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REI4INISCENCES OF- MART
r. Mart Banta lives in'..the,..leaver.Creek
community on Beyj,e ieekTin..the north-
western•part of oauntY,--_-end has lived
'there' continuously since 18'77, fwhere his
father settled with hiliffamili. when Mart
was a very small child. Banta is an
outtstending- citizen in hiSTConznunity. His
',Reminiscences" are on filean the Kemp
Public Library.
“My father, J.H.Ba.nta, wis born and reared in Missour, and after the
,war he Came back home and. he was never at ease. The state was so torn uo
after the, war, so he decided to migrate.
After he stayed there in Colorado for
was too cold. He wanted a warmer climate.
his- femilY,„;.04.
wagon and staried-out
;He first went to Colorado.
!seven year, he decided,that, it.
h• e sold his —cattle, -put
he had in the world was his
wagOn and teaM, and $6OOSo, tb.en he started for Texas.
nstead of- Coming directly he had to go back (east throue,b Kansas and then
Ugh the Indian Te.rritory, via of -Fort' sill, andthen into Texas".
e -went on doisi- as fax as San Saba _County, in south Texas. But he Wasn't
satisfied, and tur-ned baCk north and' came to Henrietta. l'here he met a man
by the nazis! .of C.B.Patterson. He told hi that he was disappointed, that.
he bad not found:what suited. him, and. Mr. Patterson
asked him -what he was
looking for. He replied that he wanted wood, water, grass and game all -at
one place
kind of a country; Co he left his Zanily an" d went with Mr. Patterson up on
_
Mr -Patterson promitied that he could show him where to find. that
had been looking for, and
"rather hauled ihe lumber to build his house from sherman, and. finished
it in the fall of 1877.
"''ne neat -morning he started on the.'twO-day trip, to
Henrietta to get the family. I was then four years
old, having been born.
in Colorado. 'The next day after we got to our new home Fa?--k6r went down to
the Ctteek and. killed a buffalo. Of )ill diet of meat for the next four
"7"
Dulaney, Ethel C., Wichita Falls, Texas Page 2
REMINI STEAMS OF HART BANTA
yeari was ma.de.v22 of wild turkey, deer, antelope, and. buffalo. We used.
the buffalo tallow for lard. We also used lots of jerky, which is dried
meat, usually deer or *buffalo.
"T'nere were no settlers near us when my father came here.. he nearech
_ neighbors I can remember were two men. Who were working for Burk Burnett,
and. lived in a little log house on his place. 'they were Tom W.( -Roberts
and Dick Sparks. l'hey lived three miles down the creek from where we lived,
where is now located. the Texas Com_oany dam. We got our mail from Henrietta
through the Ikard Ranch. 4-xhey would bring our mail and supplies from Hen-
rietta whenever they were going, something like once a month. here was
nothing in Wichita Falls at that time. There was a crossing at the falls
in the Wichita river. tithe falls, for whic.h the city was named, were about
six feet high and were located about two hundred feet aboie the rail road.
bridge. There was a solid rock bottom at the falls, and. you could. cross
the river there wheh you cduld not cross at any other place,
_
father was desirous of entering the cattle business and.went to see,
Burnett, W ggoner, and-Ikard and asked them if they would cooperate with him
by giving -him part time work if he had a herd of cattle, and they replied,
1No I. hey didn't want anything to do with him if he owned cattle of his
on, so my father went into the sheep business.
"The .,first man that moved -in was a Baptist preacher named. John yr._-
Campbell. Hy father, when he moved,in
a51
knovn as the scrap Iliad,. aboutA acres.
,could only hold one hundred sixty acres
had settled on a parcel of land
He got the idea in his -head 'that he
on account of the homestead law. So,
when this priacher came along he deeded him the ninety acres,' and retained
the claim to one hundred sixty acres, now knorm as the John W. Cam-obell
survey.
Dulaney, Ethel C., ichita Falls, Texas Page 3
REMINISCEIGES OF MART BATA
"The next settler that I remember was J110 111. darter, who was known as
'Pan Carter. he next neighbor was T. G. Stearns. About 1880 the Powells
came He was a loCal Methodist preacher. Vie had services around at the
homes for two or three years. -'hese two preachers would preach around at
the houses of vhoever wrIted them. :„here were very few -parties or enter-
tainments; once in a while there was an old fashioned dance.
"There were no fences --all free range, We ran sheep there until 1888.
At that time the country began to close up; people began to settle on the
land, and Father had. to quit the shiep business on account of not having
enoug„h land enclosed to take care, of them.
"Our mother and. father, had schcol .for us in the evenings at home before
we could gol to sdhoOl. Our text books were the Blue Back Speller, -Ray's
Arimeic in three parts, and McGu.ffy Is Readers, which went -up to the sixth
grade. Whenever we wanted. something to read our mother would say, 'There
).s the Bible'. We had all read it through -before we ,started to school.
One day one of the boys got a hold of Gulliver's, Travels, and could not read
',it in peace for all the rest of us wanting him to read it aloud -6r let us,
have the book.
"The first school on Beaver .Creek, and the first- in the county, was
taught by T.B. Sparks, of Clinton, Missouri, an uncle of mine, who was then
about eighteen -years old.. The school was located on the north side of the
cre4k on the land. now owned by George B. ticcell. he tuition was 75¢ per
month per scholar, and. they had about ten. scholars.
"The next school was the pliblic school organized at Beaver Creek in
1834. It now stands on the same plot of ground where it was organized.
I am a trustee in this school where, went to school myself fifty years ago.
"We had a teacher there at Beaver Creek in the early days by the name of
Dulaney, Ethel C., Wichita Falls, TEran. Page 4
REMINISCE/TOES OF MART BANTA
L.H.Rosser, who was an ex -college president from Alabama. He handled them
all and had. plenty of time to spare. He taught us for four years. His
hobby was math. He was my first teacher in.the public school. I was in
about the sixth grade when I entered s (11001.
"There was a prep. school at Vernon, organized in about 1894 o4 1895,
where scholars prepared for college. Six of my classmates went. Prof.
Morris, who taught this school, said he could flick out every scholar from
Mr. Rosser's school by his work.
"The first suit of ready made clothes I ever had I bought from J.A.Kemp
here ih Wichita., His store was located on the east side of Ohio Avenue,
about where Nick's Hat St1.013 now is.
none day Naien the creek was low my father caught a cat fish that weighed
_seventy-two pounds. He put it in a wagon, and put wet cloths over it, and.
hhuled it to Henriettp. alive.
"I now own the old. home place where myffather.origitially settled,
have lived there during all the intervening years.* Our house stands now on
the same plot where -lather erected his first house, and ours. is the fourth
to stand on this soot. It is in a grove of Gninaberry trees.