Transcribed For Online by Geraldine [email protected]
Records Contributed by Vicki Bell-Reynolds [email protected]

about 15 minutes, he came back down the road just as fast as the horse would carry him and it wasn't long after he got back to picnic ground we heard shooting, he shot his brother-in-law through the right chest, the bullet entered the front of his body and came out just under his shoulder blade, the doctor could run a string clear through this man chest and body and swab out the hole and the man lived.  There was a negro girl there about 14 years old that had not walked a step in 6 or 8 years, she was an invalid and she lay on a cot but at the edge of the crowd, when the shooting started she jumped up threw the cot over her shoulder and really took off down through the woods it took 3 good men to head her off to get her stopped and from then on she could walk.

Then again when the shooting started my brother Ben jumped up and started running for dear life, he ran down through the timber about a quarter of a mile, fell down over a tree that was laying on the ground, he got up and ran right back into the same crowd of which he had just left, he jumped up high in the air and yelled to the top of his voice to the people there that they had better be running along and to get away from there because they were fighting just like hell right down there a little ways, so be at it.

My brother and I were both muscians he played the fiddle and I picked the guiter.  We formed a 12 piece string band, there was 7 boys and 5 girls in the band and the lead fiddler was one of the girls about 17 years old, her fiddle was stringed for a right handed player but, she played it lefted handed, she played it over and backwards and she could really play it and she could really get a soft and sweet tone from her fiddle.  We would play for dances and you could really dance if you had never danced before, get all our instruments in tune.  you would certainly hear some pretty music.

My brother and I would play by ourselves for dances.  I remember one night we made $15.00 playing for a dance.  We had two sets going at the same time and only one caller, calling for both sets at once.

I was told by my mother that years ago, they had a cyclone through that part of the country.  It was headed right for the town of Woodville, coming in from Texas of which would be from the south of us but, when it arrived at red river the water in the river changed it course and it miss Woodville about one mile and there was a far house out in the country, the people were sitting at the table eating their supper, someone of the family look up and saw the cyclone coming, so they all run out into the yard, they didn't have a storm cellar to go into, they lay down on the ground and spread out and caught hold of some small trees that was in the yard with their hand and held on for dear life, the wind whipped them up and on the ground until all their clothes were whipped of their bodies, the wind just picked up the roof and walls of the house and blew them into splinters and didn't even blow newspapers off of the dresser and all their funiture was not even molested.

It blew their corn crib away and blew the shucks off the corn, blew feathers off the chickens and they had a bored well in the yard the wind twisted the curbing out of the ground and blew it away.  The cyclone went on up through the country and crossed the washita river and there was a stip of land that the timber was blown away about half mile wide and 3 miles long, that was as clean of grass and weeds or anything that grew in the ground as could be and nothing never did grow in that part of land but, along the edge and both side of this strip, there was grapes and black berries by the train loads.  This strip was known the territory over as the cyclone strip and people would come for miles around to gather grapes and berries ever year.

In the territory days there was no picture shows or any kind of amusements going on there, the cow boys would all get together and on holidays or even sunday afternoon and go out on the prairie and rope several wild horses bring them down saddle them up and ride them all just to pass time.  You would see some real wild horse riding, horses that had not even seen a human, let alone a saddle, bridle or even rope.

I had an Uncle by the name of Thornt Young, that rode after cattle 70 years, he started riding when he was only 12 years old and rode after cattle until he was 82 years old.  He would buy and sell cattle and he never bought a cow or steer in all that ime that he lost money on, sometimes he wouldn't make over $5.00 profit on a steer.

He drove a herd of steers over to Denison, Texas, one time for market, while over there he found a steer that he wanted and bought and was driving it back home, he made it just fine until he arrived at the river, red river, and the steer didn't want to get into the water at the river, Uncle Thornt got tired of fooling with it.  So he roped the steer and tied the other end of the rope to his saddle horn and got in behind the steer and gave it a scare, the steer started running toward the river, it run up to the bluff that was about 40 feet high,  Uncle Thornt put his spurs to his horse and steer, horse, rope and Uncle Thornt went over the 40 foot bluff , and to the bottom of the river they all went.  He came by our house and he was as wet as could be.  Uncle Thornt wore knee length boots.  He would buy a new pair of boots and he would put his spurs on the boots and wear boots and spurs until the boots were wore out.

He has told some of the most interesting things bout his experience on the cow ranch, he lived in a tent and of a night he could hear wolves come up to his tent in hunt of food and they would come so close that he could hear their scent for food.

The ranch was fenced with barb wire 3 stands all around the ranch and the ranch consisted of several hundred acres of land and to keep the cattle in this the fence had to be kept up, that would consist of a man to ride around the ranch fence and where there would be wire loose on a fence post he would get down off of his horse and nail the wire back to the post.  This job was called riding the fence and the man would carry a pocket full of staples and a claw hammer to perform the duties as a fence rider.

I have heard Uncle Thornt say that he has rode the fence on several occasions and when night would over take you, you would get down off your horse, take off the saddle, blanket and bridle, take the laret rope off your saddle tie one end of rope to the horse front leg, the other end of the rope tie to your leg.  This would keep your horse close by, then you would spread out the blanket so that one end would be across your saddle for a pillow then after you got all that done you would lie down for the night,  you would be several miles from any farm house or any people. you would be out on the open range alone with your horse and saddle.  You could feel snakes crawl across your body

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