TX BIOS:  E. R. Blocker
   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
   
   EARLY SETTLEMENT
   
   Mrs. Ada Davis, P.W.
   
   McLennan County, Texas
   
   District No. 8
   
   No. words 400
   
   File No. 230
   
   Page No. 1. Reference
   
   E. R. Blocker, Waco, Texas. Interview.
   
   John McLennan told E. R. Blocker's father that he and two Indians left
   their village, where Waco now stands, to go to Austin to steal horses.
   John McLennan had been stolen from his home when he was about nine
   years old, and for many years lived with the Indians. It was while
   living with the Red Men that he took this trip.
   
   They slipped into Austin after night. They saw a light in a window and
   one of the Indians saw a women combing her hair. The Indian had never
   before seen any window glass. When the woman turned her back to the
   window he rabbed for the comb, breaking out the glass. The woman
   yelled in fright. The Indians ran, but did not forget to take a horse
   which had been tied near the house. They hurried back to Waco. The
   Indians took turns riding, the other two held to the horse's tail. A
   few miles south of Waco, a noise frightened them. As the Indians say:
   "This was the next night from Austin." One Indian drew his bow to
   shoot, but stumbled and fell on the arrow, killing himself. Mr.
   Blocker's father often talked to John McLennan after his return from
   captivity.
   
   In 1868, Mr. Blocker and his father came to Waco from their home,
   twelve miles south of town. They saw a large herd of cattle on Bell's
   hill. They talked to the men who were herding these cattle. The men
   had a race horse with them. Blocker had a faster horse and they traded
   horses, getting a fifty dollar gold piece "to boot". It was octagon in
   shape. That herd of cattle was on the trail to Dodge City, Kansas. Mr.
   Blocker in his boyhood often saw herds of cattle swim the Brazos at
   Waco, with cowboys on horses on each side, when the water was very
   deep, to guide the cattle across. Many herds came by Waco in the early
   [days?] on their way to the northern markets. 00022In 1895, Mr.
   Blocker had an old man working for him, building a rock chimney. This
   man was named Jones, and he claimed that he was born near Marlin,
   Falls County, Texas and that he was the boy who made his escape with
   the little girl when the Indians murdered his parents and kinspeople,
   the Morgans, seven miles north of Marlin at Rock Dam [/,?] crossing on
   the Brazos/
   
   Mr. Blocker said that when McLennan County was first settled by white
   people that all farms were in river bottoms because there as timber
   available for fencing. Barb wire had not been invented. Plows were
   crude things made by blacksmiths and could be used only on land
   without turf, such as river or timbered land. Chairs, buckets and tubs
   in his home were made of cedar, since they had settled where that tree
   was abundant. The first factory-made plows were sold in Waco nearly
   seventy years ago. (1936). The first wheel-plows were sold about sixty
   years ago. That was after the prairie lands began to be plowed into
   farm land. On of the Blocker slaves, who belonged to Mr. Blocker's
   aunt, Mrs. Colonel E. J. Gurley, bought two acres of land. He paid for
   this land with two ponies which at that time were valued at fifty
   dollars. Later, the Katy Rail Road, in 1881, bought this land and paid
   W. D. Cain, a prominent Waco negro and son-in-law of the slave,
   William Blocker, $6,000 for the two acres of land. The new Waco Post
   Office is located on part of this land.
   
   Mr. Blocker recalls that at one time Dr. Rufus [Burleson?] wanted to
   baptize some converts; the Brazos was so frozen over that the ice had
   to be cut before the baptizing. Mr. Blocker entered school in 1865 at
   the age of six. The log school house was at Golindo, thirteen miles
   south of Waco. The teacher was a cousin of Mr. Blocker's mother.
   Neigbors to the Blockers at this time were the Jacksons, Hatches,
   Dutys, Majors, Norwoods, Smiths, and others prominent in the early
   history of Central 00033Texas. Deer, turkey, bear, wolves and other
   game were plentiful. In the fall, wild geese came in great numbers.
   Prairie chickens were plentiful.

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