Reminiscences of Mrs. Martha Bradley

Wichita County Pioneer

I was born in Lincoln County, Missouri, near Troy, on July 21, 1849, and lived near that place until I was grown. My father used to keep a tavern at Auburn, Mo., and many school children stayed there and attended school, because our school was better that they had near their homes. I left school and married J.A. Bradley on May 1, 1863. My five children were all born in Missouri. When we moved to Texas in 1878, Emma, now Mrs. O.P. Maricle, was just a baby.

Mr. Bradley had been begging me for three years to come to Texas, but I did not want to leave my family. Finally I said, "Well, if you will go first and get me a place to move to, I will go." So he came out and rented a place near Gainsville that was covered with cotton. We had never seen any cotton and didn’t know anything about it. There was some already picked and in a pen out back of the house; some cattle got in there one night and ate it up. I went out one day with a little basket and picked some. We picked part of the crop and some of it wasted.

We stayed there for a year, then bought sixty acres near by, and built us a three roomed box house on it. The boys went to school and Mr. Bradley kept a little grocery store. We stayed there for two years, but never liked it very well. The next year we went to Decatur and raised one crop, which we sold mostly in the field. Then we went to Charlie and rented a place. We thought we would get drowned getting across the river. We came across at the regular crossing place there near Charlie, but the river was up, and the water came way up in the wagon. Some of the children were on horseback and they were frightened, too. But finally we got there and settled down and raised a crop. We had nearly a hundred acres of corn and it was beautiful. We got one mess of roasting ears off of it, and had to gather them in the mud. We were offered a bunch of sheep for the whole crop, but we would not take it; then within three days there came a hot wind and burnt it up until the blades cracked in the wind. We didn’t make a thing. We were sick about it, and began to talk about moving again.

That fall we all came up to Wichita Falls for the first annual picnic. We liked this part of the country and decided to move to Wichita. My husband came back here and bought a house, or rather traded for it. He had a horse that he bought at Ft. Sill, a condemned horse for which he paid $27. He had kept the horse for several months and cared for him until he was strong and fat. He traded this horse for a little two-roomed house over on Lee Street, a house nicely papered inside and painted outside and standing on a 50 foot lot. They valued the horse at $125 and traded even. The man he traded with was Cap. Andrews.

Mr. Bradley commenced to work for a man who was boss of the Lyon and Gribble Lumber Yard, which was near our house. We added another room to our house and lived there about a year. Then we got a chance to buy a big two store house from George Mays, which was located in the next block towards town. It had eleven rooms. We kept roomers and did well as long as this was the terminus of the railroad, but when the road moved on to Harrold, we didn’t have much business. We couldn’t pay our house out and had to sell it. Mr. Huff put it up and sold it to the highest bidder. The lot next to the house lacked $25 of being paid out, and my son had to go to town and raise the money to keep them from selling it at auction. We then built us a two roomed box house on the third lot from our house, and moved into it.

Mr. Canfield, who used to be Post Master, bought the big house that we sold. One day when Mrs. Canfield was there alone she head a noise at the back screen, and looked up in time to see a big rattle snake starting into the house, She ran and pulled the screen door tight against him, and stood there and screamed for help. A neighbor man came and cut the snake in two with a hoe. There were rattle snakes everywhere in those days.

We soon added more rooms to our little house and made it very comfortable. My three daughters were married there. My youngest daughter, Emmie, was married March 5, 1902 to Mr. O.P. Maricle. By that time we had a five room house. In the sitting room we had a folding bed, a couch covered with silk tapestry and a black ebony organ. Emmie had had some disagreement with the Methodist pastor, so she decided to ask a former pastor, Bro. Mood, to officiate at her wedding. The pastor found it out and wrote Bro. Mood and threatened him if he cam up into his territory to marry anybody. So Emmie got the Presbyterian preacher to marry them. They were married early in the morning by lamp light, for they were leaving on an early train for Illinois to visit his people. The young couple entered to strains of wedding music played on our little ebony organ by Mrs. Clara Maricle. There were no attendants. After the wedding we had a breakfast for the wedding party. There was a long table and everybody stood up to eat. The bill of fare sounds much like dinner than a breakfast, for I remember we had baked ham, and cake, etc. All who attended were kinfolks except the Presbyterian preacher and his wife. After breakfast the guests went to the train with the bride and groom, and stayed until the train pulled out.

After some years we moved from Lee Street to 1208 Travis where we have lived since. We haven’t paid one cent of rent since we have been in Wichita Falls, for we have always owned our one home.

My five children are Louis Bradley of Rochester, Washington; Mrs. Betty Cockrell of Ft. Worth; and Mrs. Lee Moore, Mrs. Emma Maricle, and Ed Bradley, all of Wichita Falls, Tex. My husband, Mr. J.A. Bradley, died here in 1923.