TX BIOS:  T N. McKinney
   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
   
   3,000 Words #15
   
   EDITORIAL FIELD COPY
   
   by
   
   Mrs. Florence Angermiller, P. W.
   
   Page 1
   
   232 Life History
   
   From F. C. by
   
   Mrs. Gussie Hale, P. W.
   
   Early Day Cowboy Tales and Experiences UVALDE COUNTY, DISTRICT #10
   
   T. N. McKINNEY
   
   Uvalde, Texas
   
   Thalias Newton McKinney who lives about a mile from town on the
   Crystal City road is 77 years old and has a very clear memory of
   things that happened in the early days. He is in very bad health and
   can only talk with his friends a short time without having to rest. He
   told the story as follows:
   
   "I was born in Uvalde April 6th, 1881. I was named for my father who
   was an old stockman here since the breaking up of the Civil War. And
   one of the very first settlers in the County. My sister, Mrs. Gus
   Bowles, is the youngest girl in our family but I was the baby of nine
   children.
   
   "When I was a young boy, my brother and I used to ride horse back to
   school from the ranch to Uvalde. My father would always tell us when
   we left home not to let the horses trot but to ride them in a fast
   gallop. And if we saw any Indians to ride full speed into town. Our
   ranch was six miles from Uvalde and I have stood on the porch at home
   lots of times and seen the Indians go across the country close to our
   house.
   
   "I remember one time the Indians run my oldest brother home. It was
   one moon-shiney night. He had gone up the Nueces Canyon as far as Bull
   Head with a herd of cattle that was going to Kansas. He had started
   back home and when he got to Indian Creek they took after him there.
   He was on a fast horse, but he rode just fast enough to keep 00022out
   of their way and saved his horse. He knew if he rode too fast and his
   horse gave out , they would sure get him. We heard his horse's feet
   coming and then there was a shot. Oh, yes, there was a bunch after
   him. He rode up to the yard gate and jerked the latch on the gate to
   get his horse in the yard so the Indians couldn't get 'im/ and as he
   came through the gate, he caught the rein of the bridle on it and
   pulled the rein across his pistol hanging on the horn. It was an old
   cap and ball pistol and it exploded and shot him through the arm. When
   the Indians heard the shot they turned and left there. My brother's
   arm got well all right but it was always crooked afterward.
   
   "One time, me and Dick Weymiller had gone over to the Nunn and
   Burchfield ranch on Turkey Creek to cut a herd of cattle. We stayed
   all night there with Mr. Nunn at his ranch. And the next morning went
   over on the Gato Creek west of/ the Nunn ranch and got our cattle for
   the Kansas trail. We started back and was between the Nunn and
   Burchfield ranch , crossing Wood Slough , and a yearling broke and run
   off down the slough. So I lit out after him to bring him back to the
   herd and we were handing straight to a herd of Mr. Nunn's and
   Burchfield's horses. Well, I was going after that yearling in a big
   way and a big buck Indian was coming up on the other side to try to
   steal these horses. They said they saw the Indian coming and hollered
   at me to come back. I couldn't hear them for the noise my horse was
   making in the brush. When I got in about ten or fifteen feet of him, I
   saw him. I went back to the herd and let my yearling go. And the
   Indian went back to his bunch just as quick. Then we all left our herd
   and went home. The night we stayed at the Nunn ranch, the Indians had
   gone over to the Kansas herd and stole all the saddle horses there.
   
   "My nurse was an Indian woman. A bunch of cowmen had captured her and
   wanted to kill'er. But my father said, No he wouldn't kill 00033no
   woman. And he took her to our home and kept her. They said she liked
   me because I was the baby, but she hated my mother and sisters. She
   would get mad at mama and the girls and throw her hair over her face
   and pick me up and say she was going to take me off and it would just
   scare my mother nearly to death. But my father always said she
   wouldn't do it. She did run off once or twice and came back. But the
   third time she left she didn't come back. They caught her and took her
   to the territory.
   
   "One time, when I was a child, I was hunting the mules for two of my
   sisters and a couple of young men to come to a dance at Uvalde. The
   pony I was on belonged to one of the young men and was a race pony.
   Well, my father had some sheep out there and a young lamb jumped up
   and run right under my horse. He began to kick and pitch, and threw me
   off and my foot hung in the stirrup and, of course, that scared him
   worse and he started to run, dragging me as he went. He drug me a long
   ways and kicked me in the chest. All the skin was off of my face.
   Finally, my foot came a-loose and they picked me up unconscious , and
   I stayed that way for a day and night. In place of them going to the
   dance they went for the doctor.
   
   "One time, two of my brothers was with a cow outfit and they were
   camped on Turkey Creek. There was W. M. Pulliam, Old Man Pete Bowles
   and his son, John Bowles, Dock Krebreaum, R. C. and T. C. McKinney and
   a bunch of Mexican hands. They were on a roundup. Well, the Indians
   raided the outfit while the men were on the range and got every horse
   they had except the ones they were riding and the old pack horse. Dock
   Krebreaum and one of my brothers had had a little quarrel that day
   when they were gathering cattle. That night my brother was standing
   around the campfire and he wouldn't go to bed.
   
   00044
   
   It was awful cold and they had a big fire burning. They had all made
   their pallets down and had gone to bed except my brother and he was up
   pouting. Mr. Pulliam and John Bowles was bunking together and they had
   tried to get T. C. to go to bed and he wouldn't do it. The moon was
   shinning real bright and he was still up by the fire pouting. Well,
   Mr. Pulliam and Mr. Bowles seen an Indian coming toward T. C. and they
   told him to sit down but he thought they were just teasing him and he
   didn't move. So the old Indian came on right up to T. C. and put his
   arm on his shoulder and looked around into his face. Well, when he did
   that , T. C. went right over that fire. When he got out of the way ,
   both Pulliam and Bowles shot at the Indian, but missed him. He run and
   jumped into a big lake of water in Turkey Creek. He was lost from the
   ones that had stole the horses and was hunting them. The next morning
   they trailed him for fifteen miles and they knew they didn't/ hit him
   the night before for they never found him.
   
   "One time, John Wesley Hardin stayed camped on my father's ranch about
   ten days. I know I used to take him but er and eggs and he would
   always pay me for them. He used to pay me to put a white piece of
   paper or board on a tree and cut a small black spot in the center of
   the paper. He could hit it center with a pistol 75 yards and 200 yards
   with a Winchester. He was the best shot I ever saw.
   
   "I remember mighty well the first man I ever saw shot here in Uvalde.
   His name was Wilson and he was a bar tender. The man who shot him was
   Mr. Joe Griner. I don't know what it was about but Wilson meant to
   kill him. I was just a boy coming from school and when that
   six-shooter went off , I left there. I didn't stay to see what they
   done.
   
   "I saw a man killed here once. There was a desperado came through
   00055here. His name was Young and he was a very bad man. Dock Bowles
   had a store and a saloon down here where the Kincaid Hotel is now. And
   he kept a barrel of whiskey sitting on the counter and a tin cup
   chained to the barrel and every time anyone took a drink from this
   cup, they put a dime in a glass beside the barrel. Anyway, Mr. Bowles
   got a young man in here to keep his books for him. I don't remember
   the man's name but he was a nice young fellow. Young got on a [?] one
   day and made Old Man Hugh Griner, Doctor Martin and [?] Pulliam drink
   a bottle of hot peppersauce. And then he went on and got Mr. Blakeney,
   the school teacher, and made two men , at the point of his pistol ,
   take Blakeney and hang him up by the thumbs and then cut his toe-nails
   off down into the quick till they made them bleed. And when he did let
   him down, he gave him just a few minutes to get out of the house. I
   was 'kinda' glad he did that to Blakeney for he had wanted to be bad
   himself. But Young didn't stop at that. He went on across the plaza
   and saw this young man who was keeping books for Mr. bowles going to
   dinner. Young said to the young man, 'Can you dance?' The man said he
   couldn't. Then Young pulled his pistol and began to shoot at his feet,
   and he kept the young man dancing and jumping till he was so tired he
   couldn't do it any more. They Young said, 'You are no good anyway.'
   And he shot him right through the heart.
   
   "Everyone in town was so stirred up about it, that the whole town went
   after him and they brought him back too. They put him in jail. The
   jail was a one-room outfit made of heavy , elm logs and the floor was
   also made of big logs. And in the center of the room, there was rings
   nailed to the logs and when they had a bad prisoner they always
   chained him to these logs. And that's just what they did with Young.
   But he didn't last long that night , a bunch came and shot him to
   death sitting in that jail. We never did know just who did it, no one
   tried to find out who it was.
   
   00066
   
   But we always had our opinion as to who it was. Everyone was glad he
   was out of the way.
   
   "One time I started from Marathon to Snyder Texas, with a herd of
   1,000 head of big steers. I never saw a herd so bad about 'stompeding'
   in my life. They would run once or twice nearly every night. Two men
   at the time would stand guard part of the time and keep it up all
   night long , taking turns about. Well, I was on guard one night when
   they ' stompeded ' and I was riding in the lead at full speed when my
   horse stepped in a badger hole and I got the hardest fall I ever had
   in my life, and the cattle split and part of them went on one side of
   me and part on the other. I guess that was all that saved me and the
   horse from being trampled to death. I finally got up and got back on
   my horse but the cattle were done gone. So I went on back to camp and
   let the cattle go till next day, but we got most of them back then.
   
   "My father used to keep the stage stand out on our old ranch out on
   the Nueces. We kept all the passengers who were traveling on the
   stage. The line run from Uvalde to Fort Clark west , and east to
   Sabinal. Old Man L. M. Peters kept the stage stand at Sabinal.
   
   "I know a couple of times during the time my father kept the stage
   stand, the coach was held up between Uvalde and Turkey Creek. It was
   robbed by masked bandits and they were never caught, but they robbed
   both the mail and the passengers.
   
   "Mrs. McKinney and me have moved away from Uvalde a time or two for a
   short time but we always come back. We moved away a few months ago. We
   lived in Beeville and Corpus Christi, both, a little while. But we
   soon got homesick and moved back and if our health permits, I think we
   will stay this time."
   
   00071
   
   Mrs. McKinney who was Miss Mary Jane Walker, was born in Gonzales
   County September 2, 1884, and came to Uvalde with her parents, Mr. and
   Mrs. William Walker, when she was seven years old.
   
   "I hardly remember my father but I believe he was a farmer. He died
   soon after the breaking up of the Civil War. And my mother married a
   man by the name of Goodwin a few years later.
   
   "My first schooling and only schooling was right here in Uvalde. It
   was a picket school-house with board windows fastened on to the wall
   with hinges, home-made shingles and a dirt floor. We only had about
   three months school. Blakeney was my first teacher, and I remember
   what a big tease he was. He would take his knife and spit on it and
   put it on our neck and tell us we were bleeding to death and it would
   almost scare me to death. Mrs. Benson, Miss Kate Benson's mother,
   taught me after that and I sure did like her. Her daughter, Kate,
   taught all of our children.
   
   "My stepfather had a little , grocery store right down on Main Street,
   across from where Ray Motor Company is now. He was also a rock mason
   and he helped build the old jail here.
   
   "When I was a child, I remember the grown ladies used to wear hoop
   skirts. They would have three hoops at the bottom and two in the
   middle and two at the waist. The ones at the waist were made to fit.
   These hoops were worn under the skirt and the skirt was made real
   full, with about four widths of the goods in one skirt. They wore a
   real tight-fitting basque waist. You think they were funny-looking,
   but they were sure pretty then. And all the women had beautiful, long
   hair.
   
   "The little girls all wore long panties with embroidery on the bottoms
   and about an inch of this trimming was allowed to show. I remember one
   time a little girl came to visit us and her panties were too long and
   that seemed a disgrace to us so me and another little girl got her out
   00082and penned then up with mesquite thorns.
   
   I remember when they used to go out and capture wild Indians and take
   them to/ the territory. The government wagons used to stop and camp
   under that big live-oak tree where [?] Watkins lives now. As we
   children come from school , we would see them. One of thecaptains
   picked me up one day and lifted me up so I could see inside the wagon.
   The old Indians began to pull their hair down over their faces and
   grunt and twist. I began to twist too , to get out of that captain's
   arms and get away from there.
   
   "When the Indians came into the country to make a raid , the ranchmen
   would always send word into town to give us warning. School turned out
   and everything else stopped, for everyone was scared to death. The men
   went out to hunt them.
   
   "I was sixteen years old when I married Mr. McKinney, and I think he
   was twenty in the year of '80. We were married in Uvalde at the home
   of Mr. McKinney's parents. We had a big dance and supper and danced
   all night, that is, all except Mr. McKinney and me and they made us go
   to bed at twelve o'clock.
   
   "My wedding dress was made of white [?] and I had a long, white, silk
   veil. My shoes were white kid and the little , white flowers on my
   veil were white kid. My dress was made a princess style and had little
   white ruffles on the skirt. I was so young they said I looked like a
   dressed-up doll. I kept that dress and veil till it fell to pieces and
   in 1913 it was in a flood/ and washed away.
   
   "I remember the first house we lived in after we were married. It was
   on the old McKinney ranch on the Nueces. It was a big, four-room, log
   house with a porch across the front. It was an ideal ranch. The
   McKinney family lived there for many years. Our two first children
   00093were born there.
   
   "We have lived in and around Uvalde ever since. We went to school here
   together when we were children. We have six children living. They are:
   Albert of Uvalde, Bertha of Corpus Christi, Gertrude of Joaquin,
   Newton of Beeville, Myrtle of Sabinal and Jimmie of west Texas.
   
   -30-

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