Courtesy of William A. Matthews          Loderick Matthews            Additional Matthews Information
                                                    

John Garrett Matthews, an Autobiography

This is the story of John Garrett Matthews as recorded by his wife Mary.
 [Only the part dealing with his life in Jackson County is included.]

My Youth

Early memories of my happy childhood days.  Most of my early life was spent in my grandfather's (Garrett) home. My father went into the long struggle between the North and South in 1861[1], and he moved my mother, brother, sister[2] and me to grandfather's.  We were very small and our mother could not stay alone after father left.

My earliest recollections in this home were the happy times I spent with my dear brother Willie and sister.  Brother was one and one-half years younger and sister three years younger than I.  We were sad to have father leave us, but Oh! So happy when he could get a furlough and come home for a few days, and so sorry for the time for him to go back to his regiment.

In my grandfather's home were he, grandmother, Aunt Nellie, Aunt Adelia, Uncle Major (who had also enlisted in the Army)[3], and a maiden cousin.  We children called her Aunt Sallie.  She always cared for the dairy and chickens.

I was very young at this time; so have very faint memories of the things that happened.  But I can remember the grave memories endured by our mother.  My father had typhoid fever during this long four years, and also was wounded once.  These and other hardships caused him to return very much broken in health; and he was never as well as before he went into the Service.  He served as Lieutenant during the War.

Once when his regiment came to Houston, we found out that they would be there.  Our grandmother, mother and grandfather planned to go and see them.  We three children were to go also. My!  What excitement reigned in that house.  We were to go on the train.  There was a basket of good things to eat on the trip; and we children were very much interested in all this procedure.  We stayed in a hotel while in Houston.  There were many people also there to see their loved ones.  A son of my father's Colonel was there, a boy full of mischief.  He dressed himself up in a hideous, false face, and when I went downstairs, put in his appearance which scared the wits out of me; so I was afraid to come down alone anymore.  This visit over, it was a long time before we saw father again.  We went home and soon forgot our troubles in merry play.

My brother was full of mischief.  One day he put a rope around the neck of our old black mammy’s little girl and was pulling her up to a limb of a tree.  When discovered, he turned the rope loose and the child dropped to the ground, without any serious consequences to her.  But my brother's punishment was probably more painful.  Another prank of his; he decided to pull the buggy out of the carriage house, and this was built on a decline.  When it started, brother tried to out run the buggy, but it gained on him so fast he was caught between the shafts and a tree.  So, as he was punished enough by the jam, do not think he received any more punishment at this time.

We children always loved to go to our old black mammy’s cabin.  She would take good care of us.  If we went to sleep, she put us on her bed, which was always white and clean.  Once I was sick and fretful.  My mother got Uncle's violin out to please me, but told me not to turn the keys, as the bridge would fall. This I did of course, then she took the beloved violin from me. That should have taught me to remember that I should not do those things I was told not to do, but we always want the forbidden things.  My Uncle Major gave me this old violin thirty years ago and I enjoyed using it a long while. (My granddaughter, Mary Blanton Lewis, has it now.)[4]

Many things took place while at our grandfather's, that were very enjoyable to us children.  Some of these were going fishing and trapping quail.  We boys had a trap each and we caught many birds. Our grandfather made these traps of barrel staves and fixed them with a trigger.  We would put corn under the trap.  When the birds went in to eat the grain, if they touched the trigger the trap would fall so we had a quail dinner.  I decided to build a trap, if could be, even better than grandfather's.  So I got nails and put the staves together with them; but when grandfather saw my effort, he made me take all the nails out and put them back where they belonged, which I did.

I was so fond of our Grandpa I couldn't stand to displease him.  He had a gentle horse for me and I soon learned to ride with him after the horses as he had a great number of those on all open range.  No fences or pastures were used in those days.  We would bring in horses that he wanted broken to ride, and one of his Negroes would gentle it and keep it up awhile.  Then it was turned out on the range again.  Sometimes we would find a motherless colt and bring it in.  Once we got a mule colt. Aunt Sallie fed it milk, and we had a pet.  We would tie it to a tree in the yard and get on its back, ride it around the tree until it wound up almost to the tree, then turn it around and ride it around the other way.  Those were happy days for us.

After the war was over, our father came home and soon we went back to our own home to try to gather up the shattered threads of life that the terrible war had so rudely broken for us. After a few years another sweet little sister, Lela Grace, came to our home, but she was spared to us only about one and one-half years when she went to Heaven.  After this my brother had a very hard spell of fever.  He was sick a long while.  Once, after he was slowly regaining his strength, a wasp flew into the room.  He jumped up to strike the wasp and was so weak, he fell.  I was greatly amused by this incident, not understanding the grave nature of his condition.

Then, very soon, our dear mother was taken very ill.  Our father took her to our grandfathers thinking that a rest was what she needed. Also Grandpa was a very good doctor and in those times doctors were not easy to reach.  But she didn't respond to careful treatment given her.  She soon went to be with our little sister; and left a heart broken little family.  I have felt that loss all of my life.  We three children were again left at our grandfathers for several years. Our grandmother died also and Aunt Nellie took care of us. She soon married Uncle Bob Bolling; then Uncle Major married. The Negroes were freed and only just a few stayed with Grandpa. Aunt Sallie and Aunt Odilia were also with us.

Our Aunts played the piano and Uncle the violin; so when they were gone it was very quiet.  When they were at home they would play games with us.  While sitting around the fire and knitting, they allowed us to play hide and seek, and we would sometimes hide behind their spacious skirts.  We would pop corn and eat nuts and make candy.  Grandfather bought his groceries in New Orleans, La., so there was sugar by the barrel, also syrup.  We were very happy.  Then, in spring, there was a flock of sheep to shear and lambs to work.  We boys each had ropes to rope the lambs, and I had a small pair of shears.  Grandpa would tie a sheep down, and I could shear one too.

One-day brother had a sheep roped.  He became entangled in the rope and was thrown to the ground.  I laughed.  He said, "Brother John, you'll get yours directly."  And I did, which was more serious, as a sheep Grandpa was shearing kicked the shears out of his hand.  They flew up and came down and stuck in my back. This necessitated a trip to the house to treat the cut.  This was soon over, and I was busy as ever shearing and roping.

Grandpa had a Mexican sheepherder who spent all his time with the sheep.  This old sheepherder had a sweetheart, and another Mexican woman was trying to keep the girl from marrying the man.  I expected she wanted him herself.  When Grandpa got the man and girl together, he asked the man if he wanted the girl for his wife.  He said he did.  Then he asked the girl if she wanted the man for her husband.  She said, "Yes."  He then told them to go, as they were married.  This was custom then with ranchmen.  And the old woman had to look else where for her a man.

Another accident befell me when at play.  There was a plank set up against the barn.  We children were using it to slide down on.  I struck a big splinter, which entered my breast.  Our old black mammy came to my aid and tried to pull it out, but it broke off down in the flesh.  This caused a trip to see a doctor and have the splinter cut out.  Well, I didn't use that slide any more.

I always enjoyed riding over the range with Grandpa.  No fences with very few houses (these near the river) to break the view of vast prairie.  All open and no trees, except a few mots of timber here and there.  Nothing except horses and cattle.  Now and then a wild animal, twice a year the roundups.  I wasn't large enough to take part in the branding; but could ride all day looking after stock.

When winter set in, Grandpa would take Negroes and an ox wagon and go out on his range to find and kill a fat beef.  This was dressed, and he would put the beef in pickle for winter use.  He also raised many hogs.  These he would kill on the range when it was cold and bring them in to dress and cure a bountiful supply of meat and lard to have for his Negroes as well as his own family.  He always kept just one cow to give us sweet milk and cream through the cold weather.

Grandpa had a horse powered gin and mill on his farm.  One day while helping around the gin a Negro boy, Pete, became entangled in the belts, and one leg had to be amputated as the result.  He always kept the boy around the house after this until he was grown up.  We boys became good friends with Pete and took him on our fishing trips, which we always made in the summer time.

We went to Matagorda Bay to fish.  Some Negroes went on a wagon to carry all camping outfits the day before; then we would follow in a buggy, and how we would enjoy these camping out trips!  Always got all the fish we could eat.  The only "fly in the ointment" was the numerous mosquitoes.  We had to have bars and stretch them over our beds.  One-night mosquitoes were very bad, and Pete, our playmate, had no bar for his bed; so, Grandpa had him come under our bar. We would do most anything for Pete.  I forgot to say when I was trying to ride the red mule, I put my saddle on it.  Needless to say, the saddle was too large and I couldn't tighten the girth; so, when I tried to get up in the saddle it turned off, and saddle and I both came to the ground.  My uncle traded me two mares for the mule later, which I kept until I went off to school, some years later.

About this time Grandpa planned to move to Matagorda Bay; so built a house and moved there.  We all liked the change very much until a storm came and blew the salty tide over our crops and destroyed them.  We, rather Grandpa, decided to go back to his farm near Edna.  (This farm is now (1940) the home of Marion and Larrie O'Brien.)  While we were still on the bay, Aunt Nellie called to me to get the gun and shoot, with fine shot, some cows which had waded around the edge of the bay and were destroying the corn.  I did.  Some one had put bullets in one barrel instead of birdshot.  Well, I rode up near enough to an old bull and fired at him.  Imagine my dismay when he ran a few steps and fell over dead.  Well, cattle were not very valuable, especially old bulls.  They were often killed to let young ones take their place.  I had no trouble about this except to get the carcass removed.  I went to a neighbor to get him to help me do this.  To have some fun at my expense, he said, "Johnnie, maybe this was someone's fine bull.  What would you do?"  I was scared about it and when the joke as gone far enough he said, "I am sure it wasn't of any service." So, I felt much better, although I was very sure how my gun was loaded after that.

We had great pleasure fishing while living on the bay; also hunting as there was much game and no law-restricting killing when we liked to do so.  Once our aunts had a young lady visiting them.  We all went to our favorite fishing place. This young lady tied the line to her wrist and got my brother to throw her line far out in the water.  Soon a fish took her hook and was dragging her into the water.  My aunt ran and caught the girl.  My brother came and caught the line over his shoulder, started in the opposite direction and soon dragged the fish to land.  It proved to be an immense red fish, weighing forty or more pounds.  By this time we had all the fish we wanted, so went home heavily laden with our catch.

Sometimes our aunts would go hunting bird eggs in the mots of timber near the bay.  One day Aunt Odelia had a heavy basket of eggs we had gathered; the tide was coming in so we started home.  She stepped in a cow trail, which was full of water, and couldn't be seen -- just sat down with the eggs and they began to float off in the water.  I helped her up and we hurriedly gathered up the eggs again; but could hardly do so for laughing at our aunt's comical appearance.

Another sport was running down fish in the shallow water where they came to feed.  We had sharp nails driven into boards and would spear them as you do flounders.  We used to catch numbers of fish in this way, and it never hurt us running in the water, as it was so salty that when our clothes dried they would be stiff with salt.  This was great fun.  We also liked to catch crabs in the same manner.  These we had to use at once, as they were not good if kept any length of time after being caught. We had many trips of this kind, which were filled with pleasure while we lived on the bay.  When we moved back to the farm near Edna we soon became accustomed to the old routine, but often went back to the bay fishing and always caught all the fish we could use and often dried a lot of them.

During this time of our happy carefree days, our father married again.  Our stepmother was Miss Lenora Brackenridge,[5]. Sister of Colonel George Brackenridge and Miss Eleanor Brackenridge of San Antonio.  Our father took his wife to live in Texana as he was in mercantile business there.  He soon decided to take us to live with him; our happy days of fishing and hunting came to an end, and we missed the old carefree days now as life began in earnest in town.  We missed our sister so much as our mother had requested grandfather to raise her.  We almost counted the days until we could go visit her, as we had never been separated before.

On one of my visits to see sister, grandfather and aunts, my father let me ride out, the distance being about six miles, on the weekend.  Sunday afternoon, my grandfather told me what time to start back to town, as he had to ride out to see some of his stock.  Well, I just watched the clock dreading for the time to come to start and making myself miserable as well as the others of the family.  I saddled my horse and started. After going part of the distance, the horse flies were bad, and they annoyed my horse so terribly he began to try to lay down and began to roll.  This was all the excuse I needed, so I went back to Grandpas and led the horse.  When Grandpa came in, he asked why I had not gone home as he had told me to, and I told him about the horse flies.  He said, "Well, my son, you must get up early in the morning and go as your father won't like it."

When I got home, Pa spoke to me and asked if I had had breakfast.  I said, "No."  He told me to go tell the cook to fix me some breakfast.  I felt good as I thought I wasn't in trouble, as I expected, but when I had finished he called me into his room.  When he was through with me -- well, I decided to always come home when he said.

About this time my youngest aunt was married to Mr. Thomas O'Brien. Aunt Sallie died and Grandpa went to live with our dear Aunt Nellie who was married also.  So ended our happy times at the old home of our Grandfather.  As we were old enough to go to school, we began to enjoy the association of boys of our age.

Boyhood Days

We were placed in school under a very dear old lady, Mrs. Chivers; we called her "Aunt Jane."  This school was taught in a vacant residence, as Texana had no school building at this time.  "Aunt Jane" taught us reading and writing and arithmetic, but "not by the rule of a hickory stick" as she was always gentle and kind to us and we all loved her.  When we finished our first reader (M.C. Guffys), our teacher clapped her hands and said, "Now for the new second reader." Needless to say, we were elated.  We had to send to Indianola. (The town that was washed away, I believe, in 1879.)[6] This took one or two weeks to make the trip, as it had to be made in a sailboat.  It was only thirty miles but sometimes the wind was in the wrong direction, then it was a tiresome trip indeed.  Just imagine our joy when the books came to us.  Our next teachers were Mrs. Coleman, Aunt Lizzie Jordan, Miss Texana Davis, and Mrs. Dr. Morton.  After these lady teachers, men were employed: Mr. Wells and Mr. Staples.  All the above teachers taught in vacant residences, except Mr. Staples who taught in a church and the courthouse.  These were all very kind to us.  Mr. Staples was rather strict and he was my only teacher to ever punish me for imperfect lessons.  This was in "Old" Smiths grammar.

We had many sports.  No ball except town ball, (no new sports) hot ball and antie over.  We amused ourselves by pulling the front wheels from an old wagon to the top of a near by hill.  Then we would all get on that could possibly do so, start it rolling down the hill, and by the time we reached bottom we were going at a terrific pace.  One day the tongue of our wagon ran into the ground, and we were all thrown off in several directions.  We were none of us hurt this time, however, another time a boy did fall off, and the wheel ran over his arm.  Our teacher who was our dear "Aunt Jane" took him up to the house.  She gave some first aid remedies and some pity.  He was soon all right and no damages done really.  He was soon ready to ride again.  We also played hot ball.  This was an exciting game.  We had a hard rubber ball and would chose sides.  The ball was thrown from one to the other side with all force, each side trying to get the ball; and when it was caught it was instantly thrown to the opposite side.  Then, there was a great scramble to obtain possession of the ball.  When caught the opposite side would be peppered as hard as was possible.  There couldn't be any winner, as there was so much confusion after the game started.  "Bull pen" was another game and "antie over". These were enjoyed as all youngsters would.

After this we were sent to "Mustang" school.  A distance of fifteen miles from Texana.  This was named for the creek or small river near it.  This stream ran all the time and was clear.  Here we had a box house, and for desks there were long planks nailed to the wall on each side; the boys on one side, and the girls on the opposite side with backs to each other; so, not many sheep eyes could be exchanged.  We boarded in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ethridge.  There were seven girls in this family and five boarder girls and five boys.  Our first teacher was Mr. Vicory.  We boys were very anxious to talk to those pretty girls but were not allowed to do so. Once we had a young lady visitor in the home.  Our dinner was served, and we had plates of stew.  Well, I couldn't watch those pretty girls and my plate too, so I met with dire consequences.  I kept moving my plate nearer the edge of the table until it came too near the edge and slid into my lap. I was greatly embarrassed, but our housemother came to my rescue and said, "Never mind, Johnnie, I'll fix that."

We also had church services in the schoolhouse.  Once when going to Church, the girls walking ahead of the boys, the boys began to dare each other to walk up and go with the girls.  Well, it was impossible to take such a dare, as this was what I wanted to do anyhow.  We started and all the boys fell back.  I went on and in walking along with my eyes on those pretty girls, I failed to see a washed out place at the edge of the road, stepped into it, and fell down and was again embarrassed; but, not as much as to make me stay away from those pretty girls, if I could get a chance to walk with them.  Soon, another opportunity was afforded me to go with them again, and it was very dark.  Well, a gentleman always walks on the outside.  There was a gully, which couldn't be seen, so I got another fall.  But my ardor wasn't dampened by all those happenings for girls company.

Our next teacher was Mr. Luscomb.  While he was teaching we had a scare which almost proved too much for one of our members.  There was a visitor boy at the house and some of the girls fixed him up with a red mask over his face, and he had on a long coat which covered him completely up as he walked just squatting down.  He came into the room where we boys were.  One was playing a violin, and I was keeping time with an improved instrument.  Others were busy with schoolwork.  This grotesque figure began hopping about in time to the music.  The boy that was playing was paralyzed with fright, and there was a general stampede for the outside.  We collided with each other and fell on the slick ground (which was caused by throwing out wastewater).  We could all feel the hideous creature at our heels.  We ran around the house and intended going in where the family was but were so scared we couldn't open the door.  Finally someone opened the door, and we got in where the teacher was, as he was boarding in the same house.  They began to tell us it was a neighbor boy. We all accepted the fact except the little fiddler.  He was so overcome with fright he couldn't understand anything and almost went into convulsions.  The teacher had to give him brandy to help him revive and be able to accept explanations, but he was afraid to sleep in our room that night; nor for sometime after unless his two brothers would sleep with him one on each side.

We boys had all been raised where there were Negro slaves in the homes, and they were full of superstition and fear of ghosts; so, were always telling us such things.  Naturally we were afraid of I don't know what.  Just expected something to reach out and grab us in the dark and we loved to hear the old Negroes tell these ghost stories.  They held a certain charm over us in some way.  They believed also in warnings.  This shows the superstition prevalent at this time.

I will tell here of an episode in my earlier life.  While in bathing with our black playmate, Pete, some doves came and lighted near us and would fly up and away, only to come and light again near us. They did this several times.  Pete said, "We got to git out-o-dis water, dem doves are warning us."  So out we came after the doves had lighted three times.  Well, the truth was the doves wanted to drink unmolested and our splashing in the water would scare them away.  Well, it was almost a warning to me for I almost got a spanking for staying in the water so long.  When grandfather came in I was asleep.  He knew at once I had been in the water too long.  This took place in the Lavaca river at the old home of my grandfather.  I was about ten years old.  Such beliefs were about all the Negro slaves knew.

Now to go back to the school days at Mustang.  Nothing more of much interest took place there, and when vacation came, we went back to our home in Texana.

About this time my father moved to the old Brackenridge home four miles from town.[7]

This was a very large home.  There were two rooms, several porches, and the building was two-and-one-half stories high.  We lived here some time[8] and worked the fields of heavy black land. We used to plow oxen, also horses.  Our ox team was very hard to manage and as I was oldest, I had this team.  Brother drove the horses.  Sometimes it took both of us to drive my team, one to hold the plow and one to drive the oxen. Once brother was trying to hold the plow in the ground, and I, while attempting to make the ox stay in the furrow, he ran around on the other side to get the ox straightened out.  The ox threw his horns around and struck me in the chest and knocked me over backwards.  When I got up, father came and helped us get started.  We didn't know much about farming or teams at that time.  Later, we put the horse team ahead of the oxen to drag heavy treetops and logs.  The oxen, one of them especially, would lick and scare the horses.  This caused them to tear down the gatepost as I drove through.  Once when I was driving the team to water, the ox team kept running up on the horses and kept them scared.  This was trying work and not much gain either.  Sometime later we gave up the venture of farming and moved back to Texana.

As we were going along, the wagon jolted down into a drain ditch.  This threw my father off the wagon and onto one of the horse's hips.  This scared the team and they ran away, and the fall caused my father to lose his hold on the lines.  I jumped off the wagon and called to my brother to jump off also; but he was afraid to jump and sat there holding on to a nest of tubs, which was on the load of household goods.  The horses circled and ran back to us.  My father ran in front of them and got them stopped.  Nothing was hurt except the coupling pole, it was broken.  We had an ax so we soon had another one cut out of the woods.  We put it in and were soon on our way again. We moved to a place in the edge of town, here we did some more farming.

Later, our father went back to the Brackenridge home to do fence building and took our stepmother with him, leaving us to school.  We had a Negro woman cook and a Negro man to work in the field.  One night the Negroes had a dance in town, and our Negroes went.  In the night, we were wakened by angry voices and in a few minutes a shot rang out, then all the Negroes ran off except the one that was shot.  We were afraid to open our door to see what had happened, so he lay there till daylight.  An old trusty Negro, who worked for a neighbor, was sent after us, as the neighbor knew we were alone.  You may be sure we were glad to get out of that room and go somewhere else.  Our father was sent for and came and got things settled again.  The Negro that was shot had a brother who came after him.  He placed the wounded man across the horse and rode off with him in that position.  He soon died.

About this time[9], the Brackenridge family moved to San Antonio and we went again to live in that home.

Soon my father was elected to the Sheriff's Office.  Now he was away a great deal of the time for there was much lawlessness at this time and the sheriff who served before my father was elected to the office, was killed on a collecting trip in the home of some old bachelor friend.  Both men were killed and the house burned.  There was an old Negro cook who lived in a cabin near the dwelling who said that a man guarded her so she couldn't give an alarm.  She thought there were six men and no clue of the murders was ever found.  This caused us much uneasiness when our father was gone, especially when collecting taxes.  He was not safe when he was at home, lest robbers might come in on us.

Once while Pa was gone, stepmother called us in and told us the keys to the attic were gone and asked if we had used them.  We had not.  She said "There may be robbers up there and they may have locked themselves in, and when we go to sleep they will come out and rob and may kill us." Well, we were badly scared.  She said to make no noise but to call our dogs as if we planned a hunt.  Brother was to catch a horse and ride and carry our baby brother, and we would go to a neighbor's and spend the night.  We started, and after leaving the house, one of us remembered a little Negro boy my father was keeping (as his mammy couldn't feed all of her children).  This child was asleep upstairs.  My stepmother said if he waked he might fall and kill himself.  Well, it fell to my lot to go after him and I was scared! After I got the child, I had a gun and was carrying both.  In going over the fence (there were steps over this) I fell down.  This waked the boy and he began to cry.  I told him to hush or I'd break his neck.  The others had gone and left me.  It was now dark.  There was something that fell at the house like some heavy object being thrown down.  This stampeded all of us. Before going, stepmother got all of her jewelry, she had quite a lot of this.  After I got over the steps, I began to call softly for them, and they answered not far from me.  I can say we were glad to get together again. We spent the night with this neighbor who lived about one mile away.  Next morning when we went back home, stepmother found the key where she had put it and forgot it.  After our intense excitement, there was no robber. Our great uneasiness was caused by the murder I told of above, and we were always uneasy when Pa was out collecting.  There were no banks in which to place the money for safe keeping, and Pa had to go to Austin to carry this money.  He had to go over land as far as San Antonio.

We all went with Pa on one of these trips as far as Seguin, as stepmother had relatives living there.  Also her mother, brother and sister lived in San Antonio, and she wanted to visit all of them. The first evening of our trip we stopped to camp at an old Church where my father had at one time been a member.  When we started on this trip we were each of us armed.  Brother and I each had shotguns. My father had two pistols, also stepmother was armed.  And we were told to use these if anyone attempted to hold us up and to shoot to kill, not to scare, for if robbers came on us it would mean murder.  After stopping at this Church to camp, brother and I went to hunt dry wood to make a fire to cook our supper with.  While away from the wagon and our guns as well, three or four men rode up to a wagon and hurriedly dismounted. We came back to see what this meant, but when we got near, we saw the men and Pa shaking hands.  My!  What a relief to see friends instead of robbers as we thought they might be.  These men proved to be old acquaintances and had come to attend services in the Church.  All our fears were dispelled for the time at least.  The next day we hastened on our road, camping out nights.  After several days we reached the home of Judge Thornton near Seguin, these were stepmother's relatives.  We spent the time here very pleasantly while our father took the stage at Gonzales for Austin to take the money collected for taxes.  I don't know how much, but there were a lot of greenbacks.

We started to Gonzales to meet Pa on his return from Austin.  We traveled all day but couldn't reach our destination, so we camped.  We boys fed our team and tied the horses to the wagon wheel.  The next morning when we got up, our horses were gone.  We hunted but could not find them.  I walked on to town.  When I reached town I found Pa at a hotel waiting for us.  I was so happy as now I was relieved of the responsibility, which was really too great for youthful shoulders.  Pa went to a livery stable and hired a man to hunt our horses for us.  The man found our team in a very short time.  We always thought someone turned the horses loose for we both knew how to tie horses, and it seemed queer that all got loose. Pa paid the man $4.00 for bringing the horses in.  Pa and we two boys went on home camping at night along the road; but had no eventful happenings on this road home.  Stepmother went on to San Antonio with our baby brother for a visit to her family.  We were glad when this trip was over and we were at home again, having been away for three weeks.

While we lived in the Brackenridge home, we hunted a lot.  Deer, turkeys, ducks, geese, and wild hogs were plentiful.  Then, small game such as prairie chickens, quail, and squirrels could be killed at most any time, and we loved to hunt.  Sometimes Pa would go deer hunting with us.  Once, while out, Pa told us where to station ourselves.  Soon, a dozen or more deer came running up almost to me.  I delayed shooting because my gun kicked so hard.  I had a splendid opportunity, but let it slip.  The deer saw me, wheeled and ran back to where Pa was stationed.  He shot, and he knew he had hit one, but all ran off.  Pa said we would go home and get our horses and come back and hunt again.  We did, but still couldn't find it, so gave it up; and next day while we were out, we saw buzzards flying around.  We went to see what they were after and it was our deer.  It had swum the river and attempted to climb the back on the other side but fell there and died.

Our next hunt was for turkeys.  We were near the place where we found the deer.  Pa placed me in a good position to get a turkey and I didn't have long to wait until a big gobbler came out right near me. I fired but missed again because I was so afraid of the gun.  I didn't hold my aim steady, so lost again.  Pa, however, killed one of the bunch and the rest flew up into a tree.  On another hunting trip, a boy friend went with brother and me.  We rode out to where we thought we might find some deer.  Brother wanted to go alone so the other boy and I stationed ourselves.  Some deer came up.  This time I was afraid to shoot off my horse lest he would throw me.  While I was getting down the deer ran off, so I missed again.  In a little while we saw two fawns.  I told this boy I was going to shoot if the horse threw me, and I did and killed a fawn.  I took it home.  Neither of the other boys got anything.  These hunting trips were made on the Navidad River.  On one of our trips, (we were really out to get up a team), our Pa had gone into town and told us to get the team up, but we took the gun along without Pa's permission.  We were sure we could get some ducks.  We had only one gun this trip and were to shoot time about.  There were some sloughs, one of, which was dry.  I had the first shot, so killed several ducks and crippled another one. I let brother have the gun for he wanted to shoot the crippled duck. I said, thoughtlessly, "I'll go on the other side and scare it back to you."  After I did this I thought of the danger I might be in of being shot, and I called to brother and told him not to shoot, and I then got behind some brush.  I decided he wasn't going to shoot since I had told him not to.  I peeped out of my hiding place just in time to receive a shot in my left eyebrow.  When the shot struck me, it felt cold. I put my hand up on the place and it was bleeding profusely.  When I found out what had happened, I called to him that he had shot me. He threw the gun down and came running saying, "Oh brother John, did I kill you?"  I said, "No, go back and get the gun."  We went on then and got our horses as they were near where we were hunting.  We then went home and took the ducks.  There was company at our house, and I told brother to go in and call our stepmother.  She came, and I showed her the nice ducks and then showed her where I had received the shot. She was very much excited and had me to lie down till Pa came home. When he came, he looked at my eyebrow and said, "Brother shot at a goose and killed a crane", but he took me to the doctor the next day and found nothing serious.  He said the shot was just barley in the skull and would never hurt me, and it never has.  Guess I was thick headed.

Our family was out walking one evening and the dogs were with us, they got after a big wild cat, and after chasing him some distance ran him up a tree.  I went back to the house to get a gun.  When I got back, brother wanted to shoot the cat.  Father let him do so, and he shot the cat in the mouth.  It jumped out of the tree and ran; the dogs were crowding it so closely it again ran up a tree.  This time father shot and killed it. These cats were bad about killing young pigs and depredated on our poultry yard so we always killed them when possible. One day we had been hunting on our horses when we saw a young dog acting strangely.  We knew the dog as it belonged to a neighbor and we knew it was very cowardly, but now it was chasing our dogs, and they ran from it. We were sure it was a rabid dog.  By this time we had reached home and turned our horses loose.  The dog again made an appearance.  My brother ran and climbed on a high fence and I ran into the house in an unoccupied room that had some windowpanes out.  I got a slab off a bedstead which was in the room, and while I was fixing the slab in the window the dog came around the house and looked up at the broken window.  I felt like it might try to jump in.  I was surely scared, as I couldn't get to my gun. The dog ran around the house several times, chasing the chickens.  We had raised a wild turkey and it chased it too but it rose and flew to the top of this high house.  Our stepmother didn't want us to shoot the dog as it belonged to a neighbor.  She said maybe it didn't have rabies. When the dog went back of the house, I got a chance and ran upstairs to get my gun.  Brother had come down off the fence, and he also got his gun. Step-mother had decided it was mad, as she had thrown water on it as it passed under her window, and it snapped at the water, and fell over, I suppose, in a fit.  She said shoot it.  My brother tried to do so but was afraid to let it come close enough, so fired at too great a distance.  The shot knocked it down but it ran off.  We saw it no more, but it went home and took after its owner.  He too shot at it, and it again ran off.  We never heard of it any more, and none of our dogs took rabies from it.  Well, they ran from it, and never really came in direct contact with it, but our neighbor lost all his dogs and cats.  One, that was a general favorite of the family, bit the man's wife and she had to be treated by using the, I suppose, Mad Stone. This was before the Pasteur treatment for rabies, but this lady had no appearance of the dread disease, and no one else reported any more rabid dogs that we ever knew of.

Later there was another dog that belonged to a Negro near us that left home and became half-wild.  She stayed on an old raft on the river, and raised a bunch of pups there.  They were vicious and got to killing calves and yearlings.  Once our father was going to town on horseback. He rode up on this bunch of dogs where they had killed a yearling and then attacked him.  They bit his horse's heels and got the horse's tail. I think it almost a miracle the horse didn't throw my father. Pa rode back home and got his pistol and came back armed for them.  They met him to take him down, but he fired at them killing one, and the others ran off.

Brother and I had the permission to take hides off fallen cattle,[10] so while searching for these, I found a calf, and started to skin it.  I saw the carcass had been so torn the hide would not be salable.  We went home and were told of our father's encounter with the dogs.  We were lucky that no dogs came while we were there, as being on foot we might not have been able to drive them off and might have been bitten by them.

Father, brother, and I got our horses and rode out again to see if we could find the bunch of dogs but could find no trace of them except the old mom.  My dog and she ran off.  They seemed to sense trouble and left that place.  My brother and I made quite a lot of money that winner, skinning cattle.  We had a list of about 40 brands of cattle that we were allowed to skin.  We got half the value of the hides.  It took both of us to skin a green cow, as we were too small to handle them.  So, we always went together.  A terrible tale was told about three boys being killed while skinning cattle.  It was supposed that they were killing the cows for the hides. Whether this tale was true or not we never stayed out after dark alone. When I started home, it had been raining, the ground was very slick and my horse began to slip and fell turning over.  I fell out of the way, but he struck me and hurt my back.  He got up and ran off, leaving me to walk about a mile.  He would keep just ahead of me and wouldn't let me catch him. I was beginning to get really scared having to walk so far after dark, and to add to my misery I had to pass a cemetery.  I have told you of the superstitions of our Negroes, and I didn't fail to remember all these while passing the cemetery, but I got home very tired but safe.  Another time while out skinning cattle, the large butcher knife I was using slipped and I still carry the scar on my left thumb where it came in contact with the knife.

The Cowboy Paper

Before continuing with John's story, to introduce this time in his life, the following is a paper written, May 1963, for an English class at Texas A&M.  It was the research done for this paper that brought me together with the ladies that supplied much of the additional material contained in this account.

The Early Cattle Drive in South Texas

In the early months of 1866 rumors began to drift into Texas of new markets for cattle.  A cow worth five dollars in useless Confederate money would bring forty dollars in United States currency at the northern markets.  Men and cattle began to "go up the trail" to Kansas, Nebraska and other new railheads.[11] So began the exciting period of the wild and reckless Texan and his Longhorn steers.  Many stories, both true and false, have been written about this era in the history of the West.

Less well known are the cattle drives that took place in Texas to gather cattle for the long trip "up the trail."  During the early years of the cattle drive it was a relative easy job to round up the cattle.  However, soon the cattle were all branded and were not roaming free on the open range.  The cattlemen were forced to gather their cattle from a larger area.  Thus the short drives to form the huge herds for the northern markets came about.  Another type of Trans-Texas cattle drive was the drives made from West to East. The cattle would be rounded-up and driven either to Louisiana or to a Texas port for shipment.

Many cowboys began their work as early as fifteen or sixteen years old despite the dangers of the trail on which a single mistake made by a horse or rider in a stampede could mean instant death under the pounding hooves of cattle.[12]

Among these extremely young Texas cowboys was my grandfather, John Garrett Matthews, who began his work with cattle in 1874 at the age of sixteen.  At that time he worked for his father, Erastus Allen Matthews on his grandfather Garrett's ranch about four miles from Texana, in Jackson County.[13]

In 1875, at the age of seventeen he went to work for Allen and Pool on their ranch the "Rancho Grande" which was located on Trespalacios Creek about twenty-five miles northwest of Matagorda, Matagorda County, Texas.  The ranch was originally owned by Abel and Jonathan Pierce.[14] Abel, who became famous as a cattleman under the name "Shanghi", always referred to his cattle as "sea lions".  He built a bronze statue of himself for $10,000 that now guards his grave near Blessing, Matagorda County, Texas.[15] About 1873, Allen and Pool, who had been partners with the Pierce brothers for several years, bought their share for $110,000.[16] When seventeen-year-old John Garrett Matthews worked on the "Rancho Grande", it consisted of over 100,000 head of longhorn cattle scattered over several hundred miles of grassy range, including land past the Navidad River in Jackson County.  During the fall of 1873, the headquarters of the ranch was moved by the general manager, John Moore, to his ranch at the mouth of the Trespalacious Creek.

On one of John Garrett Matthews' trips with the Allen and Pool outfit, they drove a herd of cattle to Harrisburg (now Houston), and after returning to the ranch headquarters he left for home and ended his work with that firm.

John Matthews then worked for Jim Heard on the Mustang Creek, a tributary of the Navidad River in Jackson County.  He worked as a cook and was responsible for keeping the pots and pans clean, doing the cooking, and driving the wagon with the grub box.  They worked between the East and West branches of the Mustang Creek and also areas to the west of the creek.  During this time he experienced heavy rains, cold, and a stampede while on the round up.

His last experience with "cow-driving" was with the York cousins, who drove a group of horses and cattle Eastward across the Colorado River at the Allen and Pool ranch, up to Richmond on the Brazos, and across the Brazos.  Their destination was Hardin County.  On this trip they were forced to cross many rivers and creeks, including the Trinity River.

While working for the various cattle companies he encountered everything from bitter cold, rain, and stampedes to parties and weddings.

The remainder of this chapter is the section of John's story that deals with his "cowboy" years and was written in 1940 when he was eighty-two years old.

After the period from 1878 till 1889 when he worked at various ranches and farms in South-Central Texas, in 1889 he married Mary Agnes Hurley.  He continued to farm until 1892 when at the age of 34 he returned to school to prepare for teaching.  Two years later he obtained a second grade certificate.[17] He began teaching at the Springs School, in the area south of San Antonio, in 1893 and continued to teach in South Texas schools until 1923 when he retired at the age of 65 years. Out of his eight children, two of the girls made a career of teaching, another taught until she died, one son taught most of his adult life, and another son taught until the Second World War.

John Garrett Matthews was always a strict grammarian and would correct his children when they made mistakes in their conversation.

The Cowboy

About this time we started to school again in Texana.  We walked four miles from the old Brackenridge home to town.  Our father sold the hides we had saved and we boys both bought fiddles.  Well, we had great enjoyment with them (except at the expense of others around us who had to listen to our efforts), but we soon could play some.  Nothing of much importance took place here, and when our vacation came we both got work for our Aunt Josephine Garrett, Grandfather's widow.  She had a large stock of cattle. We enjoyed this work and the camping, especially branding small calves.  The large yearlings were too hard to handle for boys.  There was a cook who drove the wagon.  The boss would tell him where to go as to meet the cow crowd. We would round up and drive to the pens near where the wagon was sent. This work would take about four weeks in the spring, and the same length of time in the fall.  The boss would have about a thousand head rounded up, and then the cutting would begin.  A man would ride into the herd and drive out those that were to be branded.  These would be driven into a smaller herd, which was being held near the branding area. Those to be branded were driven to a pen near.  This took some time and several hands to do the branding.  We generally had nice weather for these rounding ups.  Sometimes we had some cows that would fight, and these were hard to handle, but we boys enjoyed it all, just being out of school and free to be out in the woods or I should say prairie. Some of the cows would begin fighting, and others would run out of the herd. Bulls were mean to fight too.  On one occasion two bulls were fighting. First one then the other pushing each other backwards for some distance, then a third bull came into the fight.  The kept milling around trying to reach the side of one of the bulls.  Two of them got the advantage of the other one and threw him clear off the ground.  This made him run, and as far as we could see, he was still running and the other two after him, this was really a race for life.  This was open prairie and one could see great distances.  These fellows were dangerous, as they would attack anything that came in the way.  This was very exciting to us boys even if we had been raised in a stock country.

After the summer work was over our father sent us to Concrete College, which was in DeWitt County.  This college had been organized by Mr. J.V.E. Gavery, a Baptist preacher.  This was a stone building of three large rooms, and a dormitory for boys, also one for girls.  He had a number of students.  Many of the boys worked for their board and tuition. One half-day of work and half of study.  Here I did all the work possible for a 16 year old (1874) boy to do, butchering, milking, taking care of nursery stock, cutting timber for fences, and general farm work. We had chapel service every day and were not allowed any association with the girls, only on special occasions.  We were then allowed to send complements to the girls asking to accompany them to church, or other entertainment, and the girls returned their answers.  All this had to go through the president’s hands.  He was very strict, no smoking allowed nor any rowdiness on the campus.  There was a fine swimming place and we were allowed to go there once a week that is the boys were.  We enjoyed this very much as I had been brought up on, or I should say in, the Lavaca river and the bay, and I missed the water very much.  This school was divided into five-month periods.  I attended three of these sessions, and would have gone on longer, but brother had gone home and I had never been separated from him so I soon went home too.  He had work too, and I thought I could do better at work for myself.  I didn't realize the opportunity I was letting slip by me for getting an education, but I did understand what I missed when I later began to prepare for teaching.

When I got back to where I had lived, our father had moved to San Antonio. I got work for Allen and Pool who were extensive cattle raisers and buyers. We worked through several counties for this firm and down on the Colorado River, to their ranch.  We would gather a lot of cattle and swim them across the river to New Philadelphia;[18] it was called at that time.  On one trip the train was late, and the boss had us let the cattle graze.  When the train came, it scared the cattle, so we had a stampede, but got them quieted and rounded up again.  One old cow made up her mind that she didn't intend to go train riding. Every time we would get her down to the chute she would break away. Our boss told us we must get old Sis, so when we got her back to the chute again, three or four of us got hold of her and dragged her in, so were able to get her on the train.

On one of our trips, we were near the Gulf of Mexico.  We made an early start to get to some pens.  It was raining and kept it up all day—just a deluge of rain.  We got to the Trespalacios Creek or river, on the side opposite the pens.  The creek was very high, and the boss came to me, and said he would go see if we could cross over.  When he came back he said it was impossible to cross, and that we would have to herd all night. We had about one hundred head.  The boss said if I would herd until he and a Negro that was helping could go to camp and get supper, then they would come and herd while I went to supper and sleep the rest of the night, which I readily agreed to.  The came back about one o'clock.  I then went to camp, got supper and hunted for a dry place to spread my bed.  I finally scrapped the fire away and put my bedding down where the fire had been. I was wet, my blankets were wet, but I went to sleep.  We again started early to get to the Ranch on the Colorado River.  There was water everywhere, some creeks overflowing, we could only tell by the cattle that went in first going out of sight that it was a creek.  While crossing these we could get very wet.  The rain had lessened but the high water would wet us again.  My horse wouldn't swim until he had to, so would keep me wet to the neck all the time.  We reached our destination on the second day late in the afternoon.  All of us were tired, horses tired, and being continually wet, had scaled their backs until they were skinned badly.  When we reached the Colorado River, we had to swim the cattle across.  The ranch had swimming pens.  These pens were one large corral with one small pen called the Jam pen. From this Jam pen there was a chute into the water.  By the time cattle reached the fence they were in swimming water.  They were driven from the large pen into the Jam pen, as many as could be forced into it -- they were closed into the Jam pen -- then the gate to the chute, which was about 4 feet wide, was opened and the cattle forced through into the water.  This might take as much as half-a-day as the current would take them down stream and they would sometimes get out on the same side they had started from.  On one occasion, while crossing the herd, they swam back to the side they had been started from. We were trying to put them back.  The bank was high, wet, and slick. One of the boys dressed in cowboy suit (heavy boots, leggings, and a big hat) attempted to push them back.  When he struck a slick place, he just went down into the river.  He caught a limb and pulled himself out.  He had to takes his boots off and pour the water out of them and also took his leather leggings off and then went to help with the cattle.

Another time, this same boy took his clothes off and got into the river to keep the herd from going around the chute and back to the same side they had been driven from.  But some got by and went back (the river was high this time also).  While attempting to force the cattle back one cow was crowded so she jumped right over this boy putting him down under the water.  Luckily he wasn't hurt and when he came up, he went on working to put the cattle back.  After some time we got them across.  Another time when we were putting a herd across, I went in with this same boy – one of us above the chute and the other below.  While attempting to make one cow turn back, I went too far and went into the water.  Since we were stripped and the weather was warm, this was fun for at least a while. Another time our boss tried out another crossing about two miles above the old crossing.  I got them over very well except one yearling was drowned by getting under an old ferryboat.  The Negro and I had been sent from the ranch to take charge of the herd when they came back across.  I had to put the pack on our pack mule alone, which was a two-man job.  We drove the extra horses and pack mule to the place where we were to wait.  I noticed our pack mule was looking at his pack, with one ear dropped down.  I soon saw that the pack was slipping down his side.  When the pack got on his side, he stampeded and kicked.  We had our food, bread, tin cups, coffee pots all in this pack.  The pots rattling caused the cattle to run some.  We caught the mule and gathered up our biscuits and bedding.  With the Negro's help we tied the pack on to stay this time.  This trip was made to Harrisburg.[19] We drove instead of shipping them. When we got the cattle to this place, the boss put our horses on the train and sent the Negro and me back with them to the ranch where we were working.  This firm was Allen and Pool.  From this place, I went home and so ended my work with that firm.

My next work was with a Mr. Jim Herd on the Mustang, so you see I was back where I had formally gone to school.  I was here a limited time rounding up cattle for the trail, which was early spring work.  I was the cook for the crowd.  The man who had hired me grew uneasy that I might not come to work.  Mr. Herd asked if I had promised to be there.  The man said that I had, and Mr. Herd said, "You need not be uneasy, he will be here."  But the man started after me anyway, and we met on the road.  I was going to the place where I had been employed.  Now my first work was to take the grub box to the Mustang Creek (you remember, I told you it was a beautiful clear creek.)  Here, I was to roll up my trousers and take all the cooking implements out and wash them thoroughly so as to be ready to go with the crowd the next day.  These implements consisted of skillets with lids, frying pan, coffeepot, tin cups, and plates.  I had to drive the wagon with our box of cooking vessels and bedding.[20]  My salary was fifty cents per day.  The cowhands were all mounted on their ponies. Each man had about three horses.  These extra horses were driven along, and I followed with the camp outfit.

We went first to Devil Pocket, between the West Mustang and East Sandy. When we came to the crossing of the Mustang, the banks were steep and narrow.  The boss told some of the hands to wait and see if I needed help in getting across.  When we started up this steep back, the old balky horse stopped gutting the wagon so that he was pushed up against the bank where he fell down over the tongue of the wagon.  The other horse stepped on the neck of the balky horse, and we had a hard time getting him off.  We boys had to take time to laugh -- all at the expense of the poor old balky horse, but he wasn't taught any lesson by his experience.  He still wouldn't pull a pound.  The boys then took ropes and tied them to the end of the wagon tongue, and with the help of the one that would pull, got us out of the creek.  After getting on a level road, the balky horse decided to go along.  Our camping place was on the West Mustang, Devils Pocket.  This was a place between the two Mustangs, East and West, which was covered with timber.  The woods were so dense that the cattle were hard to drive out.  Many of them were four or five years old and still unbranded.  We camped there two nights.  The boys would saddle fresh horses, and when the wild cattle came out to feed at night, they would try to get around them to keep them out of the woods.  We never succeeded in getting any of them.  We then left this location and went west of the Mustang where the cattle were not so wild.  We rounded up these by the thousands of head, then the boys would cut out those that were wanted for market.  We worked here several days.  This place was full of wild animals--deer, turkeys, wolves, wild cats, and some bear--it was said that there were Mexican lions, and worse of all, mosquitoes.  It was very warm here too.  We had no nets or any other way of fighting off these pests.

After we crossed over the creek, the boss wanted to reach a farm, Morgans, nearby.  While we were going, we saw cattle grazing on the prairie. We rode out to these, and a young cow, on seeing the men, broke to run to the timber.  About three of the boys took after her to beat her to the brush and had to rope her to turn her back.  All three roped her and held her until the others could drive the herd around her.  This was repeated about four times.  All the ropes would be taken off except one, and she would make a break.  Some one would catch the rope and hold her.  She finally gave up and stayed with the herd.  She wasn't branded or marked, so she went in with the other marketable cattle.  The first night we were at this ranch, there came a heavy cloud with thunder, lightening, and rain in torrents.  I got up from our blankets on the ground and started to the ranch house.  It was so dark we could only see when a flash of lightening came.  We finally got to the house and they let us come in out of the storm. We sat around the fireplace, and as most of us had had no sleep, some of the boys lay down on the floor and slept.  We went back to our camp when daylight came, and the rain was over.  After working this place out, we left for the East Mustang.  Here there was no one living and nothing but the wilds of the land.  We had no pens here, and had to herd all the time--had three shifts of four hours each all night.  The weather was clear, and we spread our blankets all looked forward to a good nights rest.  Sometime in the night, a heavy rain came up and a cold norther with it.  Our boss had some Negro boys helping to herd the cattle and it wasn't long before these came to camp. They were nearly frozen.  Also a white man and boy came.  They all got under the wagon to try to keep dry, rolled up in their blankets and went to sleep.  The next morning they had to be dragged out, simply stiff from the cold.  The white boy called me to unroll his blanket. He was so nearly frozen he couldn't get up.  The rain was so heavy it caused the creek to rise and flood the area under the wagon.  The men sleeping there were so wet, they were nearly frozen.  I was cold also since I had loaned my slicker, overcoat and suit coat.  I was about to freeze also, when I remembered seeing some Negroes put their bedding under a cowhide, which covered our barrel of flour.  I went there and got the bedding and wrapped up in it and started walking to keep warm, or rather to keep from freezing.  All of our matches were wet, but after daylight, one of the men came in who had some dry matches.  He built us a fire and we began to thaw out.

When we started on this trip, I had bought a suit of oilcloth and I had a heavy overcoat and coat.  The boss came to me soon after starting and wanted to buy my oil suit, but I didn't want to sell it.  He said, "You had just as well sell it to me for I'll have it borrowed all the time."  So I sold it to him.  Then a man borrowed my overcoat. The boss came later in the night and said that he wanted my coat for a Negro who was freezing to death (they had to stay with the herd and I could stay in camp) so I let my coat go also.  I was in my shirtsleeves.  Just as we finished eating our breakfast, a Negro came up on the opposite side of the creek from us and asked if we would throw him a chunk of fire for he was very cold.  One of the men picked up a chunk of file and, for mischief, threw it straight at him.  In attempting to get out of the way, he caught his foot on a root and fell almost into the creek.  The boss said, "That Negro is freezing.  Someone of you will have to go get him and bring him to the fire."  The only one that volunteered to go was a small white boy.  He got his horse and rode into the creek, which was almost swimming for his horse.  When he got to the Negro, he told him to put his foot in the stirrup so he could help him up.  The Negro was so stiff he couldn't raise his foot.  The boy then got down and put the Negro's foot in the stirrup, pushed him up on the horse and then got on himself. The then brought him across to the fire.  The Negro said, "This is the best thing that I have found."  I poured him some hot coffee and gave him some food.  He said that he couldn't eat for he was so cold.  We were ready to leave and left him by the fire.  Later we heard that he got home, but took pneumonia and died.  The poor fellow had said that when the clouds had come up it became so dark that he unsaddled his horse and tied him out, and lay down covered with his blanket.  The rain was so heavy that it came up where he was.  He lay there until he was so stiff he couldn't saddle his horse so came on foot to our camp.  There was so little timber there that the wind had a clean sweep and it grew so cold that one could not keep warm when dry.

After a few days, we reached the place from which we had started, but had another heavy rain on the last day.  I left the group when we got back to the little old schoolhouse, where a few years before I had gone to school.[21]  I had my own horse so went to a friend's home nearby.  I was worn out, being in the rain so long and thoroughly tired of cooking cornbread and bacon and making coffee three times a day in the rain.  Later, I engaged to work for the same man, and at the same place, in a spring roundup gathering cattle for an early drive over the trail.  This meant driving cattle to Kansas and Nebraska.  I never had gone "up the trail" as it was called.  Our boss had me and another man to herd young cattle and yearlings.  This was active work and kept us on the run to keep them together.  At one time the other man had run his horse down and asked if I would keep the herd so that he could get a fresh horse.

The horses were grazing near, so I agreed to try to hold them and he went to get the horse.  That kept me on the run all the time as the yearlings would try to break away to go back to their mothers.  We would pen these cattle in the home pen at night so we had no night herding to do.  That was a great help to us as we were very tired when night came.  We slept under the stars.  In gathering up the cattle the boys found an old gentle milk cow.  We drove her along with the herd intending to milk her, as was the custom of cowmen.  She was so gentle she didn't have to be driven.  One of the boys tried to hurry her along and his horse fell, striking her with his knees, which checked his fall and perhaps saved the rider from being hurt, as it seemed they might all fall together.  No harm was done however and she was finally put in the pen with the rest of the herd. However, in the night the cattle stampeded.  Many had horns broken off and the old cow was killed.  She was the only one killed but many were skinned up.  On another night we all spread out blankets and laid down, except for a few of the boys.  There was one long gangling fellow that let the others put a saddle on him while he was down on all fours.  They also tied tin cups and coffeepots on the saddle.  When we had all gone to sleep, he stampeded through the camp, bucking like a horse with all of those cups and coffeepots making a terrific noise.  He began calling to the cattle as though the herd had broken out.  We all jumped up.  I got in the wagon.  One man ran out through the prairie with his blanket over his head, streaming out behind.  We soon found out what the trouble was and we all got settled again for the night.  This trip wound up my work for Mr. Herd.

My last experience with cow driving was with the York Brothers (rather cousins). I worked for these men for three months.  They bought a lot of horses for a cowdriver.  When all was in readiness, we started out with the two York cousins and a Mr. Babcock.  We first went to the Allen and Poole ranch to ferry our horses across the Colorado River.  We reached the river, but it was high and unsafe to cross.  We camped there two days waiting for the river to go down.  Mr. Babcock got sick, but went on with us.  In crossing our horses, about twenty-five head (about half of them) got scared and jumped over the side of the ferry boat and swam back to the side they started from.  We were afraid to put them back on the boat, so we put them in the river and tied them so they could be seen by those in the boat and made them swim across.  When they saw the cattle on the opposite side of the river, they swap across to them.  We then drove to Richmond on the Brazos and had that river to cross.  The river was deep and wide. Mr. Babcock said he would go across on the ferry and take care of the horses when we put them across.  This took several hours work.  One was skittish and got away from us.  The horse, in attempting to go out up a steep bank, fell back onto a knoll and couldn't get off. We had to pull him off.  The crossing was done by putting them in a swimming pen or chute.  When all had been put over, we went to the ferry about a mile below the swimming pens to cross.  When we got across we found Mr. Babcock down on the ground sick with a fever so high he did not know anything, and the horses were gone.  We started hunting them and found them scattered all over the river bottom.  The two Yorks took Mr. Babcock back to Richmond and sent him home.  Once he got home he recovered and was well by the time our trip had ended and we had returned home.

We went on with the horses and had several more rivers to cross.  Where we couldn't ford them we went on a ferry.  One of these rivers was the Trinity.  Hardin County was our destination.  We stopped with a Mr. Hooks who fixed us a pen to receive cattle in for we were looking for cattle to sell.  Our boss wanted to look out for good cattle.  After inspecting the herds in the locality we arranged to have some delivered later.  We went on to Polk County to see about cattle in that district.

While there we divided our crowd.  I was sent to a little village called Spurgoville.  It was arranged for me to get board and lodging at this place with Mr. Mayo and wife.  One of the bossmen went into another district, and the other boss stayed with the camp.  Before we divided our work, we had lost ten head of our horses.  I hunted all day for them but could find no trace of the horses.  There had been a man coming to our camp, and he came again asking if we had found our horses. When told no, he asked about a reward for finding them. The boss told him we would give ten dollars to have them brought to us. It was not long before he came back driving our horses.  The boss gave him some pretty strong hints about his finding them so quickly after he found a reward was offered.  He paid the reward though.

One day while all were away except the Negro cook, he came again.  The cook had to go to get water and left the man there.  The cook kept looking back as he was suspicious of the man.  He saw him go to the wagon and then go to a log nearby.  When the cook got back the man had gone.  He went to the log to see what the man had been looking at and saw a pistol that belonged to the boss, hidden in the hollow of the log.  The man never came back any more.

This ended our unpleasant part of our trip.  From this camping place we moved to Spurgoville.

Here we had a good time.  While there I met people who had stock for sale which I received since we had rented a small pasture.  One day the merchant said to me, "You western cowboys create a sensation when you come." I asked why and he said that there was to be a big wedding out at Uncle Jim Hooks' (this being a man where we first went to buy cattle) on a certain day.

The boss had told us to get more hands and bring the cattle bought from Mr. Hooks.  I went to see if he was ready to deliver the cows. He had them penned but said to wait until the next day, and he would have his son help us, as the cattle would be hard to drive. We went the next day, getting there about ten a.m.   We saw a crowd of people there.  Mr. Hooks met us at the gate and said, "Get down.  We are going to have dinner soon, and will turn out the cattle after dinner." Pretty soon the young expected bridegroom came all dressed up in his black broadcloth, and the minister appeared.  Also the bride, all dressed nicely, and the marriage ceremony was performed at once.  Then we were invited out to a long table as honored guests.  It was very nice.  Loads of sweets and meats.  After dinner we, with the help of this old man and his sons, got the cattle out and drove them back to our pasture at Spurgoville. Uncle Jimmy Hooks said to me, "You are getting a bad lot of cattle from Uncle Billie Rainer.  If you don't watch them, they will break out of the pasture."  And the day before, Uncle Billie had warned me that the Hooks' cattle were bad, and said I'd have to watch them.  But, luckily none of the cattle broke out, neither bunches.

However, both bunches of cattle were really bad.  Uncle Billie Rainer's cattle were cane-broke cattle, and said to be the worst in the country to handle.  They used dogs to bring these cattle out of the brake.  This had been made by the river changing its bed and forming a lagoon that was covered with the cane.  A horse could hardly go through it.  The day Uncle Billie was to bring his cattle up, I went to meet him and help. It was surprising how those dogs could manage the cattle.  If one started to leave the herd a dog would bring him back.  These were the best cattle we got in our whole roundup.  The day came for us to move from this place back to Hardin.  Our bosses had hired several men on horses to help us the first day.  Our worst trouble was to get the cattle out of the pasture.  When we would get them near a gate they would break away and scatter.  Then we would have to go after them again.  I broke my rope when I caught a beef. I turned him over, though, and got him out.  It took most of the day to get the cattle out and start on the trip.

On the second day out, we were planning to reach a pen that was also owned by Mr. Hooks.  The boss had had to take in a number of bulls.  We decided to dehorn these, as they were so bad to gore the beeves.  We penned early. We had one that was bad to fight.  As soon as he was roped he put us all on the fence.  The boss made fun of us running.  A Negro who thought he was brave got down to catch the rope, which the bull still had on.  When he caught the rope he was near a tree.  The Negro tried to wrap the rope around the tree.  As the bull pass it, he saw the Negro and made for him. The man turned to run but got his feet tangled in the rope and fell down. The wrap on the tree held and threw the bull.  When the bull fell, we all jumped down and caught him.  The some of the boys cut his horns off with an axe.  The next day we went on our road.  There was a stream to cross that was deep.  We expected serious trouble here, but had been told of a man who lived near who owned a yoke of oxen that could be hired to put in the stream ahead of the herd.  They would lead them across the stream.  One of the men went ahead and hired the oxen.  When they were put in the lead, the cattle followed right along after them.

From this place on to Hardin, it rained, and we had to cross several small streams.  We reached our next stopping place late at night with tired cattle, horses, and worn out men.  We penned the cattle and went into camp.  The Negro cook had supper ready for us.  We had good fare with these men.  This was our established penning and camping place. We spent some time here taking in cattle that had been promised when we went through here several weeks before on our way to Polk County.

People here were nice and friendly.  The news of our arrival was passed around, and several young men came to invite us to the dances in the neighborhood.  The also came to go with us so we would find the way.

They came early one afternoon.  Four boys came, as there were four of us, to escort us on the road.  The first dance was eight miles out (quite a distance for tired cowboys, and we had to ride horseback).  Just before we got there, the boy that was my escort said to me, "You must not be surprised is we ride up on some women and girls sitting down putting on their shoes and stockings, as this is the custom to carry their shoes until near the place."  They came in oxcart and wagons.  The house was a room, shed room, and porch on the front.  But these people were so very hospitable, and the men took it on themselves to see that we were entertained.  They also saw to it that we had an opportunity to dance. I was sitting on the porch when a man recognized me as a stranger.  He asked me to go in and dance.  I tried to excuse myself, as I had not worn a coat. At once he took his coat off and wanted me to wear it.  I had had a sick spell and did not want to dance, but he would not accept my excuses. So, I put on his coat and went with him.  He took me in and asked a girl to dance with me.  He introduced us and we were soon "tripping the light fantastic"!  She was timid and so was I, so we didn't do much talking. But I enjoyed the dance.  Some of the boys told that I played the violin then I was asked to come in and play for them.  I played for a while. I had other offers to dance, but I didn't feel well, so begged off.

Later, supper was announced and we cowboys were invited first as the honored guests.  Supper was really a substantial affair: coffee, some cakes and dishes of pork (plenty for everyone).  This was served on two long tables in the yard, on the order of a barbecue; I would call it, although the meat was not barbecued.  We were introduced when we first arrived but we didn't know who was giving the entertainment.  We left to get back to camp before morning.  We spent about half of our time on the road, as horseback riding doesn't compare with cars in 1940.

As long as we were at this place, if there was a party we were invited to attend. We generally did since our nights were free because the herds were penned.  We spent about two months here.  There was quite an improvement in the dress of the girls while we were there.  The local doctor had a daughter that had been off to school.  She dressed in style and had a visitor that also dressed nicely.  The home girls adopted the style of these two girls, which made quite an improvement in their appearance. We supposed it must have been this, as there was so much difference in their dress.  It must have been due to the fact that these girls knew how to dress.

As you might expect, each of us found a girl while we were there. One of the bossmen selected the doctor's daughter, and the other boss selected her friend.  One of the men was very much in earnest, and when we left he bought a nice box of candy and mailed it back to her. Unfortunately, I did not know that I had made an impression until we were leaving.  But, all good things have to end some time, so our romances soon were over.

After all these good times we had some that were not so pleasant.  A poor young man had cut his foot with an axe.  When we met him, seeing that he was on crutches, we asked what had happened.  He said that he was helping to clear a new road.  He and another man were cutting on the same tree. They both hit the tree at the same time, but his axe bounced back from the blow and split his foot from the toe to the ankle.  He was in very serious condition when we saw him.  He probably lost his foot or possibly his life.  We never heard how it turned out.  The man and a girl had a romance and were about to run off and get married when her father heard about it and broke their match up.

Now I will tell you about road branding and preparations for our homeward trip.[22]  These preparations consisted of pens, which were built near Hardin, in Hardin County.  They were built especially for us by Mr. Hooks.  The pens covered about one acre.  There was a large pen connected to a small pen by a chute.  We put the cattle, in bunches, into the jam pen and then into the chute. Our branding irons were heated just outside the chute. Men would stand on a board nailed along the chute and put the road brand on the hip of the cattle. It was a small letter so the cattle could be identified in they should stray from the herd on the trip home.  There were about 600 head to put this brand on, which took most of one day.  There was a gate to open into the larger pen.  As the cattle were branded, they were released from from the chute out into this larger space, and more cattle were driven into the chute to be branded.  This process kept all of the men very busy.

A large crowd came out from town to witness the branding.  Several wanted to help.  As the cattle got warm, they started fighting. One horned cow charged a Negro.  The cow was poor so the man grabbed her by the horn and jerked her down.  Then a young beef made at another Negro. He had a good stick, part of the bar from the pen gate.  With this, he struck the beef on the horn and broke it off.  However, this did not stop the beef.  After a few more well directed licks, the man broke the stick.  But the beef became scared and ran at the same time that the man took to his heels.  It turned out to be a draw fight and the crowd was very much amused.

There was another hard fight between a bull and a Negro.  When the bull made at the man, the boss told him to kill the bull.  He had an axe in his hands. But, when the bull charged, his courage failed him.  He turned to run and the bull struck him and threw him into the air.  Except for a rake on his back, he was not hurt.  When he came down to the ground, he hit it running and beat the bull to the fence.  He thus saved himself from being killed.

After the branding was finished, we were ready to drive the cattle on to Sour Lake.  After driving several miles, we stopped to let the cattle graze and also to eat out lunch.  While the cook was getting dinner ready, our two boss men rode to a store about a half-mile away.  At the store there was a bear chained to a tree.  The men became interested in the bear, as they had two bear dogs for which they had given a horse.  After talking to the merchant, and finding that it belonged to him, they asked permission to see if the dogs would attack the bear.  The boss men came back to get the dogs, and when they got near the store the dogs gave chase.  This proved that they were really bear dogs.

The owner agreed to sell the bear to them for twelve dollars.  They brought the bear to our camp.  It was gentle, and we kept it chained to the back of the wagon.  It was quite a pet and one evening furnished the crowd with a lot of amusement.  While we were eating our supper the bear rose on his hind feet and started toward the young Negro cook.  He started to run, but one of the boss men persuaded him to stand and see what the bear would do.  The bear caught the cook around the waist.  Some said that he wants to wrestle with you, George.  The hitched it up for a wrestle.  George threw the bear down and fell on top of it.  George and the bear got back on their feet and continued to wrestle until both were tired.  After this, we had these performances every night much to the amusement of the crowd.

We went on to Liberty.  We had several days of travel without anything of importance happening.  When we reached Liberty, our bossmen found a kinsman there.  He let us have a small field to pen the cattle in. We spent one night at this place while our bosses visited with their kinsmen.  As planned, we got up at 3 a.m. the next morning and started on to the Trinity (about two miles).  There we swam the herd across the river using swimming pens.  We had some trouble as it was getting to be the fall season and the cattle were getting thin and weak. This took us till 3:00 p.m. as the river was boggy and we had to work slowly and carefully.  Our road ran through the bottoms, and we had to drive the cattle ten miles before we could get to prairie country.  It was 10 p.m. before we could reach a pen for the night.  In order to reach the pens, we had to cross several lagoons where several of our herd were bogged and had to be drug out.  This took quite a bit of time and resulted in the loss of several head of cattle.  The next day we went back to pull more cattle out of the bogs.

It was on this drive that some of the boys saw a fine sugar cane patch. They decided to go back and get a lot of it.  The owner of the sugar cane discovered them in the patch and rather than disturb them, he just helped himself to the best saddle in the bunch.  Imagine the surprise, and anger, when the owner discovered his loss.  He wanted to go and recover the saddle, but the bosses offered to give him another saddle.  They did not wish it to get out that their boys had raided a sugar cane patch.  This boy was an extra hand, employed to help until they could get through the Colorado River bottom.  They told him that they would let him go back and try to recover his saddle when they were through with him. I want to say here that I was not in the raiding party.  I was tired and had gone to bed (rather a pallet) under the stars and went to sleep. I fell sure that I ate some of the cane the next day though.[23]

Settling Down

After the trip to San Antonio and back to Texana I went to work for the widowed mother of one of the York cousins.[24]

While on a cattle buying trip, I heard that Pa was losing his sight.  Brother and I went to San Antonio to see our Father.  We found that he had a cataract on one eye, which the doctor said would have to be removed.  When Father failed to have the eye attended to, he ended up losing his sight in that eye.

When I was about twenty years old we went to San Antonio where my Father had been living in the home of the Brackenridge family.  They had bought a home out where Somerset is now.[25]  Here we met many young people.  The day after we arrived, two young men came to the house and invited us to a party in the neighborhood.  There was to be a quilt raffled off so, of course, we wanted to go.  They said that they would come and get us if we did not know the road.  We went to the party and my Brother won the quilt.  We met all of the young people and enjoyed ourselves very much.  This was just the beginning of our good times here, as we enjoyed many other parties in this place.[26]

There was a Mr. Gregory, who was interested in music and organized a band of twelve pieces.  We met regularly for practice and enjoyed it very much.  I have always loved music.  The band was made up mostly of boys from near the river.  This band broke up but Mr. Gregory organized another band at Bexar, near Somerset.  We bought the instruments from the old band.  We also bought a lot and built a small house for practice.  We had plans to enlarge it in three years.  After a while, Mr. Gregory became dissatisfied, sold out his gin and other property, and moved away.  This left us without a leader, I filled this place as best I could, but could not do the part like he did.

A friend and I had decided to back to my old home and get work on a cattle ranch.  Maybe even "go up the trail."  We got our luggage together, at least what we could carry on horseback.  The trip from San Antonio to Edna was to be on horseback all the way.  The first day out, it rained.  It was November and the weather was cool.  Before long, we were tired and so were our horses.  We stopped at a house to see if we could get lodging. We had brought food and had already eaten some supper.  The place proved to be a Negro home.  "Well", he said when we asked if we could step out of the rain, "I never turns a man off."  His wife was preparing supper.  When it was ready, he called us to come and eat.  We told him that we had already eaten and just wanted to sit by the fire and dry out.  After they had finished eating, the old woman came in and fixed us a nice, clean bed.  We slept soundly all night.

Early the next morning, we resumed our trip. We intended to stop at the next town and buy breakfast, but there was no cafe.  Also, it was Sunday, so we had to ride on with nothing to eat. About noon, we stopped at another house.  It was also a Negro's home. We asked if they could bake us some bread.  He said that he did not have any flour, but that he could bake some cornbread.  We paid twenty-five cents for a pone of skillet bread, which was good.  We also had bacon and coffee, so this was our breakfast, dinner, and supper for that day. We rode on till night and the stopped, spread our blankets and slept under the stars.  We started out early again the next morning to make it to the next town for breakfast.  This time we made it and enjoyed the breakfast also.

We were on the trip several days, but the last was the hardest.  My friend's horse began to play out.  We had planned on reaching my Uncle's house by night, but the horse was so played out, he could not travel.  We got off and drove our horses until we were about fifteen miles of my Uncle's house.  Here we staked our horses out, hung our saddles up on a tree, and walked on.  Before we reached my Uncle's, my friend was suffering with blisters rubbed on his heels.  He could hardly walk.  Finally, he just fell down on the ground and said, "I just have to rest".  I urged him on amidst many groans of misery.  We finally reached Uncle Pumphrey's house about 10:00 p.m.[27] Aunt Mary, Father's sister, fixed us some supper.  We ate this with relish.  After visiting with the family a while we went to bed and rested well through the night.  I got up early and went back after our horses on a borrowed horse.  My Uncle's family had heard that I had married a rich widow in San Antonio.  When they asked if this was true, I humored the joke and told them yes.  I later told them better though.

We then went to see some cow men about "driving up the trail." They told us that they had all that they needed, but took my friend on as an extra.  Told told me that I was too heavy and that it was hard for a horse to carry a heavy man.  My friend stayed with the group until they reached Austin, then he returned home.

I visited my sister who lived with our Aunt Nellie.  I worked in the neighborhood of my old home until in the fall, when I again started out for San Antonio alone.  I stopped by to see my Aunt Mary and Uncle Jesse Pumphrey.  Uncle said that if I would stay over another day he would get some ammunition and I could hunt ducks.  I did so and was able to get several. I enjoyed helping to eat them also.

I continued on my journey the next day and was in water nearly all the day. My horse broke down that first day out.  I stopped at a nice looking house to ask for lodging for the night.  The man said that he had a very sick child and could not possibly take anyone in.  He was sure that the next neighbor would take me in, so I tried there.  The lady said that the last man that stayed with them had a fit in the night, so they were afraid to take anyone else in.  I promised not to have a fit or at least that I had never had one.  The man was not in, so the lady told me to wait until he came.  When he came home he said, "I never turn anyone off". After we had eaten supper, I found out that he knew my Father and all my family.  When I started to leave the next morning, he would have nothing for my night's lodging.  He did let me pay for the horse feed, as he had to buy that himself.

The next day I went on to Terryville.  I had decided to trade my horse for a fresh one as he was worn out.  Horse traders were common in those days.  They were usually well up on the job and knew "all the tricks of the trade". They would take almost any kind of horse, brush him up and feed him for a few days.  Then they were ready to trade him off for some "boot". They would then take the new horse and treat him the same way and trade again. This way they could make a sorry horse look like a good one and fool a man.  I soon found a man that would trade with me and made a trade. I knew a family in this place and hunted them up.  They asked me to stay for dinner and insisted that I spend the night.  As I was tired of riding in so much water and mud, I accepted their offer and spent the night.  The lady's sister was one of my brother's old sweethearts, and a fine girl she was too. They had had a misunderstanding before he had left that area and she had married another man.  Brother had also found a girl where we lived near San Antonio.

The next day I started on to Cuero.  I stopped at a house to inquire about roads.  After giving me directions, the man inquired, "What might your name be?"  I told him and he asked if I was any kin to Allen Matthews. I said, "Yes, I am his son."  Well, he had me get down and go in to meet his wife, who he said was kin to us.  The had me eat dinner with them, and as it was still such bad weather, had me spend the night.  I could hardly get away from them the next day.  I managed to arrive in Cuero in time to catch the train.  I met a boy I was acquainted with who agreed to take care of my hose and saddle until I could come and get them.  The horse had become lame and I was concerned that he could not make the rest of the trip to San Antonio.  When I got to San Antonio, I spent the night in a rooming house.  It was still twenty-five miles out to my Father's home.  The next day I found some friends who had come to town to trade, and went out with them.

After all of these hard trips, I decided to farm.  My Brother Willie, who was now married, and I rented some land from a very fine man, Ed Winans. I stayed on this farm for four years.

Willie Matthews (brother of John Garret Matthews)
Willie's wife, Amelia Carruthers, and her sister

My father and stepmother had separated.  He came to live with me and left her the house.  He kept the eldest boy for some time.  She had decided to move to San Marcos to send the children to school, and my Father let her take the boy, Tom, with her.  He thought it best that the children not be separated.  After a short time, Tom took sick and died.[28]  This was quite a shock to us, as we did not know of his illness.  By now, Father's health was very bad and often he was not able to care for himself.

My brother bought a home near Pleasanton and moved there.  He became acquainted with Gus Clark and both found that they loved music.  He told Gus about me having been a leader of the band at Somerset (Bexar).  He wanted me to come and join a band, which he was trying to organize. He proposed to buy the instruments and let us use them.  We had thirteen pieces in the band and held our practices in the upstairs of the store where Gus worked.  After some months of this pleasant association, my Brother took measles and pneumonia and died.[29]  This broke up our band as no one could be found to take his place.  He had played the B flat coronet.  I never played in any other musical organization again.

I left the farm and for a while was employed on a stock ranch below Pleasanton.  After this work was over, I went to work for some friends at Amphion.  Hunt and Chapman was the name of the firm for which I was working.  They had built a store and a gin there.  They also organized a Sunday School in the gin rooms.  The community began to feel a need for a school, so a building was erected and two teachers employed.  I stayed here two years and then received an offer to go to work for Mr. J. S. McKinnon on the Tobey Ranch.  The ranch had ten thousand acres and was fully stocked.  He also had a large farm which I had charge of. My employer wanted his men to be married men.  One night he took me out for a heart to heart talk.  He told me that I should get married. I told him that I was planning to marry and was engaged to a girl at Aqua Springs.  He said that he would build me a house near his, so our wives could be neighbors, which suited me fine.  We made our plans for the next year, and on the 22nd of September 1889 I was married to Mollie Hurley at her parent's home.  Her parents were Mr. and Mrs. F. M. Hurley, who lived near Aqua Negro Springs.  His father and brother (C. C. Hurley) were running a general mercantile store.

We went to the Tobey Ranch on the 8th of November to set up house keeping. We had had to wait this long for our house to be completed.  After living here several months, Mr. McKinnon wanted to change our contract, in what I thought was an unreasonable way.  I told him that if he would pay me for my work, I would turn the farm over to him.  He did so, and we moved to a farm near Mollie's old home.  Here I made a good crop and had enough money to make a payment on a home of our own.  This place was unimproved, so I rented a house and farmed my father-in-law's land for two years. I put every spare moment improving our own place.  Soon we moved to our own home, but not until I had put in a field, built a one-room house, and dug out an old well.  The well was said to be very fine water and was only twenty-seven feet deep.  I ran some risk in fixing up this caved in well, but got it fixed up.  The water was fine, but a very weak vein.  It furnished plenty of water for the stock and our household needs though.

[The remainder of John’s story takes place outside of Jackson County and has been excluded.]