HORSES
He said his family always had a lot of good horses, called them
"prairie horses." To a cowboy his horse came first of all. (My
mother said her father would never eat until his horse had been fed.) The
small cow horses simply could not pull much. Hence, one reason oxen were
used. They used to bring wood with oxen to their house.
One time Mr. Williams and others were rounding up down on the Leon.
They were wild and ran into the brush and thistles. Arch Blansit lived
nearby. He got off his horse, went in the thicket, and came out riding a
longhorn, just holding on with his spurs, the bull pitching as hard as he
could. Didn’t see how he could hold on.
His wife’s name was Dutch. A good woman. A flood came and she cooked
them a fine breakfast. Arch was rough talking but a good fellow. That
incident was somewhere below the Hico bridge.
(I knew the Blansits, Uncle Arch did talk loud. Sat on their porch and
talked to them. Clem went in the army about the time I did. Roy had a boy
who was killed or died in W. W. Two. They raised guineas in the early
days, lived not far below Hamilton on Pecan Creek. Blansits and his old
family, and good people. Father of Arch and John Martin was Mr. John
Blansit, veteran of the Mexican War, a substantial man. Of course, I don’t
remember him. John Martin born in 1863, had fine farm out Highway 281
south. Ivy, one of the boys still here. Once during the War I took Mr.
Williams out to visit with him. He sat on the porch, and I enjoyed their
talk.