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the, LX the :Matador, and the 'rring- Fin
for her hUsbend,, learning, t0ype
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Interview with LTS. Frank Mitchell, 409_Forest Yarch 25, 1938.
krs. Mitchell, who came to Old Tnscosa as a very young girl,
in 1884, knew Frank Valley, Fred Chilton, and d ding, three cawboys
who figured in the fatql-shooting of Larch 21, 1886. She remembers
the as nice yaung cbys who treated her ns Considerately as any -of
the others and who acted as gentlemanly. jarank Valley was tall, dark,
And handsome, object of admiration of all the young girls, but con*.
aiderably older than shetwemr. She, though very Young, because of the
scarcity of young girls,- was permitted to -go to 'dances as long as' her
father vias about the place. Jesse Sheets, the fourth of the men who
died with their I:loots-on on the.night of March 21, 1886, 'was a restaurant-
keeper who stuck his head,out of.the door to see'wYtat the shooting was
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all about and aiddikkitc'oidentallI.She saw the four in the street the
next' morning, withlheir.hlts-4ppqd-over their faces.
Mrs Yitchell'also knew Vrenchy McCormick.well. $he remembers her
especailly for her goodness and kindness in carrying water to her
folks when they hid typhoid fevei. and other times because.ehe had
good well water and the other-famil/ did not. very time she went pai
the Mther;_girl's homestead, she br4ht a bucket of the good watef,
Frenchy, as she was -known; w4nt-to4her husband's dance --and gambling
hall, but did bat become orie of the red light Oris. When her husband
died -after the decline of Old Taseasa, the Cath4ic, organizations,-
offered her a good job and hoMe-.0 St. ArthonYtiK4a4til. -She refused
and they offered'her 4 permanent home at the Sisters of CharitX.#1_efe-:
y, Catholic'inetitution in Fart Worth but she again refusedotO be
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near the greve of her husband.
'Rocking Ohair 71mmac a notoriOui, figure in Old Tascosa, was. fat
brunette young -woman who ran oneefl-Ue Ted light houses, called
Rocking Chair 1Mma because she wa.ollso lazy sp.e sat and rocked all the
time. Sally Amory was another 'woMan Who.ran a red.pght house.
Mrs. Mitchell lived on
*anches, often keeping book!
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she could help him more efficiently. -Ile objected to the telephone when
it first came in and she had one put in her hone while he was away,
paying for it a year in advance. He clime to enjoy its service very much,
using it often.
When her nephew asced her oAe time what she wanted for Christmas,
krs. Mitchell tflid him that she w-Inted electric lights more than any
thing else. She hal. served 11-.-r time cleaning lamp chimneys and filling
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kerosene lamps.:WgitigAnere 10M in she turned them all
on that...54-reir-Tris49t and went outside the house and walked around and
around it, admiring,the sight and enjoying the thought of ,-emancipa-
tion_from the years of semi -darkness and lamp -cleaning.
'Again, when cars wero advertiser in the St. Louis paper) which
everyone took Mr Mitchell remarked that they would never be used
genevIlly out in thaPsnhandle.
Aecalling the: tons of coal ash and the fires of cow chips, Mrs.
mitchell calls gas the most convenient modern improvement in the
home. 'Mrs. Mitchell is the fir -t of the old-tiffers interviewed to say
she would'not live it all OVer again, remembering the bitter that
spoiled the sweet for 'her.
'rs. Mitchell r4calls the real Spa.nish people who weneat Old
q2ascosa, who were white as any American was. One of these old' Spanish
families, who pride themselves or their pure Spanish blood, unmixed
with Indian and4pgro like the "gTeaser" kexicans, was old Don Casimerti,'
whose family were all lAue=eyed and fair. Another family, that of
okd Casfmero Romero, consisted of his wife and two" foster Children,
Piedad and her supposed brother. Piedad was beautiful,, entirely different
in characteristics frwmthe foster' brother, and many thought they were
not related. Lie became a neter-do-Vrell. She7,Xater married an American
named Thompson and lived in ,Kansas City and at Lubbock.
Mrs. Mitchell ha a not seen" any of the old barbed wire on Weetern
Avenue, but hap specimens whichfithe am4 hor husbanCfound' on the
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Matador range recently. Some of this wire, with other valuable historical
bbjects have been placed by Yrs. Mitchell in the museum at Canyon. The
barbed wire is broad and flat with barbes at intervals.
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Yr. Mitchell was the first customer of Mr. Sewald, the first jeweler
in'tlieg Panhandle at Old Tascosa, latr be:oming the first one in AmarilVo,,
also. The piece of jewelry thai Mr. Mitchell bought was a tine 1, Itch,
whieh--is at present in a safety deposit 'oox in the bank. Mr, Sewald,
when he later sold out to the late -73. M Finklea, accosted Mr, Mitchell
on the street one day and tid him that he wanted himko be the lalt.
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person Oesia to buy a piece of jewelry f—om him1 Mr. Mitchell Selected
a beautiful ring,- whith ,he bought at a niminal-cost. The ring was
40-ven-at his death to a nomlohei Who had expressed a wish for it.
Mrs. Mitchellrtiblals, unlike other -old-timers interview‘ that
-sandstorms were, not a common thing in the Panhandle before the settlers
came with ploughs, except along the sandy wastes Of the Canadian River.