THE GALLEON
haps a typical community, as I
have heard my grandmothers
give similar descriptions. "Most
'f our houses were built of logs,
some of them rough hewn and
with the bark on and the
cracks chinked with sticks and
mud, with dirt floors and a big
wide chimney. Sometimes a fam-
ily would get "tony" and hew
logs on one side and make a
puncheon floor for their home
and thus get into the "upper
class." In the summer we would
move out in these log houses,
but in the winter and fall the
Indians kept us in the forts." A
cluster of chimneys and the
powder house at old Fort Phan-
tom Hill some fifteen miles
from Abilene confirms the stor-
ies of communities having to
seek refuge at the forts when
the Red Men went on a scalping
and pillaging expedition.
The task of getting food and
clothing was not then a mere
question of going to a stroe
across the street or even a few
miles away. Mr. Chapman men-
tioned, continues his description
"We had plenty to eat, although
we had to take our grain fifty
miles to a mill to have it
ground. We had no money, but
did not need much for we could
not buy such things as coffee,
sugar, soap, matches, pins or
anything to wear, and we were
compelled to spin and weave all
of the cloth that made our
clothing. Rye, corn, wheat, okra
sed, and roasted acrons, were
based as a substitute for coffee."
Henry Fest adds that "with an
abundance of milk, cream, but-
ter, and eggs the home-made
"postum" went All right until
he renewed acquaintance with
real coffee afterwards." Honey
was a substitute for sugar, veg-
etables were grown at home, and
fresh meat was abundant. How-
ever, the pioneer woman had
no modern gas range, nor even
the crudest of wood consuming
stoves. The open fire place with
its crane and oven served for
all purposes, baking, frying,
roasting, etc.
Other testimonies besides the
ones already given bear witness
that the woman of the western
frontier was without fear. Geo.
W. Saunders tells of a woman
named Sally Skull, who traded
horses, and with a band of Mex-
ican helpers operated alone from
Texas into Mexico, and had the
record of being the most fear-
less woman ever known,
L. B. Anderson, of Seguin,
Texas, gives a sketch of his life
in which he tells of how he, a
boy of eleven, was left the sole
protector of his mother and
younger brothers and sisters
when his father and older bro-
ther fought for the South in the
Civil War, As he says," Mother
was a fearless woman, and the
best marksman with a rifle I
ever saw, and so we felt able to
take care of ourselves."
This daring spirit led at least
some of the younger women in-
to some rather thrilling adven-
tures. One girl, a member of a
well-to-do family had heard
much about trips up "the trail";
so disguising herself as a boy,
she got a job and concealed her
identity until the drive was
over.
The story of a hunt that took
place at Lagorta Creek, some
thirty miles from Oakville is
told by W. F. Cude of Pearsall,
Texas. Only a few settlements
were there at that time. One
family named Weaver lived
aboug a mile from the Williams'
