
were hashed immediately by the crowd. .tt was not long thereafter until
some one else began to whisper and again the crowd signaled to as to hash.
"We were so impressed by their loyalty that we remained silent from
then on daring the procession, it was so Viet that one could -almost have
bea*d a pin fall. We could not but respect them for their loyalty. inch
the Americans could learn from them. We stood for three hours as the -1q-o-
cession passed by,, Atter it was over the lights were turned on and one:
of oar crowd had imbibed too freely. Across the street there were two
life size statues on a three story building and on looking apothe one
who had been drinking saw the figures and said, "Dont jump,'we will rescue
you'. aowever we were so impressed by the procession that we did not joke
him about his utterances. We were thinking seriously of the outcome of.
this funeral and well we might have in view of the consequences:
From Vienna we went to Brussels and from there twelve miles down
to visit the battle of Watterloe the monument was built by cutting, down
Folklore,
Miss offie Cowan,
cLendan County, Texas,
District 8.
Pile NO. 240.'
Page NO. 10.
twenty acres of earth and as there was no elevator we bad to climb
the steps to get to the top. On reaching the top we found a large bronze
lion surmounting it. It was a beautiful vision in the evening, I said
to the guide when he showed as where Blutcher, (hatcher and Wellington
met that it was the prettiest thing the eye ever looked upon ,W Re said
"Yes, Xes, I said -'1he world is in peace the whole world aver", and
we walked down the 385 steps to the panorama of the battle of Waterloo,
and both agreed that it was a fine reproduction of the thing we had just
viewed.
"There we met the Lord- Mayor of ;oaten,. Mrs Wood secured bis signa-
ture telling him we would be in town soon. Re assured as we would have a
good time. Instead of koing back to Brussels by train we went by taxi and
on approaching the main street we found the army, cavalry, and rapid fire
guns drawn by dogs and following was the ring and his children. fie went
acrbss the street and made in air as to what it was for and they informed
.vezkoh.
as that it was merely a review" -)N passing before the king. We had heard
this so much until we believed it. But in a few minutes we could hear
he guns firing at Liege. We could see that something terrible was hap-,
-pening without being told.
It was not long thereafter that we were told that we were in war. We
were advised to return to oar 2inglish speaking people and we returned to
Lond4n, crossing that night through the hook of Holland. I was disgusted
with the newspaper reports and happenings of the hoar, so I inquired of
a policeman as to the war and he replied, Go home, and remember this,
that after the war is over, the Anglishman will have fought(fifteen minutes
Folklore,
Liss ffie Cowan,
McLennan Cbunty, Texas,
District 8..
Pile Na.240
Page.Np.11.
longer than any one else"." We took his advice and attempted to return
to oar country but were detained thirteen days before we could secure
passage, on account* of there being such a rash of Aimericans tryinc, to
do the germ thing. And the demand for room On the steam -boats.
We secured passage finally and came home with portholes covered and
sa4ing like a stack of blakc cats in the darkness with no lights fear-
<-ing any minute that we might be sunk by a sub -marine. When we arrived
in New lork, three miles out, I saw tears of thankfulness for our safe
return to our loved ones, more tba I ever saw on any other occasion in
my whole past life. tow this twenty-four years later from somebody's
indescretion it begins to look as if we were going into the same mael-
strom of war again.