 The Sherman Courier
Wednesday, August 15, 1917 pg. 19 Fiftieth Anniversary Edition F.C. VADEN TELLS ABOUT CATCHING WILD TURKEYS WITH DOGS IN EARLY DAYS The following interview with F.C. Vaden, given to The Courier in August 1910, will be found of much interest as it tells of the early days in general, as well as the location of the present city of Sherman: My father came to Texas and located in Red River county in 1843 and in 1847 he came up through this county on a buffalo hunt and saw what it was and decided to move up here. At that time the head of each family was entitled to 640 acres of land. I don't remember what it cost, whether anything or not, but any way not very much. My father took up 320 acres out here where the county farm now is, four miles west of Sherman, and he located the other 320 acres out here just south of the Montgomery place where the old town of Sherman used to be. My father helped to lay off the new town of Sherman and he got the lot where the Commercial National Bank now is for his work helping to lay off the town, and he traded that lot for a little old Indian pony. The principal reason for moving the town was that there was plenty of wood and water over here and there was neither at the old location, so they just decided to move the town. I was born and raised out here where the poor farm now is, and I remember once coming in here to town with my father we counted 13 deer out here just a half mile from where Mrs. Woods now lives. That was about 1858 to 1860. My father always did some farming, but we always raised a good many horses and cattle. Some people seem to have forgotten it, but we have seen the time here when a good big beef steer was not worth over $10, and that same steer would now bring $60 or $70. Yearlings were then worth only $3 or $5, and no market for them at that. You could buy a good horse for $40, and it took a good one to bring that much. There has been a wonderful change in this county since I was a boy. We have always kept hounds and I used to go out there on the flats and chase and catch wild turkey - just run them down, and I have run deer and fox over here where the cemetery now is, and where all those residences are on Grays Hill. All that country was once the worst sort of thicket. Memories Sherman History Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |