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North Texas StarNORTH TEXAS WHITE GOLD

CHASING OUR TALES

DOC HOLLIDAY

OUTDOORS ALONG THE BRAZOS

Jim Dillard

Sue Seibert

Wynelle Caitlin

Don Price

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During the 1850s and 1860s settlers along the vast Texas frontier faced many dangers and obstacles as they literally put their lives on

the line to eke out a living there. Not only did they have to survive in a land where the threat of Indian raids was ever present, there were always weather extremes to deal with and the lack of basic commodi-ties necessary to sustain them. Wild game and free ranging cattle provided a source of meat but other food items were more difficult to come by. Although many early settlers established small gardens to pro-duce a variety of fruits and vegetables, lack of rainfall, insects and native animals often depleted them before they could be harvested. Most staples had to be hauled in.

To obtain building supplies, foods, equipment and other necessities usually meant a long journey by wagon to the nearest settlement, which often took days to reach and return from. Many settlers were killed on such journeys by Indians or outlaws who lurked throughout the wild regions of North Central Texas. It would be years before most of the counties, towns and communities now found in North Central Texas would come into existence.

Weatherford was often the destination of choice for many early settlers where basic food staples and other merchandise could be obtained. First settlers had arrived there during the late 1840s and by 1855 the county was organized. The town was named for state senator Thomas Jefferson Weatherford (1811-1867), of Dallas, who represented the district in which the county was located. Weatherford soon became a com-mercial hub for the region where wagon trains origi-nated to supply settlers and military outposts located to the west along the frontier.

Early entrepreneurs such as legendary Oliver Loving and Charles Goodnight freighted supplies into the region to supplement their incomes during the 1850s. Loving operated a country store during the mid 1850s in northern Palo Pinto County (north of present Peadenville) along the military road between Fort Worth, Weatherford and Fort Belknap and Camp Cooper. During the late 1850s Charles Goodnight also freighted by ox-drawn wagons various types of com-modities and merchandise to Palo Pinto County, including barrels of syrup, sugar and whisky from Houston until the Texas Central Railroad line was extended to Hempstead and Bryan. His last trip with a string of 24 oxen strung to one great wagon was made from Bryan with 13,000 pounds of salt for the town of Palo Pinto.

Of all the commodities considered most precious to early settlers along the Texas frontier, salt was perhaps the most important. Salt is not only one of the basic tastes for humans, it’s also an essential element in small quantities for all animal life. It has been used for thousands of years as a food preservative – for meat in particular. During this period, salt was primar-ily produced by evaporation of sea salt or brine springs until deep salt dome deposits were later dis-covered and mined.

With no other way to preserve meat from fresh-killed cattle, buffalo, hogs or deer, settlers depended on a supply of salt to cure these meats for use during lean times of the year. It was also a necessary ingredi-ent for making butter and other culinary dishes and an important supplement to the production of livestock. Purchasing and transporting salt from suppliers in dis-tant communities where it was available was a major undertaking until a brine spring was discovered on the

Salt Fork of Hubbard Creek in Shackelford County. Although long known about by Indians who frequent-ed the spring, it was discovered by three cattlemen, Cal Greer, William King and Vol Simonds, during 1861. Having lost their horses while returning from a cattle drive to the Concho River area, they stumbled onto the site while walking back across the country.

When news of their discovery spread, settlers in the region began coming to the spring to produce salt. George Greer, George Hazelwood and Billy McGough were first to produce salt at the location by filling bar-rels with the salty brine and allowing to settle. The water would then be boiled in pots until only the salt remained. William Henry Ledbetter moved to the spring in 1862, where he built a house and corals and set up a saltworks operation to produce the precious commodity in quantity.

Ledbetter was born Dec. 23, 1833, in Troup County, Ga. He married Margaret Elizabeth Alverson in Mississippi and moved to Rusk County, Texas, in 1858. In 1859 they moved to the Clear Fork of the Brazos River and then to the saltworks in 1862. Six children were born to the couple.

Ledbetter hauled several large iron kettles from Jefferson, Texas, by wagon to use in his operation for producing large quantities of salt. The kettles were pumped full of water from the spring and a fire built in the furnace under the pots. The water was evaporat-ed and the remaining salt sun dried in large vats before being put into burlap bags stenciled with Ledbetter‘s mark. Much of the salt was transported to Weatherford for sale. Salt was also sold to settlers throughout the region who came to the saltworks. Tons of Ledbetter’s salt was also shipped east to

Please see page 4

North Texas White Gold

By Jim Dillard


From page 3supply Confederate forces during the Civil War. Civil War Gen. Sherman once said salt was more important than gunpowder to the army and could not survive without it. John and William Hittson who had moved into civilian Fort Davis, located in northern Stephens County, for protection during the war hauled salt from the Ledbetter Saltworks into Mexico in exchange for gold to support their families.

Salt was also important to military forts that had been established along the Texas frontier following the Civil War. At nearby Fort Griffin, located on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River north of present Albany, Texas, a brisk trade was developed with the post. Ledbetter even negotiated with Col. Sturgis of the Sixth Cavalry for the loan of a cannon for use at his saltworks to discourage raiding Comanches that frequented the area.

On several occasions it was effectively fired at Indians that attacked the saltworks.

During the spring of 1868 a raiding party of Indians was located near Battle Creek in present southeastern Shackelford County by a group of cattlemen who

outnumbered them. During the encounter the Indians were forced to flee the area but not before killing

George Hazelwood. His body was found shot with arrows and numerous curious-looking black arrows

were scattered around his body. Evidence at the scene indicated that he had killed one of the war-riors and wounded at least two others. The fol-lowing day the Indians attacked several men, women and children at the Ledbetter salt-works but were repelled by their superior rifles. Ledbetter loaded a king bolt, the ver-tical bolt that joins the body of a wagon to its front axle, into the cannon and gave them a parting volley.

After the incident, two of the defenders walked 20 miles to Fort Griffin and reported the incident to Capt. Adna R. Chafee. A detachment of troops led by Lt. Turner, accompanied by Tonkawa scouts, began pursuit of the raiding Indian party and followed their trail to a point between the forks of Paint Creek, about 8 miles south of present day Haskell. At sunrise the following morning the Indians were

attacked and quickly captured with several killed. It was learned from some of the cap-

tured Indians they had left the black arrows around George Hazelwood’s body in honor of

their war chief, Cato, a renegade African American whom the settlers had killed the previ-

ous day during the fight on Battle Creek. The Tonkawa were allowed to kill the remaining

Comanche captives and take scalps. In another raid Phillip H. Reynolds, who worked as a wood hauler for

Ledbetter, was also killed by Indians. Reynolds Creek south of Albany was named in his honor.

Several ranches were soon established near Ledbetter’s saltworks and a school was established on the J.C. Lynch Ranch. Walsh Hullum, whose father was an early settler in Galconda (present day Palo Pinto) was employed as the teacher. Ledbetter’s two sons Harve L. and John Calvin attended the school, which was located some 15 miles from the saltworks. During 1870 or 1871 tragedy struck when young John Ledbetter wandered away from the school and was never seen again. It was theorized he had either been captured by Comanches or possibly drowned in high water along a flooded creek as the homesick boy tried to return to his home.

Ledbetter operated the saltworks until around 1880, but since there was no railroad in the area on which to transport his salt, the saltworks were abandoned. He moved into a hide-covered picket house he built on property he owned near Fort Griffin. That picket house is now partially preserved in the park near downtown Albany and the large iron kettles he once used at the saltworks are also on display. A large granite marker commemorating the Ledbetter Saltworks is located on the west side of the courthouse in Albany. Nothing remains of the old saltworks located near present Lake

McCarty, 9 miles southwest of Albany. In 1878 Ledbetter was county judge for Shackelford County. He died Dec. 9, 1884, and is buried in the Albany Cemetery with his wife who died in 1918.

Another famous saltworks was operated after the Civil War on Salt Creek in Young County by Edwin Smith Graham and his younger brother Gustavus who had become affiliated with the Texas Emigration and Land Company of Louisville, Ky. During a prospecting trip to Texas they bought 125,000 acres of land in Young County from the Peters Colony for 17 cents per acre. The also purchased Captain A.B. Grant’s salt-works on Salt Creek for $5,000 and invested an addi-tional $2,000 in new equipment. Although the salt plant produced and bagged 2,500 pounds of salt daily, it soon became too expensive to transport for sale and the oper-ation was closed.

In 1872 the brothers established the town site for Graham and set up the Graham Land Office to offer lots for sale. They became active in development of the town and civic improvements. During a second reorga-nization of the county in the election of 1874, the coun-ty seat in Young County was moved from Belknap to Graham. With the town flourishing the brothers perma-nently moved their wives and children there in 1879. Edwin Graham and his wife lived there until 1891 when they moved to Spokane, Wash., where he died on May 7, 1889. His body was returned to Graham for burial and his wife Addie became active in the commu-nity as a civic leader and philanthropists. She died in 1930.

Several other small saltworks operations were in existence in North Texas during these early days before salt became more readily available. Charles Goodnight mentioned one saltworks being located eight miles west of the Goodnight Ranch in Palo Pinto County. Another one was located on Sunday Creek five miles west of Santo. When railroad line construction began during the 1880s into west and northwest Texas, the shortage of commodities such as salt became a thing of the past.

Heavy-loaded wagons drawn by teams of oxen and piled high with bags of salt from the Ledbetter and Salt Creek saltworks no longer roll through Palo Pinto County, headed east to Weatherford. Today the great underground salt dome near Grand Saline, Texas, pro-duces enough salt to supply the entire United States with white gold for 1,000 years. Now our dilemma is too much salt in the many processed foods we eat that make up much of our diet. I certainly like a “pinch of salt” in my food and will probably always take most things with a “grain of salt.”

(References: Interwoven: A Pioneer Chronicle by Sallie Reynolds Matthews; Texas Boundaries: Evolution of the State’s Counties by Luke Gournay; Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman by J. Evetts Haley; A Texas Frontier: The Clear Fork Country and Fort Griffin, 1849-1887 by Ty Cashion; The Handbook of Texas Online-www.tshaonline.org, www.findagrave.com, and many other websites.)

William Henry Ledbetter, 1833-1884


Chasing Our Tales to Oran … or Black Springs By Sue Seibert

If you want to become a part of the genealogical community, there is a

great volunteer program online called Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com/. It is, for now, a free site where you can look up ances-tors from all over the world. I predict it won’t always be free, as Rootsweb became Ancestry and certainly isn’t free any longer.

However, that’s another story. Find a Grave is looking for researchers all over the world to list cemetery findings, catalog cemeter-ies and take photos of graves already listed at the request of folks online.

We have registered as a volunteer photographer, and as people request photos of their ancestors’ graves, close to where we live, they will contact us. In some cases volunteers will be able to find a grave easily. In

other cases, there will not be a marker but, you know, it’s a helpful thing to do for folks who cannot visit their ancestor’s grave and it makes a nice outing, as well. The last time we went out Raf got pho-tos of graves, but he also got some lovely flower photos!

We have checked out two ceme-teries, so far. The first one we visit-ed for Find a Grave was the Oran Cemetery. This cemetery is located in the middle of Oran, and a little back to the east. It’s quite easy to find, and it’s marked well.

We drove out on a very breezy day. We had seven photo requests, but we only found one.

However, before I go any farther, in case you don’t know some of the history of Oran, here is a small syn-opsis. Oran is 5 miles northeast of Graford on Farm Road 52 in Palo Pinto County. It’s a farming com-munity, and its earliest settlers included Oliver Loving and George Bevers. Oran was first named Black

Springs, but the United States Post Office refused that name, so the name Oran was submitted to them and approved. It is believed that the name Oran came from the name of Gov. Oran M. Roberts.

Black Springs was the name of the area when Charles Goodnight and his step-brother, John Wesley Sheek, trailed cattle in Texas in 1857. They had been in partnership since 1853. In Black Springs they built a log cabin and brought their parents to live there the next year. It was during this time that Goodnight meet Oliver Loving, who was run-ning cattle in the Western Cross Timbers.

Goodnight, who was born in Illinois, had learned to hunt and track at an early age, and at 15 he was a jockey, but he didn’t like that job. His mother, who had been wid-owed several times, married a Methodist preacher named Adam Sheek Jr. in 1853. He and Sheek’s son, John Wesley, known as Wes,

became partners and made a deal with a neighboring ranch, the CV Ranch, owned by Sheek’s relative, Clairborne Varner, to take care of 430 head of cattle. Sheek and Goodnight kept every fourth calf born as their payment and accumu-lated 180 head of their own, while at the same time learning the cattle ranching business.

Adam Sheek and his wife, Jemima Sparks Sults, were Wes’ parents and his siblings were George Washington, Joseph S., James G., Susannah Jane, Lucinda, and Martha. Adam and his new wife, Charlotte Goodnight Daugherty, had one child of their own, Silas A. Sheek.

Wes Sheek’s family goes back to Valentine Schick who was born in Germany in 1697. His son, Christian, was born in Germany in 1732, and one of Christian’s sons, George Sheeks, was born in Rowan County, N.C., on Feb. 1, 1774.

Please see page 8


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From page 6He had a son, Johann Adam, who had a son, John Adam Sheek Jr., and that is how the family progresses to John Wesley.

Now, Oliver Loving came from Kentucky to Texas, first to the Peters Colony in present Collin County (where my great-great-grandfather came) and then on to future Palo Pinto County along Keechi Creek, somewhat to the west of Black Springs.

Interestingly, one of the graves on the Oran Cemetery Find a Grave list was that of Martha Love Lane Sheek. Raf and I covered the cemetery, but we could not find a headstone for Martha, although there are quite a few of the Sheek family buried there.

The historical marker at the ceme-tery says, “Originally known as the Black Springs Cemetery, the nearby burial ground was established to serve pioneer settlers of the Keechi Valley and the settlement of Black Springs. The earliest marked grave is that of Mary A. Lasater (1841-1871). Land for the cemetery was deeded by Silas

(John) Adam Sheek, stepfather of the noted Texas cattleman Charles Goodnight. Renamed Oran Cemetery when a new community name was selected in 1886, it includes the graves of Goodnight’s mother Charlotte Sheek (1810-1882), Civil War veterans, pioneer settlers, and early community leaders.”

Martha Love Lane, you see, was the wife of John Wesley Sheek, called Wes, partner and brother of Charles Goodnight. Martha, called Mattie, was born May 2, 1842, in Robertson County, Texas, and she died March 7, 1871. She died in Kansas on a cattle drive and was brought back to Texas to be buried. That was after Oliver Loving died in New Mexico in 1867, when Goodnight and his crew began working with John Chisum.

A lot of the extended Lane family, Mattie’s family, married into other families who also came to Palo Pinto County. The Sheeks and Lanes were related by various marriages to Charles Goodnight. Goodnight and Sheek were both brothers-in-law to Alfred Lane who was a Texas Ranger

and cattleman.Mary, Alfred, and Franklin Lane

came from Tennessee. Mary married Joseph Key, and they lived near Waco in the 1850s. According to oral family history the Lanes were full-blood Cherokees. Alfred and Frank Lane were brothers-in-law and partners with Wesley Sheek and Charles Goodnight. Mary died in 1860 and her two sons, Thomas Alfred and John, were left with Mattie while their father went with Goodnight and Sheek on cattle drives.

Alfred Lane married Elizabeth Goodnight, the elder sister of Charles Goodnight. In 1860 he was 32 years old, while Franklin was 18.

Mattie and Wes Sheek were mar-ried Jan. 5, 1860, in Palo Pinto County. They raised two nephews after their mother died and their father apparently dumped them and “went off doing who knows what,” so the family legend says. Wes and Mattie’s child, Lou Emma Sheek, was born Oct. 16, 1861. She married John Thomas Franklin Duke. They had a son, Vilas A. Duke, who had a son

named D.H. Duke.Wes was mustered into the

Confederate Army at Palo Pinto County in March of 1861 as a private. His commander was Captain D.B. Cleveland. The company was dis-banded in January 1862 and their ser-vice rendered was to protect the fron-tier when there were alarms or the appearance of Indians.

After Mattie died, Wes remarried and moved to Colorado where he died, and although the family feels Mattie is buried in Oran, there is no headstone and they do not have infor-mation on Wes, although I have dis-covered that he moved to Montezuma County, Colo., in the 1890s. He appears to have died June 24, 1908, in Manassa, Colo.

I discovered many a good story regarding the Goodnight-Sheek asso-ciation, and I hope to continue their tales in some future columns. If you have information on these families, please contact me at [email protected].

Until next time, enjoy your spring weather! And the wonderful rains!

Charles GoodniteJohn Wesley Sheek

Mattie Lane


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For

gambling

was better than pulling teeth

Doc HollidayDoc Holliday

John Henry Holliday was born Aug. 14, 1851, in Griffin, Ga.

He died (without his boots on) Nov. 8, 1887, in Glenwood Springs, Colo.

The reputation he earned in those 36 years lives on today via books, movies and television. The year he spent in Jacksboro was relatively quiet. However, he did have to leave hurriedly to escape a posse after he killed a man there.

Though a kid during the Civil War, he was a vic-tim of its atrocities. Georgia was ravaged, burned and decimated during his formative years, ages 10 to 14.

All his life, he stood up to threats and dangers without flinching, a trait manifested at age 13 when he boldly rode a horse through battlefields and brought home a wounded uncle. He became an excellent shot at an early age, probably from shoot-ing small game to help feed the family.

He also killed for the first time at an early age. Just after the Civil War ended, he and his friends claimed a certain spot in a nearby river as their pri-vate swimming hole. When some black youth decid-ed to swim there, a fight ensued and one of the youth was killed.

Holliday, a handsome, blue-eyed blond, received a classical secondary education in rhetoric, gram-mar, mathematics, history and languages – princi-pally Latin, but also French and Ancient Greek. These interests continued throughout his life.

Doc the dentistHe went on to a college of dental surgery where

he graduated at age 20. He set up an office in Atlanta, but had only been practicing a short time when his chronic cough was diagnosed as consump-tion (tuberculosis). He only had a short time to live.

His mother had died of “consumption” when he was 15 and he may have contracted it from her. Or he could have gotten it from one of his dental

patients. Masks and gloves were not worn then. Indeed, TB was not considered contagious until 1882.

Traditional medicine thought a drier and warmer climate was conducive to better health so he decided to “go west.” He moved to the Texas frontier town of Dallas, which the railroad had just reached. It was expanding rapidly, with boxed homes coming by rail and being erected in three hours. The main street of Dallas was lined with saloons and gambling dens, houses of ill repute and brothels masquerading as dance halls.

Holliday set up his dental office but soon found there was more money to be gained from gambling than from pulling teeth. He began dealing faro in a saloon.

It was here that “Doc” became part of his name, a courtesy extended to all members of the medical and dental professions.

Doc and a saloon keeper had an argument which Please see page 11

By Wynelle Caitlin


From page 10ended with shots being fired. Both were fined. A fight with a prominent citizen ended with that citizen’s death. That called for more than a fine and he left town, going up into Indian Territory then back down to Jacksboro. Money was plentiful there as Fort Richardson had brought in soldiers as well as the usual hangers-on of frontier forts and boom-towns.

As was the custom of the day, Doc was well-armed. He had a gun on his hip, one in a shoul-der holster and a sheath knife in a breast pocket. And he used all of them well.

He also practiced dentistry in Jacksboro. A friend said her grand-father had gone to him, probably to have a tooth extracted.

A gambler had to be good at cards and have an extensive knowledge of all the ways to cheat in order to be able to guard against cheating. Many of Doc’s alterca-tions through the years was caused by others trying to cheat him. It is doubtful many accused him of cheating as his repu-tation spread rapidly throughout the gambling cir-cuit, which ranged from South Texas to South Dakota and into boomtowns in Idaho and Arizona.

At that time gambling was just another time-hon-ored professions and was accorded the same status as other businessmen.

About this same time, Doc began using whiskey medicinally to keep his consumptive cough under control, and to enable him to stay awake when gambling sessions went on for long periods, some-times as long as 72 hours.

In Jacksboro, Doc had three altercations with civilians over gambling. One man was killed but there was not much law enforcement, so nothing was done. But when he killed another man, U.S. Marshals and Texas Rangers were called in. He left town to avoid hanging.

Doc headed for Colorado, where the gambling circuit included Denver, Pueblo, Leadville, Central

City, Black Hawk, Georgeton, Rosta, Boulder and other booming frontier towns. He made them all. His reputation had spread and he was considered one of two top gamblers in the southwest.

A man of grayHe didn’t dress in the

traditional black and white of the profession, but was always neat and nattily dressed in gray. Though he had to carry a large roll of money to be prepared for business when it occurred, he didn’t carry a shotgun as many other gamblers did. Shotguns were large and hard to handle, so he depended on his two six guns, knife and reputation for protection.

He is credited with kill-ing over 30 men, all in self-defense.

Leaving Colorado, he made a run up into Wyoming. He was in Cheyenne in the fall of 1876 where two or three men were killed.

Coming back to Texas, he settled temporarily at the Flats under Fort Griffin, one of the wildest places on the frontier filled with soldiers, buffalo hunt-ers, Indian scouts, trail

drivers, ranchers and cowhands as well as gam-blers, other legitimate businessmen and the usual hangers-on.

Many gamblers of that era also served as peace officers, prospectors, real estate dealers, brothel owners, bankers, entertainment brokers, freight line operators, detectives, smugglers or anything else that offered quick profits.

Doc periodically hung out his dentistry shingle, but mostly he gambled and owned saloons, as did most other professional gamblers.

He and Lottie Deno, gambling queen of the Southwest, had been in Jacksboro at the same time but they were only gambling acquaintances. They were in Fort Griffin at the same time. Once Lottie bested him in a game to the tune of $3,000. It was here that Big Nose Kate became his special friend. And it was also here that he met Wyatt Earp, who became a tried and true friend.

Doc, while in the saloons, mingled with wanted

outlaws. Wyatt Earp, who was a U.S. marshall, came through following the trail of a noted outlaw. Doc had heard talk so knew where the outlaw’s hangout was, and he passed the information along. Earp didn’t catch the man who had departed for better territory, but when he came back through the Flat, he invited Doc to look him up if he ever got to Dodge City where the Earp brothers hung out.

One night, during a game, a man named Ed Bailey was sneaking looks at deadwood (the dis-cards) in a game with Doc. Doc didn’t go out look-ing for quarrels but he took up for himself. Doc told him to “play poker,” which was an admonish-ment not to cheat. Bailey persisted. Doc pulled down the pot without showing his hand, which he had a right to do, but Bailey protested and drew his gun. Before he could pull the trigger, Doc pulled out his knife and caught him below the brisket, kill-ing him.

Doc was in the right, so he submitted to arrest. But Bailey was popular and his friends howled for revenge. Law officers hustled Doc into a hotel to protect him from the mob that formed outside. Vigilante justice believed in hanging, just in case courts judged the accused innocent.

Kate to the rescueKate heard about the mob. She had a gun and she

borrowed another one, then set fire to a shack, which diverted the mob’s attention – as she knew it would. She entered the hotel where one person had been left in charge of Doc. She slipped a gun to Doc, and they escaped and hid in the willows by the creek until morning when a friend brought them two horses and some of Doc’s clothes for Kate to wear.

They took off for Dodge City, 400 miles north, past Doane’s Trading Post, across the Red River,

Please see page 12

Big Nose Kate


From page 11through the Cherokee Strip (that haven for big time fugitives from justice) and past Comanche and Cherokee reser-vations.

In Dodge City, they decided to act as a respectable married couple. Doc hung out his dentistry shingle and Kate was a house-wife. But she couldn’t stand the peace and quiet. Two months later, she was back to dancing and gam-bling. Doc couldn’t gamble all night and pull teeth all day, so he went back to gambling full time.

Wyatt Earp was back in Dodge City and the friendship between him and Doc was cemented when a group of 25 cowboys rode into town, shooting out win-dows and breaking open saloon doors that were hastily closed and locked.

Doc and a crony were playing poker and didn’t want to be bothered but Wyatt, who as marshal carried six guns, came to the saloon to get a shot gun. Wyatt hit a cowboy over the head with a gun, Doc wounded another one who didn’t surrender his weapon soon enough. They marched the cowboys to jail for the night and gave them back their 50 guns the next day.

Back to Colorado, Doc signed up as a paid gunman in a battle between owners of opposing railroads who were laying tracks through Raton Pass, and on further north between sheer cliffs and the Arkansas River on the way to Leadville. There was never a great battle,

though both sides prepared for one. Doc moved on to Trinidad, where he put a bullet

through gambler Kid Colton, who lived. Then to Otero, N.M., which merged with nearby Raton. He killed

a gunman there, but it was ruled self-defense. Then to Las Vegas, N.M., where he hung up

his dentist shingle for the last time. Kate rejoined him there. He had a duel with

Mike Gordon in the middle of Center Street.

When plans were made to arrest him, he took off for Dodge City, but Wyatt had resigned as law-man there and left for Tombstone in Arizona Territory. Doc caught up with him, threw his saddle in the buckboard and they rode on together.

Tombstone was a wide-open silver mining town on a boom. The sheriff was 75 miles away. There was no territorial police force, no nuisances such as grand juries and courts, no civic conscience, no vigilantes. Wyatt had taken the job as

lawman there. The area was an outlaw’s paradise, run by a cat-

tleman-rustler known as Old Man Clanton.The distant sheriff was in cahoots

with the outlaws. Earp arrived, not intending to do anything much except

collect fees and forget law enforcement. But the outlaw faction didn’t like it

because he rode shotgun with the wagon trains carrying bullion from the mines. That had

always been easy pickings for them, though the main money-making enterprise was cattle rustling in Old Mexico. The outlaws decided to haze Wyatt until he got the

message and left town.Wyatt’s brothers had come to Tombstone at his

request and Virgil had taken the job as city marshal. Tension built between the two factions, followed by

a confrontation, which became known as the Battle at the OK Corral.

The OK CorralSix gunmen were with Clanton at the OK Corral

when he sent word to the Earps that they could come fight or they’d be filled with bullet holes before dark. Pride was involved here, but

Wyatt and two of his brothers decided to try to arrest and disarm them and avoid a gun battle.

Doc was eating breakfast when he heard about what was going on. He hurriedly gulped his meal, took up his cane and hobbled down the street to join the Earps. He approved of having it out. Wyatt said there was no sense Doc getting mixed up in a fight aimed at him and Virgil as lawmen.

All three Earps, dressed in black, had set, grim expressions on their faces. Doc, dressed in his usual gray, hobbled along, whistling to himself as they start-ed down the street with all the townspeople watching. (Wyatt said later the only time Doc wasn’t nervous was when he was pulling teeth or in a gunfight.)

The sheriff, who had erroneously reported he had disarmed the Clanton gunmen, went back and forth between the two groups, as did one of the gunmen.

The Earps walked up to the Clanton gunmen, and Virgil Earp, who was town marshal, told them they were under arrest. “Throw up your hands!”

Some of them did so, but they had guns in their hands. The Earps also pulled their guns. The battle, which lasted for one minute, left three outlaws dead, three ran away, and Morgan and Virgil Earp and Doc wounded. Wyatt was unscathed.

Though the entire town witnessed the episode, Wyatt and Doc were unfairly accused of attacking unarmed men and spent time in hiding and/or jail.

Doc was quieter in the last five years of his life. He was in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, in the summer of 1882, in Silverton, Colo. in May 1883, Leadville in 1884.

The great days of free-lance gambling were gone. The Flats below Fort Griffin was already a legend. Jacksboro was a poky rural trading center.

The circuit was played out and Doc’s health was, too. He entered a sanitarium in Glenwood Springs, Colo., and died there in 1887.

He didn’t have his boots on.

Author’s note: Much of the information about Doc Holliday came from a delightful book from Boyce Ditto Library – “Doc Holliday” by John Myer Myers, published in 1955.

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The following outdoors column appeared in the Wednesday, December 11th, 1963 issue of the Mineral Wells Index. It’s been paraphrased.

A lot of nice white-tailed deer with exceptional racks have been harvested this year, and we

rolled out the tape measure on thirty-four of them,

Big antlered deer didn’t seem to roll in until the last week of season, and the largest mossback was brought to town only three days before deadline, in this case, December 5th, 1963.

It was non-typical, having massive main beams measuring a hair under six inches in circumference at the base.

The tines one inch or longer numbered thirteen, and the antlers had an inside spread of nineteen and five-eights inches.

Multiplying the total number of tines by the inside spread gives us a total of 225.06, a whopping score for a patrician of the pasture.

The lucky hunter is Harry Lane of Brad. The Lane Ranch has pastures on the Stephens County line; it’s five miles to Harry’s homeplace on a dirt road, rath-er remote, and so the big 13-pointer per-haps felt secure. Harry Lane was award-ed a handsome pair of 7 x 35 binoculars for his efforts, the largest white-tailed deer antlers measured by Western Auto in the 1963 season.

Little Eddie Hight, 10-year-old son of Mr. And Mrs. Amos Hight, could hardly wait, for he was presented a brand new rifle, a bolt-action chambered for the then-popular .22 Hornet cartridge, and he already had permission to hunt in an excellent pasture, perhaps near Brad, a

paradise for white-tailed deer.Little Eddie wound up his season with

a buck and doe, quite a feat for a 10-year-old boy, ending a hunting season perhaps little Eddie Hight will never for-get.

Since old man winter is here these long evenings, get your fishing reel out of the closet; perhaps it needs cleaning, both the reel and the closet. And how about replacing the wrappings or worn guides of your favorite spinning or casting rods? Have you ever tried carving a lure out of cedar? It’s a challenge to make it work right while casting, but surprisingly it will catch fish at times. If you’re really successful, you might be able to force the Heddon Bait Co., out of business. But that’s a long shot, like winning the Lotto.

Did you mar or scratch the finish on your rifle’s stock during deer season? There is no better time to refinish it then now during this off-season. Remove the finish with paint remover or sandpaper. Sand to a glass-smooth surface with fin-ishing paper or fine steel wool.

Wet the stock lightly with water and the grain will rinse. Sand until smooth. Repeat this process until no more grain is raised. You are now ready for the final step.

Linseed oil with a fast drying agent is best, such as Lin-Speed or Birchwood Casey (top sellers in 1963, and still excellent today).

It depends on the pores in the wood (maple, walnut, etc.) and how many coats of hand-rubbed finish it’ll take. A dozen coats is not too many for an all-weather finished you’ll be proud of, a finish that’ll last you for the rest of your life.

If you’ve put on the finish correctly,

allowing plenty of drying time between coats, the stock and the figure in the wood (the fiddleback or the bird’s eye, for example) will simply startle you, but if you don’t let it dry thoroughly between coats it’ll always become tacky in damp weather.

The following outdoors column appeared in the Wednesday, December 18th issue of the Mineral Wells Index. It has been paraphrased.

Stanley Miller, who lived at 305 S.E.

18th Street and was an all-around sports-man, decided he’d pursue the wily white-tailed deer with bow and arrow, the year being 1963.

Stanley went out morning, noon and night with high hopes but came home with an empty bag. This went on until almost season’s end. He released an arrow over deer, around deer and finally through deer, but he didn’t bring home the bacon.

One day he was positive he sank a feathered shaft into an elusive whitetail; he confidently sat down, smoked a ciga-rette and waited for his hunting buddy, Ft. Wolters helicopter pilot Bob Shurley, to come along.

Conservation must have been very interesting as these two archers confi-dently strolled to the spot to tag the prize. Alas, no deer. Better luck next year, Stanley.

In 1963 fifteen percent of shooters “rolled their own,” in other words, reloaded heir own ammunition. Reloaders will tell you it’s economical, improves accuracy, and a great hobby.

Please see page 16

By Don Price Brazos

Outdoors Along the


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From page 14Reloading is nothing new. The buckskin frontiersmen of the Western Frontier didn’t leave the wagon trains, while Indians were swarming to run into a neighborhood sporting goods store to holler, “Gimme a box of 45-70 Gov’t ammo, and hurry.”

Reloading is an ancient art and has been practiced for years. Let’s take the ever popular 30-06 cartridge for exam-ple. Factory ammo retails for $4.75 per box, 24 cents per round (at 1963 pric-es).

You can reload a better round of ammunition for about seven cents (at 1963 prices) provided you’ve saved a brass case to start with. It’s already fire-formed now for your particular cham-ber.

Brass cases can be used for several reloadings. Components necessary for reloading rifle cartridges: brass case, primer, powder and bullet. And a load-ing tool, dies, etc.

We have been “rolling our own” since 1951, and we like the remarkable improvement in accuracy best of all.

Let’s take the pre-64 Winchester Model 70 in .220 Swift caliber, for example. I free-floated the barrel, honed

the trigger, tightened screws, loosened screws, and the best I could do was 10-shot strings measuring 1 ½ to 2” groups at 100 yards.

I even switched scopes, thinking of a loose crosshair or parallex or possibly a loose scope mount, but this wasn’t the answer.

But them I started reloading to fine-tune the particular brand of powder and grains (37 ½ grains of DuPont 4064) to cut those shot strings until they were under an inch, on a still day, of course.

The following outdoors column

appeared in the Wednesday October 21, 1964 issue of the Mineral Wells Index. It has been paraphrased.

Are our best jokes today as funny as

those we told 48 years ago? Probably not, as you’ve got to hear a hundred today before you hear a clean joke. It it’s not risque, it’s not funny.

Frequently our jokes today are painfully racist, with sexual overtones sprinkled with grotesque innuendos, even macabra insinuations of your own character. And you’re expected to laugh. After all, it’s only a good-time joke.

You can hear/see it all on TV. Often

the political jokes of our candidates lack civility, the punch line of which makes you feel sort of hollow inside. Draw your own conclusions.

Here is a joke which was printed 48 years ago:

Trying to get this point across reminds me of poor old grandmother. No one could get anything through to her unless vocal chords were strained.

You see, she was practically deaf. It didn’t matter which ear.

I was only nine-years-old, we were having a family reunion, the huge dining room was heaped with cakes and pies, and some of my first cousins must’ve come from Alabama and Tennessee.

All of us, favorite aunts and uncles included, too many for me to count, their mouths full of teeth, were now sit-ting at the massive dining table (you’ve been there).

It was after church on a Sunday, the biggest family reunion ever, lots of background noise because of noisy first cousins just like me; and the vittles were piled mountain high.

I gulped my food hurriedly as I want-ed to join my cousins outside to play, play, play.

I was the first to rise from the mas-sive dining table, everyone has to scoot his chair, but grandmother was quicker than all the rest as she cleared her throat to ask me a question:

“Donnie boy, have you eaten enough?”

I was proud of my vocabulary, and this was my chance. But before I replied, grandmother cupped her hand to her ear.

“Yes ma’am, I’ve eaten sufficiently,” I said.

“You’ve been fishin’?” she ques-tioned.

The table grew kinda quiet. I shifted from one foot to ‘tuther.

“No ma’am, I’ve had plenty.”“You say you caught twenty?”Grandmother, with her concern for

her grandchild, began to rise with her hand still cupped to her ear. By this time I was perplexed. Embarrassed, everyone was looking straight at me. You could have heard a tick drop.

I turned from the table and softly muttered:

“The poor old soul.”“And you broke your pole?”If only I hadn’t softly muttered that

last line.


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JUNE 1, 1963Camp Wolters redesignated Fort Wolters, a permanent military installation.

JUNE 2, 1875Comanche Chief Quanah Parker arrives at Fort Sill with 407 followers and 1,500 horses. His surender effectively end the Red River War of North Texas.

JUNE 8, 1871Kiowa Chiefs Satanta, Satank and Big Tree leave Fort Sill to stand trial for murder in Jacksboro, Texas. The charges arose from killings perpetrated during the Warren Wagontrain Raid on May 18, 1871. The three chiefs were accused of leading the incursion into North Texas.

JUNE 11, 1899Mary Whatley Clarke – newspaper editor and reporter, western historian, and author – is born at Palo Pinto. Her first book, "The Palo Pinto Story," was pub-lished in 1956 and recounted the history of her home county.

JUNE 22, 1876James Crittenden Son publishes the first issue of the Palo Pinto County Star, the first newspaper in the county. The weekly newspaper's slogan was: "Let Justice Be Done Though the Heavens Fall."

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