WYLY'S WISDOM
page 3
MARCH 1, 2008
Hailey Murder
[Is the Hailey in this incident the father of] Mr. Hailey who used to
be a barber in Stephenville?
He used to cut my hair, and I think he was the barber who said he had some Cherokee
connections. Could it have been that someone from Comanche or Erath Counties had fought
in Indian Battles and held a grudge????
Also, some disputes grew over water
gaps for cattle from those on both sides of a stream, or relocating corner
posts when roads were straightened
[could have something to do with the murder]. And the Battle of
Alarm Creek would have taken several Turnbow deaths and several Keith deaths,
and possibly a Texas Ranger who took
sides--if the Dublin Baptist pastor Reuben--or "Comanche Rube"--(Davis?) had not been tipped off about the
battle plans by some wives. He rode full speed between their attack
lines carrying a white flag and
insisted on a peace parley and stopped the battle. The action
which started the "Battle of
Alarm Creek" was a disagreement over who owned one cow and how she got in the pasture
where she was found.
I have photos somewhere that Dad,
Eddie Wyly, and Mom, Emma Carey Wyly, had from their youth in Selden . I
think one was of Martha Jane Strickland?
Might have been from Valley Grove. Frank Latham of Stephenville and "Shug" Maxwell, grandson
of the Selden Hudspeths, are also in their photos.
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Many "whites" had Indian blood from
back East, but they passed for
white, like our nephew in Van, Texas and cousins by marriage, as they did not want the restrictions placed
on members of tribes--some claimed
land that way, but there were restrictions. After the Civil War, when the Texas Rangers had not been
strong enough, and Reconstruction Governors and locals had joined John R.
Baylor's Central Texas Rangers--shortly
before that, each county had, under State regulations, established the County Minute Men. Erath
County had such. Many Indians
had left the reservations during the
Civil War, and Capt. McDuff was more
interested in leading his Texas Partisan Rangers and punishing all
members of all races who did not support
Civil War.
The monument on the old
Comfort, Texas school grounds [commemorates] where, 3 years after McDuff killed these Germans headed
for Mexico. Lt. McRae, under him, was sent after "escapees" who did not
exist, and when he returned these pacifist Germans had all been
slaughtered. You will find several surnames in Hill, McLennan, and other counties
today. This was called the last
Battle of the Civil War. I did one research paper in University
of North Texas on McDuff and
the Texas Germans. McDuff had been kicked out of two other armies, including the
U.S. Army. The University of
North Texas has more native German records and books and English translations. Seems strange, but
they are near Muenster, Texas.
McRae and McDuff and supporters had
some hot arguments. There was no battle to it, but Indians were raiding
German frontier homes, ignored by Confederate lawmen. Some of my
cousins by marriage in Erath County have strong Choctaw ties to Oklahoma. I have
distant cousins in the Tahlequah area who bear my last name. They were active in
Western Cherokee government, the
college there, and I can prove no Indian blood. Other Wyly kin
from the Stephenville area were
descendants of a Wyly in Erath County to Loudelia Bateman. Several of this branch
are now in the Seminole-Muskogie area. One Dr. Hatchett taught in OSU for
many years. When peaceful
Indians left Oklahoma for Texas during the Civil War, they went back [to Oklahoma], most
voluntarily, and travelled without escort. Some aped in Stephenville City Park for a few
days. One frontier preacher--"Comanche Rube"-was preaching from the
Bible to them for an hour when an
old Chief stood, said "White man must be lying, he talks too long," and walked away from the group.
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I think the barber's name in
Stephenville was Haley, not Hailey. Hailey did not look right. He owned a
farm towards Dublin or Alexander, not sure where. Maybe someone
confused the spelling with my Bailey distant cousins of Oak Dale and
Selden.
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My wife's niece is Kathy Whittenburg, born in Levelland, Texas,
married and lives in Burnet, Texas--last
time we saw her in Burnett she and her husband were living in a large apartment over a closed store
on Burnet County Square, near museums
and such.
Kathy's mom was Lida Riley
Whittenburg. Kathy's dad Roy was born in German area of Purdon, Texas and his dad
had farmed land near Malone, Texas.
Roy's Uncle farmed and drove a Pettit School bus some, and one of
his sons Eddie lee Whittenburg ran for
Governor several years ago. Another Whittenburg lived in the area
between Temple and Hewitt, and recorded
a CD Disk, with its main song being about Old Bethany Road, a crossroad to I-35 above Temple where youth
sometimes gathered.
Jeannie's dad, Alvin Riley, with
Cleburne roots, and Mr Whittenburg lived in the same Pettit Community where Ab
McCarty, born in Bosque County, died under a car which he jacked up in loose
sand, and the car fell on him and
killed him. Ab's brothers lived around Walnut Springs. Jay ran a Texaco station and was the School Board
Secretary who signed our school paychecks.
Ab was a Deacon. His nephew, "Mac" McCarthy earned a scholarship to college based on speed in 6
man football. Last time I saw him,
he was coaching in Lubbock Monterrey High School, within 30 miles of where his Uncle Ab is buried. Mac's
brother, J.Eddie McCarty, coached in Cleburne and had earned a Trinity
University football scholarship. He also had a cleaning supply store in
Cleburne. It is my understanding that the McCartys and Fretwells of Duffau
did not claim kinship, but Mr. McCarty
of Big Spring has a record of a McCarty- Fretwell wedding.
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One more thought on Hailey-Haley . In
Selden or Hatchett Cemetery on Duffau
Creek, there are 8 or more generations of Hatchett, Wyly and others. Some of the older stones were
ordered--Sears catalogues used to have some for sale. On the oldest
one, Rev. B.T. Stevens's name is spelled "Stephens" on his daughter's grave near
him. Great Great Great Grandad
W.P.Hatchett married first Angelina
Isabell Stevens, who was mother to his children. When she died, he married her
sister Narcissa Stevens. The Stevens
and Hatchett families were from Georgia. Keeping Stevens/Stephens/Steven/Stevens lines separated
is confusing. Dr. & Minister W.P. Hatchett moved from Valley Mills
to his Selden Prairie home, which Bud Cook, co- owner of Cook Brothers Lumber
yard, restored.
A covered wagon family was moving west
when one son died while they were camped near the Duffau Creek. Dr.
Hatchett gave them a burial site. The marker is gone. It used to be on field
stone--maybe it was a problem for mowers???
One more question- Dr. Stevens of
Abilene Christian University told us one summer that his grandad Stevens was a
frontier circuit riding Primitive
Baptist preacher. Wonder if he was a brother to Great Great Grandad. Jim Hatchett, Sr. of Baird Ranch, Baird,
Texas and Cabana Oil, sent me more
of our Hatchett records. Smll world.
MARCH 2, 2008
[Do you] know Charles Gilbreath of
Stephenville High, class of 1946? We were in a few classes together,
including Ralph Mosier's Vocational Ag Shop. One year Mr. Mosier took us
to Fort Worth, I think--or at least to Tarleton State University dairy farm to
practice judging livestock and
the Texas A&M Experiment Station a few times It was a canvas
covered trailer.
New school buses during WW2 were
practically none, and drivers owned the buses and routes--contract style. The
Bluff Dale driver had the "Blue
Goose," a homemade bus body on a used truck chassis. It was later used to haul workers to Convair from
Grandbury and then to [work] building
the Comanche Peak Nuclear plant.
Our bus was owned by Oscar Parham of
Chalk Mountain and Stephenville. He had one of the last buses made before
WW2. He also worked at the Stephenville International
Harvester truck and tractor dealership in Stephenville. He gave me personal
knowledge of the Panther Cave in Chalk Mountain off the Walnut Springs road, which
was once a picnic area and
[featured] horse powered rides. It is
on private property--the Old Cavern part is sealed off because of drop offs. Overhang cliffs
and some of f the cavern was home
to the brother of Mr. Stephen that Stephenville was named after. The third brother was RR agent in Elm Mott,
Texas. The one--Irving--in the cave ran an ox cart freight line from Elm
Mott (Waco) to Chalk Mountain and
Fort Graham and Fort Griffin. His wife had twins while she was living in the cave. The twins were named
Cliff and Cave Stephens, and one was still living in 1950. He was
recorded in Glen Rose and/or other local newspapers. This says [that] when one
of the twins, past 80, was brought back to visit his birthplace, before they
left, he walked over to the steep hill towards Glen Rose in silence and
[remained] undisturbed for about 30 minutes, then went home. His mom had a cowhide over the opening, and
her bulldog went wild one day.
She grabbed her shotgun and shot a Panther outside the cave which had come down a tree towards the twins .
The tree is by a waterfall, and the
beginning of Hill Creek is almost invisible if walking on level ground above it. DON'T ASK--THE CAVE
AND OLD COUNTY ROAD ARE NOW UNSAFE AND CLOSED, and the dirt pushed in the
entrance has settled, enough for
big rattlesnakes to crawl into the
cave behind it. Several of the Hatchett
family and Stigler and Atkins kin are buried in Chalk Mountain cemetery. Crid Hatchett sent mail
back to Tennessee, and his kin moved to Texas. Some claimed Cherokee land in
Oklahoma when they left. The cave [is] below a waterfall [and] is not visible from
the Glen Rose side, but looks like any other creek from the air.
Mr. Parham's bus run each trip
was over 50 miles long each time--depending on who rode, and most told him
the day they knew they were going
to miss--before the present Three Way Schools got their own buses. Going to Selden for 2 years we rode
in Uncle Neil Hatchett's prewar GMC
pickup with a wood car siding camper style chicken coop, with wire windows and roll up curtains, a board for a
bench, and no heat. Sure beat
walking 3 miles from Johnsville School to our home.
MARCH 3, 2008
I googled the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame Library in Waco. It is
owned by the City of Waco (the
building, that is). It is now being enlarged, and they are finding evidence of graves unmarked and
unknown to expand. They have a G.W.
McDonald listed. Then I googled his name and two sites came up. He lived 1874-1924. His wife was Marisopa
Warren, daughter of a Dr. Warren of Palo Pinto. Then I tried googling again for G.W.
McDonald and found two readings of the Palo Pinto cemetery--one by an Erath
County Txerath subscriber. Their son was killed in a car wreck, 1929. (
Speeding???)
You could also go to Txgen or Txgen
Cemetery listings and find the Palo
Pinto Cemetery readings. One McDonald buried there has the
name "Jack" under his [formal]
name. Here you will find George W. Slaughter of Slaughter Ranch in the Palo Pinto County
area. This was before the Slaughter Ranch moved to West Texas with Roswell, New
Mexico connections. George
Slaughter married Janice Wyly who
lived in Stephenville. They were married in Fort Worth before they moved to
Roswell, and two Hatchett brothers
ran a bank near there in Santo for for many
years. Janice Wyly
Slaughter came back to a Wyly Family Reunion in Stephenville, past 90 years old, escorted by her son Don Wyly
Slaughter of Roswell. He was an Attorney in Albuquerque, and moved back
to Roswell with business interests
and the Levelland Refinery or Slaughter Gasoline plant, seed house, cotton gin, and such.
Now, were the Slaughters who ran a drug store in Stephenville part of the
descendants of Col. C.C. Slaughter of the Texas Revolution??? He was a major
contributor to the founding of Buckner's Orphan Home in Dallas. Janice's dad
had a store in Stephenville and a lumber yard in Fort Worth and Stephenville
homes and a Pony Creek ranch, which
were payment for the 3000 sheep sent to San Angelo by Ben Wyly's son for stocking sheep country around
Balmoreah--from San Angelo to New
Mexico--still sheep country, before Ben Sr., left Atlanta, Ga,
approximately in 1890. Ben Sr.
and sons also developed a Minnieola cotton yard and East Texas oil wells all the way to Houston. Ben
is buried in a Comanche County
cemetery. Ben Jr. and Frank Wyly "stood up" with the
groom--a Keith--at a Green's
Creek church, and after the wedding the guests went to buggies or wagons with friends and had
picnics under a circle of trees
until dark.
Pardon me if I ramble, but could the
McDonald [in question] been involved
in stolen cattle or riding with someone like Sam Bass, or like Rube Burow, farmer from south of Dublin had
done?? The Ranger library could
tell you what the men killed by Rangers were suspected of. Most think of old towns like Brandon, Hill
County, Texas having two cemeteries,
one Black and one White. At Brandon, where we lived 12 years, this was not so. The cemetery across the
creek from the community cemetery
was for those of all races who had stolen cattle or other
crimes like robbery and were either
executed by the law or killed when caught on the job. Other towns from there
to Corsicana do have separate cemeteries
for Black and White. If they are joined, many fences have been eliminated.
MARCH 7, 2008
Concerning confusing names or lost
locations, try some of thee on for size:
Three Way--Thurber--as you
know, Thurber once had over 20,000 or more in its city limits--some say more--when local
businesmen [founded towns] such as Mingus, which was settled by a Mingus family from
Bosque County who moved just across
the County line from Erath County. All houses in Thurber, proper, were company owned and workers were paid in
scrip cashable at the Company Store. The three way corner of
Erath, Eastland and Palo Pinto could
have been a village for contractors, Check their county records. This would be north of the steep Ranger
Hill--between there and Metcalf Gap,
off old Hwy 80. There was a Tintop community, called Tintop, at the south banks of the Brazos,
which had a long suspension bridge over the Brazos, back towards Mineral Wells. In
1940's a group of us from Johnsville
who rode motorcycles in Paluxy and Duffau creek roads, all went to the National Motorcycle river
bed run from Mineral Wells to the Tintop suspension bridge. We went in one of
our cars and watched them come
to the finish line from the Tintop suspension bridge. They also had a Metcalf Gap National Hill climb, with
chains on the rear wheels over
the tires. One boy from Illinois went up it twice but most fell below the rock top ledge and overhead
cables carried their cycles back down. And no one in that group drank
anything from Thurber.
The bar and club run by the Mingus
family in Mingus, Texas was just across the county line from Thurber, and the
horseshoe shaped bar and dance
hall was was at one time the largest between El Paso and Fort
Worth.
Eva Tanner of Walnut Springs was a
widow with kids in school and married the Ag Teacher at Walnut Springs. She had 2
daughters in school there, one married
a Uloth whose family was from Erath County. That is the only Tanner I ever knew until we met a family of
them from Hewitt, Texas.
One Chalk Mountain cemetery is called
Plainview, by the old Plainview church.
South of Chalk Mountain proper was the Odom Chapel Methodist Chapel and cemetery, on old
Butterfield Stage road, in Erath county. The old big red barn south of Chalk Mountain in
the 1960's was the stable and stage
stop to change horses and stretch tired legs.
Three Way included what had been
Skipper's Gap and the John Skipper post office, Marathequal's Gap, Marble
School, just past the Bumper Gate Road from Bosque County to the Paluxy River
valley where some Underwoods lived.
Marble School, called Greasy School by locals, was inactive and some students went to Chalk Mountain and
some to Johnsville Schools, like McNights and Howells.
Plainview is the church near old Pony
Creek School. Two story Box Church
school-lodge hall had other denominations meeting there when Great Great Grandad Dr. W.P. Hatchett and
Rev, Robinson organized the Pony
Creek Missionary Baptist Church, Paluxy Association, Baylor supporters- -on the other side of the draw
buy the road, and Box--Pony Creek
cemetery was behind it-- or is. M.D. Pruitt from Purvis and from
Southwestern Seminary was one of last
pastors there. His brother Cled Pruittt
taught in Johnsville School, 1930 or 40's. They were from Purvis.
Great Aunt Susie Moxley taught
at the Box xshool and church. Pizarro Post Ofice was between Box and the Paluxy
River below Miller's Hill in Erath
County. Miller's Hill is one of the historic Erath County calendars. A Primitive Baptist group now
use the Box-Pony Creek remaining
building, led by the Hurley and McCarty families.
Check Grady Perry's Grand Ole Erath
for a section on Frontier post offices
from Federal records. There was another post office between Pizarro and Comanche Peak. County lines
changed when Hood and Somerville Counties were organized. There was a school
at Little Duffau community.
Grandad Wyly attended there. It was between Selden and Duffau, on the Irby
Russell Road, between the Bushong Academy--Bushong and Montgomery were
related. Their cemetery is near Stanley Heage's Dairy Barn in Erath County,
south of the old Dunn Ranch,
and south of Pleasant Hill ( Chigger Hill) Methodist C and Indian Creek Church and School, where many
of dad's Moxley and Hatchett kin are buried. The dam of the lake is now near the
cemetery, and where the old school
sat before it was moved to Selden under the hill from the present Selden Church. Selden is named after the
owner of the Selden ranch. What was
the name of the community near Roadsice park and old Traweek Service Station south of Stephenville???
MARCH 8, 2008
Lige Fox from Tolar...moved to Selden
with his twin boys and a third
younger, and was Principal there 1942-44. During WW2, only women and handicapped men
were teaching. Mr. Fox had lost an
arm in a car wreck.
I think Harper's Mill was near Duffau
to Clairette road, across from the Hico Highway intersection, and near Burke's
Bird farm. If you are coming from
Hico, turn up the Dublin Road--Hwy 6--and there will be a long bridge high enough for tractors to plow
under. When the bridge was finished-
-several spans--it was the longest bridge in Erath County. I think Harve Boyd was county commissioner
then. Go on across and Clairette school was on the Dublin side of the
Bosque. There was a mill in early days across from Clairette on the
Bosque. The Clairette high school and gym and a few homes and a store or two
were there. Next town towards Dublin
up the Green's Creek. It seems larger today than Clairette, but
when I attended Selden High for 2
years we had rural school tournaments in the Clairette gym. Old Hico was built
around a mill on the river and the crossing had a whirlpool near it. Some had
lost a horse or two crossing
it with a wagon at times. The new Hico
was moved to be on the Texas Central
RR, then Katy later. Walnut Springs had a park and football field
and Katy hospital and weekly
band music around the lake near the RR roundhouse. The old roundhouse was moved by
WPA and rebuilt into the Gym we
used to use.
There may have been another mill up
Green's Creek from Clairette. There was a Baptist outdoor camp near
Green's Creek, at Alexander or Clairette.
I went once when I was in low grades of before. Grandad John Henry Carey and Grandma Elizabeth Hipp
Carey took me. We slept in tents and had campfires. I do not remember a
dining hall. There were a lot of
visiting and games, and worship
services at night. My parents were busy in the field and joined us on the weekend.
The Hurleys of Pony Creek and Duffau
used to have reunions on Green's Creek. Usually most family friends and kin came to
special birthdays of the elderly on the creek, which went dry - or
stopped running in most summers. Bosque River did too. Dairies and
irrigation and the Stephenville sewer plant keep them running most summers now, but
when they go bone dry, the
Dinosaur Tracks in River above Iredell
are visible. It is on private property
. One Mastadon or Dinosaur bone stove pipe size was found in solid sand rock after a rain washed
it off. Maybe his kin are in the newly created Federal Park on Bosque above
Brazos at Waco, where Baylor archeologists
have found a herd of Mastodons or Wooly Mammoths, who were drowned in a Bosque flood and mud slide.
They found some females in a circle
holding their calves up with their trunks to keep them from drowning, before the mud side covered
them.
One more of possible interest is the
old TP Coal and Oil office records of production and workers on the John Ranch
outside Thurber. This library was still in good condition and
waterproofed a few years ago. These records show each worker at Acme Brick, his place
of birth, and the same for Thurber TP Coal Company. Did the new Tarleton
State University there also get these
records? Also there is a list of immigrant workers recruited from mines
in Ireland, and most of Europe.
During this time, Cage and Crow Bank in Stephenville had an Italian Opera house and
had famous stars to sing in Italian
to workers. I never went in the library of office records on Johnson Ranch, but if you do,
take a snake killing dog and be cautious.
The Underwoods I knew- -2 or 3 pioneer
families--built 3 rock two story homes, similar to Rock Church, below Paluxy
town and towards Lone Mountain
and Maratheal's Gap. Some of these homes had carbide tanks buried in the yard and when they
threw Carbide into the water, they had gas lights in the house. They had
Georgia and Tennessee roots. Forrest
Underwood delivered our Conoco tractor
gas during WW2. Dad's roommate in Tarleton was Virgil Underwood, who became
an outstanding vocational ag teacher
and then a Regional Vocational Supervisor. Dad and Virgil lived in a spare room of the home of Charles
Neblett Sr. the year Charlie Jr. was born. They went to ROTC together. There
are links of some Wylys and Underwoods
back in Georgia, and Tennessee, but Dad said they were not close kin. Dad's brother, Lewis Wyly,
roomed with Price Hopgood, who went on into Agricultural Engineering in Texas
A&M and specialized in designing
farm buildings and such. He used to publish some plans in Farm and Ranch. Dad said he would cut
weeds on the railroad depot in Stephenville
with a hoe and a push mower. I still have his mower, but prefer power mowers.
Wasn't the first Hico built near the
Honey Grove hole of the Bosque? I did not think something sounded right. It was the Blue Hole on
Honey Creek. I wonder how many
water powered grist mills there were in Erath and Bosque Counties? There was one in
Glen Rose, before there was a Bosque or Erath or Somerville County? Bernard's Mill
on the Paluxy west of Glen
Rose was built by George Bernard and
wife Juana Cavasos. I found the book Juana in Clifton-Bosque county Museum.
Juana was a daughter of a Mr. Cavasos
who had a Spanish Land Grant in Texas . She was captured by Comanche Indians. She was treated well
because of her strong will. She was finally brought in to Torey's Trading House
Creek near Huaco Indian
Village, now Waco. She married George
Bernard and moved to the Bernard's Mill site in present Glen Rose. When
Cynthis Ann Parker was captured by Comanches at Fort Parker, she survived by
attacking an old Cherokee lady who
made fun of her while she worked, and she turned on the old woman with a stick. Then Quannah Parker married her. And when the
Texas Rangers recaptured her with her newest baby, they took her to Juana Cavasos
and George Bernard. They had
built the new mill there on the Paluxy to grind for newcomer farmers of the Erath and neighboring
countless. The walls are 3 feet thick,
and it was once a small hospital in our time. Drs. Marks and
English started there. It is
still used for office space.
Cynthia and Juana had several
days to visit and speak the Comanche tongue. Apparently the Nancy Smith Cemetery
was once in Erath County the first
year or two after the county was organized--Bosque County before that.
MARCH 12, 2008
[If you visit the] Waco, McLennan County library don 't forget
1. Texas Ranger library and records in
Texas Ranger hall of Fame, including
some info on John R. Baylor, George Baylor, and Col. Buck Barry and Erath County and other men who rode
with them on temporary possez, deputies
like Dr. McNeil and others.
2. In a separate building on the
Baylor Campus is the Texas collection of local history and families in Texas.
3. Thd main Library in Baylor and in
Mary Hardin Baylor are both good on clan or family migrations from Europe [of
those who] had Texas connections.
4. McLennan Community College library
has some info on easrly Texas.
All of above libraries should be
on line.
MARCH 22, 2008
The Kansas Jayhawkers were under contract to the U.S. to 'reconstruct"
Missouri, and many of them raised taxes to confiscate property or use many other
ways to punish the Missourians. My Great Grandmother was born in Missouri, and
she came by wagon train to IndianCreek,
Texas. If one had been a soldier in the Confederacy, they could hold no positions of authority in
Missouri, including Jesse James's dad who could not continue to pastor a
Baptist Church. Lincoln had pardoned all Confederates, but after his death, many
were out to punish Southerners
regardless of color.
MARCH 29, 2008
My Aunt Mary Wyly had attended Tarleton State University,
formerly John Tarleton
Agricultural and Engineeering Junior College, then she became a nurse at St. Joseph's School of
Nursing in Fort Worth, Texas. She was rinsed in Erath County, and took
basic training for medics in Camp
Wolters, in a neighboring county. Last time I drove by the old campsite, most of the wooden barracks
were gone. Foundation
piers are still visible in the part which is now cow pasture. Possum Kingdom Lake and Morris Shepherd dam
are nearby on the Brazos River.
She and other R.N. Nurses were sent to the south Pacific--Australia, New Guinea, and other islands--as prisoners, male and
female, military and civilian of
all races were held in Japanese prison camps . In Manila she had been promoted to Captain and in charge of
the nurse duty roster; and the American
born California educated Japanese doctors were drafted into the Japanese army and had journals
of their emergency surgery and treatment of heart patients, which were
traded to the U.S. Army for amnesty. It put us 50 years ahead of
the world in open heart surgery. See this on Google.com about Los Banos,
Bataan, and others. When Aunt Mary
was training, she called the Texas camp Camp Walters--or looped
her o's funny.
Thanks for remembering the graves
there. I was on shipping orders for Korea, 1951, the orders were cut then
canceled after eye surgery in
Camp Polk by an Iranian Doctor in the U.S. Army--a Major Sotodeh.
I will check more sources, and
I am sure the Veterans of Foreign Wars here would be interested on tracing this one
down. Will check .
My European roots through
Belgium are Fleming, Xavier (Sevier) of Basque Navarre, Avalon, and Pamplona. They
came through Paris to Belgium
to England before the St. Bartholemew's Day Massacre in 1600-1700's.
Grandmother Carey's dad was Charles
Madison Hipp of the "Dutch Fork" Hipps of North Carolina. He married Sarah
Copeland in Clinton, South Carolina. I worked in Minnesota a few weeks after I retired, and there were dozens of
Hippleths there. Were these the same as the Carolina Hipps? Hipps were here
before 1776.
My wife, Jeannie Riley Wyly, was born
in Pettit, Texas outside Levelland, Texas. She finished her high school
years in Clyde High School. Her dad, Alvin Norman Riley, was on
the Pettit School Board and the Lubbock Production Credit Association.
He was also at the meeting in Lubbock which heard all offers for where
to locate Texas Tech. The vote was taken after a man in overalls stood
up and said Lubbock had a large tract of land to give them free with
water anywhere they drilled. You know the rest. Her siblings
include Whittenburg, Burnett, Wright, Norrell of Ropesville, and
Stucker. Have more info on all who are interested in possible
connection.
I need a double check of the names and dates of my grandparents in
Huckaby Cemetery, and his kin, James T. Stone. Her kin included
Copelands in Arkansas. Grandmother Nancy Elizabeth Hipp married grandad
John Henry Carey in Hope, Arkansas . Charles Madison Hipp and Sarah
Copeland were her parents. Charles was from the "Dutch Fork" Hipp
families from the Palatine on the Rhine River in Germany. They went to
North Carolina and were in the U.S. before 1776. There were three Hipp
bothers, one from Switzerland across the border from the other two.
Grandad used to say he came to his Huckaby Stone home from Hope, Ark.
by the Pig Trail. We used to think that meant the log roads through the
East Texas swamps , but when I worked some in Arkansas after
retiring from teaching, I drove from Hope to Mena. Seems the Stones and
Careys had connection to Harrison families in that area. THE PIG
TRAIL is a
prehistoric trail which follows the Ouachita Mountain Ridge from Mena
into Oklahoma--45 miles--then west of Broken Bow they would turn up the
Red River to a low water crossing of the Red River above Paris,
Texas. Grandad came alone, in a wagon with basic family
needs like beds and such, leading a milk cow and a Black "Bingo" dog to
Stones at Huckaby. Ada Carey Hatchett was small then and Mom was
born in Hope, also. As soon as she could travel, Grandmother took her
baby girls to a train route to the Huckaby area. Imagine travelling
alone in old trains with 2 babies. NOo, how did she get to Huckaby by
train? Was the nearest station in Huckaby, Stephenville, Dublin, or
Thurber? It was not a long ride by buggy from any of them. Or did they
come by the flying saucers reported in Erath County lately?? Just
kidding.
The Pig Trail was a prehistoric trail for Indians who drove pigs up the
trail across Arkansas into the Great Lakes area to trade with other
Indians and possibly pioneers, later. It is open to smaller
vehicles only--trailer homes and trucks are forbidden--it is a Federal
Park road.
MAY 1, 2008
Does anyone know if the records on the Johnson Ranch are now in
the Tarleton State University
library? What is on line from there??
A few years ago someone sent me a note about all records of immigrants recruited from Europe by TP Coal
and Oil to mine coal to get
coal burning locomotives to California . The coal was also used by the brick yard which made
bricks for streets, homes, and fireplaces
from Austin to Dallas and Fort Worth. Bricks had Thurber on them. They also had a mine in Newcastle,
near Graham, Texas. Some of my Wyly
kin lived in Graham, and other kin, including Dad's Uncle Oliver
Cromwell Wyly, were working at Thurber
when the strike for one dollar a day raise priced them out, due to Ranger
and Desdemona oil being cheaper.
These kin included some
Morings, Tacketts, and others. Cage and Crow Bank in Stephenville had an Italian Opera
house upstairs. One Catholic Church was for Italian and Czech connected
immigrants. Another Catholic Church
had a priest for the Irish immigrants, and [there were] several other
churches. The town was
vacated in 30 days and buildings were sold for salvage. Dad and Uncle Lewis Wyly hauled bricks from the
old Baptist Church in Thurber
to build foundations for dairy barn and sheds. I was in first grade, and a warm day turned into a cold
blue norther with snow. Our pickup
broke down on Hanibal Hill, near Moring Ranch.
Were the Cage and Crow Bank families
connected to Trammel and Crow who contracted to Ben Wyly of Atlanta for 3000
head of sheep to be delivered to
them in San Angelo, for pastures towards Colorado City,
Balmoreah, and El
Dorado?? This Wyly family branch were paid for the sheep with a store in Stephenville, a lumber yard for
Rawhide (hardwood paneling) and
building framework. Ben Sr. also got some homes in Stephenville, including one on Bosque Street (Now
Tarleton Ave.). He was a Methodist Elder in Box Methodist Church-school
near Pony Creek Baptist Church and Pony Creek-Box cemetery. Other kin were
buried in the Evans cemetery on the hill dividing Pony Creek and Duffau Creek,
running opposite directions.
And he was a member of the lodge
upstairs. He moved to Fort Worth to run a lumber yard which washed away, and he is
buried in the Comanche Area. Some of his sons were involved with
East Texas oil fields where Dad Joiner
brought in a gusher, and one ran the Cotton Export press and warehouse in Galveston. Two of Ben's
cousins were buried in Liverpool, England during Civil War. Their dad,
Augustan Clayton Wyly, and Ben closed
the 4 story warehouse in Atlanta--still there at Peach Tree and Pryor. Now, did he go to England for
personal business or to get ships
and supplies for the Confederacy?? The girls died of diphtheria.
Johnson Ranch and mine records were
kept in a climate control building--possibly not tight enough to keep out
small rattlesnakes.
MAY 19, 2008
Zelma Tackett was a Wyly descendant. One of her family, one Tackett, Ira, best I remember, was a
rancher and cattle trader with a ranch north of the Lingleville-Desdmona
area. Zelma came to Stephenville Wyly Reunions in the 1990's. She was a
grandmother then, best I remember. One of the family was an order buyer for
packing houses, or for his ranch.
I think Mrs. Tackett , like the
Hanibal area Morings, was descended from Ben F. Wyly who had businesses in
Stephenville, houses on Bosque Blvd. (now Tarleton Avenue), and a ranch in Pony
Creek area when he came from Atlanta.
Ben had lost an eye in Civil War Battle of Knoxville. His son, Frank, drove 3000 head of English
sheep to Trammel and Crow of Stephenville, deliverred on foot from
Atlanta to San Angelo--the area of
El Dorado, San Angelo, and sheep country north to Colorado River.
Questions:
1. Frank was 17. Wonder
how much help he had driving those sheep?
2. Wonder if they or he loaded
them on barges part of the way or came across the Gulf?
3. The 4 story Atlanta Wyly
Wholesale brick warehouse is still standing at Peachtree and Pryor. In Jasckson,
Mississippi they claim that Civil War records were kept in the old 3 story City
Hall--in the basement room of the
Masonic Lodge. It has come up that some think some of the later records were stored in the 4th story of the
Atlanta warehouse. Ben was an
aide to Pres. Davis after his loss of an eye in combat in Knoxville. I have not found records indicating Ben
reopened the warehouse--it was empty
when we saw it around 1990. Ben's Uncle Augustin Clayton Wyly was in Liverpool doing private or
Confederate business. His 2 daughters died there of diphtheria. Ben was an Elder
in the Pony Creek Methodist Church in Erath County when he was running the
ranch and businesses. This was an
old 2 story wooden building used by several denominations downstairs during the week and a Lodge hall
upstairs. They had a 1
room school. Great Aunt Susie Moxley
taught there and roomed with her in law Lela Belcher Hurley--or a Belcher
cousin? Which one? This
school was not the Pony Creek Baptist Church, but shared the water well and the Evans Cemetery on the hill in
front of the present church a few
hundred yards. One side of this abandoned cemetery drains down Pony
Creek and the other goes the
opposite direction down the Duffau Creek Prairie or Hurley or Crockett Branch, past
John Rumph's house. Lela Belcher
Hurley and her cousin Etta Robinson Moxley would visit in Walnut Springs, and we showed them the
graves of Tom Arendell and others. They had marriage connections
to the Arendells.
I was walking to John's childhood home
through the old Cemetery, not the
Box-Pony Creek cemetery which is used today. One grave-marker was caved in and had a large rattler in the
hole. I ran and got a neighbor
to come shoot it. He did. It was big enough to have swallowed a rabbit or such, but only about 4 feet long.
The hole must have been dug by
a raccoon or opposum corkscrewed in the coffin. It was not caved in. Several of the Evans family graves are in
an iron fence together nearby.
Can anyone clear any of these graves
up?
MAY 25, 2008
Help!
Please tell me where in Stephenville you would put some records
of family and county since 1860 to now? Have a uniform and recods and
service ribbons from (Aunt) Capt. Mary Ella Wyly, U.S. Army Nurse
Corps, WW2, in Australia, New Guinea, Leyte, Luzon, and in Manilla in a
prison turned hospital. Her commanding officer at one time was a Dr.
H.M. Ritchie of Waco. She started Nursing school at Tatleton and
Stephenville Hospital, then St. Joseph's in Fort Worth. They were
trained in Camp Walters, Palo Pinto and Camp Polk, LA to care for 900
patients. She was in command of surgical cleanup, assistance, and setup
of the Surgery Room when around 4000 were released by the Japanese,
form Santa Tomas, Los Banos, and Battan prison camps. Check this
out on Google. The story is good there, but few names were used. There
were men and women, civilian and military, frrom Australia, U.S. ,
Canada, and mixed nationalitoies living there before WW2. One camp was
a College campus.
The Doctors at one camp were American educated Japanese medical doctors
fresh out of college, and when visiting their ancestors in Japan before
12/7/41 they were drafted into the Japanese Army. The Japanese wartime
government assigned them to care for prisoners, as they may not have
been trusted by combat officers. Their supplies were few from the
homeland. They did all types of experimental surgeries on the injured
in Prison camps and kept detailed journals. They contacted the
U.S. Secret Service and offerred their journals for amnesty and
return to California. They promised the journals would put us 50
years ahead of the wodld in open heart surgery, and it did. My
treadmill operator and others say some of these records are in
medical textbooks today.
When Aunt Mary returned to Fort Worth, she was assigned iron lung duty
with others she knew, and, after 8 hours of duty, 3 of these nurses and
three doctors were experimenting with open heart surgery on dogs and
were successful in their home lab. The U.S. turned them down for
research money as being fantasy experiments. When Dr. Debakey did his
first open
heart surgery in Houston, he personally phoned each member of the Fort
Worth team and asked them to be in Houston with him for the
surgery. Observers and advisors???
Aunt Mary graduated from Selden and Stephenville High Schools and
worked for the Terrells in Stephenville Hospital and St. Joseph's in
Tarleton. Vance and Jim Terrell knew her dad, and one of them
told her dad she was wanting to go to nursing school, which floored
Grandad. The Terrells were from Iredell and knew most of the Wylys of
that day.
One more clue--she had a Hatchitt cousin from Lockhart, Texas. I have a
letter from a Wichita Falls lawyer which documents when some Texas
HATCHETT families changed the spelling from Hatchett of Erath County to
Hatchitt. Lt. Eunice Hatchitt, R.N. was in a boat leaving the wounded
in a tent hospital, with Gen. McArthur, going to an evacuation ship off
shore when they saw a shell hit the tent she had just left.
The movies "SO PROUDLY WE HAIL" and "WE'VE NEVER BEEN LICKED" are well
known to Texas Aggies, or the songs are. One was about Lt. Hatchitt and
the other was about her husband, a Capt. in the Air Force in Europe.
Contents
c2006-2009 Charles Wyly
Format c2006-2009
Tim Seawolf and Barbara Peck
This page last updated on June 6, 2008
DUBLIN,
TEXAS