Trip to Texas

Susan’s family had sold the farm, commissary and the saloon. They had been waiting on the wagon train. Jane and her new family reluctantly gave up their wait for her two boys to return home. They loaded everything their covered wagons could carry, including wagons loaded with barrels of whiskey that David would later trade for land in Keechi, Leon County, Texas. Susan Francis Neal, her mother Jane McGuffin Neal, her stepfather David Recknor, her brothers and her sister Menerva Evalina Neal were headed to Texas. Many people died on the wagon train. Drownings at river crossings, dysentery, cholera, injury, pneumonia and “the fever” were common killers on the trail. The men often suffered accidental gunshot wounds. Pregnant women died in childbirth.

Richard and Lucrecia Real’s son Thomas died of “the fever” on the trip to Texas. When and where is unknown.

The wagon train started its trip in the springtime so hopefully they would be at the end of their journey by fall. The trip was devastatingly hard. They awoke at four a.m. so they could be rolling by seven a.m. They paused for ten minutes each hour to rest the livestock. At eleven a.m. they stopped for what was called a “nooning”. They had a meal, greased the wheels and checked the wagons, did other chores, perhaps got some much needed rest and by two p.m. were back on the trail again. They kept rolling as long as they could, sometimes well into the night. Faced with scorching heat, violent storms and scarce water these brave frontier settlers still managed to covered an average of fifteen miles a day. At night the wagons were pulled into a circle that would provide some defense in case of an Indian attack. The Indians were wild and hostile. They attacked the wagon train. They stole horses, burned wagons, killed the men and kidnapped the women and children. Someone always sat guard at night.

The Indians came and asked for food and chattered words Edward Real and the others could not understand.

The wagon train stopped on the banks of the treacherous, swirling river and the weary settlers wondered how they would ever cross that huge gap of water with no bridge and high steep banks blocking their way. Winter was closing in and bad weather would soon be upon them. The settlers were not willing to go out of their way to find a more suitable crossing. They had come too far to turn back now. Could they find a way to cross the river? These families were strong, determined, pioneer stock. Soon the men, women and children were all working side by side. They cut down and trimmed trees. Susan Frances Neal and Lucrecia Lewis could handle an axe and saw as well as any man. Dirt was removed from the steep banks and fashioned into slopes on which they could lower the wagons down to the lower banks with ropes. The trees were made into rafts and placed near the water’s edge. Someone had to swim the treacherous river currents to the other side with a rope and tie it to a tree or some other suitable anchor. When all the work was done, the wagons were loaded onto the rafts and, using the ropes, were pulled across the river with great difficulty. Sometimes if the river was calm, or there were no trees nearby, they removed the wheels from the wagons and floated them to the opposite bank. When the wagons got stuck in the mud they hitched two, sometimes more, teams of mules or oxen to the wagon and the men, women and children all had to help push it through the mud. The larger wagon was about 10x4x2 feet and pulled by a team of six mules or oxen. The wagons were awkward, heavy and rough riding. They were filled with all their worldly processions and a food supply that had to last for the whole trip. The food supply consisted of 150 pounds of flour for each adult, 5 pounds of baking soda, 10 pounds of jerky, 40 pounds of bacon, 40 pounds of dried fruit, 40 pounds of sugar, 40 pounds of coffee, along with rice, yeast, vinegar and molasses.

Between the laughing and the crying, the living and the dying, the singing and the sighing, the wagon wheels rolled on.

These families settled in San Augustine, Milam, Sabine, Liberty, Polk, Montgomery, Trinity and Leon Counties, Texas.

This also includes the families of Jesse Malachi Real I & II, Allen Zachariah {A.Z.} Real, John Neal, Hugh McGuffin and their descendants.