TX BIOS:  Tom Barker
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   00011
   
   TALES-LEGENDS HEROES-OUTLAWS FOLKLORE
   
   Mrs. Ada Davis, P.W.
   
   McLennan County, Texas.
   
   District No. 8. Interview
   
   No. of words 950
   
   File No. 240
   
   Page No. 1. REFERENCE
   
   Interview with Tom Barker, Waco, McLennan County, Texas.
   
   Thomas J. Barker of Waco belongs to the Old West. Alert to both
   present and the past at eighty-three, his best possession is a
   background full of daring deeds as cowboy, ranger, Indian fighter,
   farmer of means.
   
   Barker was born in Bell County of a pioneer family. In early boyhood
   he became acquainted with the saddle and the gun. His uncle, Jessie
   Mumford, was a close freind of Buffalo Bill with whom he scouted and
   hunted, and after Jessie Mumford moved to Bell County, Barker heard
   many tales about the famous scout. In '75 Cody left his home in north
   Dakota to spend three weeks with Mumford. During his visit Tom Barker
   "dogged his heels as steadily as ever did a St. Barnard his master".
   Barker found Buffalo Bill "Approachable and pleasant and easy to talk
   to as a neighbor."
   
   Cody's long hair and beard attracted little attention at that time
   since most of the men had shaggy faces, except on Sunday when "the
   family scissors were sparingly used". He was very fond of his gun, a
   44. Winchester which he kept always near him and with which he
   practiced shooting daily.
   
   The second time Tom Barker met Buffalo Bill was at Temple, years
   later, when the scout's show came there. Cody greatly astonished
   Barker when after a brief moment he recognized him as the boy whom he
   had seen at Jess Mumford's. Cody spent two nights with Barker.
   
     NOTE: C12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   In '79 Barker's family made their home in Tom Green County where they
   ranched considerably. Their [gerds?], sometimes as many as 5,000
   heads, were driven to Kansas City by the Old Fort Phantom Hill route
   and it usually took three months to make a drive. Tom Barker rode on
   the 00022drives for four successive years, '74 to '77. "Those
   drives[?]" he says, "Could be grim and dangerous; they were not the
   jolly affairs of the movies. We would lose boys now and then from
   accidents on the trail or gun fights in the towns. Stampedes were not
   unusual, and there were long thirsty days exhausting to both men and
   beasts. but all in all, those were great days and it was a great
   life."
   
   During his lifetime "necktie parties" were frequent. When only a boy
   Tom Barker saw seven men hanging to a post oak tree one morning near
   Rockdale and Freezout in Milan County, Texas. Their crime was stealing
   horses, which was a frequent offence among outlaws in those days. Once
   a really good man, Wash Herburt, who had leave of absence from the
   Confederate Army, was hanged by a mob of "Jay Hawkers" at old Curry
   Spring in Milan County.
   
   An event well remembered by oldtimers was the time when nine horse
   thieves were killed one night in Bell County jail in the middle '70's.
   Barker has good reason to be able to tell this story.
   
   For weeks a party of thieves had been working in their neighborhood.
   They took refuge along the river and roved over the country in search
   of good horses. The thing that incensed Tom Barker was the fact that
   the outlaws would strip and go swimming in front of his aunt's house.
   The [reward?] for their capture was $150., and so Barker made a deal
   with the sheriff, despite his warning of danger. While riding towards
   the woods with a good horse in tow, Barker was chased and shot at by
   Sheriff Walker and his deputies,. Taking refuge in the brush, there he
   spent three days, knowing well enough that the band of thieves were
   watching him closely, but never actually seeing them. On the fourth
   day he was hailed by them and soon gained their confidence. He offered
   to get them some grub through his aunt who lived nearby. Finding out
   their anxiety to do another 00033"horses sally", he told them about
   Old Man Embray's fine pair of horses no north of town that were
   usually staked out at night. They eagerly accepted the suggestion and
   immediately formed plans to obtain the horses that night, while Barker
   went to hustle some food.
   
   Through his relatives Barker sent word to the sheriff and the thieves
   were caught in the act of stealing the Embry horses. The thieves
   suspected Barker and threatened to kill him "when they got free". But
   that night a group of citizens broke into the jail and shot the nine
   prisoners. The identities of the mob and the thieves were never known.
   Barker says, "Those thieves were though birds, heavily bearded and
   pepped up on liquor".
   
   Parson Ferguson and his sons, one of whom became the stormy "Farmer
   Jim", Governor of Texas and the center of Texas political life for
   twenty years, were friends of Tom Barker. Once Barker took of the
   birth of a child who in later years was well known in the United
   States as Mirian [("Ma")?] Ferguson, the wife of Former Jim and the
   Governor of Texas twice herself.
   
   Barker spent four years and eight months as a ranger in the late '70's
   and early 80's. They had periods of dull [momotony?] in camp and then
   weeks of fast exciting action. Their chief work was against the
   Indians, but they had encounters with cattle rustlers.
   
   Barker killed an Indian chief of some consequence at Big Devil's River
   north of the Iron Mountains in '78. Captain Head was their leader and
   they had, had many brushes with a pack of Indians a number of times.
   Their cheif owned a fine horse to which Captain Head took a fancy. He
   offered to give $100. to the man who would get the paint horse for
   him.
   
   Not long after that the red men attacked them about four o'clock one
   morning and attempted to stampede the rangers' horses. The rangers
   00044followed them and caught up with them about ten o'clock. Tom
   Barker, on a big bay, saw that the chief was starting his retreat when
   the fight became hot, and headed straight for the chief. Avoiding his
   tomahawk, he finally shot him, and after chasing the paint horse for a
   mile, he roped him.
   
   He collected the reward from the captain, whom he met years later in
   Waco and who told him that he kept that Indian horse untill he died of
   old age about twenty years after his capture. The .41 single-[action?]
   Colt with which Tom Barker shot this chief was carried by him for 45
   years before he sold it to a man at Camp McArthur. Many times Barker
   has regretted this sale and wished for the gun.
   
   Returning to Bell County, Barker acquired considerable property in the
   following the break-up of the Old West. His fame as a horticulturist
   spread throughout Central Texas.
   
   John [Wesley?] Hardin, notorious Texas outlaw, who had more notches on
   his gun than Billy the Kid, was a personal friend of Tom Barker.
   Although a pleasant man of a good family, Hardin brought disaster to
   himself and several members of his family because of the career on
   which he started when he killed his first man at Belton. Of one
   instance of its effect on Hardin's family, Barker says, "Billy Hardin
   was walking between me and Ike Donnelly in Belton when he was shot
   down by Marshall Lyons. You know, it had become rather popular to
   'kill a Hardin' and much injustice was done".

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