WYLY'S WISDOM
page 1
JULY 1, 2006
Do you know Donna and Joe Mack Riley? He is my wife's nephew. They run the dairy started by her dad, Don Mitchell,
and his dad, Carl Mitchell, outside
Dublin towards Proctor Lake. Dad and Carl used to see each other around Cattle auctions in
Stephenville, Dublin, and Lometa and Meridian. I do not know any connection,
but Dad's Great Uncle Charlie Wyly
of Selden and wife Agness Hatchett Wyly used to take various
nieces who stayed with them to
attend Tarleton. Uncle Charlie was living when I was in High School and he and Great Grandad
Robert were half brothers--dad
was Oliver Cromwell Wyly of Georgia. He had 23 kids by 3 successive wives, and the third wife, Martha Catherine
Mitchell of Georgia, was the niece
of the first wife, Lucy Eddins.
Uncle Charlie and Hugh were twins--#21
and 22. Martha had lived in Selden
and is buried off the Pasadena, Texas Freeway or Gulf Freeway. Now , back to Dublin Mitchells. Leave
Hamilton towards Comanche, and before
crossing the county line there is a cemetery arrow to a cemetery called Mitchell Cemetery--has a newer name.
Uncle Charlie used to show his
nieces the graves of the Mitchell siblings of his mother. The Iredell Cemetery is named Mitchell Cemetery, and
one Mitchell donated early western
spurs and ranch harness and boots to the Gatesville Museum. I do not know the connections, but Mitchell
Family tree is apparently like the Wyly Tree--more of a Kudzu Vine--sometimes
like a Briar patch.
Benjamin Franklin Wyly came from
Atlanta to Stephenville after his son had driven 3000 head of Sheep to San Angelo
on foot. They were traded to
Trammel and Crow for Erath
County land and homes, a Stephenville Store on the square, and a Pony Creek Ranch near
his Selden siblings. He was
also in East Texas oil and sons in
Maritime work. Ben was a
cotton buyer and store operator, and one daughter had married the man who ran the Dublin sawmill which
still runs near San Angelo. Ben sold the Buckskin or hardwood paneling in
his Stephenville business and in
Fort Worth Lumber yard. The lumber yard was flooded, before levees, and
most of it left towards Dallas.
He once owned 3000 acres of Trinity Riverbottom in center of Dallas and sold it
for $1.00 per acre and moved
on to Mineola Cotton yard and Galveston Export Cotton Compress. I have wondered if there were connections
between Stephenville Cage and Trammel
and Crow and Ben's property in Dallas and the Trammel Crow who has developed a lot of Dallas.
Back in Atlanta, Ben and his Uncle
Augustine Clayton Wyly ran a 4 story brick wholesale Mercantile warehouse
at Peachtree and Pryor near the
entrance to "Underground Atlanta,"
which is under several Freeway and other overpasses. One Wyly ran a cotton
yard there. Zelma Tackett of
Hanibal Ranger was also a Wyly
descendant, and her dad and husband's dad had worked in Thurber . Butch, the
youngest, lost his mother in his
infancy.
One of Ben's sons worked in Thurber
Coal mining town, and his sister or daughter Marie "Uncle Bunk " Moring , who
land in Hanibal--Huckaby-
Morgan Mill area, Texas area.
His son, "Butch," was a little younger than me and spent a few nights in our Johnsville
home. One night we slept in
the garden on a summer bed. He dated a
girl from Rabbit Center. He died a few years ago dressing for duty as an
Illinois Prison Guard.
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Was the Dunn who ran the sawmill related to the Maylon Dunn who lived in Selden,
1940 ish??
AUGUST 16, 2006
You who are past 70 may remember the
ones listed.
Morgan Kay, deceased, married Charlene
Cornettt and retired near Lake Belton
from the Army Corps of Engineers. Yesterday his sister Nita Kay
Steinman was pictured in the Waco
Tribune Herald when she was first teaching in Waco. Later, she wrote one of the
first Special Education sets of
Guidelines for Waco Schools. These
historic pages and photos appear weekly in the paper. Check the back issues in your
local library.
Morgan and Nita were raised in
Selden--Old Hatchett 2-story house. Their parents were Vella Hatchett and Marshall
Kay. Vella was Grandad's cousin--Grandad
was born to Ella Hatchett and Robert Wyly, my great grandparents. Robert is buried inTulsa with
second wife Fronea McGee. He
had fought at Battle of Shiloh, age
12, and an older brother was disabled there. Robert dedicated the Tulsa Tomb to
the Unknown Soldier at age 91 or
92, after I was born.
Marshall's parents were Hensley David
Kay and Leonora Estelle Wyly, who lived next to Grandad--now part of
Hoelscher Dairy.
O.C.Wyly Sr. had 10 or more of his 23
children who moved to Erath County.
Two married Kay brothers and 5 married Hatchetts in one genertion.
Now, how many remember attending
Stephenville High School or Tarleton with any of the above? So many cousins
makes dating harder.
I have more information on these with
Georgia roots.
MAY 21, 2007
Where have all the Bees gone? We have
not seen a one--African or native, or even a Bumblebee on flowers on all 4
Bosque Rivers or the Brazos.
One man in Moody has a few dozen
hives which he transports to Rio Grande Valley to pollinate fruit and
vegetable crops. I thought it was illegal to transport Bees across County
lines of Quarantined counties. That was what hurt Burleson Honey farms.
The Johnsville area on Duffau Creek
had a lot of native Bee trees, which were blazed with markings
registered in the County Clerk's office.
BOB FORD and the LITTLE and Cox and
Shaw families would sit near flowers or water and watch the Bees' flight
patterns and locate Bee trees. Then they would talk to landowners about cutting
the trees and possibly sharing
the honey when the trees were cut--they also captured the Colonies of Bees from the trees or new
swarms. "Aunt" Martha Shaw Cox
and "Uncle Ed" Cox sold the patch of land for the Johnsville Church of Christ where Clyde Barrow and Bonnie
Parker and Raymond Hamilton sometimes
slept.
When we used to walk to school at
Johnsville (now Three Way on the
Internet) our parents rarely used that expensive gasoline of the
1930's, rarely took us to
school in rain, snow, and mud--it was only 3 miles for me and more for Williams and Carey
cousins to our west. When "Aunt Marthy" heard us smaller kids coughing in
bad weather, she detoured us
to her Fireplace to dry out and take some of her famous Honey and
Medicinal Alcohol drink--enough to
clear our throats. The older boys would start fake coughing ahead of us and she
ignored them. They had several homemade Hives around their farm, but
we never got stung. She usually told
us old settler stories, like marrying in early teen years and darning her husband's socks while he cut
tree logs for their new Cabin.
AUGUST 19, 2007
Concerning Stephenville First Methodist Church, my great Aunt Susie
Moxley was in Tarleton, 1917-1918. I have some of her records and
letters and a diary. She and other students were in the crowd when the
Time Capsule was placed in the cornerstone of First Methodist
Church, to be opened in 100 years. In 1860's Methodist and Baptist had
half time pastors--2 Sundays by a methodist and 2 by a Baptist. Records
in the display case in Dublin First Baptist say 'Choctaw Bill--or
William Roberson or Robinson--[the papers were] stored in Stephenville
First Baptist and Dublin First Baptist. He and Great Grandad, Dr. W.P.
Hatchett, worked together in [the] services of organizing Central
Texas Churches, especially in Hico, Duffau, Pony Creek, and the
Paluxy Baptist College and Campground--in Erath County then--Hood
County now. The Pony Creek Church sent delegates to the Paluxy
Baptist Association, and some Indians raided in the area. The delegates
met the next day to conclude their business and return home. Not one
delegate found his home, family, or livestock hit by the raiders
according to the records of Dr. D.D. Tidwell of Iredell, and colleges
and Waco. [They] held outdoor summer meetings at Pony Creek under Oak
trees.
At one time Dublin was the larger of the two [churches] on old Texas
Central or later Katy Railroad. In Bryan, Texas today, a Freewill
Baptist and a 7th Day Adventist group shared a building in
1960's. There was also an Adventist Church in Bosque County--photo is
in Bosque County Museum in Clifton.
I attended High School with a Franklin Conger in 1945-46. He was a year
behind me. Their home was in Conger Edition east of present HEB.
I attended JTAC 1946-47, then 1948-49. His mom raised the family.
That year, Franklin was in my ROTC Squad--I was the Squad leader. He
was an
outstanding athlete and played the organ for First Methodist
sometimes. One night he left the supper table and sat down at his
piano. His mom
heard him make a gargling or gagging sound--either a heart attack or
choking on something he was chewing--real reason is still in doubt.
His mom requested a Military Funeral, complete with a firing
squad. Our Squad was his pallbearers, and [we] took turns siting
up one night, on an all
night duty roster. Recie Jones updated us on history of burials
and embalming and such. I already knew most of it, as young men
in early teens were part of Volunteers who dug graves in rural
cemeteries. My wife said that at Levelland, Texas she remembers her dad
cleaning out a front room for weddings and locals to view the body,
rather than in the funeral home, which was several miles away.
At Selden, the County Commisioner had dynamite to use when we hit
rocks--which postponed some burials a few hours. Many homes in 1930 and
before would have the body embalmed and the coffin would be put in a
room of the home of the deceased. Viewers came to the home like we do
now in funeral homes. Dad said that he and a friend had the
roster of [names] being the ones to sit up with one of his Hatchet
Uncles around 2 or 3 in the A.M. with the coffin open. (Most back then
also had a net over the open lid--mosquito nets in case of epidemics.)
He said they were talked out and off of daydreaming or dozing,
when the window screen was ripped open by an outdoor tom cat, and
he was in the coffin before they could catch him. Cats may be friends
to the living, but watch out for the deceased. One would think a house
pet would be as faithful over you as the family dog.
Also, all cemeteries worldwide for Christians were facing East, a
symbolic promise that Christ would return from the East and they would
be facing him as they were resurrected. In 1960, Army Map Reading class
teachers said if we were lost in combat on foot or from a plane, go to
the nearest church and look at the graves in case you lose your
compass. Today, many commercial cemeteries wax artistic and put in
curved drives and face grave lots all directions.
SEPTEMBER 1, 2007
One idea behind sitting up with the
dead may be from the idea behind Irish Wakes. During this time, rigor mortis
would set in and sometimes the
contraction caused body movements like spasms, and sometimes a corpse would set up or turn. The Irish in their
homeland believed this was the
soul shaking loose from the body, so
they had noisy parties with drinking
and/or dancing to scare the Devil away before the soul was free. 0r that's what the Big kids said, and
some history books. This might
explain about, when moving graves legally, the body may appear to have turned or moved some.
Also, early laws said that bodies
buried the day of death did not have to be embalmed, and if a Doctor said they died
of a contagious disease like
Smallpox. The coffin could not be opened at the funeral. The new book. Journal of Johnny or Jesse Smoke, and
the Trail of Tears lists an
example: seems that when some intermarried Cherokees--some of Protestant religions, like Rev. Jesse Bushy
Bushyhead, would burn anything
infected by Smallpox. This book, from Scholastic Book Publications, is half actual history; the
other half is a Diary based on known
history, with lithograph or photos of some of the Cherokee records. Two men leaving a party of those
moving on the Trail of Tears, saw
some of their friends seemed to be at home, at a distance from their Trail. When the men approached the
cabin, a man signaled "stay away"
and shouted Smallpox. One had died there, and was not yet buried. The two with him set fire to the cabin and died
with their friend, so the disease
would not spread. Western Indians did not seem to know this, and some pioneers had left Smallpox
infested blankets for them to pick up--and those who did so died of the
Disease.
Some Wylys of Tahlequah are descended
from Baptist Minister Jesse Bushyhead
of the Longhair Clan of Cherokees. He also was a Translator for
treaties and had a Georgia missionary
office in Atlanta. He moved parts of the Georgia church to Oklahoma in a
wagon while people walked. Half or
less lived in his party, and he would
not travel on Sundays until Winter threatened and some were caught in
Mississippi Floodwater--knee deep,
near Ohio-Missisippi River junction. This was before Levees. Frontier town folk would listen to Rev.
Bushyhead and said he was a better
minister than most of their pastors.
SEPTEMBER 3, 2007
I grew up in Erath County with some
roots in Bosque County. I assume that you know Tarleton State University of
Stephenville, Texas now has a
campus or Museum of the TP Coal and
Oil coal mines on old Johnson Ranch.
About 5 miles north across the Palo Pinto, County line was the town we knew as Mingus, and the largest bar
between Fort Worth and El Paso was
in Mingus, Texas, started by some of the Mingus family. Stephenville
was legally dry, so Tarleton students
had a well worn road to Mingus. Johnson
Ranch preceeded Thurber, Texas. TP Coal and Oil sent recruiters
all over Europe to find experienced
coal miners, mostly short miners. The Company owned the town which surpassed
20,000 at one time, plus local
fruit, vegetable, and fresh farmers
who set up temporary stands outside the Union owned town. Coal was shipped all
over Texas as were the Thurber
Bricks, and coal was used for
California bound TP Railroad trains. There was a museum or library on Johnson
Ranch which listed all immigrants
and Americans who worked in Thurber.
Some of my Wyly family worked there
until the strike led by John L. Lewis of the Coal Miners Union demanded a dollar
a day raise for all workers. TP told
him that oil strikes in Hogtown (Desdemona) and nearby Ranger had struck oil and trains would run
cheaper on fuel oil to fire
the boxes for steam power.
There were two Catholic Churches in Thurber for European immigrants: in Company
buildings, one Priest for Italian,
Moravian, and Czech miners and one for Irish Catholics which had traditions like St. Patrick's Day and other
differences. Most of my kin who
worked there were Baptist or Methodist with Georgia or Tennessee roots. Those living in Company homes
were told to move in 30 days. Some of the Wylys were there and at Newcastle
near Graham, one mine shaft, they settled in the area. Some left for Cotton
yards and Galveston Cotton Export
Compress and some were early drillers for East Texas Oil. Ben Wyly of an Atlanta , Ga. wholesale house
came to Stephenville. Cage and Crow Bank had an Italian Opera house in
Stephenville above their bank.
Some of the Morings worked in Thurber. Perhaps someone can update me on this: on
the Johnson Ranch in the 1990's
there was a library with all records of immigrants and employees of the coal mines (12 shafts?) and their
place of birth and coal mined
or bricks made and baked, and maintenance crews for the workers' home and Company store. The library was not open
to the public but was limate
controlled, so records should be in good condition--if you don't mind rattlesnakes and mice and such.
Have these records been placed in the Tarleton Library at Thurber? Are they
catalogued and organized for computer access???
When I taught at West High School
about 30 years ago, I was having lunch at Sulak's Cafe. I sat by an elderly man,
past 80, who said he was born
in Thurber to parents who were Czech
immigrants and who worked in the TP Coal mines at Thurber. His parents had moved to
West, Texas to join some German
, Czech, and Moravian newcomers to the area. Wendell Montgomery, West pharmacist, said he had known Dr.
Aderholdt who came to Bosque County,
then to West. The Aderholdt Funeral Home building is now City-County courtrooms. Was Dr. Aderholdt
from Thurber before he came to Thurber?
Rail connections from Thurber to Dublin to Bosque County to Elm Mot, near West, were running before 1900.
This Texas Central Railroad round
house, shops, lake, hospital, and Junior College were in Walnut Springs, before Katy bought it.
Pardon the rambling, but I feel
that many records in Thurber would be a gold mine for Geneaologists--immigrants
and old timers. Were any of the
Thurber immigrants naturalized in
Stephenville or Graham or Mineral Wells???
SEPTEMBER 9, 2007
There was a group of Germans called the Dutch Fork Hipp families of The Palatinate in Southern Germany of that
day, on the Rhine River, which
runs into the Black Sea. Grandmother
"Bessie" Hipp Carey, granddaughter of Charles Madison Hipp and Sarah Copeland
was descended from Dutch Fork Hipps.
One of these South Carolina Copelands settled between Thurber and Dublin; another Hipp cousin farmed near
Cranfils Gap, and a third ran
a family grocery in Temple, Texas His tree was somewhere on the internet. There are also
descendants of John Copeland, first
Elder of Duncan Creek Presbyterians. Charleston Episcopal City fathers made the land available to
Scotch-Irish so they would be a buffer
to Smoky Mountain Indian Raids into Charleston. Tombstones in Huricane Baptist Cemetery near Duncan Creek
has headstone evidence of where
Vaughn/Vaughan and Nabors/Neighbors families [lived]--differed in spelling, but the same name--several of one
spelling are behind a group headstone
with the other spelling.
Other Germans--like my Yowell
ancestors--came from Pennsylvania to Georgia: Lucy Eddins was Great Great
grandmother and a Yowell
descendant. She married Oliver
Cromwell Wyly #1 in North Georgia near Clarkesville or Toccoa; he was once
Habersham Sheriff. The third set of
Texas Germans of Kerrville,
Sisterdale, Lampassas, Malone, [and] Westphalia came directly to Texas after Prince
Solms-Braunfels had lost the
"Abortive Revolution" in Germany. The
Port of Indianola was a natural high
bank port where ships could unload directly onto the land, and they had a Sons of Herman lodge nearby
where newcomers came to make contacts
and find land and learn crops grown in Texas. My Copeland and Hipp Great grandparents came to Arkansas,
and Grandmother married Grandad Carey
in Hope, Arkansas berfore they came to Erath County, Texas.
How about the German bicycle mechanics
from Lampassas who flew their airplane
before [the] Wright Brothers and landed safely--a longer flight than [that of the] Wright Brothers, according to
German language newspapers in University of North Texas library.
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For
early Texas Church history, check books by Dr. D. D. Tidwell-Iredell born and taught History and
Theology at Howard Payne College,
Brownwood, and Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary, and at Houston Baptist College and at Baylor University.
He also retired in Waco, where some
of his family still lives. He was a Texas Masonic Lodge leader and
published their State paper for a few
years. For starters, type his name in a Google Window. One heading has a
summary of the School Hill churches.
He also published a very extensive history and family of the
Roberson or Robinson family, which
included Belchers of Johnsville and my great Aunt Etta Robinson or Roberson
Moxley, all descended from
"Choctaw Bill," or Rev. William
Robinson, who was once pastor at Stephenville First Baptist half time and
First Baptist of Dublin half time.
Dr. Tidwell presided over reading of Church History of Pony Creek Baptist (some call it Box, but Box
was across a dry branch a few
yards away from Pony Creek), a two story building with school downstairs where Aunt Susie Moxley taught;
and other churches had some meetings
in the School room, when a Saturday Night Dance was not scheduled. There was a Lodge hall upstairs.
Great Great Grandad Robert
Augustine Wyly had an older brother, Benjamin Franklin Wyly, who was a lodge member there and a Methodist
Elder in the Congregation which
met in the School room. Ben and his Uncle had a 4 story Mercantile Warehouse in Atlanta, Georgia
before [the] Civil War. Ben had lost an eye in [the] Battle of Knoxville and his
Uncle Augustin Clayton Wyly was in Liverpool England, getting more supplies,
possibly some for [the]Confederacy.
He lost two young daughters in Liverpool to Diphtheria. Ben came to Stephenville and [owned] a ranch
towards Pony Creek. He is buried near Comanche. Some Confederate records were
kept in [the] basement of Jackson, Mississippi and some claim other records
were in the old warehouse 4th story
at Pachtree and Pryor. Ben became an aide to Pres. Jefferson
Davis after he was injured.
The present hand dug well
between the sites was used by all groups. Possibly the Primitive Baptist Church,
which included Hurleys and McCartys of
Duffau and Johnsville, also used the
building. Centennial records did not mention them. Today they use the church building
abandoned by Southern Baptists. Bill Robinson and Great Great Grandad and
Dr. & Rev. William Pinckney Hatchet
were present when the Church--a Missionay Baptist Church--was organized. The ministers each preached one
sermon, welcomed new members and
converts, adjourned to the Creek and Baptized the Converts and then elected delegates to the Paluxy
Baptist Association which met at Paluxy Baptist College and campground, now
in Hood County. These leaders
tried to organize a Central Texaas Baptist Convention [as] there was
no State Convention or association
when Baylor University was chartered by Republic of Texas. Delegates from Pony
Creek to Paluxy annual Association
heard that Indian Raiders were in the area of their homes,
stealing livestock and killing
some, but they stayed in Paluxy until the business was attended to the next
morning. When they went home, not one delegate had lost cattle or family or
homes.
OCTOBER 17, 2007
I grew up a few miles from Paluxy
River and attended Church at Pony Creek which, with Mitchell Creek, drain
into the Paluxy. It was an excellent
place for motorcyclists. I had a 1934 Harley Davidson 74 motorcycle, and friends with their cycles
would explore the Paluxy Valley
or go to Singing conventions or parties at Cedar Point School House/Church. Hwy 67 went through our
field and when we were doing farm work we watched several national
motorcycles endurance runs, mostly on the Paluxy. They were given timed starts
over 3 days and were timed at the
Finish in Glen Rose or Grandbury. One had to let a motorcycle motor cool before crossing the dips or low water
crossings on the river--some concrete--some
natural gravel and rock. Cold water could ruin a hot motorcycle. Today motorcycle scavenger
hunts leave Hico and run through some Paluxy roads. The 36 Division and 49th
Armored used Hwy 67 from Camp
Bowie to East Coast ports and were shipped to Africa and/or Europe in WW2. Civilians going the same way
did not pass them when they were
moving. One loaded tank carrier caved the Brazos bridge in below Glen Rose near a Brazos low water crossing
for livestock.
Some report that, in 1940's a
motorcycle was used for delivering moonshine by moonlight with no lights. "It
Ain't Me, Paw, you are looking for"
(so said Johnny Cash). Hard to tell a cedar brush fire from a moonshine still--or were they used as
decoys to overlook other operations?
SOURCES FOR PALUXY SEARCH:
1. HANDBOOK OF
TEXAS ONLINE and Texas Almanac annual book--this one has controversy over the source of the name "Paluxy."
2. Use a
Google search for PALUXY RIVER or History of Paluxy Town, where there was once a Baptist
College and campground for
Paluxy Bapist Association meetings of Missionary or Southern Baptist Churches. The Glen Rose
primitive Baptist camground
was and is used by churches from surrounding counties and sometimes leased to other
churches.
3. Also check Hood
County information, as all north of the Paluxy is now in Hood County. It was once part of Erath
County before Hood and
Somervell Counties were created and
was in Bosque County before that.
4. Also check
Dinosaur Valley on Paluxy. Run all of a few thousand links on each of the above.
There is controversy over how human
footprints in dinosaur tracks at Paluxy bottom at the state park got there in same
rock formation. I was told by
construction workers that the Comanche Peak nuclear plant was dug in and sets on the same rock as the
bottom of Paluxy River and there were
dinosaur tracks there, buried in
several feet of dirt. The path pointed towards the present state park bottom of the Paluxy is the same rock
formation as Comanche Peak and Flat Mountain and Lone Mountain and those in the
Bee Mountains (Flat Top hills).
One can see Comanche Peak from Lone Mountain in Erath County. Here was a civilian lookout tower during
WW2 when German ships were in the Gulf of Mexico and Japanese in the Pacific
near Mexico--or so they thought.
Lookouts had a chart of airplane types and a direct line to Carswell AFB by Convair Aircraft Factory
and reported every plane they saw.
Go down the Paluxy and Brazos and turn
back up Bosque River and same tracks
are found between Iredell and Hico--private property and not
visible unless the Creek is bone dry,
as the river there is muddy and dirty
from dairy and other waste. Go from Iredell up the Duffau Creek main branch with springs and sand rock
banks. Near my childhood a
stovepipe mastodon leg bone was found, like the others that were caught
in a
flood and landslide which is now a
Federal Park and supervised by the City of Waco and Baylor University.
Go to WWW.Wacotrib.com archives and recent prints. Seems photos
and stories of a herd of wooly
mammoths are found there, on the Bosque near
the Brazos near Steinbeck Bend,
females facing inward in a circle, holding their young up by their trunks so
the young could breathe longer;
they did not make it. This is now the largest herd of wooly mammoths fossils in the world,
complete--not just scattered bones.
Follow the Prairie Branch of the
Duffau Creek across Hwy 77, and one side of the hill and Evans Cemetery--not
fenced or maintained--is a dividing
line between the Pony Creek which drains to Paluxy and Duffau Creek which drains to the Bosque River.
This Duffau Creek branch crosses
Hwy 67 again near U.S. 67 and Cedar Point Road. Two branches start within 7 miles of Stephenville.
After searching the above
sites, tell me what you think.
Dr. Carl Baugh of the Satellite TV
religious stations runs the Creation Science Museum near the Texas State Park on
the Paluxy. He claims to have
been an atheist when teaching and earning his degrees on the East Coast. He grew up in Dublin, Texas
living with kin, and is now very religious after seeing the fossils and
tracks mentioned above.
Careful, the Blue Hole nearby
is deep enough that stolen cars were found in it by divers. That would put a knot on your head, and you
expected a clean bottom. In the 1950-60's
we used to join weekend crowds washing their cars in the rock and gravel bottom pools. Sulphur Water has dried up Artesian springs
when a Dallas company bought
mineral leases upstream from Glen Rose--and now some of it is in the bottled water you drink. Water is a
mineral, like oil, and some mineral
leases, especially in the Panhandle, are leased for water, not oil.
I remember Grady Perry's Grand
Ole Erath book lists all post offices in the county, past and in
use when Grady was living. One was Galconda--one
was in Pony Creek--Mitchell Creek area below Miller's Hill.
Another is listed across the river north of Paluxy town and towards
Comanche Peak.
It was listed in U.S. Post office records as in Erath County, but that
changed when Somervell and Hood Counties were organized. Part of
this
territory was in Bosque County for a short time before Erath
County, before George B. Erath and Col. Buck Barry of Texas Rangers and
others
organized the first Erath County. It joined Johnson County at the
Brazos. Today, Bosque and Johnson County still join for several
miles.
OCTOBER 20, 2007
What does Paluxy mean???
AIG insurance uses paluxy as a
paluxy of a line of cars in a wreck. Another site devines Palu as a city in
Indonesia where the earlier volcano
and earthquake erupted in 1887 or 1883--first recorded Krakatoa eruption which made the one we remember
look like a baby in comparison. Could
paluxy mean a violent earthquake reshaping the earth? This volcano was in Stephenville and Austin and
Waco and was reported by stagecoach
riders in Mineral Wells and Stephenville hearing a low rumble the day the Indonesian volcano erupted; and
local people did not know the
connection for a few days when Telegraph reports got to newspapers.
Did Paluxy in Erath County exist
before 1887, or wasn't some other name used? One early Post Office in Erath County
was Galconda. All cities
who reported this in Texas were over the same limestone formations as much as Erath County was. No
other explanation was ever given for the newspaper reports. Was there also
an eruption in Central or South
America at that time??? The first Krakatoa eruption and hurricane and tidal wave in Indonesia sent ashes into
the air which darkened the sun
for many days, which changed the weather. Eruption, 1883? Crops failed in 1887, and
by 1893 many farmer lost their farms
and banks went broke and closed. In history books it is called
the Panic of 1893, and had nothing to
do with politics or who was President.
OCTOBER
22, 2007
I saw some connections I did not
mention concerning the Paluxy River
drainage area. Had to think some on them.
Mitchell Bend: Mitchell Creek Baptist
Church was across the road from the Pony Creek school before Three Way took
over the area by consolidation and
busses. It was a few yards below the school on Mitchell
Creek. I would think a
Texas map would show where Mitchell Creek joins the Paluxy River--have been by there, but so many
branches with crooks I cannot picture
it now. I also attended
Stephenville High School with a Lou Jane Mitchell...Dad and Carl used to visit at cattle
auctions and sometimes in the road ditch when heading to auctions or whatever.
His granddaughter Donna Mitchell
of Dublin married my wife's nephew Joe Mack Riley of Dublin.
My Great Grandad Robert Augustine Wyly
was a stepson of Martha Catherine Mitchell Wyly back in Georgia. His mom was
Lucy Eddins, an aunt of Martha.
Martha came to Texas by boat and came to Selden, then to Wyly kin on high Plains. Great Uncle Albert
Charles Wyly of Selden took some
of his nieces to the Ireland or
Mitchell Cemetery in Hamilton County near Comanche. He had Mitchell uncles and
aunts buried there. Across in
Comanche County Great Grandad's older
brother Benjamin Franklin Wyly [lived] with 5 of his family on his land. He and
his Uncle A.C. Wyly ran the 4 story brick Wyly Wholesale Merchandise
before the Civil War. Some of these
had connections to Cage, Trammel and Crow in Erath County, but most of his family went to Thurber coal mines
and East Texas oil fields.
I think Stockton Bend was below
Mitchell Creek [at] Paluxy junction and near a long straight section of the Paluxy
River where some claim that Jesse
James had hidden a small treasure box of gold and silver coins. A young man I knew said he had swam this
stretch and found a steel box he
could not move, and when he returned
in a few days with help and cable, the box was gone. Jesse also was
reported to have buried emergency
funds under an oak tree between Three
Way School and Pony Creek church (Box Cemetery). Also [he allegedly] left
some money in a cave near Lake Whitney Dam. Some coins were found there, but torches
were used to keep rattlesnakes away
and [the] coins were displayed in a showcase in a fishing camp on Lake Whitney.
Three
or four houses--two story stone--were built between Tolar, Maratheal's Gap, [and]
Chalk Mountain south of the Paluxy
and old Johnsville in mid 1800's. I think they were on a bumper gate road where older cars with steel
bumpers could bump them and they would open and swing closed. One had a
carbide gas tank in the yard and gas lights in the house. They were empty last
time I saw them, built like Rock
Church, where we used to play as teenagers, near the Suspension Bridge over the Paluxy. I actually
lived in Johnsville and Fort Worth and a year in Stephenville and 2 in the
Army during the Korean War before finishing my degrees. Dad and Virgil
Underwood shared a home in the Charles
Neblett Home while attending Tarleton. Virgil became a Vocational Agriculture Teacher.
NOVEMBER
20, 2007
Go to Google Window and type in "John
Wilder of Dublin, Texas" and you
will find several listings of a John Wilder--each opens to more details in each listing. Seems a Wilder of
Dublin was once connected to the
Stephenville Cattle Auction barn. A Wilder is also listed in other
sites from this list in Killeen,
Texas, Texas A&M University, and had ties to Wyoming areas of seasonal pastures
when Central Texas was drying
up in hot summers. Kuykendall Land and Cattle of Clifton,
Texas also ran trailer trucks
into Wyoming pastures when the market and grazing in Texas was poor. One Kuykendall
married a sister of Great Grandmother
Ella Hatchett Wyly of Bosque and Erath Counties, Texas. Clifton is in Bosque County, and they are
pictured in Hog Creek Church and school in Bosque County records in the site
of the Bosque County Museum, on part of the old Clifton Junior College, near the
Lutheran Sunset Rest Home.
Some of the cattle were skinny East
Texas cattle sold through Meridian,
Stephenville, Waco, West and other Central Texas weekly auctions .The summer grass of the area
around Wyoming and Colorado Mountain
pastures fattened the cattle for market. Kuykendalls had an office in Clifton, Texas up to the 1990's.
Thigpens of Waco-Cameron also trucked
cattle in trailer trucks to northwest summer pastures. They still run locally.
Only piano repairman and tuner I knew
very well was Ronnie Baker of Walnut
Springs High School. He was a pastor in Hamilton and then in
Hubbard. He finished College with high
grades after Walnut Springs graduation.
A Riley of Dublin listed in the Google
list which mentions John Wilder of
Dublin was my wife's brother, Jim Riley, an electrician, rancher, and
trades day trader of whatever. Other
Rileys in Erath County were not related
to him.
DECEMBER 1, 2007
Several names in Erath County also
appear in the 1880 - 1900 store records
as listed below. Mr. Holley had his list of home remedies in his record book, made from the raw base
products he stocked. He had
cures for the common cold, made from boiled lemonade and other ingredients, and a cure for Rabies is also
listed. Also a few days of day labor
he did, and some customers did for him, seasonally.
I went to a garage sale about 30
years ago, in present day Hewitt
between Waco and Lorena near the
old Skating Rink, and today an antique car shop. This is on I-35 today. It was the Overland
Buttterfield trail from San Antonio past Hillsboro. Mr Holley sold axle grease, but
charged for greasing buggy wheels. Others have claimed the
Butterfield Stage had a fresh horse and rest stop in the area, but his journal
does not mention it. He also sold for cash, but did not list in the
journal. He had one blank order page
for supplies from St. Louis, Mo.
The elderly gentleman running the sale
in an old house in a clump of trees
said he was connected to Holley and Payton of Stephenville and Pattons of Patton, Texas. I think I
see how names got changed by local teachers when some students had parents who
could not read and write. I had
a first grade teacher, our neighbor for years, who insisted my name
had an "E" or an "I" in it. My parents
sent a note and saw her in person later to let her know I was
right. The Wyly name was not changed in the U.S. or Ireland according to
several family geneaologists, possibly in Scotland or England. The Cleveland
family history of Pres. Grover Cleveland
and the Sevier-Xavier family of the first Tennessee Governor, John Sevier, and some Clark and Hawkins records
also show the spelling of Wyly.
Also when I was in first grade I was tongue tied and could not say the name without it sounding like Wywy.
I bought an old record book
there of the store from 1881 past 1900. Lists of charges were crossed out with one large X.
Cotton picking was 50 cents
a hundred pounds. Sometimes he
worked for others seasonally, and sometimes they cut his firewood or such to
pay the grocery bill. He also had
early medicine mix formulas to
mix your own, and later Dry Goods and some household hardware. He also had ingredients for stain remover and
proper clothes washing.
Customers recorded in the old Store
records of Mr. Holley are A. J. Pool, Knox, Whitfield, H. A. Hudson, Hooper, Clark, Hutchinson, Crow, Cook (or Crook),
Echols, Turner, Beckendorfer (or
Linkenhoger), Walton, Hedrick,
and Cole. He had raw medicine ingredients and recipes for you to mix.
There is at least 2/3 of a large page
of Holleys in the Waco area phone book. Someone in Txerath recently was hunting
their Erath or
Hamilton County Holleys. Some who have replied said they
were also taught using a 2 for
a Capitol Q, and a choice of small letter "r", and the final "t," without crossing. We
called it a walking stick "T." At
least our rural schools taught us to read and write. Many today in High School and some in College classes
cannot write cursive, but why bother,
when Pre K has Apple kids' computer programs and high schools accept an assignment in printing or
computer printouts. This includes Special Ed students to Honors and GT
classes. If you find an old journal in cursive writing, take it to
someone who started school before 1940 and they can read it, old letters or
newer ones.
DECEMBER 28, 2007
I guess you know of Salmon Brothers
store in Hico, Hamilton County, Texas.They
have been there through 3 generations or more. Also, Wayne Lowe was in Stephenville High school when I
was, 1944-1946. He was red headed.
Not sure if he rode the Alexander or Lingleville bus--both as
near to Dublin as to
Stephenville. I used to ride to Convair Fort Worth with James Simmons and his sister who lived
with or near him in Stephenville.
I also knew some Walkers--not all closely related. Many Comanche County folk traded in
Dublin. Once Dublin folk, Black and white, barricaded the Comanche county WY
67, when a group of Vigilantes were
riding in to burn all homes of Blacks and Spanish. A farm housewife was found dead in her home,
and a Black farm hand was hanged
when he was caught in the field, still plowing. If you killed someone wouldn't you have vanished as fast
as possible, not just keep on plowing??
Charlie Walker was a cattle
trader and rancher.
Question: Has the Procter Peanut Mill
been rebuilt? We were coming home from Clyde via De Leon and Dublin when it
was burning. Could see it for
miles.
Contents
c2006-2009 Charles Wyly
Format c2006-2009
Tim Seawolf and Barbara Peck
This page last updated on June 6, 2008
DUBLIN,
TEXAS