TX BIOS:  J. C. Montgomery
   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.
   
   0001
   
   Mrs. C. May Cohea P.W.
   
   Amarillo, Texas
   
   District #16 PANHANDLE PIONEERS
   
   Interview with: Mr. J. C. Montgomery
   
   President of First National Bank,
   
   Memphis, Texas
   
   (Mr. Montgomery approved the history already prepared of Memphis and
   added a few items of interest on old Salisbury and the Indian scare of
   1891 and of the eccentric Col. Hughes, whose estate still owns the
   Rocking Chair ranch near Wellington).
   
   Mr. Montgomery, whose father was the founder of Memphis, was just
   coming into manhood at the time of the Indian scare. He was rather
   undecided whether it was 1890 or 1891, but said perhaps the latter
   date was correct. The scare started when Mr. Huddleston saw cowboys on
   the Rocking Chair ranch near Wellington killing a beef. Mr Huddleston
   rode his mule to death to get to town with the news. The agent at
   Salisbury sent out the news and added that he was leaving immediately.
   It was about dusk when the news was brought to Wellington and about
   midnight at Memphis. The Rev. Price organized the men at the latter
   place and drilled them so that they would be prepared to defend the
   town from the expected attack. Mr. Montgomery remembers that he was
   sent out to Dr. Cannon's house about a mile from town to warn him, but
   the doctor just grunted and turned over in his bed and went back to
   sleep. A Mr. Huddleston now lives at Estelline, perhaps the same one
   who acted the role of Paul Revere in the Indian scare.
   
   In the early days old Salisbury grew up on the Fort Worth and Denver;
   however, when Memphis was established, all the inhabitants moved to
   the new town site. Nothing remains of Salisbury today. The original
   community of Salisbury was established by R. E. Montgomery, no
   relation of the Mr. Montgomery who founded Memphis. R. E. Montgomery
   was a townsite man for the railroad as it built through the Panhandle.
   He arranged for towns every seven miles or so, thus bringing Salisbury
   into existence. The site of Salisbury is about 3 and a half miles
   southeast of Memphis, the ground being farmed over at the present. For
   some time the basement or foundation of the old Salisbury hotel
   remained to mark the spot, but nothing can be seen on the site.
   [Today?] a farm house sits on the site of W. L. R. Dixon's store at
   old Salisbury. Tom J. Cox 00022was Dixon's store manager in Salisbury.
   Mrs. Ewing, another old-timer of Salisbury, was buried near oneof the
   mounds in the vicinity.
   
   Mr. Montgomery knew the eccentric owner of the Mill Iron and the
   Rocking Chair ranches, Colonel Hughes, who loved to hunt, bringing his
   bird dogs, several at a time, with him from Denver to hunt on the
   range, which he made into a preserve, one still being kept on the
   Rocking Chair by his descendants. His daughter comes out from Denver
   to visit the ranch near Wellington at the present time.
   
   A negro drove the four fine horses which the colonel had to his coach,
   a huge thing, larger than a motor car and smaller than highway
   coaches. The coach contained sleeping quarters and cooking facilities,
   thus resembling the trailers of the modern time. Once when Hughes was
   crossing Salt Fork near Wellington, the coach mired in the sand.
   Taking out the horses the party left the coach and went to get help to
   extricate the lumbering vehicle. On their return, the coach had
   disappeared, having sunk in the treacherous quicksand.
   
   Colonel Hughes maintained a hunting lodge neat Estelline on the Mill
   Iron until he established a game preserve on the Rocking Chair.
   
   The daughter of his manager of the Mill Iron, Bob Green, is now Mrs.
   Arthur Eddleman of Estelline. Buck Eddleman, her father, was an old
   cowboy on the ranch.
   
   Joe Birchfield, caretaker of the Hughes ranch near Wellington, should
   still be living there.
   
   Large ranches in the region of Hall County in the early days were the
   Shoe-Bar, owned by T. S. Bugbee, the Mill Iron, by Hughes; the J. A.
   by Adair-Goodnight; the 96, by J. A. Finch; and the Diamond-Tail, W.
   R. Curtis.

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