History of Bell County, TX - a newpaper clipping Submitted by Janet Gardner ************************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. *************************************************************************** A History of Bell County - In 1891 a gold medal was offered by the Baylor Historical Society, through the kindness of Mr. W. Goodrich JONES of Temple, for the best historical essay dealing with the history of Bell County. The prize was won by Miss Mable PENDLETON. The essay, with a few omissions to make it conform to the present date, follows. So far as the Democrat can learn the essay is out of print with the exception of the one copy from which this is reprinted. The sketch not only abounds in local historical facts, but is also written in a charming style, and we predict that to many readers, especially to the old timers, it will prove one of the most interresting articles that has appeared in any Bell County paper in many a day. The article written by Miss PENDLETON follows: Bell County, the central county of Texas, covers about one thousand and twenty-five square miled of territory and is seven hundred feet above the sea level. The county was created by an act of the Texas Legislature, January 22, 1850, being taken from Milam County. As first created, all of that part of the county in which the thriving towns of Troy and Oenaville are now located, belonged to Falls County; but by an act of the Legislature, August 30, 1856, a strip six miles wide was taken form Falls County and given to Bell County. The County was named for Hon. P. Hansborough BELL. Mr. BELL was a brave soldier, who fought as a private in KARNES' company at the Battle of San Jacinto. He was a Lieutenant Colonel in the war between the United States and Mexico, being both before and after that time in the ranger service on the frontiers of Texas. He was the Governor of Texas from 1849 to 1853; then being elected to Congress, after serving one term, he moved to North Carolina, where he now lives at an advanced age. The early history of this county is deeply interesting to those who will stop to hear some veterans recite the hardships and perils of a life in Bell County forty years age. Then the savage almost unhindered, roamed over its broad prairies and chased deer and buffalo in its noble forests. Cooper could find a theme for many a novel in the border warfare between the colonists in Bell County and the Indians on every side. We, in the midst of peace and prosperity, can not realize that our fathers gave their very lives to gain it for their descendants. However, the least we can do, is to constantly remember them and their dangers, not forgetting the lesson taught by their steadfast courage in times of peril. Mexico for several years offered inducements to colonists to settle in this country and made contracts with men called Empressarios to found colonies. They promised large tracts of land for this service Bell County was included withing the limits of Sterling C. Robertson's Colony. The first settlement. During that period Michael REED and his sons, John, Jefferson and William, Moses GRIFFIN, Goolsby CHILDERS and his sons Robert, Frank and Thomas. Col. SPARKS, Mr. DAVIDSON, Judge O.T. TYLER, Wiley CARTER, Mr. TAYLOR and wife located here. The TAYLOR family, which consisted of Mr. TAYLOR wife and four children, settled about three miles east of Belton, in what is now known as TAYLOR'S Valley. One night in November 1835, they were attacked by a band of Waco Indians, who accused them of harboring the Tonkaways. A Desperate fight ensuing, two or three Indians were killed. While the Indians had drawn off for consultation during a lull in the fight, Mr. TAYLOR and his family slipped out at the opposite door and into the river bottom. They followed the Leon River and then the Brazos until they reached Nashville, Texas. When the war between Texas and Mexico broke out, all of the settlers had to move east of the Brazos. After the Battle of San Jacinto had assured the independence of the State, they moved back but the Indians were so hostile they had to return across the Brazos again. No further attempts were made at settlement until after Gen. HOUSTON made a treaty with the Indians in 1843. Michael REED is said to have been the first settler in this second attempt to colonize Bell County. Robert CHILDERS and Wm. REED are the only known survivors who were grown men when the first settlement was made, although quite a number of the descendants of those hardy pioneers are in the country now. Among these may be mentioned the ROBERTSONS, TYLERS, REEDS, DAVIDSONS, CHILDERS, CARTERS, SPARKS, etc. During the retreat of the whites DAVIDSON, the father of Mr. W.T. DAVIDSON, and a man named CROUCH were killed by the Indians. They were killed on WALKER'S Creek a few miles east of the present town of Cameron. In January 1837, Cap. Geo. B. ERATH with a small company of rangers had an unsuccessful fight Milam County, just a few miles below the Bell County line. A Mr. CLARK and Frank CHILDERS, an Uncle of Mr. Geo. W. TYLER, were killed with the Indians on Elm Creek. BIRD'S Creek was named for Capt. John BIRD. He with a party of thirty men having camped for at short time, Sunday, May 26th, 1839 at an old log stockade called Ft. Griffin on Little River, several miles below Three Forks, discovered In the afternoon they pursued a small party in a northern direction. After following them for ten or twelve miles the number of Indians were so much increased by small parties joining them from time to time that Capt. BIRD considered it unsafe to go farther. As they turned to go back to their camps, they found another party of Indians in their front which attempted to cut off retreat. But these Indians they boldly attacked and driving them from their stonghold in the creek bed, took possession of it themselves. Here they were attacked by the entire Indian force, about 300 as it was supposed to be, which made repeated charges and showed great bravery. The Indians had shields made of thick buffalo hide, which could not be penetrated by an ordinary bullet, therefore the only way to hurt them was to shoot them in the legs or in the back as they retreated. Capt. BIRD and four others were killed, but just when the entire party seemed doomed to destruction, James ROBINET was fortunate enough to kill the Indian Chief. His body was at once carried off and when at a safe distance from the rifles of the Texans, the entire party of Indians, gathering around their chief, indulged in moaning, howling, and other manifestations of grief at his death. The number of Indians killed has been variouly estimated at from thirty to one hundred. Night soon came on and the Rangers retreated under cover of the darkness, taking with them their wounded, but leaving their dead upon the ground. A few days after a large party from below, led by a man named CHANDLER, came upon the scene of the battle and buried the dead. The bodies had been much mutilated by the Indians. They continued their march in search of the Indians but camping on the bank of a creek that night their horses stampeded. The incident gave the name to the creek which has ever since been called Stampede. Mrs. Nancy FERGUSON located her pre-emption survey at the head of the ground on which the battle was fought. In 1840, under orders from the Texas Republic, Co., Wm G. COOK with a party of soldiers, laid out a road from Austin to Red River. This road passed through Bell County and is supposed to have crossed Little River at Three Forks, though the charter for a ferry, granted to Mr. HILL referred to the military road as crossing the Leon near the present road from Belton to Temple In 1859, the Indians were hostile still and in that year attacked the RIGGS family, living on Cow Creek. Mr. and Mrs. RIGGS, two children, and a young man comprised the family. They sent the young man with their only weapon to their nearest neighbor's for help, then becoming frightened, Mr. RIGGS with his wife and children left the house and tried to steal away. But Mr. and Mrs. RIGGS were killed in the attempt and the two children were captured. However the children were recaptured and brought back to friends. The first meeting of the County Commissioners' Court of which any record has been kept was in Belton (then called Nolanville), October 8, 1850. The following officers were present: Jno. DANLEY, Chief Justice; Jno. TAYLOR, Jas. M. CROSS, Peter BANTA and James BLAIR< Commissioners; Wm. REED, Sheriff; Jno. C. REED County Clerk. At that term of the Court a license was issued to D.R. HILL to keep a ferry on the Leon about where the Bell County Poor House now stands. The first District Court was begun april 7, 1851. Hon R.E. B. BAYLOR was judge; J.F. CLARK, District Clerk; first grand jury, David HAVENS, M.W. DAMERON, J.M. CATHEY, John ANDERSON, Allen BRYANT, James M. GLEN, B.L. STUART, Thomas I. HAVENS, Horatio SHELTON, Matthew WILKINS, John BAWLESS, Warren PUETT, J.T. SHERROD, Wm. CALDWELL and Walter BIRCH. Mr. J.M. CATHEY, known as Uncle John is the only member of the grand jury now alive who resides in Bell County, although Mr. Thomas HAVENS is said to be alive in one of the western counties. The town agent at the first Commissioners' Court was ordered to receive bids for a fram courthouse to be 18 x 30 feet weather boarded on the outside with shaved boards posts and studding of cedar, sills and plates of oak. On July 30th, 1850, Mrs. Matilda F. ALLEN, nee CONNELL, conveyed to Bell County out of the Connell League, one hundred and twenty acres of land on which was to be located the permanent county seat of Bell County. It is in this land that Belton is now built. Mrs. ALLEN was the mother of Mr. John CONNELL. At the court held November 17, 1851, the county seat was called Nolanville. The name was changed by an act of the Legislature December 16, 1851, and at the term of court held May 1, 1852, was called Belton. Nolanville and Nolan creek are supposed to have gotten their names form Phillip NOLAN. He was an Irish-American adventurer, who was killed by the Mexicans on Tehuacana Hills in 1801. Part of his party was killed and the rest captured. Among those captured and taken to Mexico was Ellis P. BEAN, the father of Mr. Isaac BEAN, who resides on the Stampede in this county. BEAN'S career in Mexico reads more like a sensational story than sober reality. All lovers of the wonderful should read the account in Yoakum's History of Texas. Judge X.B. SAUNDERS was the first mayor of Belton and Capt. H.E. BRADFORD was the second mayor. Belton was incorporated in 1860 and had then a populaton of about five hundred. Mr. MARSCHALK started the first newspaper in Belton in 1857 which was called "The Independent". The next venture in the newspaper line was "The Belton Democrat" and was edited by Hon. John Henry BROWN, who was for many years one of our most prominent citizens. The Democrat represented the States Rights, Secession side of Democracy. The Independent advocated Unionism and took Houston for its political leader. In 1860 the population of Bell County was 4799, and at that time there were no railroads, telegraph wires, nor were there any churches or schools of any size except the Salado College. The first railroad in Bell County was built in 1882. Before that time traveling was done principally on stages as the nearest railway was forty miles away from Belton at Waco. The people in Bell County numbered 9774 in 1870 showing an increase of about 50 per cent in ten years. In the next ten years it increased at the rate of about 300 per cent and in 1880 Bell County had a population of 20, 518. At the last census in 1890, there was found a population of 33,297. Belton, the oldest town in Bell County, had been mentioned several times so we will pass on without entering into a lengthy explanation or description of it. It is the county seat as being in the center of the county and more suited therefore for it than any other place. Salado was founded next all though it is not so large as either Temple or Belton. Col. E. ROBERTSON located at the place where Salado now is in 1853. About 1858 aided by others he started the town and College. Salado College with Gideon BUCK as the first President soon became one of the foremost colleges of Central Texas. The town has long been noted for its bold, running springs, picturesque scenery, good health and cultured society. Temple was founded in 1881 by the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. It is situated eight miles northeast of Belton. The land on which the town was laid off was a portion of Mr. J.E. MOORE'S farm. It is the junction of the Lampasas branch of the Santa Fe railway with the main line. In 1883 the M., K. and T. railway crossed the Santa Fe at this point. The town took its name from M.B. Temple Chief Engineer of the Santa Fe Railway. Killeen, a thriving town of 1500 inhabitants; sixteen miles west of Belton was named for F.P. KILLEEN secretary of the G.C & S.F. R.R. Bartlett , on the M.K. & T. R.R. in the Southern part of the county, the town next in size, is named for Capt. John T. BARTLETT. The principal streams in Bell County are the Leon, Lampasas, Salado and Elm Creek. Elm Creek rises in the extreme northern part of the county and runs about parallel with the county line until it passes into Milam County. The soil of the County is mostly black waxy prairie, very productive and durable though the valleys of the larger streams are somewhat mixed with sand. The brakes skirting the streams furnish an abundance of cedar, oak and other kinds of timber for fuel and fencing purposes. A very fine kind of building stone is found in the western part of the county. The wealth of Bell County has increased rapidly as in shown by the following staatistic: --In 1871 the total property value was $2, 590, 214; in 1880 it was $3,78,555; in 1889 it was $10, 802,770. The number of horses and mules is 16,988; of cattle 42,228; of sheep 38,038; of hogs 11,028. The County produces about 50,000 bales of cotton per year and enough corn for its own consumption. Wheat and oats are not produced so much now as formerly. No County in the State has a better system of Public Schools. They are well taught and well patronized and the teachers occupy an enviable position among their professional brethren in the State. There are also a number of good private schools such as the Thomas Arnold High School at Salado and the Belton Male Academy. But pre-aminent among the institutions of learning in the State, we find Baylor College, which was moved to Belton, Bell County, in 1885. It is the oldest educational institution in the State, being chartered in 1845. It was originally located at Independence, Washington County, but was removed to Belton 23 years ago. Baylor college has all the modern convenience such as electric lights, steam heating, etc. It was named for Judge R.E. B. BAYLOR the Judge of the first District Court held in Belton. The people both in town and country are reasonably prosperous. So centrally situated, exempt from extremes of heat and cold, connected with all parts of the country, with good soil and honest industrious people, we may justly be proud of our county and look forward to times of increasing and enduring prosperity for it.