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While we were in
Kan, Father & Captain McGennet
pooled their cattle and had them
held on the Verdigris River. May seem rather strange that these two
men only four or five years back were trying to kill each other, but
now were the best of friends. One wore the gray and the other the
blue. There was another family in that neighborhood were extra nice
to us - Wesley
Cornell, also a Mr. West.
They later went out near Newton, Kansas and killed and butchered a
wagon load of buffalos and divided meat with us, which was very much
appreciated. The meat was cut into large chunks and hung up to
joists. It soon dried on the outside and was fresh and juicy within.
There was lots of wild game where we were, such as deer, prairie
chickens, quail &, of course, predatory animals. The chickens
would often light on the comb of the house and deer came out of the
timber where could have been an easy mark for the new modern guns.
But they were safe and in no danger of losing their lives, as
F[ather] never killed any game in his life that I ever knew
of.
A rather amusing incident happened to me on our trip to
Kan. We met up with a family by name McDonnell who had been
down in Tex prospecting and were on their way back to
Missouri. As our course were near the same direction we
traveled together for a few days for company. There was a couple of
boys, sons, about my age, and of course, we played & slept
together, on a pallet when we had the chance. One nite those boys
& myself were bunking in the same bed and were making more noise
than suited the older people who were up and around the camp-fire
talking. Mr. McDonnell hollered at Henry to quit his noise or he
would give him a spanking. Of course, we quieted down for a time,
but soon broke out again. The first I knew I was jerked out from
under the cover and turned over a knee & tended to proper, and
admonished. "Now Henry
if I have to repeat this you will
know you had a whipping that you will remember". Of course we
quieted down to whispers and the way those boys did laugh, but low,
about the mistake.
1872 - Father had disposed of the last of
his cattle. He traded some of them for store-bought wagons, Bains
& Studebaker - with teams to match the wagons. He had four
wagons pulled by good Missouri mares & horses. It [was] no
trouble to obtain drivers for the three extra teams, as a couple of
young men wanted the opportunity to get into Texas and also an old
Irishman by the name of Dan also had itchy
feet. We landed in Limestone County, near Grosebeck where two of the
men quit as they wanted to get into the real west. We helped to put
in a crop in Limestone Co and after it was layed by, we moved on to
where we had originally lived--Lavaca Co, Texas
There is where I made my first money that I could
claim as my own. Father allowed me to have one half I earned
picking cotton. The crop that year was above an average and the
price was $1.00 per hundred Ibs picking. I picked cotton for
Joe Lockett that fall. My average was from 125 to 150 Ibs per
day--was considered extra good for a 10-yr old kid. With my half of
the earnings, I purchased four cows & calves but they did not
cost very much. That was an open range then and the cattle were of
the longhorn breed, all colors. It was a site to see all colors
imaginable - Duns, Reds, Speckled Blues, Black.
That winter
was very wet, which rotted the grass and many of the range cattle
died. Another boy a couple of years older than myself got each a
skinning knife and prowled the live oak thickets for dead cattle. We
got $3 per hide and some days we would make $3 each. It was the rule
then that the person who found and skinned an animal, the hide
belonged to the skinner - regardless who owned the animal. It would
require all of our strength to roll an old cow on to her back so we
could peel the hide off.
The next spring Father rented the
same farm that Mr. Lockett
had the year before, and I was
introduced to the art of bedding up cotton land which consisted of
throwing four furs together - for an eleven year old the work was
quite an undertaking. We had one of those old Missouri mares named
Jude. Old Jude & I soon learned each other and got along fine.
Even I did have to partly reach up to the plow handle to make the
necessary connection and grip them tight to hold the plow in its
place.
We made a fair crop that year but my work was
community service that season. My parents made a Sunday visit to one
of our neighbors that summer and left brother Logan and myself to
keep house. Two of our neighbor boys came to visit brother &
I. Business got dull for us so we decided we would try our
skill bronk busting on the milk calves. The result of my failing to
stick onto a black heifer calf landing on my right elbow left me
with a fractured arm and the elbow slipped out of place. Away went
one of my cows & calves I had purchased the year before for a
Doctor bill. My arm was carried in a sling for quite a long time,
but I picked the community cotton with one hand most of the balance
of the season. Guess it was what I needed, though, for it broke me
from sucking eggs. Was afraid might lose another cow &
calf.
Recall the year 1872. Joe Lockett and his
brother Wyatt were both violinists and some evenings they would
play for hours for entertainment. The following year our family
moved to the western part of Lavaca Co near Mulberry School where
Logan & myself went to school thru the winter months to a man
named Ramsey. This teacher had a rule forbidding pupils playing
ran-jackett. He caught another boy one day and myself trying the
play out. Each of us had good dogwood switches which we were using
for all we could on each other. The teacher caught our eyes. Of
course we ceased our forbidden play at once, but he ordered we
proceed with the game until we both were about fagged out. Then the
teacher took the stubs of switches and finished the switches across
our backs.
F[ather] previous to moving to this place bought a tax
title to a piece of land. We broke out several acres of sod land
summer. The original owner contested the title & won out in the
court which left us without a farm besides losing the work we had
done on the land.
While we were living at this location, one
spring I chopped cotton for a man by the name of Chandler for
50 cents per day. I could
hardly keep up with my
employer in speed but very near, at any rate my fingers would be so
stiff of mornings after awakening from sleep that I could only with
difficulty open and close them. The soreness was caused from
gripping the hoe handle from early morning to night except for an
hour for the noon meal. The art of pulling fodder was also taught me
by a Mr. Warnner. I was hardly tall enough to quite reach the
higher blades of corn leaves without riding the stalk down away.
Talk about your hard work - that was it. Every time we had worked a
round to near the house, we would sample the cool buttermilk that
was kept cool by covering over the jar with a heavy wet cloth. Oh,
but it was good.
That fall of 1875 we moved back near my
Grandmother Coffee's place and I picked cotton for W S Baxter thru the fall season. I and another boy by name of
Hopkins worked together. He taught me what tobacco was raised for. A
comparison of the then economics and now, 1 guess, should not be
amiss. The price for cotton picking then was as it is now - which
was governed by the price of staple. A grown man's labor per month
ran from $12.50 to $15 - per day 50 cents. Of course, board &
bed went with the wages. This generation say oh I could not have
lived on that small amount. Maybe not but we would have buried you
then and for a coffin a pine box costing about $10 and in some
country church grave yard.
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