TX BIOS:  Mrs. J. W. Britt
   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
   
   FOLKSTUFF - SKETCH
   
   Mrs/ C/M. Cohea
   
   Amarillo, Texas
   
   Pioneer Women, Experiences
   
   Wordage:
   
   March 7, 1938
   
   Potter County
   
   District 16
   
   200
   
   Interview with Mrs. J. W. Britt, 809 Jackson, March 2, 1938.
   
   Mrs. J. W. Britt, who in June, 1938, will have been in the Panhandle
   49 years, [DEL: was :DEL] is the daughter of pioneer Tennessee
   parents. In the wooded regions of Middle Tennessee she watched the
   clearing of the soil for cultivation, the cutting down of trees, the
   removal of the stumps, and the hauling away of [?] debris. In her
   singularly mature childish mind she wondered if [there?] were not
   fertile acres waiting somewhere for someone to come and take them
   where this back-breaking, heart-sickening toil would be unnecessary.
   Still, pioneer life held its glamour for her and she sighed for a
   frontier of her own to conquer, little dreaming at the time that she
   would pioneer the last frontier of her country, the Panhandle plains.
   
   With her parents she came to [DEL: ustin :DEL] Austin, where she spent
   [?] six years before coming as a wife to the high plains of Northwest
   Texas.
   
   When Mrs. Britt arrived in Amarillo at midnight one hot summer night,
   she was met by her husband, who was boarding in the young cow town
   while he plied him trade of tinner in the town and over the entire
   Panhandle.
   
   The next morning Mr. Britt took his wife and their small son, Harry,
   now a solid and respected citizen of Amarillo, [DEL: out :DEL] to
   their new home on a section of land about two or three miles southeast
   of town, south of the present site of Elano cemetery.
   
   Mrs. Britt [entered?] the pine lumber and corrugated tin-roofed shack
   of one room , 32 feet by 14, withthe nostalgic misgivings of the
   housewife accustomed to finer things, but she gave no sign. This was
   her home. Her husband and her son were with her. That circumstance
   counted for more than fine furniture and painted walls.
   
   With the instinct of the born housewife to make a home in mansion or
   shack, she set about arranging her household. There were not enough
   corners in which to put the few articles of furniture that she had.
   00022Boxes which had contained five-gallon tins of gasoline were
   camouflaged as kitchen cabinet, shelves, tables, and what-not. The
   simple pins table was [DEL: [?] :DEL] surrounded with pretty hangings
   to hide stowaways, articles not needed and put away from unsightly
   prominence. Sleeping and eating, everything was done in the one room.
   But she soon changed all that. Taking her husband's [DEL: strong :DEL]
   wagon sheet, Mrs. Britt doubled the vast canvas and tacked the
   material to the ceiling and one side wall of the room, leaving the
   other side free to be used as a doorway. With an ingrain carpet on the
   living room floor and [DEL: crips :DEL] crisps, fresh draperies at the
   windows, the bare walls began to look like home.
   
     NOTE: C 12 -[???]
     
   When her husband came home from his work that evening, Mrs. Britt
   stood with tired, [DEL: but :DEL] flushed , [DEL: and :DEL] but happy
   cheeks against the background of a miraculously transplanted home and
   saw the look of wonder and pride that came ever his face as he saw the
   difference made by a few deft touches of a woman's hand - his woman,
   his wife. The wagon sheet fell into place just then and shut out the
   envious world as he gave her a great bear-like, appreciative,
   home-hungry, heart-hungry hug.
   
   Mrs. Britt, who brought the first geraniums to the plains country,
   placed the potted plants in time of assorted shapes and sizes upon a
   wooden frame [constructed?] by her son, Harry. The cheerful flowers
   brightened still further the little home and the life within its
   walls.
   
   But only for that first summer did she have to raise her little family
   in the dreadfully hot tin-roofed building, for soon a half-dugout
   reared its head proudly beside the prairie shack. Several rooms [DEL:
   [???] :DEL] gave a greater freedom and enjoyment of home duties and
   home pleasures.
   
   Behind that pioneer home lies and interesting story, which can be read
   in the files of the Texas land office and the court records in
   Amarillo. When Mr. Britt applied for a land patent after filing on the
   section of land later occupied by the little home, he was informed
   that another man had filed on the some section. The land office
   refused to issue a patent to the land until the two claimants had
   settled the question of priority between themselves.
   
   00033
   
   The other contestant for the homestead was a man from Claude. Mr.
   Britt consulted his lawyer and the latter reminded him that possession
   was still nine points of the law. According , Mr. Britt gathered up
   lumber and some tin for roofing and went out to the site and started
   building a one-room shack to substantiate his claim. He had scarcely
   begun when he saw a strange sight which evolved into a wagon, a
   surrey, some lumber, and his rival coming across the plains with the
   same thought in view.
   
     NOTE: C12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   Mr. Britt greeted the new comer pleasantly. There was no animosity
   between them. That night a terrific rainstorm came up. Mr. Britt, in
   the comparative comfort of his new home, which he had completed
   sufficiently for shelter , [DEL: he alked :DEL] walked over to the
   other claimant and invited him to share the refuge [DEL: with him
   :DEL] . With no other thought than that of common [hospitality?], he
   made his quest welcome and comfortable.
   
   Later, when the case to try title to the land came up in court, Mr.
   Britt's lawyer, interrogating the second claimant, asked, "Did you
   stay all night on the land that first night in your home or in the
   house of Mr. Britt?"
   
   The honest contender for the homestead rights had to answer that be
   had taken shelter in the home of his rival. That point cinched the
   case for Mr. Britt. The homestead was declared his. [DEL: [??] :DEL]
   on the plains south of the section upon which the Britt home stood,
   many thousands of cattle from south Taxes remained for weeks while
   they were under quarantine, forbidden to progress farther until they
   were disease free. Cow chips, dried to a crisp in the strong sunshine
   of the Panhandle, was sometimes gathered to be used on summer days to
   make a hot, quick fire. Mrs. Britt called the strange fuel very
   appropriately, "surface coal". However, she used coal and gasoline for
   her stoves for the most part. Many early settlers were glad to have
   herds "bed down" [DEL: [?] :DEL] or stay near their homes 00044 to
   harvest a supply of this "prairie hay". Before the railroads came ,
   bringing coal conveniently near, fuel was scarce an the plains.
   Buffalo chips and cow chips were [DEL: c eap :DEL] cheap and easily
   obtainable.
   
   Sometimes trail herds were held for weeks at a time near the Britt
   homestead. Mrs. Britt had [occasion?] to learn the generous and
   considerate nature of the cowboys who tended the cattle. She found
   that they were not the dreadful creatures of whom she had heard so
   many tales "back there" in Tennessee, That they were gentlemanly,
   courteous, and respectful of womanhood. Frequently they would come up
   to the house with a quarter of beef which they had killed. Mrs. Britt
   has many kindly memories of those "knights who came riding".
   
   Mrs. Britt, unlike many of the first pioneer women, had near neighbors
   from the very first, some living from one to two and three miles away.
   One of these neighbors, a very sweet woman from Iowa, could not seem
   to overcome her nostalgia for the trees and greater vegetation "back
   home". She complained to her neighbor, Mrs. Britt, that her young son
   had no tree under which to play. However, she became reconciled to the
   plains in time and learned to love them, as does everyone who comes
   and stays for any length of time.
   
   Neighbors in those days were "closer" then they are today, in spite of
   the long distances between neighbor and neighbor. At Christmas and
   other holiday periods they all gathered at the home of one or the
   other of a group, like relatives in other places and times. And they
   had great fun and pleasure together. [DEL: And they :DEL] They had
   good things to eat, also. Those persons who have the mistaken idea
   that the pioneers of the plains set scant tables would [DEL: [????]
   :DEL] drool at the mention of juicy buffalo steaks, antelope meat
   cooked as only a plains housewife or range cook could prepare it, wild
   turkey, done to a turn, broiled quail or plover, and prairie chicken,
   which their predecessors enjoyed. Vegetables were supplied from
   gardens or from tins. Canyons and river breaks provided wild grapes
   and plums and a few wild currants 00055 for jellies, conserves, and
   pies. No, those days were not all hardships, far from it. Mrs. Britt
   agrees with other pioneer women that those years were the happiest and
   best of her life.
   
   One of the greatest pleasures enjoyed by friends and neighbors [DEL:
   [??] :DEL] together was an occasional outing trip to the Palo Duro
   Canyon, during which they would remain for several days or weeks,
   reveling in the beauty of the scenery, gathering fruit, and indulging
   in the usual pleasures of the camp. Mrs. Britt, who recalls that fifty
   years have wrought great changes in the erratic course of the Palo
   Duro gorge, stood amazed at the picturesque panorama which spread into
   the distance on her first sight of the canyon.
   
   It was on this initial visit to the Palo Duro Canyon that Mrs. Britt,
   upon seeing the peculiar natural formation now known as the "Devil's
   Kitchen", exclaimed, "[Why?] that must be the Devil's Kitchen!"
   
   Another member of the party, [DEL: [?????] :DEL] pointing to a stray
   piece of cloth, shouted laughingly, "And here is a part of his wife's
   dress".
   
   To [DEL: [????] :DEL] Mrs, Britt's knowledge, the canyon feature had
   not been named before this time. Ever afterward it was spoken of as
   the Devil's Kitchen.
   
   Mrs. Britt lived on the homestead near the outskirts of Amarillo
   during the early days when the citizens were moving from Old Town. She
   recalls one of the devices used by the promoters of the new townsite
   of Amarillo to get the people to settle on their land. Passenger
   trains coming into Amarillo on the Denver tracks passed a siding near
   the new site. To induce travelers who were prospective settlers to
   stop in the new location, some one was prompted to announce "Amarillo"
   at the siding pause. [DEL: thus :DEL] Thus many unsuspecting persons
   got off at that point , thinking they were in the real town. This
   scheme also brought guests to the Amarillo Hotel on the Sanborn
   acreage.
   
   00066
   
   Mrs. Britt was living in Amarillo when several hundred head of wild
   cattle, shipped in on the Fort Worth and Denver, broke through the ice
   on Amarillo Lake near the tracks and drowned because they were unable
   to move themselves due to their weakened condition and the coating of
   ice. Their owners salvaged only the hides, which were taken from the
   dead animals by kindly neighbors.
   
   At the time Amarillo was the largest cattle shipping point in the
   world. Thousands of cattle were held at the prairie west of the town ,
   awaiting shipment from the stockyards located on the site of the
   present zinc smelter of the American Refining Company.
   
   Mrs. Britt remembers riding in the first passenger trains on the old
   Pecos Valley line to Canyon, and points southwest. The passenger
   trains were [DEL: frieghts :DEL] freights with travelers riding in the
   caboose. She was delighted to [be?] permitted to ride in the tower, or
   lookout of the caboose, which she had heretofore thought of as the
   throne room of the impressive "conductor" of the train.
   
   Sue also recalls a humorous story about the railroad which was long in
   coming to Canyon. A Mr. Conner, pioneer ranchers of the region, was
   most hopeful of the railroad's coming. Every morning he would climb
   the slope upon which his ranch house stood and look toward the
   northern horizon, folks said to see if the train's smoke were visible.
   "Connor's train smoke" came to be a common jest. Anything chimerical
   was likened to "Conner's train smoke".
   
   When Mrs. Britt first come to the plains she was met by the sight of a
   vast sea of waving grass, high and lush mesquite. Grama [grass?] seems
   to have been a later comer to the plains grass range. She recalls no
   weeds [DEL: or many :DEL] [??] flowers on the open plains when she
   first came into the region. Weeds followed the plough. She often heard
   the expression by early settlers, "If we could only make a weed grow".
   
   Furrows were ploughed, Mrs. Britt recalls, about each section of land
   to prevent the destruction by fire of the precious range.
   
   00077
   
   The prairie fire was the greatest dread of the early settlers on the
   plains. A disastrous fire could destroy in a few minutes the
   pastureage for the wintering of herds and farm stock. Mrs. Britt has a
   theory that the stunted wild plum thickets hovering together in canyon
   and river breaks are a result of former great prairie fires.
   
   Mrs. Britt was living on the outskirts of Amarillo at the time of the
   Indian scare of 1891. Her husband, returning late from town, told her
   of the wild rumors over the plains concerning an Indian attack,
   jokingly, she told him, "I suppose it they had really come, you would
   have left us here to be scalped". However, Mr. Britt had ascertained
   the falsity of the report, which was spread as a practical joke, so it
   was said. But many men and women hurried to a central point in
   Amarillo for common protection , [DEL: [?] :DEL] as did the
   inhabitants of both rural and urban districts all over the plains
   region at the time.
   
   Mrs. Britt, remembers Dr. Cartwright, whose [wife?] still resides in
   Amarillo, as one of the first doctors in the town. Dr. McGee was
   another physician practicing in Amarillo in the early days. His
   daughter is now teaching in [?] Tech at [Luebock?].
   
   Mrs. Britt, with others, gathered the impression that a certain man
   who donated land for [DEL: [?] :DEL] St. Anthony's Hospital and
   another building at the oppsite side of town, did so with the thought
   of the ultimate connection of those two points by a street, which
   later became known as Polk.
   
   Mrs. Britt knew the four girls who were the first graduates of an
   Amarillo school: Eula Trigg, now Mrs. Twitchell; Mary Brookes; Daisy
   Martin, now Mrs. Tom Curry. Among early teachers in the town school
   were professors Witherspoon, Woodson, and Ramsey, who was the first
   teacher to grade the school. A man named Twitchell was the first to
   establish a college in Amarillo. Harry Britt attended this college and
   one established by J. D. Hamlin, Mr. Franks, and Mr. Bryney.
   
   00088
   
   Freighting at the time was done by settlers on the south plains from
   Amarillo, preferably, as it was nearer and the [DEL: [???] :DEL]
   travel better, or Colorado City, although no regular road existed
   between these towns and the plains.
   
   Grass in those first days grew so high that a pony staked with an
   ordinary rope could not graze off all the grass in the circle enclosed
   by his right's pasturing.
   
   Mrs. Britt, as do many other old-timers, recalls the harder winters
   and deeper snows which [DEL: [???] :DEL] typified the plains weather
   in those early years in the Panhandle.

************************************************************************
USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE:  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced 
in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons.  Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, 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. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives
to store the file permanently for free access.

http://www.usgwarchives.net/

Thanks to the Library of Congress
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/txcat.html
***********************************************************************