This information was copied from The Cass County Genealogical Society, 1975, Vol. II, No. 3, pg. 3-12.

LIFE OF AN EAST TEXAS PIONEER
Owned by J.E. Townley
Hughes Springs, Texas
By H.R. Hughes

Stencil Cut From Copy Owned by Mrs. H.B. Ashley, the former Miss Mary Belle Hughes, April 25, 1966.

My father, Reece Hughes, came from a line of Hugnenot ancestors, who to the time (which was the year A.D. 1629) when the famous city of LaRochelle in Southern France was captured and destroyed by a Roman Catholic army led in person by the noted Cardinal Richelieu, were citizens of that doomed city. Some of the members of the Hughes stock made their escape from the besieged city and crossed over to England or Wales. From England they afterwards came to America and three brothers of the Hughes family settled in Virginia near the Dismal Swamp. From this section the different members of the group scattered.

My father, Reece Hughes, was born in Bedford County, Tennessee, on 26 November 1811, A.D. He afterwards moved with his parents to Franklin County in N.W. Alabama and settled on a stream called Big Bear Creek. From this section in the year 1829 when he was only 18 years of age he left this home and joined a small band of 5 or 6 bold adventurers and headed for Texas on a buffalo hunt. Texas at that time being only a Province of Mexico was a wild and unsettled region. This little band of adventurers was soon driven out of Texas by a much larger force of hostile Indians.

But Reece Hughes lured by the wonderful attractions of this new and strange country, after waiting nine years for conditions to become more favorable in this new region returned to Texas in the spring of 1838, A.D. This was just 2 years after Texas became an independent Republic. He was joined in this his second trip to Texas by his brother, Robert Hughes, who was about 6 years younger than Reece Hughes. They also brought with them a young negro man, a slave who belonged to their father, Robert Hughes, Sr. It was now their fixed purpose to establish a home in Texas.

They first stopped at Blossom Prairie in the county of Red River. Here they rented a small piece of land and raised a crop. But Reece Hughes in his first trip to this new country, nine years before, had heard a strange wild rumor of a great strong-box of gold coin that was said to have been buried near an Indian village by an old sea pirate who bore the name of Trammell. This great treasure of gold was said to have been hidden somewhere on the Old Trammell Trace or trail which led from Red River to near the Island of Galveston on the Gulf. It was also said no doubt, by a desire to find this wonderful hidden treasure, the Hughes brothers early in the spring of 1839, A.D., just 90 years ago, left Blossom Prairie, struck the Old Trammell Trace and followed it south until they reached an old deserted Choctaw Indian village that stood near the old trail.

This old village was located in the beautiful valley of what is now known as Hughes Creek, about one mile East of the site of the present known as Hughes Springs.

Here they stopped and on the 28 day of March 1839 A.D., they pitched their tent and began at once to build their log cabin and to clear up a little farm.

If they ever found the golden treasure for which they were searching, I have no record of it. But they built their log cabin, cleared their little farm and planted a crop of corn and peas and some garden truck.

They were so wonderfully satisfied with the results of the first year of their new venture that in the autumn of the same year 1939, Reece Hughes, leaving his younger brother, Robert, and the young negro man in the care of the little farm, set out alone on horse back on his long journey back to Franklin County, Alabama to bring out his father, who was now an old man, and his family to the new Republic of Texas. By this time many of his relatives and friends in that section were seized with the Texas fever, and several families of the Hughes, Prewitts, Bennetts and Skinners who were all kin people.

These families formed the vanguard of the settlers of this portion of East Texas. It was from these early pioneers that Hughes Creek, Prewitts Lake and Hughes Lake took their names. In a short time after this immigration began to come in rapidly and the new country began to prosper wonderfully.

But the newcomer who was afterwards to become most closely connected with the life and destinies of Reece Hughes was a man know far and wide in East Texas as old Capt. William Pinckney Rose He migrated to Texas in the fall of 1839 and located at a point 8 miles East of the town of Marshall in Harrison County. This place is now known as Scottsville. Capt. Rose was a wealthy planter who came from near Jackson in Washington Parish, Louisiana where he then lived, and served with great distinction under the old Gen. Jackson at the celebrated battle of New Orleans in 1815.

When Capt. Rose moved to Texas, among other members of his family, he was accompanied by two daughters, one a young widow of Allen McLean, who was the mother of two young children, one who was afterwards known all over Texas as Judge W.P. McLean, and the other as Dr. H. J. McLean, a famous Methodist minister. Mrs. Allen McLean was at that time about 20 years old. The other daughter, Elizabeth, was at that time just 14 years of age, soon attracted the attention of Reece Hughes, who was a frequent visitor to that community, and so in April 1841 after a brief courtship, they were married. Besides being young and beautiful and in many ways attractive, Reece Hughes' young wife brought to him a snug little fortune in negro slaves, which he, with wonderful judgment, used to marvelous profit on his farm.

But just as prosperity seemed to beam upon Reece Hughes with her brightest smiles, and he seemed to be settling down to a quiet and happy life, suddenly a dark and ominous shadow fell across his pathway. The country being new and almost without any settled form of local government, lawlessness and crime were everywhere rampant. The permanent citizens in Harrison County feeling the need of protection, met and organized what we would call a Vigilance Committee. This organization selected old Capt. Rose as its leader, who acting promptly with the organized body of citizens, captured several horse thieves and outlaws, and while they spared their lives, punished them with much vigor and ordered them to quit the country. This, as usual, soon raised much opposition, and Col. Bob Potter, a noted Texas politician and lawyer, headed an opposing party. The struggle between the two opposing factions grew to be bitter and bloody. But finally Col. Bob Potter, after making a vain effort with a band of about 20 armed men to surprise Capt. Rose at his own home, was in turn surprised by Capt. Rose with a band of about 10 men and killed while attempting to escape while swimming Caddo Lake. Reece Hughes who was a son-in-law to Rose and a man of tremendous energy and resolution took a very active part in this struggle and was present with Rose with Col. Potter was killed. The death of Potter put an end to this bloody strife, but it was many years before the effect of it died out. The death of Col. Potter occured in July 1842.

Bob Potter whose portrait, I am told, now hangs on the walls of the State House at Austin, was a very talented and brilliant man, but I imagine a good deal after the order of that celebrated character Aaron Burr. He was, at the time of his death, a Senator in the Texas Congress and was said to have been chief commander of the little fleet of the Texas Republic during her fight for independence from Mexico. But I am forced to say that his record in the State of North Carolina from whence he came to Texas was somewhat shady.

But Capt. W.P. Rose also had a brilliant record as one of the heroic soldiers at the famous battle of New Orleans in 1815, and Reece Hughes about that time held a commission as Colonel in the Militia of the Republic of Texas. If any person wishes to see more extended and detailed account of the taking off of Col. Bob Potter, they will find it fully described in a book of reminiscences published by Dr. J.H. McLean, D.D. some years ago. An account is also found in the book here referred to of the terrible vengeance visited by Reece Hughes at Port Caddo upon the man whose name I shall not mention who was the leader of a band of the Potter Faction, that, in cold blood, burdered the oldest brother of Reece Hughes, whose name was Isaac Hughes, and who lived near the town of Marshall and was a very warm friend of Capt. Rose.

I mention these unpleasant facts just simply because they actually accured and also for the reason that they indicate more clearly than anything else the true spirit of those early times. About this time and especially after 1845, when Texas was admitted to the Union, the migration to this section increased wonderfully, new counties were organized, many new towns sprang up and everything became more settled and prosperous.

By the year 1847, Reece Hughes planned and carred into execution the founding of a new town at a noted Chalybeate spring situated about one mile west of his home. He named this new town Hughes Springs. But there was scarcely anything left of this first town of Hughes Springs, when the children of Reece Hughes, joined by Dr. J.H. McLean, under a contract with the East Line and Red River Railway Company in the month of May 1878, and laid off and founded the present town of Hughes Springs; yet the first town of Hughes Springs made very rapid progress for a time when it was first established and became a place of considerable note. It became a noted place for camp meetings in those early days and at one time a well known teacher by the name of Potton conducted a large and successful boarding school at this place but the main thing that caused the town to dwindle away was that Reece Hughes, its founder, and Co. W.B. Akin, another rich cotton planter, his nearest neighbor, bought up nearly all of the land in that section and in this way forced the people of more moderate means to go west.

During these years the success of Reece Hughes in cotton raising and other farming operations was so amazingly great that in the year 1853, on the occasion of the death of his young wife, Elizabeth, in a recorded statement to the courts, he estimated her separate individual property at One Hundred and Fifty Thousand ($150,000) Dollars worth of real estate, 100 slaves and $30,000 in gold coin. You can find this in the Supreme Court of Texas, the title of the case is W.P. Hughes et al vs Thomas Roper.

After the death of his first wife, Elizabeth, and it is said, in accordance with her dying request, Reece Hughes and the widow of John W. Scott, of Harrison County were married. This man John W. Scott was a brother of Col. W.T. Scott of Scottsville, in Harrison County. His widow was also a daughter of old Capt. W.P. Rose and an older sister of my mother Elizabeth.

Thus by this marriage Judge W.P. McLean and Dr. John H. McLean became the stepsons of Reece Hughes, their mother having been married three times, first to Allen McLean, second to John W. Scott and then Reece Hughes in the fall of 1853.

There were five children born to Reece Hughes by his first wife, all of them boys. Of these five sons I will write more at length later.

In the year 1856, A.D., my father removed from his old farm one mile east of Hughes Springs and made his new home about 3 miles southeast of the Springs on the main Highway leading west toward Dallas and Sherman from Jefferson, which was the greatest trading center of the Northeast Texas at that time. At this point the old Brick House was built, one of the largest and finest provate residences ever built in Texas. It had solid massive brick walls, both outer and partition walls, and with the basement was four stories high, with paripet walls and towers standing above the roof. It had more appearance of some old English castle than of a modern country residence. About 3 miles East of this home mansion he built his Iron furance where he was preparing to manufacture iron on a large scale for those early times. All this building was done by him with his own large body of negro slaves, with just one or two white men to direct the operations.

By the outbreak of the war of Secession in 1861, I feel it would entirely within the bounds of sober truth to say that Reece Hughes, in his own name and clear of any kind of debt or incumbrance, was the owner of a magnificent estate of more than twenty-five thousands acres of land in Cass and adjoining counties. He, on this landed estate, had a find falley farm of more than 2000 acres of cleared land in a high state of cultivation. He owned about 200 slaves with which he cultivated this land. And as I said, above, he had a fine Iron Foundry just ready to be given the manufacture of iron. I honestly do not believe that any many in Texas ever prospered like he did who depended solely on farming to gain wealth. But just at this time the great War came up and threw its dark shadow over the whole land.

In my last article I traced the fortunes of Reece Hughes up to the opening of the great War of Secession in the year of 1861. I will now continue my narrative through the two periods of the war and the reconstruction of the Southland.

At the beginning of the year 1861, though the war clouds hung low, and dark over the whole political horizon, times at the old Brick House were exceedingly gay and lively. Reece Hughes had just engaged the services of three of the most noted dancing masters in Texas, at that time, Hun Williams, Sam and Lud Williams, and having invited in a large number of his kin people and neighbors was having a great damcing school taught in his own home. The dance room was one of the main Halls of the building, an apartment 20 feet wide by 40 feet long. The floor was dressed as smooth as a plane could make it and then waxed, which gave it almost a glossy smoothness. This made it an ideal place for the performance.

This dancing school occupies, even up to this day, a very conspicuous place in my memory. I, having been born on the old Hughes farm on mile east of the town of Hughes Springs on 2 Jan 1851 was only 10 years of age at this time.

But I was considered to be on sufficient age to take an active part in these lively exercises. I have a very distinct recollection of everything connected with this school. I remember just how I was dressed to attend it. I wore a sporty velvet jacket decorated with many shinny brass buttons. My shoes were of bright patent leather, and my pants were full length and cut gaiter fashion. I know some will smile when they read this description of my dancing costume, but you must remember that I am describing the customs of 70 years ago. After this dancing school opened up there was a season of almost continual fun and frolic day and night at the Hughes home for months. There had been much talk of war all over the Southland, previous to this time, but the leading men and especially the politicians said the war would be a mere breakfast spell, that one Southern man could easily whip a dozen Yankees, and some went so far as to say they could and would drink all the blood that was shed in it.

But suddenly in the month of April 1861, in the very height of all our gayety and fun, like a clap of thunder from the sky, there came the soul stirring news that the cannons of the Confederates had opened fire on Fort Sumpter, S.C. Through numbed and dumfounded by this sudden and dreadful news, there came over us all a vague realization that a great and wonderful change had come in our lives. Young as I was at the time, a thrill of horrow passed through my frame when I saw the look of sorrow and despair that came over the face of my father when the news of the opening of the great war first came to him. His heart seemed almost crushed with grief, for he appeared to realize at once just what all this meant to him and to all the Southland. It is almost needless to mention the fact that the dancing school closed at once, and in less time than the 30 days the young men of the country were arming, equiping and hurrying to the battlefield.

This sudden and wonderful change has always reminded me strongly of the scenes I afterwards read about. I refer to the description given in the Bible of the Feast of King Belshazzer and of Byron's would-stirring description of the dance at Brussels that was broken up by the roar of the cannons at the battle of Waterloo.

From this time forward Reece Hughes was out spoken, strong and uncompromising in his opposition to the policy of secession. He wished to still hold his slaves but he wanted the South to remain in the UAnion and to fight for her rights under the old flag. It will be remembered that this same view of this matter was held by old Gen. Sam Houston and many other prominent men of the South. Just one little incident that occurred at this time will show with wonderful clearness the bold stand he took on this question.

The first company that was raised in our immediate section was organized at Avinger by Capt. W.E. Duncan. I believe it went by the name of "The Black Cypress Rangers." When the roll of this company was completed and they took up their line of march for the front, on their first day they halted for dinner at the old Brick House. Reece Hughes, as his manner was, gave them a royal welcome, had a fine substantial meal prepared for the whole company, had all their horses cared for in good style, and after dinner, according to the custom then in vogue, he set out a liberal supply of his best peach brandy.

This many of the new soldiers did not fail to imbide very freely. When the time came for them to depart the whole company lined up in front of the old Brick House and someone proposed "Three Cheers for Reece Hughes." This was responded to at once and three lusty cheers were given by the whole company. But just at this moment some fellow who had apparently gotten too much of the old peach, in a swaggering tone called out "We are going out to fight for Old Reece Hughes and his negroes". This refrain was caught up and repeated by several along the line. This sudden outburst was too much for the nerves of the old gentleman, with his strong anti-session sentiments. He advanced to the edge of the portice facing the whole line, waved his hand to get their attention and then said in a loud and distinct voice, "Gentlemen, if that is what you are going out for let me beg of you now to go back home and lay down your arms, I do not need your services, for this war will only result in the freeing of the negroes and the ruin of the Southland."

This short speech, about the only one I ever heard him attempt to make in public, did not, of course, meet with a very hearty reception from his soldier hearers, but it strongly impressed me as being wonderfully prophetic of what actually occured within the next four years. As I have stated before there was a great and sudden change in the spirit of things at the Hughes home. But though the old Brick House was far more quiet and settled than heretofore, yet all through the four year period of the war, it continued to be an old time typical Dixie home. Standing as it did close by the main Highway, it gave food and shelter to hundreds and hundreds of weary and hungry Confederate soldiers who passed that way, and this was always without money and without price. I will state also that large numbers of war widows, that is women whose husbands were serving in the army, got great help in the way of corn and bacon and other supplies from the Hughes farm.

But I know of no words better suited to describe this typical old time Dixie home than the following quaint verses which I herto append:

Mid the bright glow of Dixie's splendor,
In the good old days of yore
Before the war clouds peal of thunder
Sent its crash from shore to shore

In the grand old Eastern Texas
Where the hills are clad in green
Where the valleys gleam with brightness
From King Cotton's snowy sheen

There stood a fair and stately mansion
With its portals open wide
While its towers of strength and beauth
O're looked the hill tops in their pride

Within its walls dwelt peace and plenty
And a quiet homelike air
That sent a thrill of royal welcome
Through each soul that entered there.

It can be siad to the credit of Reece Hughes with perfect candor that, while he opposed the policy of Secession with all the energy of his soul, no man ever did his part more nobly and unselfishly in giving aid to those of the Southland who needed his help.

When the war opened he at once changed his lifetime plan of farm operations. He had always had almost miraculous success in cotton raising. But in 1861 he planted only enough cotton for home consumption, but hes comprised enough to keep four hand power looms running all the time winter and summer, making cloth to keep his big plantation supplied with clothing. These looms were worked by women slaves, some of whom were expert weavers. They wove cotton cloth of several kinds, also woolen goods, among which were blankets of greath warmth and splendid quality. He had his own tan vats and made leather for shoes with which he supplied his big body of slaves. But he found it more difficult to learn to manufacture hats, yet he could make any quality of straw and palmetto hats of good quality. His main crops were now of grain, of which he raised great quantities, not only of corn but of wheat, oats, rye and barley and also of rice. His crops of ribbon cane and potatoes were abundant, and tobacco was grown with great success.

His crops of grain and feed stuff were so bountiful that he was compelled to build large barns and sheds in which to stow them away. But it was only a short time until there was a place found for all this surplus.

The Confederate Government began to be in sore need of supplies. And now his real trials came upon him.

The government sent out its agents, some of whom seemed to very much feel the importance of their positions, and took all the surplus grain and feed stuff they could find in the country, leaving the farmers only a sufficiency to get by on. Then came the draft on all the work stock, both mules and horses except just enough with which to run the farms. Then came an impressment for the use of the Government of a certain per capita of the able-bodied slaves of the country, and it is needless to say that the government agents found ample means of enforcing these requirements.

But of all these stringent exactions the thing that gave Reece Hughes the severest blow was the impressment of his Iron Plant, his fine new blast furnace. Sometime in the latter part of the year 1862, A.D., the legislature of the State of Texas passed a point resolution recommending that the C.S. Government purchase the two iron plants in Texas, one situated in Marion County and owned by Mr. Jefferson Nash and one in Cass (then known as Davis) County and owned by Mr. Reece Hughes. The C.S. Government was only too glad to act on this suggestion and at once sent out its commissioners to effect these purchases. Jefferson Nash sold to the government and I am told received in payment a large sum in Confederate money. But when the commissioners approached Reece Hughes he refused to part with the title of his part on any terms whatsoever. This temporarily checked the enterprize but the C.S. Government being in great need of iron plants, felt justified in resorting to force, and at once seized his property and took it over. This occured early in the year 1863, A.D. Reece Hughes entered a strong protest in writing against this method of force and notified the government that he would claim title to all the improvements that might place on his land, but along with the plant itself they impressed several thousand acres of his richest iron ore, and heaviest timbered lands. They did this to supply the plant with ore and charcoal. The furnaces all used charcoal at the time. The C.S. Government detailed a large number of hands to run this plant and under the management of Capt. Wm. Robson, an old Scotchman and a practical iron manufacturer, the work went forward rapidly and in a short time the books of the plant showed that the government had put out more than a half million dollars in improvements on it. The Government worked this property about two years and made great quantities of pig iron, from which they moulded casting of all kinds in abundance. They were even preparing to mold cannon and other war implements when the breakup came. According to an inventory made by the Government Confederate authorities at the time they abondoned it, which was about a month after the surrender of General Lee in Va. This property was well worth a million dollars. But though Reece Hughes immediately took possession of this property again as soon as the Confederates left it, he never was permitted to use this splendid plant any more. In a few days the Federal forces came on the grounds and took possession of it, claiming it as captured C.S. property. Just as soon as Reece Hughes could get to Washington, D.C. which was early in the fall of 1865, A.D., he brought suit agaist the Federal Government for its restoration and claimed several hundred thousand dollars damages against them for the unlawful seisure of his property. This suit lasted for years, but the US. Government finally ignored his claim. This was a terrible blow to the old Gentleman, for his faith in the U.S. Government was very great. But this terrible war not only took a fearful toll on his property but it took his sons. His oldest son William Pickney Hughes volunteered at the age of 18, and served faithfully for four years in the Confederate Army. During this term of service in Gen. Sul Ross Brigade, in the State of Mississippi, he received a wound that made a cripple of him for life, and was finally the cause of his death. Reece Hughes second son, who bore the name of Thomas Jefferson Rusk reached the age of 18 and was barely 19 years of age was killed in the fighting around Vicksbnurg during the seige of that famous fortress. This was the favorite son of my father, and he was said by his soldier pals to be as brave a lad as ever went on the battlefield.

As a natural sequence the strong and outspoken Union sentiments of Reece Hughes made him many bitter and uncompromising enemies among what might be termed the radical secession element and they were everywhere vastly in the majority. As the war progressed this sentiment grew stronger and stronger against him, until at last towards the close of the war, this active enemies sent in a strong petition to Gen. Kerby Smith, who at that time was in command of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, to have him executed as a public enemy. But through the counter influence of some of his strong friends, who held high positions under this Confederate commander, this movement against him utterly failed and came to naught.

But to show the daring spirit which he manifested under the most adverse circumstances, I will relate the two following incidents that accured about this time. The first was this: One day during the winter of 1864 there was a regiment of Southern Soldiers passing his residence. There was a terrific blizzard raging and the temperature stood just a little above zero. It so happened that day that the Major of the regiment was on a dead drunk. And though he was splendidly dressed in his fine new uniform and was one of the finest looking specimens of physical manhood I ever laid eyes on, he was perfectly limp and helpless, having to be carried about by his men like an infant. While in this condition of complete intoxication a bunch of eight or ten of his men brought him up to the front steps of the house and in a brusk way asked permission of my father to bring him in to the fire. I was standing where I could see the face of my father and I saw at a moments glance that trouble was brewing, but he replied to them in a very quiet, calm tone and said: Gentlemen, your request places me in a very awkward position, I am supposed to be the natural guardian of my family and I have always made it a rule never to allow a drunk man to enter my home. Pointing to the little one-room office building that stood on the lawn a short distance from the house, he said you can carry him in that office, build you a warm fire and take care of him until he sobers up. But the whole bunch being more or less under the influence of liquor, everyone of them resented it as a deadly insult to their favorite officer. It was like throwing a bomb shell among them and at once with loud oaths they swore that would rather bring him in, regardless of consequences. But the Old Gentleman was to quick for them. He seized his old long barreled shotgun that always stood at a convenient distance and taking his stand in the front door, he said, men, you can overpower me and kill me in a few monments, but I warn you that the first man who puts his foot on that doorstep is a dead man. Seeing the excitement, the bunch of soldiers in the yard had increased to somethin like 25 men. They all seem greatly agitated, except one, he seemed perfectly calm and quiet. Suddenly he stood out from the crowd and although he said not a word and made no gesture that was intelliginble to me, he drew the attention of my father, and then all at once the scene changed, he beckoned to the men and pointed to the drunken major, several of the seemed to understand and took him up, carried him into the little office and took care of him until he sobered up. Then they all went off to the camp of the regiment which was about a mile away. The next morning bright and early the Major appeared at our home and apologized with great politeness and profusion for causing so much trouble. His apology was duly accepted and the incident thus closed.

The second incident to which I referred occurred about the time that General Price's troops disbanded at Shreveport, La. This was a few days after Lee's surrender in Va. It came about in the following manner: One day a band of men, 5 in number, mounted on beautiful and spirited charges and each one armed with a heavy brace of fine silver-mounted six-shooters rode up to the Hughes home and seeing no grown up men folks about the big house, dismounted and called for dinner. This was about 11:00 A.M. My stepmother, who had been used to frontier conditions and without showing any unusual fear or excitement, secretly sent out some of the negro servants as runners to call in all the men folks within reach. In the meantime she had her preparations for dinner to go guietly on. In a short time the men who were out on different parts of the large farm, being put on their guard, began leisurely to drop in, one at a time, until finally when dinner was announced seven men had put in their appearance at the house. These consisted of Reece Hughes himself, his oldest son, William P. Hughes who had just gotten home from the army a day or two before this. Reece Hughes, Jr., his third son who was at that time nearly 18 years of age, a nephew by the name of Bennett who had come over from Mississippi with William, also two Confederate soldiers who where there to guard some corn that belonged to the government, and the overseer on the plantation, a man by the name of Everett. All seven of these men were very cautious in their movements, kept a close watch on the 5 strangers, did not group together, and did not sit down to the table at the same time. The 5 bandits or jayhawkers, seeing they were out generaled, ate their dinner in almost complete silence, then mounted their fine steeds and suddenly rode away. Yet they were not really gone, as we afterwards discovered, but this was mearely a ruse of the bandits to throw the occupants of the house off of their guard. The would be robbers kept to the public road for a mile or so, then turned into the woods and finding a deep ravine that almost sheltered them from sight in this direction, dismounted, staked out their horses and laid down to rest and to wait for the approach of darkness, evidently intending to make a surprise attack on the home that night. But the people at the Old Home had become so suspicious of the band, that late in the afternoon they sent out 2 scouts to scour the country around and find out if a thing was brewing. It so happened that the scouts found where the band had left the road and in following their horse tracks, were almost right on them before they discovered their haiding place. The two scouts turned and made a hasty retreat but not until they had been sighted by the robbers. Deciding that their plans were now discovered, the bandits abondoned their purpose of night assault on the home, and mounting their steeds left for good. Yet the little group at the Hughes home, not knowing that the robbers were gone, made every possible preparation, and stood guard all night, in readiness to give them a hot reception if they came. We never knew for sure where this band belonged, but the rumor came to us afterwards that these men told the people with whom they put up that night, who lived about 12 miles away, that they were a party of the Quantrells famous band, and that their object in visiting the Brick House was to make away with the owner of it and to plunder the building. But, of course, every men were liable to tell anything, and we had no way of finding out the truth about them.

The war had now virtually come to an end and at last the great crash, the break-up came. The slaves were all freed and Reece Hughes, besides losing in a day's time something like $200,000 worth of slave property, was left with this vast plantation of 2,000 acres of rich valley land virtually without a tennant. In a financial slump, this was the blow that was staggering to him, he never could recover from it sufficiently to fit himself into the new economic order of things.

Written at - Hughes Springs, Texas in 1929.