TX BIOS: Porter Mullins 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 FOLKLORE Miss Effie Cowan, P. W. McLennan County, Texas. District No. 8 No. of words 1200 File No. 240 Page No. 1 Reference Interview with Mr. Porter Mullins, White pioneer, Riesel, Texas. "I was born in 1865, on the 29th, day of June, six miles east of the Brazos River, near where the town of Riesel now stands. My father was Isaac Mullins; whose father, Isaac, was one of the three Mullins brothers, Isaac, Porter and Ben, who came to the Brazos bottom about the year 1833, from Alabama. My father married Nancy Ann Morgan, who was the daughter of Stacy Ann Morgan, whose parents were killed by the Indians in the Morgan Marlin massacre. "Grandmother, Stacy Ann Morgan was born February 14th, 1819, and died March 23rd, 1894. She had three daughters, Nancy Ann, Mary Ann and Ann. One son, W. J. Morgan, born October 28th, 1854, died in 1909. He married Miss Della Wright from Colorado County, Texas. Nancy Ann, (my mother) married Isaac Mullins Jr., Ann married a man by the name of Beddingfield, and Mary Ann married Rufe Smith. "I can remember as a child my grandmother Stacy Ann Morgan as she sat in her chair by the fireplace and told us stories of how the Indians would travel up and down the Indian trail by Morgans Point, where she lived, on their way to Waco, to the Bernard Trading post, and how they were always in fear of them robbing them of their corn and stock as the time came for their passing, which was usually in the light of the moon. 00022"This was before there was any town called Marlin, there was a little fort on the bluffs of the Brazos overlooking the Falls which had been the proposed capital of Sterling Robertson's Colony, called Viesca, but when the war between Texas and Mexico was being fought, many of these settlers left and went to more thickly settled places. Among them were our family ancestors, the Morgans and the Marlins. "When the two families returned they settled on the east side of the river, John Marlin settled a few miles below Marlin and the village was called Bucksnort, (named by a drunken cow-boy). James Marlin, who was my great grandfather, and the family of George Marlin settled on the Rock Dam road, north of the present town of Marlin and about six miles east of the present town of Perry. They lived together in a log house, built in the old style way with a wide open hall between the outside rooms. "In the Marlin family there were, Mr and Mrs James Marlin, a young boy, Isaac, about ten years old, my grandmother, Stacy Ann, and a younger sister. In the Morgan family there were great grandfather and grandmother Morgan, a grandson, Jackson Morgan and wife, and Adeline Morgan. The son, George Morgan, whom my grandmother Stacy Ann, married. "The young husband of my grandmother Stacy Ann Marlin Morgan, had gone with some of the other men down below Bucksnort (Old Marlin) for corn; leaving the older men of the families and the women and children at home. On this night the women had finished their milking and night work, ate their evening meal and were sitting around the fire talking and carding wool when they heard the war whoop of the Indians. Great-grandfather and great grandmother Morgan, a grandson, Jackson Jones and Mrs Jackson Morgan and Adeline Morgan were scalped and tomahawked. Grandmother Stacy Ann was 00033wounded and left for dead, she rolled under the floor and kept quiet until the Indians left. "There were three children out playing in the yard when they heard the war whoop of the Indians. They were Isaac Marlin, and a boy who was spending the night, named Wesley Jones and a sister, Mary Marlin. They hid in the brush behind the fence, (an old rail fence). After the Indians left, the boy, Isaac, slipped into the house to see if there were anyone left alive, my grand mother Stacy Ann hearing him thought it was the Indians returning and kept still. He left, thinking all were killed, and ran to the settlement where his uncle John Marlin lived, reaching there at daylight. Where the men hurried to the scene of the massacre and took charge of the sad task of burying the dead. "When the Indians left, they carried with them a negro slave girl, who belonged to great grandmother Marlin, and they never heard of her again. When my great uncle Isaac, looked for the ones who were killed he found the girl, Adeline, with her head in one place and her body in another and her beautiful long golden hair gone. My grandmother Stacy Ann was beaten and left for dead, but her life was saved by rolling under the puncheon floor. "After she heard the Indians leave she managed to crawl out from under the floor and went into the woods where she spent the night. The wolves howled around her as they could smell the blood of her wounds, she expected every minute to be torn to pieces. She fell asleep and did not awaken until afternoon when she realized she was thirsty and feverish. Some milk cows passed on their way to the pool that led to the spring where they went for water, she clung to the old bell cow's tail and held on until she was 00044dragged to the spring where the men who came to the scene of the massacre found her. Her hands were terribly scarred from the blows the Indians had made with the tomahawks when she held them to her face to shield it from the blows. "I have her pipe that she smoked as she sat in her place by the fireplace telling us these stories. The other story was how, ten days after her people were so brutally killed by the Indians, a band of about seventy attacked the house of John Marlin, below the present town of Marlin, there were several men at the house and they were prepared for the attack. John Marlin and his son and Garret Menefee and his son Thomas among the number, they killed seven of the Indians and when the Indians saw this they retreated. There was a negro who ran to give the alarm and was so scared he ran all the way to the settlement. "Ten days later a fighting force of forty-eight men collected and made Captain Benjamin Bryant of Bryan Station the captain of the force. They followed the Indian trail to a post oak wood about three miles from the present town of Perry. The noted Indian chief Jose Maria was riding along in front of the Indians when he saw the white men. He then rode back to his Indians and fired at the whites, and cut the coat sleeve of Joe Boren. Captain Bryant began the fight and was wounded, when Ethan Stroud took charge. The Indians fell back into the revine and David Campbell wounded the chief, and Albert Cholson killed the [DEL: chiefs :DEL] chief's horse. The sight of the Indians retreating made the whites careless and seeing this the old chief took advantage of the opportunity and succeeded in confusing the whites so that the order for a short retreat was mistaken for a 00055full retreat and the Indians began to kill the Texans on the run. Ten were killed and five wounded. "Those killed were Jackson Powers, Washington McGrew, a Mr. Ward, Armstrong Barton, Plummer, Alfred Eaton, Hugh Henry, William Fullerton, A. J. Webb and a Mr. Doss. The wounded were Captain Bryant, Charles Salls, W. N. [?]. Marlin, G. W. Morgan and Enoch Jones. Others in the fight were Captain Ethan Stroud, John R. Henry, Lewis and William C. Powers, Henry Haigood, Eli Chandler, Joseph Boren, William McGrew, Andrew McMillen, Clay and David Cobb, Richard [?], Albert Cholson, Michael Castleman, Wilson Reed, Wiley Carter, John Welsh, Button Dawson, R. H. Matthews, D. W. Campbell, Nat Campbell, Mr. Smith, Jeremiah McDaniel, Walter Campbell, William and Hugh Henry, John Marlin, Wilson Marlin, Joseph McCandler, John Tucker, Thomas Duncan and another whose name was not kept on record. "After this battle, a peace treaty was made by John Marlin and after this the Indians were not so troublesome and gradually moved farther west. Many years after this fight, Jose Marie, the Indian chief was visiting at Bryan's station and offered his pipe of peace to Bryan who was in command in the above fight. Bryan insisted that the old chief won the fight and that he smoke the peace pipe first, this the old chief did with great pride. "On the State Highway 67, on the Waco-Marlin road, about three miles from the town of Perry (south), is a marker on the site of the Indian battlefield which I have just described. And where the peace treaty was afterward made." 00066"On this marker this inscription is written: At this site, near the home of George Morgan, A battle took place January 16, 1839, Between the settlers in this region, And Indians under Chief Jose Maria, In which a treaty with these Indians made soon after, Brought comparative peace to this region. Erected by the State of Texas 1936." ************************************************************************ 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 ***********************************************************************