The Hamilton Herald-News (Hamilton, Tex.), Vol. 83, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 3, 1958 Page: 72 of 72
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YESTERDAY and TODAY
A policy dedicated to
customer satisfaction is
traditional at the
Dependable Store"
Garner-Alvis Co.'s
Business Policy
Never Changes
TIME CHANGES
EVERYTHING
— but —
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GARNER-ALVIS COMPANY
“THE DEPENDABLE STORE”
We wish to pay our tribute to the pioneers
who developed Hamilton County and we
pledge our support to the present day pio-
neers, who are working in the interest of fu-
ture expansion of our county.
w)
I//
Ah
BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA — Rural mail delivery-
started September 1, 1903. F. M. (Red) Carter became
carrier for Route 3 out of Hamilton. His son-in-law, John
L. Mullenix, shown above with his mail hack, started
substituting for him in 1904. He became regular route
carrier Jan. 1, 1911, and continued carrying Route 3 un-
til his retirement October 31, 1933. John Mullenix was
born near Nashville, Tennessee, October 20,1867. He came
to Hamilton 65 years ago and has lived during this time
at the same place 2% miles from this city. He will be 91
years old in October.
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(x5y Bessie Rice)
too
our
a
One story that my mother told
us is pretty dismal, but exciting
and dramatic. It happened on a
wash day. Yes, in that long ago
there were wash days, for even
then, “Cleanliness was next to
Godliness,” and homespun cloth-
ing was not immune to soil, so
wash days were a regular neces-
sity. The girls of the family
staged their wash day activities
on the creek bank. The “Bend”
variety of washing machine was
in use. To explain, operators of
this had to bend over the creek
bank, dip up the clear creek
water from below the spring,
bend and pour the water into a
metal wash pot, bend and make
a fire around the pot. When
heated this water containing the
homemade soap and homemade
lye became nice suds, a sure help
against dirt in duds. When all
was ready there was another old
I would like io pass on to you
some true stories of actual hap-
penings in the everyday life of
people here in early times. My
mother used to tell us, her child-
ren, of incidents that her fam-
ily experienced when she was
growing up in that pioneer log
house which was her home. My
mother was indeed a pioneer.
She was born in that log house
one hundred years ago, on April
28, 1858, and she lived to young
womanhood here. That is, until
she married and came to Hamil-
ton. Her early home was near
the line which divides Coman-
che County from Hamilton Coun-
ty, not far from Gentry’s Mill.
She was the daughter of Thomas
Noonon Shockley, who was a
very early pioneer. She attended
school in a log school house, sat
on puncheon benches, looked out
the windows—which were cracks
between the logs. She liked her
lessons in reading, writing, ari-
thmetic. One of hei’ teachers was
a Dr. Calfee, and as a teacher,
he must have been a good one,
for she remembered him and his
teachings. She attended one
school taught by Miss Ann Whit-
ney, but it was not the same
school in which Miss Whitney
was murdered by Indians.
Uncle George White was
well-known old-timer who ex-
perienced all kinds of pioneering
activities. One day he, in com-
pany with another young man,
was on a cattle rourid-up. Along
about noon, by sun time and hun-
ger time, they came upon a house
True Stories of Long Atfo Thai
Happened io Hamilton People
(x5y Bessie Rice) | time helper to be called into use,
the old battling board. Upon
some good smooth surface, like a
broad smooth stone or the flat
side of a puncheon log the suds
soaked garments were laid and
battling was on. The woods
around were enlivened by the
whack, bang, and clatter, of this
battle for cleanliness.
On a particular day, well re-
membered, just as activities were
the liviest, there was a sudden
startling, rathei' fearful inter-
ruption. For out of the surround-
ing cedar brakes, there dashed a
wild eyed, disheveled, dirty,
ragged woman. She flung herself
right onto the middle of a quilt,
spread there for the younger
ones to rest upon.
After the first few minutes of
utter astonishment and excite-
ment, the washing crew saw that
something had to be done to help
this pitiful woman. First, an at-
tempt was made to understand
her and her troubles. This was
not easy for her speech, if any,
was incoherent. But she was
dressed here at this home in
somewhat better garments, at
least cleaner ones. She was giv-
en food and allowed to rest. She
was treated as kindly as possible.
But just as suddendly as she had
dashed into this group, she dash-
ed away. To what destination no
one had any way of ever finding
out. No satisfactory explanation
about her origin, or her final
destination was ever learned, but
these people often wondered
about her. Since nothing could be
learned about her, conclusions
were made that she, in her state
of broken up mentality, had fled
from some distant settlement.
That she had lost her way was
evident, and that she stood poor
chances of ever finding it, or any
other, was a natural conclusion.
Evidently pioneering was
much for this poor woman.
Another true story that
mother used to tell us has a more
cheerful ending, and has Indian
flavor too. In those early times,
children walked to school. The
average youngster walked two
or three miles twice a day to get
his education. School terms were
short, perhaps two or three
months but there were schools.
The children walked in groups
usually as far as the location of
their homes allowed this arrange-
ment. The older children ordin-
arily formed one group while
the younger ones followed along
behind them.
One day, in the fall of the year,
the groups were wending their
way toward their homes. The
younger ones had lost speed and
were lagging back and were out
of earshot. Within the other
group there was a sudden alert
and a quick showing of energy,
as the words; “blackhaws” was
heard above the ordinary clatter
of the group. Immediately, lunch
pails were deposited right there
in the pathway. Up the ravine
these hungry school children hur-
ried, mouths watering in antici-
pation of a juicy mouthful. Soon
they were in blackhaw heaven,
mouths full, jabbering, screech-
ing, near to the point of choking.
They really were making some
choking-like sounds as were
heard by the other group.
And, pretty soon, along that
regular pathway, came the young
ones. There was a definite halt
when the lunch pails were spot-
ted there in the pathway. These
children were quite puzzled.
What in the world was going on?
They wondered. Then they began
to catch some queer, unnatural
sounds, like choking coming from
up the ravine. Then someone of
the youngsters whispered drama-
tically, “Indians!’1 “Indians!”
The idea caught fire quickly.
Away these young ones fled to
the nearest house where they
spread the alarm about what
they thought was happening,
which was that Indians had
captured them brothers and sis-
ters and were choking them to
death. But this time the alarm
did not go out over the neighbor-
hood, for in came the blackhaw
eaters, haw stain on mouths and
hands. They had not choked to
death, but they had really made
some very realistic choking
sounds.
1
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TEXAS NEWS 100 YEARS AGO
Brann Family Came
To Texas In 1872
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in a clearing. No one was at
home. Hospitality in those times
had no “do nots”. If you came to
a house, and no one was at home,
and if you were hungry and
found something to eat, you
just helped yourself. The two
cow-punchers found a big pan of
honey in this house, and they
helped themselves.
They continued their round-
up. Later in the day they came
upon another house in a clear-
ing. Here they found quite a bit
of excitment. Reports had been
received that Indians had been
sighted and that they were head-
ed toward this area. A woman
was complaining loudly that she
had planned to put poison in a
big pan of honey she had left at
her home when she heard that
Indians were on the way. That,
she said, would have stopped the
Indian raid. Forgetting, to do it
was a big mistake, she insisted.
But the cowboys did not agree.
The Quitman Herald, of the
19 th says the health of Wood
County is remarkably good.
The Quitman paper says for
weeks past there has hardly
been a day that we have not
seen some one hunting a home
in Texas.
The Brann’s came to Texas
from Tennessee 86 years ago in
a covered wagon. At that time,
James Marion Brann was 12
years of age. They stopped in
Hunt and Collin County before
coming on to Erath County where
they made their home.
James Marion was married to
Eddie C. Ridgeway in 1885. They
had two sons when they moved
to Hamilton County in a covered
wagon in 1891. They bought
their first home of 80 acres of
land in 1895, and in 1901 they
bought 160 acres adjoining, mak-
ing their farm consist of 240
acres.
Three daughters were born to
the couple after moving to the
county, making five children in
the family: Albert, Lowesco,
Clara, Maye and Lona. The place
is known as the J. M. Brann
farm and the branding iron used
was J2. Water was secured from
surface tanks and shallow dug
wells.
There are only three left in
the family: Lowesco, Mrs. E. L.
Eary (Lona) of Meridian, and
Miss Maye of the home place,
where she has lived for 62 years.
-6.
☆
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Adell's Beauty Salon
The growth of a
county depends
upon the people
who live in it.
Hamilton County has a rich,
historic past and we are
proud of the 100 Years of
Progress in Our County.
But, our County can have an even brighter future,
and when we have finished with our Centennial
Celebration, let’s stop looking back — and concen-
trate on looking forward into the future.
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Billingslea, W. F. The Hamilton Herald-News (Hamilton, Tex.), Vol. 83, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 3, 1958, newspaper, July 3, 1958; Hamilton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1313712/m1/72/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Private Collection of Mary Newton Maxwell.