An Early History of Pioneer Settlers Page: 5 of 6

                                
AN EARLY HISTORY OF PIONEER SETTLERS

Review of Taylor Coun's Earliest Settlers

I hadn't any place to put it. In my
pockets it showed too plainly. Final-
ly he suggested that I put it in my
hat.
"'The plan looked all right, so I put
the immense amount of currency on
top of my head and set my hat over it.
Feeling none too easy in my mind I
thus started out with a horse and bug-
gy.
"A little way out of town I spied
two men approaching me on horses
that I knew were not ranch horses.
They had -Winchesters under their
stirrups. To my already nervous eye
they looked like outlaws.
"When they got within 100 yards of
me they motioned me to stop. I was
frightened unto death. My confusion
must have been noticed by anyone.
They asked me some questions, but I
was too badly excited to be impressed
by what they wanted.
"Now I have a habit, even now, of
lifting my hat and  scratching  my
head whenever worked up about any-
thing, and that was what I proceeded
to do then. The money which I was
so anxious to conceal and protect be-
gan to tumble about my ears and
shoulders, all over the seat, and down
to the bottom of the buggy.
"The reason for my agitation being
explained, the two  men  began  to
laugh uproarously as I lashed  my
horse and hurried on.
"Still afraid  that they  might
change their minds and come back af-
ter me, 1 made the trip to Buffalo Gap
in the shortest time  I have  ever
known it to be made."
Another anecdote which was robbed
of its humor because of the tragedy
aten,'ng it, occurred  when  Judge
Legett went to the old town of Run-
nels to stay all night. The  hotel
"bedroom" consisted of one long hall,
and the bedbugs were so bad   that
none of the guests could sleep.
"So we sat up all night," Judge
LEgett said, "making fun of one fel-
low ova  in the corner, who didn't
seem disturbed by the tiny tormentors
which had kept us awake. He just
lay motionless all night and we had
lots of fun at his expense.
"The next morning, shivvering with
cold, we all went down stairs and
stood warming around the stove when
the landlord came rushing down wild-
eyed saying: 'There's a dead man up-

stairs.'
"We had spent the night ridiculing
a poor fellow who had passed beyond
the petty annoyances of this world."
Abilene, Judge Legett thinks, He ill
make a great city in a few years.
"I have watched its growth closely
from the  day  the  first tent was
stretched here up to the present time,
and I have no more doubt about its
continued growth  and   development
than I have in the existance of Gol.
There are  many   contributory  ele-
ments to this growth.
"The city is surrounded by one of
the very best agricultural sections in
Texas. It has a class of citizenship
perhaps unequaled anywhere except
in Western Texas. The town has am-
ple railway facilities, adequate bank-
ing capital, and is a jobbing center
unequaled by any town its  size  in
Texas, or out of it. The school fa-
cilities I am sure are unequalled by
any town in Texas, and all the relig-
ious denominatios of'the country are
i epre: ented in force.
"Its magnificent highways, com-
pleted and under construction, extend
our trade territory all over this sec-
tion of the state.
"All of these  influences  in the
hands of intelligent, conservative and
conscientious, wile-awake  business
men with great vision assures a fu-
ture for Abilene that cannot be esti-
mated."
H. A. Tillett
"I came here in 1883 as a black
haired boy, and now I'm a white hair-
ed man," said H. A. Tillett, prefacing
his account of the forty years he has
spent in Abilene.
"I arrived with $400 borrowed mo-
ney  and   $2,000  debts, sick  with
rheumatism caused by being flood
bound while teaching school in Ar-
kansas. I surely was not as good a
prospect for a citizen as Abilene was
a prospect for a city.
"I formed a law partnership with
J. E. Cockrell, now of Dallas, one of
the ablest and finest men I have ever
known. Joe and I were as poor as
two church mice. I went to Baird to
try my first law case, and in my ab-
scnce the local school trustees got to-
gether and elected M;r Cockrell  a :

school superintendent here, because
he. had been teaching in the Austin
College at Sherman. But Joe    told
them he was practicing law and not
teaching school any more, and sug
tested that they elect me. So in my
absence the appointment was  made,
and when I came back, just as I got
off the train, Joe met me to tell me
the news. I told him I didn't want
the job, but he made me take it, for it
paid a salary of $125  per month
which was consideralbe money then,
and Joe pointed out that it would
keep us eating while he built up tle
business of our law partnership.
"And that was how .J. E. and I got
our start.
"There are probably 100   mothers
and eight or ten grandmothers in Ab-
iline today who went to school to me.
They remember me well, those   old
pupils, for I established a discipline
that was the talk of the town. You
see I had gone to a military school
and  had   learned  what  discipline
meant."
With the exception of one year Mr.
Tillett has maintained an office in one
location, 124t  Pine Street, for the
forty years of his residence here. He
has been excepti, nally successful, has
one of the handsomest homes in Ai-
lene, and has reared three highly edu-
cated children. One of his daughters,
Miss Jeanette L. Tillett, whom  he
with  a father's prerogative  calls
"Nettie," is a well known 'nusician,
who graduated from several fine mu-
sical schools of America, and studied
three years in Germany. ~ In the fall
she will go to New York where she
will be connected with a large con-
servatory headed  by  Walter  Dam-
rouch.
Mr. Tillett was born in North Caro-
lina in 1860.
Judge J. M. Wagstaff
Judge J. M. Wagstaff was born in
Tennessee in August, 1862, and came.
to Texas in August, 1885. He located
at Buffalo Gap for five years, during
which time he served successfully as
principal of the Buffalo Gap Presby-
terian College. In 1890 he came to
Abilene to practice law, which he did
as successfully as lie had formerly'
managed the  school. He has been
here ever since.

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