TX BIOS:  John T. Milwee
   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
   
   Ervin, Wm.V.,PW., [Wichita?] Falls, Texas
   
   Words 520 [38?]
   
   Page 1 INTERVIEW WITH JOHN T. [MILWEE?]
   
   [Milwee?], former pioneer resident of Archer County, Texas, but now
   living in [Marley?], Okla.
   
   "I came to Archer county from Tarrant county in 1878, and went to work
   on the Bar X ranch owned by Strayhorn & Harold. Strayhorn was a
   Chicago commission man, and the Harolds were Illinois farmers. They
   had ranches in Archer, [Baylor?], Young and [Throckmorton?] counties.
   I worked for them until in 1881, when I went to San Angelo.
   
   "I was in Wichita Falls only one time during the three years I was in
   this part of the country. That was in August, 1881, and it happened to
   [be?] on the same day that the surveyors running the line for the Fort
   Worth & Denver Railroad were in Wichita Falls. There were eight [?] of
   the surveyors and they were looking for [something?] to eat.
   
   "As well as I remember, [there?] were only six or seven houses in
   Wichita Falls then. There was a small hotel of about five [rooms?],
   and a store in a building about 16x30 feet. I don't [remember?] who
   ran the hotel and the store. I saw Tom (W.T.) Waggoner here that day,
   which was the [only?] time I ever saw [him?]. I was not [again?] in
   Wichita Falls until forty years later. I never lived here.
   
     NOTE: C - 12. Tex.
     
   "My brother who was in this country before I was, [hauled?] supplies
   in 1872 from [Weatherford?], Texas, to a company of Texas Rangers
   under [?] command of Captain [Ikard?] who were camped on the Big
   Wichita River near where the dam at Diversion Lake now is. The rangers
   were the [?] drive Indians out when they would come on raids. The
   Indians would come in warm weather on moonlight nights to steal
   horses. They would get a bunch of horses and drive them out at night,
   and lay hidden during the day. My brother is now dead. 00022"There was
   a bad drought in this part of the country in 1881, and just about all
   the people in here who were farming moved out, and so there were not
   many people here for awhile. There were mostly big ranches in there
   then anyway. Waggoner's ranch headquarters at that time was near the
   Wichita River, two or three miles from Wichita Falls, I knew [?]
   Roberts. He was a gunman hired by Waggoner to run off cattle thieves.
   He was a little, dried up Irishman, but he was a killer. He would just
   kill a man as look at him if the man crossed him in any way. He had
   killed three or four men. He always carried a sawed-off double-barrel
   shotgun on his saddle.
   
   "There was not, however, very much cattle stealing around here as it
   was a thinly settled country with mostly big ranches, which hired
   plenty of men to look after their stock. Then, the people in here were
   mostly a pretty good class of [people?]. [Sometimes?] the cowboys
   would come to town and drink too much, and go around shooting their
   guns off, but nobody paid much attention to them.
   
   "The Indians had been driven out of here and placed on the reservation
   [before?] I came to this country, and [so?] things were pretty quiet."

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