PULASKI CO, AR - Belle Little - WPA Life History

by Miss Effie Cowan,

McLennan County, Texas, District 8.

Interview with Mrs Belle Little, White Pioneer, Mart, Texas.

"I was born in Little Rock Arkansas, on the 3rd of April 1867. I came
to Texas with my parents, J.W. and Sarah Louise Mulloy, in the year
1872. We drove through the country in an old covered wagon with oxen as
our team. We crossed the Red river in a ferry boat, I remember that
when father drove the wagon on the ferry boat the wagon was so long
that it would hardly go on the boat with the oxen, and how the ferry -
man swore about it. 

"Before father came to Texas he frghted freighted from Little Rock to
Camden Arkansas. He was a single young man and living at Atlanta
Arkansas when the war between the states was declared. He was twenty-
one years of age. He enlisted under the Confederate flag and served
through-out the conflict under General Forrest and Hood of Texas. can
remember how he told of their shoes wearing out and how they had to
skin the hide from the dead cattle to make moccasans to wear. When they
returned back to Georgia from the sge siege of Nashville they would
sing the songs of Texas, while on the march to relieve their homesick
longing. 

"I can also remember how he told of how deeply he was affected when he
surrendered his arms at Appamatox court house, as he laid them down on
the steps. On his return home he took the responsibility of the support
of a widowed mother and three young sisters. Father was a descendent of
Pat Mulloy who with his brother Jim came to America as stowaways on a
ship from Ireland. (This was before the Revolutionary war.) They
brought their possessions in a knapsack. C.12 - 2/11/41 - Texas 

They fought in the Revolutionary war. 

"In 1866 my father married Sarah Louise Douglass who was the daughte
daughter of J.C. and Isabel Douglass of Springfield Illinois, but who
emigrated to Texas before the war between the states. To my father and
mother there were five children born, three of us were small children
when they came to Texas. I am the oldest. All have passed away but my
sister Mrs St Clair of Waco and myself. The boys were Jim and Joe, both
deceased Also a sister Edna, also deceased. 

"When we reached the Navasota river in East Texas, we had to wait two
weeks for it to go down as it was on a rise. We stopped at the old
Sterling place, it was a large plantation with its slave quarters, the
owner was an ancestor of the ex-governor Sterling of Texas. The men of
the plantation entertained our men-folks by taking them hunting and
fishing, while the women were wonderfully hospitable and kind. 

"When we finally crossed the Navasota river, and after travelling over
the as yet untravelled roads over the prairie after leaving the
timbered river bottom, what a beautiful sight met our eyes As far as
the eye could see the prairie of wild grass, it was sparsely covered
with a native growth of mesquite trees and the sage and wild grass
intermingled with the Texas wild flowers, the blue-bonnet, the red
Indian head, dandelion, wild roses, and many others made a picture to
satisfy the eye of an artist. When our pioneers urged on by the
restless spirit, of adventure gazed on the prairie they could not pass
it by. It was a land of promise beautiful with its carpet of wild
flowers and rich in fertility of soil running streams and an abundance
of wild game. 

"By the side of the Tehuacana Hills there were the cool springs. [?] As
the shadows of a long hot day was lengthening, tired and weary from the
jolting of the ox-drawn wagon and the slow progress over the river
roads to the prairie, the first thought was to make camp at once. The
more wary of our party pointed out that there were still some Indians
in the country and decided it was best to camp in the open. At this
time there was scarcely any timber in the prairie, due to [??] the
fires which sprung up from the trvellers camp [?] he travellers camp's
as they crossed the prairie to his their future home farther west. 

"When we finally reached our destination, Waco, we crossed the Brazos
river on the ferry boat in January of 1872. We located near the village
of Bosqueville where father made a crop, this was only a few miles
north of Waco. Father carried his produce to market at Waco, which was
a small village also, but larger than Bosqueville, We tended attended
the little Baptist church at Bosqueville. It was a severe winter when
we reached Waco. My grand-father Douglass had already moved to
Bosqueville, so to join him we made our first home at this place. 

"However [?] we decided to go farther west and in 1873 we moved to
Comanche, Texas, father had a hundred acres in wheat and it was growing
fine, when in June there came a late frost and killed it. This
discouraged him and then he moved to what is the Blue Ridge settlement
southeast of the town of Marlin, Texas. We children attended the public
school in Reagan, and attended church at this place. Father farmed on a
large scale, and prospered, at this place , but there were a number of
families from the Blue Ridge settlement who had moved to the old [?]
Willow Springs community, now known as Mart. My grand father Douglass
among them . Others others were the Harlan, and Cowan famil n families.
In the year 1878 we moved to the settlement east of Willow Springs. Mrs
Laura Cowan was my first teacher at Mart, she having taught in the erm
term of '79 aand 1880. Other families who lived in this community now
known as Mart, were that of Breland, Howard, Reynolds, Stodghill, and
farther east was the Hardwick ranch owned by Uncle Jack Hardwick, my
husband's relative. 

"Other teachers folowing Mrs Cowan, (over in the old school house, and
church which stood in the cemetery under the old elm tree which that
stood for a century almost, and under which the Mart Baptist Church,
[?] with a membership of eight was organized , were Mr Westmoreland, a
Mr Cressop, McJunkin and Hunt. When the new school house was built
across the little branch which was between the cemetery and the village
of Mart, there was a Mr Bob Allen, who was a brother of Mrs Carpenter,
also Mr W.A. Allen, Mr Overby, Ben F. Dancer and others at a later day.


"My grand-father Douglass came to Texas from Illinois and first settled
in the Bosqueville community, later moved to Reagan and then the
present Mart community. He was buried in the old Salt Branch cemetery
near Marlin on Blue Ridge. He had a large family of boys, eight boys
and two girls. They were Perry, Pole, Tom, Henry, John, Buck and Dick,
and Jim. Uncle Perry and Pole were old enough to enlist under the flag
of the Confederate states and served through out the conflict. Perry
was a sergeant of Company A, 15th Ark. regiment. He was born in 184
1842 in Illinois, and died May 20, 1916 at his home in Mart, Texas. 

"Uncle Pole is 93 years of age and lives at his home near Mart. Uncle
Tom is around 83 years of age and lives in Houston Texas, they are the
only surviving members of this family of children. There were two
girls, my mother Louise and her sister Callie, both deceased. Mother
passed away in September of 1916. 

"In 1881 (1881) I married William LaFayette Little who came to Texas
and lived with his Uncle Lum Hardwick a brother of Captain Jack
Hardwick, of the Hardwick ranch. Now known as the Gillam ranch. Mr
Little was a native of Burnsville Mississippi, and came to Texas in
1872. We bought our home two and a half miles of Mart, in what is now
known as the Elm Ridge settlement. Here we reared our family of three
children, they were William Arthur who is now acting head of the Texas
Old Age Assistance Commission, and lives at Austin , Tex a daughter,
Dora Dean, whom I reside with, and who married John Drinkard of the
Victoria settlement. The youngest son John is in the Federal Tax
Collecting office at Houston. Mr Little passed away April 3, 1922. 

"Some of my earliest memories are of the continual fear of the Indians
while While living at Comanche Texas, they still roved over the country
stealing cattle, horses and food and feed-stuff as they were to too
lazy to work and would slip away from the Indian Reservation and prey
on the settlements. One day (I was only a small child then, while at
church at Comanche a rider came and warned the congregation that there
were smoke from the Indian camp camp's and the meeting broke up, while
the congregation fled to thr their homes, but this attack did not
materialize as the band drifted in another direction. But to this day I
can remember the feeling of fear we had.

"Texan's had a saying that no one but fools and new-comers prophesied
on its weather . It has its moods of sunshine and showers, storm and
calm. It was on the 24th day of November 1896, at four clock in the
afternoon my husband was plowing in the field and I was sitting at the
machine, sewin sewing. " It had been rainy and misty, when Mr Little
rushed in and caught up our younger child, Arthur, age 5 and told me to
follow with the eldest, Dora, a child of 12 years. The boy was standing
on the front porch and a hammer lay on the floor beside him. Just as we
closed the door of the storm house, we saw the house go. The cyclone It
came in a dark cloud which seemed to be [?] rolling on the ground from
the south-west and covered a path of about half a mile ll All we had
left after scrapping the lumber, from this cyclone was enough to build
a little smoke house. Our clothes furniture and bedding were carried so
far away all we ever found [?] pces were pieces which had caught in the
tree-tops as they were carried away by the wind. The porch and hammer
on which the boy was standing was left intact. Everthing else but the
storm house and our family were gone. 

This was due to the fact that the roof of the storm house is just above
the ground and covere covered with earth, there are very few in this
country as such storms are very rare They are more numerous in Western
Texas, since it has more prairie country and more storms. Our house and
the house of my cousin Buck Douglass were the only houses in this
cyclones path, his house was destroyed also and his little child killed
by the chimney falling on it. They escaped with their lives, by leaving
the house when the cloud came, but in the excitement the little child
ran under the chimney of the house, when it had reached the out side,
and was killed. 

"The late frost's, and cyclones were not all we had to contend with in
those days. I can remember how the grasshoppers came in the fall of
1873, and how they ruined the vegetation. Previous to this it is a
historical fact that they came in 1853, 1857, and 1868. After three
days the vegetation looked as if a fire had swept over it, they even
got into the houses and clothing. Then the drouths came and played a
big part in the change from ranching to farming, as the grass was
killed so that stockman had to take their stock to other states for
range. It is said that from 1859 to 1861 there was scarcy scarcely any
rain in Texas for three years. As the country was put into cultivation
the drouths gradually ceased, until now they are never so bad that we
have a complete failure. 

"Notwithstanding the drouths, frosts, cyclones and insects, the climate
of Texas as a whole, since I have lived here cannot be surpassed. When
the spring comes with its accompanament of Texas winds and gentle
showers, the wild flowers springing up over the prairie with their riot
of color while flinging their fragrance far and near, carry anew atures
natures age-old message of the Ressurrection. Fall brings the frost
king, who paints his pictures in all his gorgeous shades on every bush
and shrub. In the midst of it all sits the yellow golden-rod, which
nods serenly as Autumn's flower queen. Then winters chilling blast
drives all natures nature's subjects to seek a long siesta in the cold
light of a winters sun. The wild sumac the red-bud and the cedar trees
which grows in profusion in the rocky sandy soil west of Waco. When
when the snow and frost come make a picture worthy of the greatest
artist brush. 

"But the spirit of adventure did not die out with our pioneers. My
brother-inlaw, Bill Johnson whom my sister Edna married had his share
of it. First he took part in the rush to the Indian Territory when it
was opened by the governemnt to the homesteaders. He was living at [?]
Cleburne Texas and when the date of the opening of the Territory was
set he joined the host of people to make the grand rush. He told how,
at the signal of the guns fired by the United States soldiers thousands
of men women and children in all kinds of vehicles, on foot and on
trains made the race as if their very lives depended on it instead of a
town site of a few acres of a tract of land. The shouting of the men,
the nghing neighing of the horses and the screing screaming of the
women made it seem like pandemonium had broken from somewhere, to say
nothing of the clatter of the horses hoofs, the cracking of the whips,
and the explosions of fire arms. 

"Then as the line was crossed and the real race took place between the
homesteaders for a certian piece of land and how during the long hot
days of the regristration the women took their chances along with the
men just as they had in the pioneer days, and how they did not ask for
any chivalry of giving their place in the line, and how their sex at
this time meant nothing to the men. How the period of dissilusion came
and the homesteader found that he was located on what seemed to be a
desert waste of land, how the prairie fires had swept the land and
other tracts had been cut clear of hay by the squatters before the
rush. The prospect was a dreary one also for lack of natural water. The
rivers and creeks were dry from a drouth and only a few springs of
natural water and the digging of wells was the first attempt of
improving his place, until the rains came. 

"Then along the railroad tracks boomer trains loaded to the guards with
homesteaders come creeping along and it seems to the impatient
travellers that the Texas mustangs can easily out strip the slow moving
train as they are hadicapped by their speed limit. Horseman shout at
the passengers as they gaily wave their hats at them as they pass the
train's. Some of the more venturesome travellers as the trains slow dn
down for water pile their belongings off and settle on the first vacant
home patch of 160 acres in their path. As the train pulls into the
county seat its load of passengers emerge from the coaches tired but
triumphant. Townsiters swarm over the new town sites like an army of
ants. A small piece of land that not an hour ago was nothing but a
patch of prairie now bcomes becomes a townsite. Then begin disputes
over the lots and as there are not yet officers of the law they have
their fights and it is a case of the best man who wins. As soon as the
lots are claimed and stakes driven down the tents are erected and in a
few minutes the town officers are elected and in ess less time than it
hardly takes to tell it there is a little community which has sprung
up, certificates are issued and many take out these certificates for
both town sites and homesteads of land. Next to the home owner the shop
keepers opened up their tents and started their business which with
most of them built up a thriving business and many today of the state
of Oklahoma's best and oldest business houses date back to this opening
of the Indian Territory and the forming of the State of Oklahoma. From
this experience this brother-in-law gained the incentive of seekin
seeking his fortunes farther west and so in a few years he decided to
try them in Mexico, he lived there for several years and accumilated a
nice ranch and had a profitable stock business when the Diaz revolution
came and he was warned repeatedly to leave the state by the
revolutionist. He brought his family out and left them in Texas, then
returned to Mexico to try to sell or see what he could get out of his
holdings, and to this day that is the last we have heard of him. We
naturally felt that he had been killed by the faction which had given
him warning. 

"When my husbands relative Captain Jack Hardwick first settled the
Hardwick ranch, (now known as the Gillam ranch) he sent for his brother
whom we call Uncle Lum and who was one of the first preachers in this
part of the county. While Captain ck Jack was herding up his cattle for
the Northern markets ncle Uncle Lum was herding up the lost sheep of
the Lord. It mattered not if some of the converts were of the clan
which bore the bran of "G.T.T" (Gone to Texas), which at that time
meant they had reason to leave their homes in the old states, and it
was true that it was not uncommon for a man to inquire of another why
he ran away from his home back in another state ?" And it is equally
true that few people felt insulted for these questions. Justice
descended into the body of Judge Lynch sleeping when he slept, and
waking when he awoke but gradually out of this has come with as much
rapidity as could be expected the status of our law and order from the
days of Richard Coke who took up his fight to brin bring it in into
being , to the day he was inagurated governor of Texas following the
days of reconstruction. 


Credit: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project 
Collection.

Pulaski

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