Here's More About Calamity Jane
Additional information about
Calamity Jane following the article
in the previous month's issue of
Frontier Times. Information is from
letters that contain additional
facts concerning the career of this
remarkable frontier woman. The first
of the letters was written by a
man who had personal associations
with her.
Mentions: M. S. Garretson * Colonel
Harry S. Young * she married a man
by the name of Burk * Mr. Ewin B.
Barker * Rev. M. K. Spipes * James
O'Neil, and R. R. Ryan * Mrs. Jane
Hickok McCormick * Benson's Landing,
now Livingston, Montana * Hickok
* Ben Greenough * Packsaddle Ben
* Toots Mansfield * Alice Greenough,
Marjorie Greenough, Turk Greenough
and Bill Greenough * Greenough ranch
near Red Lodge, Montana * Martha
Jane Canary * Virginia City Montana
* Mrs. Jane Hickok McCormick * Charlie
Burke * Teddy Blue Abbott * Rev.
Sipes * Tobe Barnes of Thermopolis,
Wyoming * Fort Washakie, Wyoming
*
Some Texans We Should Not Forget
By Augusta Lawrence
Samuel Goode Ward came to Texas
in 1837. He built his home of logs
in peon county near a crystal spring
and a picturesque creek, and named
it Springwood. As a farmer he was
not very successful. But he was
himself a highly educated man who
had been a traveler and a soldier.
He had a real library of well chosen
books, and he kept in touch with
the outside world through the best
periodicals of the day. Seth Ward's
mother was a member of the Methodist
church, a prayerful Christian, who
taught her boy from babyhood of
the loving Father in Heaven who
is never far from His children on
earth. Thus in a Christian home,
in an atmosphere of culture and
refinement, was Seth Ward horn,
on November 15, 1858. Seth Ward
was preeminently a builder—a builder
of churches and of houses for the
churches to work in more efficiently;
a builder of colleges and of buildings
to add to their ability to serve.
He put first the spiritual and intellectual
building of the individual man,
then the material building came
as the outward working of the inward
force. He was in deed and in truth
a coworker with God in the making
of men. Churches, schools, and colleges
were to him just helpers in this
making. Here is his story.
Mentions: Samuel Goode Ward and
Sarah Anne Wiche Ward * President
H. C. Pritchett * Sam Houston Normal
Institute * Reverend W. D. Bradfield
* Rev. James Mackey * Bishop Mouzon
* Shearn Church, Houston * Central
Church, Galveston * the Raine Memorial
Church of New Orleans * the Chekiang
Land Case * Shanghai Times * Bishop
Candler * Yokohama * Margaret Elizabeth
South *
Mrs. Clarinda Draper Is 104 Years
Old
Account of Mrs. Clarinda Draper,
long-time Llano county resident
who was born on Jan. 6, 1838, near
Nashville, Tenn., and three years
later her father, Ephriam Choat,
moved with his family to Texas,
settling in what later became Fannin
county. At the age of 16 years she
was married to George Washington
Draper, and they worked together
at cattle raising for a number of
years. It was customary for them
to drive their stock to Palo Pinto
county, fatten them and sell them
to the Government for the Indians
on the reservation. Here is her
story.
Mentions: Mrs. Katie Sessom of
the Field Creek community * Walden,
Ark * old Fort Burnet * moved to
Llano county, settling on Cold Creek
* Dawson Draper * E. A. Draper of
Field Creek, and Millard Draper
of Pontotoc *
Down In The Cross Timbers
By Worth S. Ray
Excellent and lengthy account
describing the history, geography
and culture of that region of Texas
known as the Cross Timbers. This
is a section of country beginning
at Red River and continuing in a
general southerly direction towards
the Gulf of Mexico, located roughly
in that stretch of country beginning
on the East between Paris and Clarksville
and extending Westward in some places
as far as Jacksboro and including
parts of Eastland and practically
all of Palo Pinto counties, with
an occasional area of comparatively
level prairie country in between
the different "prongs."
Mentions: Bastrop * Mina * Lockhart,
San Marcos, Austin, and even Georgetown
* Robertson Hill * Miss Lillie Robertson
* Gen. Robert E. Lee, Jefferson
Davis, J. Pinckney Henderson, Mirabeau
R. Lamar, Sam Houston * Phillip
Smith and his wife Mary * Mary Pippin
* Big Elm * Mr. George W. Chapman
* Sam Bass * Round Rock, in Williamson
county * Col. Jim Baldwin * John
Skaggs * Quantrel * Sam Barnes *
The Cross Timbers barbecue * Joe
Bailey * Charlie Cutberson * John
H. Reagan * Richard Coke * Jefferson
Davis * Sam Lanham, Sul Ross * Joe
Sayers * Charter Oaks *
The Cheap American Brass Clock
By George B. Davis
The financial panic of 1837 brought
clockmaking almost to a standstill.
But the demand for clocks had not
abated with the general collapse
of the period, and something was
needed not only to meet the wants
of the market, but to infuse new
life into a waning and rather specialized
industry. In using the word "cheap"
to describe this new product, nothing
derogatory is imputed. The American
brass clock was a contrivance that
has recorded time faithfully and
well for a hundred years, and that
with a little skilled restoring
is qualified to function for another
century or for an indeterminate
period. Here is the story.
Mentions: Chauncey Jerome * Hiram
Camp * Y. T. Barnum * Jerome Manufacturing
Company * Seth Thomas * Dirge, Peck
& Company * Thomaston * Plymouth
Hollow * Elihu Geer * John Birge
* Joseph Ives * Birge and Fuller
* Elisha Brewster * Solomon C. Spring
* John C. Brown * the Forestville
Manufacturing Co * Forestville Manufactory
* Forestville Hardware and Clock
Co * E. N. Welch * Elias Ingraham
* Atkins & Mitchell * Waterbury,
Ansonia, E. N. Welch, New Haven,
Seth Thomas and Daniel Pratt *
Texas Rangers On The Scout
By A. J. Sowell
In 1870-71 the Indians were very
numerous and hostile on the Texas
frontier, and a call was made by
the Governor for several companies
of volunteers to go on a campaign
against them. There was an immense
scope of country to protect, stretching
from the Rio Grande to Red River.
The Indians were more numerous in
the northwestern part of the State,
and committed many depredations
under the notorious leaders, Big
Tree, Satanta, Sittanka, and others.
This account especially deals with
the conditions of the Texas border
at that time, especially in the
northwest, and relates incidents
of Indian warfare as recalled by
old settlers in that region.
Mentions: Captain David Baker
* Wichita Mountains * were D. P.
Baker, captain; Asa Hill, lieutenant;
William Thorn, orderly sergeant;
E. H. Cobb, first duty sergeant;
Joel R. Payne, second sergeant;
William Murphy, Charles Robinson,
Charles Figurs and Dan Woodruff,
corporals; Dr. Fred Gillespie, physician
and surgeon. John Fitzgerald was
bugler. * Camp Baker * Marquis of
Lorne * McCulloch, Ford and Van
Dorn * Fort Belknap on the Brazos
* Flat Top Mountain * Charley Brown
* Fredericksburg and Boerne * Cibolo
river * Camp Hays * Fort Mason *
Mr. Turner * Dan Woodruff * Bud
egler * Billy Sorrell * Captain
Swisher * Camp Colorado *
(Continued Next Month)
The Camel Camp At Camp Verde
By Colonel M. L. Crimmins
The camels were introduced into
this country in 1856 to solve the
problem of transportation in the
arid sections of our southwest.
They were distributed through Army
posts in West Texas, but most were
kept at Camp Verde, Texas. Congress
appropriated $34,000 for the purchase
of these camels and the next year
forty more were bought. In 1857
a test was made to see how they
compared with mules. Mr. Beale,
the superintendent of wagon transportation,
was in charge of this experiment
between Fort Defiance, near Bonita
Canyon, across such waterless deserts
as the tornado del Muerto to El
Paso, a distance of five hundred
miles. The camels carried burdens
of 700 pounds, part of which was
forage for the mules which accompanied
them. They finished the long trip
much less jaded than the mules and
lived principally by browsing, preferring
brush to grass. Mr. Beale pronounced
them a success and said that it
was easier to manage a train of
twenty camels than five mules. Here
is the story.
Mentions: the Devil's River,
Texas, near Ozona * Captain Charles
J. Whiting * Fort Clark * Cornelius
Van Camp * Jules Poinsard * Colonel
Albert Sidney Johnston * Robert
E. Lee *
THE EDITOR'S BOX
Mentions: Charlie Eckhart, Bandera's
typical frontier character * Mr.
F. C. Nelson * Mr. J. H. Newcomer
* Joe Harvey * Mrs. Jeanette Hay
* Jose Mission at San Antonio *
Chris Emmett * Dr. P. I. Nixon *
Dr. and Mrs. Walter Prescott Webb,
Miss Mildred Webb, Miss Winnie Allen,
Mr. Hunt * Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Groos
* Fran Groos, and Mrs. H. Buss,
of San Antonio * Carl Groos * W.
& C. Scott & Son * Gustave Groos
and Frederick Groos * Groos National
Bank * Franz Groos and Ernest Groos
* Earle R. Forrest * Judge A. V.
Pue, Bandera * Dr. T. M. Harrell
* Bert Simmons, Ada, Okla * T. A.
Buckner * George West * E. B. Ritchie
* G. A. C. Haliff * Mrs. W. S. Randall,
San Antonio. Mrs. B. F. Langford.
Jr.. Bandera * Mr. and Mrs. George
C. Freeman * Robert A. Irion * Anna
Raguet * Groce's retreat * The Allen
family * Dr. R. A. Irion * Ewing
C. Irion * Mrs. J. R. Irion *