TX BIOS: W. B. Odle 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 Pioneer History FOLKWAYS Martha S. Jennings, P. W. Waco, McLennan County District 8. No. words 656. File No. 240 Page No. 1. Reference. [Mr. W. B. Odle,?] 1825 South 9th St., Waco, Texas. [Mr. Odle's family?] lived [?] Fannia County until 1856 at which time the Indians were so bad that they moved to [?] County where they found them just about as bad. They had to stand guard over their [horses?] and cows with shotguns to protect them from white horse thieves as well as [?] the Indians. When [?] family moved to [?] County they built a one room house with a shed on one side, [?] a log kitchen separate from the house. They cut down trees and cut the logs into [?] with an [?] or tool called a "frow". It was a piece of iron with an upright on the end [??], [?] it was driven into the log and worked along by hand. They used the [Limestone?] sand they found in Coryell County to make a kind of cement to [?] in [??] house. There [?] two stores [?] a dwelling house at the place where they settled built of this limestone cement. The dwelling house is still standing. Their [furniture?] was made of these boards also. They made beds by boring holes in the boards and [?] strips of leather back and forth. These holes were good places for "bugs" to [?] in and his mother killed them with boiling water. The chairs all had raw hide [?] bottoms. They used an instrument called a [?] on building their houses and [furniture?]. It was a [?] of grubbing hoe with an axe blade on [?] back. Instead of the usual [?] and [?] chimney, these people in Coryell [County?] were fortunate in having this [limestone?] formation with which to build their chimneys. This one in this house had an iron [?] placed across the front of the fireplace as it was being built. This was the custom many pioneer [?]. This rod was used to hang [?] and kettles on [????] would swing over the fire [?] cooking was done. They used an iron stand with three legs called a spider, to set the coffee pot on to 150 NOTE: [c12?] 2/11/41 Texas 00022protect it from the fire. During the Civil War Mr. Odle's father was a Ranger. He was detailed to keep the Indians back off the settlement part of the time. One time during the war someone got hold of a [?] of brown sugar, and everybody feasted on sugar, especially the children. They had school three months of the year in a rock school house, the rest of the time the boys were racing the cattle range. At this school house they learned to write. It was called a writing school and a man taught them to write for $1.50 per pupil. Penmanship was the only subject taught there. Mr. Odle remembers going on a trip to Bolton with his father to drive some cattle home, [?] they stopped to make camp and his father told him to stay at the camp while he looked around. He came back shortly and said it he had known they were hanging so many men at the same time around there they would not have stopped there. He had seen eleven men hanging on the same tree, and learned later that a crowd of men had taken ten men out of jail, along with the jailor, and hanged them all to this tree. They were cattle thieves. Mr. Odle's father was in the Dove Creek fight. They used muzzle loading guns [?] cap and bull pistols with [?]. Shoes were so scarce at [?] time that when the young ladies went to Church with their Beaux, they stopped the wagon before they reached the Church and got out and put on their shoes, and when they started home they stopped again and took their shoes off and went home barefooted. The young men very gently removed their sweethearts' shoes. He remembered they kept their water melons cool by digging deep holes in the ground and putting the melons in the hole, [?] there were no springs of water near. ************************************************************************ 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 ***********************************************************************