TX BIOS:  Jack W. Patterson, Uvalde TX
   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.
   
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   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
   
   Folkstuff - Rangelore [4,465?] Words
   
   EDITORIAL FIELD COPY
   
   by
   
   Mrs. Florence Angermiller, P.W.
   
   Page 1
   
   232 Pioneer Reminiscences UVALDE COUNTY, DISTRICT #10
   
   [????]
   
   JACK W. PATTERSON
   
   Uvalde, Texas.
   
   "I was pretty young when the Indians were in this [DEL: count :DEL]
   county but I remember when I was standing around wishing I could go on
   one of those Indian scouts. Then when night come and they sent me to
   lock the stable door I would be scared to death, afraid an Indian was
   going to grab me every step. We used to keep the stable door locked to
   keep the Indians from steeling the horses.
   
   "I was born in 1862 but I can surely remember when my grandfather's
   slaves left after the war. There was one girl named Margaret they
   persuaded to leave with them, but she got away from them after they
   started and come running back. She stayed with my grandfather and
   grandmother from then on. Margaret washed for me and my wife after we
   were married.
   
   "Grandfather Patterson settled/ Patterson the settlement. The whole
   family came there. Uncle John, Newman and George. Grandfather's name
   was George W. and in 1874, he came to Texas from Alabama and settled
   in St. Augustine County, then he went to Smith County. In 1851 he
   moved to Uvalde County, settling seven miles south of the present town
   of Sabinal where Chunky Shane now lives. He pre-empted a homestead,
   and later added to his tract by purchase. He assisted in organizing
   the county and helping locate the county seat.
   
   "Farming was just an experiment out here, then. Indians raided the
   settlement often. My grandfather had his place raided on several
   occasions. He continued to develope his place till the outbreak of the
   war.
   
     NOTE: C12 - 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   00022
   
   When the war was over his slaves were freed.
   
   "My grandfather/ Bowles was killed by the Indians. He was a great
   Indian fighter and once killed two Indians in one night when they were
   trying to steal horses. He had also settled in the Patterson
   settlement about 1855. He had brought some good horses to this country
   and the year after he came here, he settled on a place west of the
   river and started up a ranch. He found it necessary to build a strong
   pen in front of his house so that one of his boys could stand guard
   over the horses at night. They had a blind fixed up so that the guard
   could stay inside of it without being seen by the Indians. But they
   failed to mount guard one night and in no time, the horses were out of
   the pen and going in a dead run. The bell could be heard and every one
   of the boys and my grandfather grabbed their guns and jumped on their
   horses and started after them. Grandfather even ran out in his night
   clothes and without his shoes but he caught up with the horses first.
   He saw one of the Indians leave the bunch but was not sure but what it
   was one of his own boys and wouldn't shoot. They got the horses back
   and Doke stood guard in the blind but grandfather went down on the
   river and got under a hackberry tree near a trail that come down, and
   sat down and waited. It wasn't long before the boys heard a shot and
   knew it my grandfather's shot gun. They were afraid he was being
   attacked and ran down there to him. When they got there, he was
   standing over a dead Indian with a scalp in his hand and said to them,
   "Hog my cats, if I haven't got one of 'em!" That was about the worst
   slang he ever used. He told the boys that there were three of the
   Indians coming down the trail and he first saw then in about fifty
   feet of him but he waited till they got within about thirty feet and
   fired one barrel of his shot gun at the first Indian. He fell and the
   other two disappeared but the one who fell raised up and tried to
   shoot an arrow 00033at my grandfather, but the old man emptied the
   other barrel and his six-shooter into the Indian and ended him.
   
   "While they were looking around, they heard a groan, but they could
   never locate It. One of their dogs struck a trail and started out but
   soon came back with an arrow sticking through him, so they all went to
   the house and sent a runner to the settlement to give the alarm. There
   were several of the men got to the ranch before daylight and when they
   all went down to where the shooting had taken place, they had a great
   time over the dead Indian. They looked around and discovered another
   dead Indian in about thirty feet of the first one. He had been shot in
   the bowels. They later found the other Indian about four miles from
   where the first two were killed.
   
   "My grandfather Bowles was in the Indian battle on the Leona where the
   Indians were massacred but sometime in 1859, he settled on the Leona
   not far from where he had the fight. In the same year, he was killed
   by the Indians. The same Indians killed John Davenport right close to
   the present town of Sabinal and they found his body at once because
   some Mexicans witnessed the killing. But they never found my
   grandfather's body for a day or two and it wasn't very far from the
   back of the field. They had tied my grandfather's horse in the brush
   to get him to come out after the horse. He had gone down to the
   Patterson settlement to his daughter's and when he walked out to get
   his horse next morning, he didn't wear a gun. He found the field fence
   down and knew his mare had gone out of it, so he followed , and
   evidence showed that the mare had been tied there for some time
   because it was all tracked and trampled where she had been.
   
   "The settlers took up the trail after the alarm had been given and
   some of them were: William Thomas, James McCormick, Clabe Davenport,
   John Kennedy, Nobe Griner, Frank Isbell, Ben Pulliam, John Q.
   00044Daugherty and others. Daugherty was in command of the Minute men
   but Lieutenant Hazen had come from Fort Inge with some men and he was
   in command of all of them. Doke Bowles (my uncle) helped trail and he
   soon came across the shoes of my grandfather and though they hadn't
   found his body, he knew he was dead then. About the third day, the
   settlers and soldiers overtook the Indians and surprised them. There
   was a running fight of over twenty miles that day. When the settlers
   ran up the Indians, there was a terrible confusion and effort to get
   mounted on horses and get away. The settlers had begun to yell. One
   Indian tried to rope horses for the others and those who didn't get a
   horse, jumped on a horse behind another Indian. A man named Arnette
   came up to my uncle and offered to trade him his horse. " Fuzzy Buck,"
   an they had already agreed to do that if they had to run the Indians.
   So they exchanged horses. Fuzzy Buck was a race horse and though my
   uncle would halt beside those that were shot by the Indians to see
   what he could do for them, his horse could soon over take the Indians
   again. Lt. Hazen was shot from his horse and my uncle thought he was
   certainly killed. One Indian was killed right at first who was dressed
   finer than the rest. He was the finest looking Indian in the bunch. He
   was a young Indian, nearly white and his hair was soft instead of
   coarse. He was ornamented all over with rings, beads and sliver
   trappings. He had on John Davenport's pistol belt and tied to it was
   my grandfather's scalp. A man by the name of Williams and Doke Bowles
   had a close battle with an Indian and neither one of them had but one
   load in his pistol. The Indian shot Williams off his horse and when
   Doke fired his last load into the Indian, he had to dodge arrows
   himself. Then the Indian got on William's horse and left yelling. When
   he turned to go, my uncle counted nine bullet holes in him and he was
   bloody from head to foot. He said he noticed an Indian throw something
   under a cedar tree during the chase and he remembered where the tree
   was. He00055went back later and found it. It was an old-fashioned
   reticule with a drawstring in it and it had four children's scalps,
   some paint and poison.
   
   "There were three Indians finally left in the chase and my uncle was
   still riding the race horse and overtaking them every now and them
   till his loaded pistols played out, then he would have to wait for the
   other settlers to catch up with more loaded guns for him. There seemed
   to be no way to kill that Indian on Williams' horse, but when the
   three got to the top of a hill, my uncle saw them dismount and two of
   them lay down. They found out from some Indians from the reservation,
   later on, that those two died.
   
   "My grandfather's body was found at Guide Hill, or Pilot Knob as some
   of them called the particular place. They had shot him with three
   arrows, at about ten steps, and each arrow was about an inch apart in
   the left breast. Doke Bowles had found his vest in the running fight
   they had and knew before they found the body just how his father was
   killed.
   
   "None of the men in the fight died, but all were badly wounded.
   Williams was put on a horse and moved back. Lieutenant Hazen was left
   with some soldiers to guard him and Judge McCormick volunteered to go
   to Fort Clark after an army surgeon. He made the trip all right, but
   he said he had to outrun the Indians. It took about a day and a-half
   to make the trip and when the surgeon got back with McCormick, it was
   three days and nights that McCormick was gone. He pulled spikes out of
   some of the men and took Hazen back to Fort Clerk and in about three
   weeks, he was taken to Fort Inge.
   
   "We moved to the Frio at the Leakey settlement where my father run the
   saw mill for Uncle Newman and Uncle Tom Leakey. They were Partners in
   it when it first started up. My father's sister married Tom Leakey. We
   moved from Leakey to the Patterson settlement again, 00066then to Rio
   Frio. What little schooling I had was on the Frio. The only teacher
   was Judge McCormick. I remember Old Judge McCormick. He had snow white
   hair and the forefinger on his right hand was stiff. He was strict
   enough in school, all right. From the Frio we moved to the Leons. The
   first job I ever had was down an the old Adams ranch working for Jim
   [Delrymple?]. He was a son-in law of John Patterson's, my uncle.
   Dalrymple was a cattleman and owned several sections of land down
   there. There was a pole fence around the place. Barb wire hadn't been
   heard of then. All I had to do was ride and bring up the cows with
   young calves. There wasn't much required, although there were several
   hundred cattle on the place. Every time he came out to the place we
   would run foot races and horseback races. He was ready to run with me
   and he'd beat me every time. We'd bet 50¢ or so on a race but he
   always beat and won the money. He would laugh at me and have a big
   time. Once I thought I had a good scheme worked up but he saw through
   it and wouldn't go in for it. I said, 'You won't do anything unless
   you have a sure thing of it.' He said, 'Nobody but a d--- fool would!'
   He was always in a good humor and it showed what kind of man he was
   for I was only about 15 years old and he was a grown man with a
   family. He seemed to know that a kid liked to play. We didn't mope
   around when he came out there.
   
   "As well as I remember, that dam on the Leons was constructed by
   several of the old-timers. Old man Bill Smith was the head of it.
   Then, there was Butch Dillard, Pete Bowles, Doke Bowles and Ed Taylor.
   
   "After I went back home and worked for my father, he gave Sam and I an
   interest to take his sheep and run them for him. We went down on the
   Chaperosa with about 6,500 head. That was below the "Murlo" where the
   Fenley settlement was. We had two Mexican herders. Down in that
   brushy/ country we lost less sheep than out in the open country. The
   sheep seemed 00077to know they could get lost and stayed together
   better. We run those sheep down there about three or four years. I
   think we had started to the divide when we got into a shooting scrape
   with a Mexican.
   
   "I was taking the sheep up on the divide and had got to the Frio when
   me stopped our flock to let them rest up. Someone had come into camp
   and said the Mexicans had killed Allen Blackman. We had gone to school
   with Allen and we were stirred up about it. They took us to where
   Allen had been killed and there he was laying in the road and they had
   shot him in the head. We hunted that day and night and rounded up
   Mexicans all around there. We laid in wait at Benny's camp and waited
   for his Mexican to come in for we thought he would know something. We
   surrounded the camp and waited for this Mexican and didn't know what
   time he would get in or where he was, but we knew he wasn't at the
   camp as some of the boys slipped down there and saw there was no one
   there. The herder came in the night sometime, however, and we told him
   that we had learned that he knew where the Mexican who did the killing
   was hiding and we were going to kill him if he didn't tell us where he
   or they were. I think Tuck Van Pelt, Reading Black, Buck Burditt,
   Butch Patterson and several others were in the party. The Mexican said
   he would locate him and when he came back, he said he had him. We got
   on our horses and divided our forces. We were to surround the place.
   
   "The other force got there first and we heard some shooting so I said,
   'Let's hurry for it will all be over before we get there!' As we got
   to the place where the shooting was taking place, we saw a Mexican
   come running toward us and dart into a plum thicket. We were up,
   overlooking this plumb thicket, sitting on our horses and watched
   these other boys make the fight. That old canyon was just full of
   smoke. But that Mexican kept them fought off and got away. They came
   back and said the fellow was gone. I told them there was one in that
   plum thicket, but 00088they didn't think so. They told the Mexican
   herder of Benny's (who had come to us when he heard the shooting) to
   go into the thicket and tell the Mexican if he would come out he
   wouldn't let the man kill him. So the herder went and told him and the
   Mexican give himself up and come out. Butch Patterson and another man
   were taking him to Rio Frio where there was a justice of the peace to
   give him a preliminary trial but some men met them on the trail before
   they got to Rio Frio and killed the Mexican. He never got the
   preliminary hearing. It probably would have ended that way anyhow.
   
   "I took the sheep up around Yellow Banks on the Frio and then over to
   Chalk Bluff on the Nueces. It was while I was it Chalk Bluff that I
   met a girl down at old Captain Benson's. I happened to ride down at
   Benson's that day horseback. She was George Clark's daughter, Maude.
   They had settled up at Montell and had come from New York. The girls
   had gone to school at Brooklyn, and after they moved out here, Maude
   went back and finished her schooling, which took her about two years.
   She taught school about three years after we met and we married in
   1890.
   
   "It seems funny that her father's and mother's names were the same as
   my father's and mother's. Both our parents were named George and
   Elizabeth. Another funny coincident: My youngest sister is named
   George Washington and she married George Washington Van Pelt.
   
   "We had a very quiet wedding. No one was there but just the family. We
   came to Uvalde in a buggy and went on to San Antonio for a few days
   and bought our furniture. Then me moved out to the ranch at Yellow
   Banks. I had separated my sheep from my father's and had gone out in
   business for myself. But along about then, a terrible drought hit this
   country and burned things up. It was during Cleveland's
   administration. He took the tariff off of wool and ruined the sheep
   man.
   
   00099
   
   What the drought hadn't accomplished, the free trade did, an there was
   no sale for domestic wool. We lost over half of our sheep from the
   drought alone.
   
   "About 1895, we went into the grocery business at Montell. We just
   started up a small store but went into general merchandising later on.
   We had to scratch sometimes to get by but we brought up all our
   children there and gave them an education so we feel that we have a
   lot to be grateful for. When the depression hit, it gave us a bad time
   but we came through. On account of our health, I sold the store an and
   left Montell but I had to sell at a sacrifice. In 1920, I had traded
   for some bees and had kept them as a side line. They had thrived until
   now I make my living off of the bees.
   
   "We have three children: Marjorie, who married Dr. Wells and lives in
   Edna; Bess who married Alfred Egg of Edna and Clark who is unmarried
   and teaching in a University in Missouri."
   
   ------O------
   
   MRS J.W. PATTERSON
   
   "There were three girls and a boy In my family when we came here in
   '79. My sisters were Margaret and Georgia and my brother was Will, who
   went back to New York later and died there. The rest of us stayed in
   Texas and love it here.
   
   "There were no fences, no railroad nor mail route when I first came
   here. I remember that anybody who came down from the canyon would
   bring back the mail for the whole community. Maybe you would get your
   mail, or maybe it would be lost.
   
   "We arrived here in wagons and we went on out of town on the Nueces
   001010Canyon road and had dinner on Cook's Slough. We had bought meat
   in town from a market that was not screened. Of course there were no
   screens out here then, but we were astonished to see that market right
   there on the plaza with nothing but coarse lattice-work as protection
   against the flies and dust. Dust! It was ankle deep in dry weather and
   the mud was ankle deep in wet weather. I remember that dust especially
   -- yes, of course, along the roads. The countryside was green and
   beautiful but the white dust of these roads that boiled up like clouds
   are still a vivid memory to me.
   
   "We bought some meat, however, and socked it out there where we
   stopped for dinner. I looked at things with new eyes, they were so
   different to anything I had ever known. And my mother who had been
   used to having her mail twice a day and her magazines -- it must have
   been extremely new to her. But she had a wonderful sense of humor and
   I can remember how she laughed off the frets and worries of those
   days.
   
   "The little school house in Uvalde that we passed seemed to be just a
   little shack with mesquite brush all around it. It was August when we
   got here, so it naturally didn't look its best.
   
   "The rivers were full of fish. We saw lots of game as there was lots
   of it those days and we practically lived off of it. There were
   turkeys and venison and sometimes, people brought us bear meat.
   
   "After we were settled and were getting along all right, my father had
   to go back to New York on business. It was decided that I should go
   back with him and finish school at Brooklyn. I think the railroad had
   just come through about then so we went back by rail. I had to stay
   two years with my uncle and never came home during the time..I
   certainly did get homesick. I had learned to like the little bit of
   Texas I had got acquainted with and I was anxious to get back to it
   and my family. My father had been to Texas several times and because
   of his travels through 001111this part of Texas in 1858, it was to be
   our future home. He liked this part of the state and I have his diary
   written as he crossed Texas on his way to California that year with a
   wagon train. He was a Confederate Soldier and had been stationed down
   at Galveston on a gunboat during the Civil War. He married my mother
   after he came back to New York at the close of the war.
   
   "Here is a picture of Mr. Patterson and me the day we were married.
   You can get an Idea of how we looked then and what they wore. This
   dress I was wearing was of white silk and you can see that the coat of
   Mr. Patterson's suit buttoned up close to the throat. We were surely
   dressed up.
   
   "I had never heard a coyote till after I married. There were no
   coyotes up around Montell and when we went to the ranch from San
   Antonio I heard them in the night and it nearly scared me to death.
   They came up all around the house and it wasn't very pleasant to me.
   
   "I am 70 years old, but I still like to go visiting. I am leaving
   shortly for Missouri to stay with Clark until about June, then he will
   accompany me home. He plans to do some research work down in Mexico
   City this summer providing there is no upheavel or war down there by
   then. "
   
   -30-

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