My father and mother were married in the year 1854; and about the year 1856 they moved to Erath Co. I was born in the year 1858.

At that time the country was wild and desolate, and thinly settled by a sturdy, hardy people who were pushing their way to the front. The country was infested by wild Indians.

In these days of frontier life, women were brave. My mother used to wear an old six shooter to the cow pen, after water, or anywhere she went. Not only would she carry it, but she would use it if it would become necessary. She was a brave woman, and ready at any time to protect her home.

Father would always take his gun to the field with him. One day when Father was away from home, the Indians ran a man right by our yard gate. The man tried to come in the house; but the Indians ran between him and the gate, and cut him off from the house. He then tried to go to another house; but they cut him off from that house too. He then turned to the back of our field, and the Indians shot him from his horse. The Indians then went to scalp him; but when they found that he had a crippled hand, they would not scalp him. They stuck a knife in him and left him. They then went and caught his horse. The man afterwards died.

In the early history of Erath Co. the Indians made many raids like this. I have seen two sets of orphan children that were made so by the Indians' killing their parents.

Not only did we have the wild Indians in those days, but we had the wild animals. The county was full of turkeys, deer, and bears. Many times as we would sit down to eat Father would rise from the table, stand in the door, and kill a deer or turkey. Game was plentiful.

My father died when I was six years old, leaving Mother with four children to care for. On his death-bed he told my mother to take us out of that country; not to raise us there among the Indians. I suppose he thought that as long as he lived he could protect us; but as he had to die, he did not want to leave us without a promise from my Mother, to take us back East.

My Mother's people lived in Hunt Co; my Father's people lived in Erath Co. My Mother, in harmony with the request of my Father, sold out her place and moved back to Hunt Co. He had a nice little place--a good farm in four miles of Stephenville, several head of horses, over fifty head of cattle, and a good bunch of sheep. We had to sell everything cheap; for it was in wartime.

It was not long after we got to Hunt co that my mother, through the help of some of her relatives, who were trying to manage her business, that she found herself broke. She became dissatisfied, and wanted to go back west. she hired a man to take us back so we started. Then it began to rain on us; and the road was so bad with black mud that we could hardly go. One night we stayed at a school house to keep out of the rain. The man unloaded our things in the school house and went somewhere. We never saw him again. He played the part of a traitor and went back home, leaving us in a strange country without money or friends. The man had been paid to take us through to our journey's end; but because of the rain he left us at this place.

My older sister was afraid. She had never walked a step, nor never did, being perfectly helpless all her life. My mother would leave her with us smaller children and go out and work for a living. Many a day she would be gone all day. She would wash, sew, and do anything there was to do. Times were hard in those days. She would wash or sew all day for fifty cents; and would have to walk from two to four miles to get work. We three little boys would stay there all day and look after an afflicted sister. Sometimes we would not have anything to eat but cornbread and water. We would crumble the bread in the water and take a spoon and eat it.

When we would see our mother coming we would run out to see if she had anything to eat. Many times we went hungry. Mother always brought us something if she possibly could get it. It was the joy of my mother to work for her children. She gave her life for us. I have known my mother to take the sheets from the bed, cut them up, and make clothes for us children to keep us from freezing.