William Yates

USGenWeb
Project
Palo Pinto Co., TXGenWeb
TXGenWeb
Project

1857 Star News Centennial Edition 1957
Section 5: Story on page 2

submitted by Bob Jessup


William Yates, Wife And Small Son
Make Trek West In Covered Wagon




William Yates and his wife Laura Ann and their small son, Henry arrived in Palo Pinto County very much like most settlers moving in, in the 1870's, did, by covered wagon, leading a spare horse or two and driving their cattle.  They had lived for a few years after their marriage in Lamar County where Mr. Yates had been deputy sheriff, but now it was time to move on for a farming country is no cattle country, hence the move west, heading for the western plains.

Before arriving at Nelson Springs in Palo Pinto County, where they were to camp for the night, the young wife became ill, a doctor was called from Palo Pinto and while preparations were being made to move the patient to the home of a nearby resident, where better care could be had than in a camp, she died.  It seemed impossible to travel further with a 10-month-old child under the circumstances, so father and son stayed in Palo Pinto, boarding with a Mrs. Bonar, who would care for the child during the day.

In 1880 Yates married Harriet Elizabeth Crowley, who had come to Texas from Mississippi with her widowed mother, Elizabeth Towers Crowley, after the Civil War.  She had been in the county since 1875.  Their children were Olen, who died in California in 1931; Martha (Mrs. R. B. Rawls), who lives in Fort Worth; twin daughter, Marie (Mrs. T. J. Yandell) of O'Donnell and Nan (Mrs. M. S. Lane) of Lubbock, Elizabeth (Mrs. Morris) of Fort Worth, and Alma (Mrs. James A. Hart) of Mineral Wells.  Twelve grandchildren are also descendants of the couple as well as 18 great-grandchildren.

He lived in Palo Pinto County, buying land in the western edge of the county and dealing in cattle, horses and mules until 1903, when he sold out and moved to Caddo, Stephens County.  He retired after his wife's death in 1917 and moved to Mineral Wells where he died in 1928.  His son Henry died in New Mexico in 1938.

A cap and ball pistol which Yates carried while he was deputy sheriff is in the possession of members of the family.  He wore the gun until the law prohibiting the wearing of "concealed weapons" was passed and although his life had been repeatedly threatened during his tenure as an officer, he refused to get a permit to wear it, and laid it aside.  The last man that was "shot" with the pistol was the late Alex Cardwell of Palo Pinto.  He and Olen Yates were cleaning the guns at the Yates ranch one night when the gun went off accidentally and he was slightly wounded in the flesh of his leg.  While it was not serious, the boys probably thought of the time as one of their worst experiences.

Of Huguenot ancestry, the family belonged to the Presbyterian Church.  Their hardships were very much like those of their neighbors on the frontier.


*********************************************

 Home | Look-ups | Census | Links Library | County Info | Cemeteries | Queries