When Texas was still under the flag and dominion of Mexico, a widow by the name of Elizabeth Standifer, with six children left Misouri to join Austin's Colony in Texas. The oldest daughter, Sarah, helped her mother and these two women set our [sic] from Missouri across a trail of wilderness and prairies to the new Promised Land.
Before this John Litton had gone with his parents to Missouri from South Carolina. In 1830 the wander lust hit John Litton and he ran away from Missouri and joined his uncle, Leman Barker, in the new province of Texas, near Elgin Somewhere and somehow John Litton met Sarah Standifer, the oldest daughter of Elizabeth Standifer. Romance ripened and budded in the forest and John Litton induced Sarah Standifer to link her fortunes with his. Later his uncle Leman Barker, married Elizabeth Standifer, the widow.
Sarah Standifer Litton, although young in age, had the true pioneer spirit. John Litton and Sarah Standifer were married under the Mexican flag but Texas changed its political complexion so often that Sarah wanted to run no risk in regard to the legality of her marriage with John Litton and each new flag brought a new marriage ceremony to John and Sarah. Five times they were married under five of the six flags that have waved over Texas.
On Feb. 6, 1841, David G. Burnet, President of the Republic of Texas, issued to John Litton a grant for a league and labor of land which was located near the present town of Elgin, but the original name of the place wa s Hog-Eye. Here they reared their family.
A stage-stand was located at the Litton home where the horses were changed as the old Concord Stages plied their way to and from Houston to the West. Many a weary traveler was entertained at the Litton home and many of the leading men of Texas were sheltered by this pioneer roof. Jim Bowie and the immortal Travis were among the guests. Bowie, the father of the Bowie knife, stopped on his way to the Alamo and talked with Sarah.
John and Sarah Litton raised fourteen children and fulfilled the Biblical injunction in Genesis 1:28 to go forth and replenish the earth.
In 1875 John Litton died and left Sarah the head of the family, hut she was a true mother in every sense of the word in this Texas Israel and she left the following children to honor her name and mourn her loss:
Lemuel, John Thomas, Martha (married Calvin Turner); Tope, Sarah (died at age of 12); James Harvey, (the subject of this sketch); William (now 78 years old living at Ranger, Texas); Richard (murdered at the age of 18); Jennie H, (now 74 years old married Ed Hading and living in Belton, Texas).
John Litton owned a head right ofa league of land on the south side of the Colorado River, including Litton's Bend. The land stretched out on the prairies and there was a famous spring several miles south in Caldwell county, and at this spring he erected a scaffold from which to shoot deer and buffalo. In dry weather thirsty animals would make their way to this everlasting spring. Deer were plentiful and from the elevation John Litton brought down many a stag and buffalo.
On one occasion he had secured his quota of meat and hides, but while preparing to depart for home, the Indians dashed between him and his horse. He dropped his meat, ran into the thick woods and the Indians went off with all his meat, hides and his horse. It was a well known fact that Indians would not go into the dense woods on account of a possible danger. He remained in the woods until after dark and then footed his weary way home, without meat, without hides and without his trusty horse.
This famous spring was located in the edge of Caldwell county. John Litton did not own the spring or the land around it, hut on account of the fact that he erected the scaffold from which to shoot deer and buffalo it became known as Litton Spring. Somehow the spelling got changed and it now appears on the map as Lytton Spring.
Our home was christened Hog-Eye by the merest accident. A strolling fiddler was passing through the country and stopped at our home with his old fiddle. Word was hurriedly sent around to the neighborhood boys and girls that an old fashioned dance would be held at our house that night. We danced on a puncheon floor. All parties met and festivities began with the strolling fiddler playing for dear life. It was noticed that he played only one tune and that over and over again. It had all the swing of the old time breakdown and when he was asked to play something else he replied that he knew only one tune and that he had been playing it all evening. Someone asked him the name of the tune and he replied that it was "Hog-Eye." The word, "Hog-Eye," became a by-word in the neighborhood and was fastened on the Litton home long before the Civil War and long since it has been known as Hog-Eye. The old fiddler went on his way, but he left behind the name of Hog-Eye which seems to cling around the old neighborhood and cannot be discarded.
We had many dances at Hog-Eye later and it was Swing your partners, Circle to the left, Break and promenade "home" Ladies to the right, First couple to the right, Right hand across, Left hand back, Swing the opposite lady Swing your partner And on the next.
The tunes played at old Hog-Eye were: "Old Dan Tucker," "Black-Eyed Susan," "Sally Johnson," "Turkey in the Straw," "Buffalo Gals," "The Drunkard's Dream," "Leather Breeches," "Haste to the Wedding," "Arkansas Traveler" and so forth.
The Battle of Plum Creek occurred on August 12, 1840. The night before the Indians sacked a store and each one had some of the goods. John Litton, the father of James Harvey Litton, was in the Battle of Plum Creek and re-captured a lot of the spoils in the course of the battle. In the division of the spoils a brass kettle and eight yards of red calico fell to the lot of John Litton. The brass kettle remained in the Litton family for generations and is now in the old Land Office at Austin, Texas, in the museum. The eight yards of calico was made into a dress and worn by Sarah Standifer Litton, but whether she wore it at any of her five marriages under the changing flags of Texas is not known, but the dress was the most striking costume in the Hog-Eye neighborhood and there were very few who could say: "Heigh, Sarah Litton, tiptoe fine, She's got a red dress just like mine."
James Harvey Litton is one unique individual, a trail driver who went up the trail. He has five unique characteristics. First, he does not boast of the Chisholm Trail; second, he drove 2500 head of cattle from Bastrop county on by Cleburne, the writer's home in Parker County, on by Doane's Crossing on the Red River and on to Dodge City; third, he can still shoot a rifle and pull down a buck, which he did near Kingsville, Texas, in the fall of 1929 when he was past seventy-nine years old; fourth, he can still make his old fiddle talk eloquently of "Cotton-Eyed Joe," "Buffalo Gals," "Black-Eyed Susan" and "Leather Breeches;" and fifth, he realizes with Geo. W. Saunders that the real Chisholm Trail never reached Texas soil.
James Harvey Litton made at least three trips up the old trails, one with 2500 head of cattle to Dodge City, one with 90 head of horses to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and another trip with 300 head of horses collected from the counties below Travis and these last horses were driven to the northwest into Colorado, and then to Kansas, and were sold at different forts and settlements. The last remnant of the ninety horses were sold at Great Bend on the Arkansas River. James Litton and the other horse herders returned down the Arkansas, visited most of the historic places, including Baxter Springs in the southeast corner of the State of Kansas, the place near which Jim Daugherty had his run-in with the Jayhawkers in 1866.
Mr. Litton spoke vividly of the behavior of the cow boys in the different cattle marks. Some saved their money, others plunged into gambling and other festivities and had to borrow money to pay their expenses back to Texas . The frugal ones returned on their horses, sleeping on their saddle blankets and brought their money back to the home.
He drove ninety head of horses from Bastrop County, Texas, to Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1878 and followed some of the old trails. After arriving at Cheyenne and delivering the horses he was then commissioned to go to the Snake River still further through the mountains and bring back a herd of 2,000 cattle which he did, reversing the general direction of cattle drivers because he drove the cattle southeast instead of northwest or north.
At the American Falls on their return they camped for the night. A few days before the Indians had attacked some freighters in the neighborhood of the falls. An attack from the Indians was expected again because it was known that they were still hovering in that country. The boys rode herd all night long and suddenly a wild yell has heard and a man came running into camp and shouted that the Indians were coming. Everybody grabbed their arms and waited for the on-coming of the savages. The next morning it was found out that the scare was a hoax perpetrated by a practical joker who wanted to scare the boys.
We lived like pioneers. Our mother had the old fashioned wooden loom with its slay and shuttle-cock and she wove the homespun that made the cloth for the whole family. The old spinning wheel stood in the corner and at night after a hard day's work for a large family she picked up the cards and carded the woolen rolls and put them carefully away to be converted by the spinning wheel into the woolen thread that went into the warp and woof of the old homespun. Often buttons were very scarce and we had to resort to gourds. The old fashion loom, the pinning wheel, and the cards were the three machines used in the manufacture of the "homespun."
The weekly washing was done at Owen's Well some two and one half miles away from the Hog-Eye home. James Harvey and a sister early in the morning of wash day would take the clothes to the well of the Widow Owens with the old wash pot. The other wells in the neighborhood had harder water and it was easier to wash the clothes at the Owen's Well where the water was relatively soft. This well was only thirty feet deep and the water was drawn by a windlass.
On arrival at the well early in the morning James Harvey became fireman, drew the water and collected the wood. He built the fire under the wash pot and had to keep it boiling all day. The sister was an expert in clothes washing and in addition to the duties of James Harvey as fireman and drawer of water, he had to wield the old "battling" stick. There were not any rubbing boards in that day and the "battling" stick was a famous frontier laundry aid. A large thick bench was hewed out of cottonwood logs and the four pegs were inserted in holes on the under side and the wet clothes were placed on the flat upper surface and the "battling" stick was wielded with muscular arms. As Mr. Litton expresses it, " It was hard on the clothes, but it made the dirt fly. As soon as I got through with one batch of clothes I had to re-build the fire under the pot and this process eontinned all day. When night came sister and I were worn out."
The soap we used was made at home. The old fashion ash hopper stood in the yard and none of the wood ashes were thrown away, but were carefully kept as the lye agent in the manufacture of soap. All the grease from the hogs, including bacon rinds and other fatty portions were carefully kept for the great day of soap making. Long before we got ready to make the soap, the old ash hopper had been filled with ashes, and water was poured on the ashes and the lye slowly trickled into the iron pot. This ash hopper was built according a regular style of architecture. A log was obtained and a V shaped groove was cut in it and this was carefully placed in a tilting position. A frame work was built around it of the proper size and the planks were set on end in the V-shaped groove in the log. The upper end of the plank rested on the scantling that was carefully braced. The cracks between the planks were spliced or covered by placing another plank over it, thus reducing leakage. The hopper was filled with ashes and water was poured on the top. It courses its way through the ashes, leaching out the lye which descended to the bottom of the groove and passed out at the lower end into a vessel or lye pot. This lye pot was emptied when necessary and the liquid lye carefully preserved. The lye and the soap grease were the the two active agents in making the old fashion soft soap. The soap was crude but I will back the soft soap and the "battling" stick of the pioneer days against any steam laundry in [the] world for removing dirt. No frontier home was without its ash hopper, its soap grease, its "battling" stick, its loom, its piggin, and its puncheon floor. When the days of lumber arrived and we got rid of the puncheon floor we thought we had reached a new stage of civilization.