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FOLKLORE
Wm. V. Ervin, P. W.
McLennan County,
District 8.
No. of words,
File 240.
Page 1.
Reference
Consultant Mrs. George W. Jones, 1801 Colcord Avenue, Waco, Texas.
72
"I was born in McLennan county in 1860, and have lived in the county
all rot life. My father was born in Missouri. He came to Texas in 1846,
when he was a boy about fifteen years old. It was under peculiar circum-
stances that my father came to Texas. His mother, my grandmother, had died,
and grandfather married again. My father, whose name was David. McFadden,
was plowing in the field when his older brother, w Uncle John McFadden,
came to cay father and told him that grandfather had married again. My
father didn't want grandfather to marry again, he didn't like the woman; so
he just took the mule from the plow and got on it and started for Texas
without even going back to the house. He fell in with a family, or group of
people who were coming to Texas, and they brought him along with him. They
could see that he was just a boy, and I guess that is why they took him along
with them.
"When they got to Texas an army was being raised to fight Mexico, and
my father joined it. He was large for his age, and so they let him join. He
got down to Austin and San Antonio, but didn't get into Mexico.
"After that wart was over he finally became a Texas ranger and Indian
fighter. He was with Bigfoot Wallace in the Indian fighting. He and
Wallace and the men they were with were following a band of Indians in which
was one with big feet. At least the white men often* footprints in the trail
of the Indians which were much bigger than the other footprints, and they
thought it must be a big Indian which was making them. At last they caught
up with the Indians and had a fight with them, and defeated them. During the
fight my father heard Wallace yelling, "I've got the bigfoot Indian!" When
the fight was over the men went and looked at Wallace 'a Indian, which Wallace
FOLKLOEZ
Wm. V. Ervin, P. W.
McLennan County,
District a.
File 240
Page 2.
had killed, and it was a big Indian with big feet. From that time on the
men called Wallace 'Bigfoot". That is how Wallace came to be called Big
foot, and not because his own feet were big, as lots of people think.
"While we were living about twenty miles from Waco, on Hog Creek, my
father captured the last Indian in this part of the country. It was long
after the Indians had quit making raids down this far, although they still
raided and stole horses and killed settlers in Comanche, Hamilton and Brown
counties, and I always had a horror then when I was a little girl of those
counties because of the stories of Indian depredations we would hear then,
and I still don't feel any desire to go to those counties. It was about
1865 when my father caught the Indian. One cold, moonlight night my father
went out to the corral to turn loose some horses, and when he opened the
gate they all ran out but one horse, and it stood near the barn, with its
head and neck in the shadow of the barn. He thought it was one of his
horses, and wondered why it didn't run out with the others. He went up to
it and put his hand on its neck and ran his hand up along the neck toward
the head, and felt a rope around the pony's neck. He ran his hand along the
rope and touched the Indian, and the Indian yelled, "Indian: Comanche." My
father saw him then, as the Indian was standing in the shadow of the barn. My
father gratibed him, but the Ind ian didn't make any resistance. My rather
searched him, and didn't find anything on him in the way of a weapon, not
even a pocket knife. Father brought the Indian into the house. He was a
young Indian, and he was cold and about half-starved. My father tried to
talk to him in some Indian language he knew, but the Indian couldn't under-
stand. All he could do was point to the west and indicate he came from that
way. My father wanted to go and get the ne ighbors and all take council and
see what ought to be done as my father thought there might be other Indians
FOLKLORE
Wm. V. Ervin, P. W.
McLennan County,
District 8.
File 240
Page 3.
around who would attack the settlement. But az,T mother and aw older sister
and myself were scared to death, and we wouldn't let him stick his nose
out of the house. I was just a little thing, about five years old, but I
was sure scared. We made father wait until morning to go to the neighbors'.
We gave the Ind Ian something to e at, and he ate plenty. :1:y father sp re ad
some quilts and blankets down before the fireplace, and let the Indian
sleep there, and my father slept on a bed in the same room, and he said he
didn't think the Indian moved from the time he went to sleep until he woke
up the next morning.
"T he next morning father c alled the ne ig hb or s in, and they were afraid
there were other Indians around, but they hadn't seen any, and the Indian
father had caught said he was the only one. They couldn't, much out of him
but that and that he came from the west. They had no idea what he was doing
there except that he had got lost from a raiding party in the country
further west and had wandered down into our part of the country. We never
did know for sure where he came from, and he was always a mystery to us. One
of the men who came to our he that morning said he would take the Indian
to his place and take care of him to work for him, and the Indian went with
him, but he left the man after two or three years because the man wasn't
kind to him. That was the last wild Indian ever seen or heard of in this
country.
"My father was in the Dove Creek fight, and marched from Waco with some
of the Indian fighters. One night they marched all night. It was very
cold weather and there was snow on the ground, and the men suffered a lot
from the cold, especially the wounded.
nly father settled here when there was hardly any Waco here, and lived
in this county the rest of his life. I knew Neil McLennan, the man for whom
the county was named. He was one of the finest men I ever knew.