TX BIOS:  Margurite Rast: term paper, Pioneer Women of Texas
   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
   
   Folkstuff - Pioneer History
   
   FOLKWAY
   
   Mrs. Edgerton Arnold, P.W.
   
   McLennan County, Texas
   
   District No. 8 Duplicate
   
   No. words 1394
   
   File No. 240
   
   Page No. 1 Reference
   
   Margurite Rast, Waco, Texas--Term Theme, Texas History, Baylor
   University
   
   1930. PIONEER WOMEN OF TEXAS:
   
   "Of interest to all the people of Waco and McLennan County, is the
   story of Mrs. Neil McLennan, wife of Neil McLennan, the first pioneer
   to build a home near Waco. Mrs. McLennan was born in Scotland and came
   to North Carolina with her parents, where she married Neil McLennan,
   also of Scotland. In 1820, she and her husband, and three small
   children, with some relatives and friends, moved to Florida. While it
   was still under Spanish rule. After fourteen years in Florida, they
   decided to come to Texas. The men went into the forest, cut down logs,
   and made a schooner large enough to hold several families.
   
   "Their's was a thrilling voyage across the Gulf of Mexico. On the way,
   they were captured by pirates. A storm arose and the McLennan's boat
   kept knocking against the pirates boat. Fearing their boat would be
   wrecked, they released the schooner, much to the delight of the
   McLennan's when the light of day broke over the waters.
   
   "Without further mishap, they landed at the mouth of the Brazos, sold
   their schooner, came to Fond's creek, near Fort Nashville, near the
   present town of Camaron, in what is now Fall's county. They found the
   Indians malicious and murderous.
   
   "Time and time again, Neil McLennan had to throw down the plow and
   flee with his family to the Fort at Old Nashville, twelve miles
   distant. Most of the way was marshy and often they had to wade in
   water knee deep, and be frightened to death for fear the baby would
   cry and call attention to them.
   
   00022
   
   "The Indians did not harm any of Neil McLennan's family, but they
   murdered Mr. McLennan's brother, Laughlin, one day when he was
   repairing a fence. His wife blew the dinner horn and when he did not
   come, she went to find him, only to find him killed. They captured
   her, and her two sons, and baby and burned the house with the old
   grandmother in it. A few days later, the baby became ill, [and?] they
   dashed it brains out against a tree. She and one of the boys died, and
   the other, John, later known as Bosque John, was kept a prisoner for
   twelve years. The Neil McLennans kept his land and the revenue from
   it, and when he was released by the Indians, following a council at
   [Waco?] Springs, they gave him his inheritance.
   
     NOTE: C12 2/11/41 Texas
     
   "Once, when Neil McLennan was with Major [?] near Waco, he saw the
   hills around South Bosque. He said they looked just like Scotland, and
   some day he was going to live there. In 1845, their double log cabin
   was completed on the banks of South Bosque, near a spring.
   
   "In 1932, the Henry Down's Chapter, D.A.R. placed a boulder a few
   yards from it with a bronze inscription on it, pointing the site out
   as the first site of the first home in McLennan County.
   
   "The McLennans were very hospitable to new settlers, letting them stay
   with them until their home was finished, and often giving them
   chickens, hogs, etc., for a start. On one occasion, the McLennans
   refused to sell corn to a settler, preferring to keep it to give it to
   some one who could not buy it.
   
   "They were Scotch Presbyterians and very religious. On Saturday
   afternoons the cows were milked and turned into the pastures until
   after the Sabbath. Food was prepared, coffee was ground for Sunday.
   The larger part of the day was spent in reading the Bible and
   worshipping God. They never punished the children on Sunday, but they
   always remembered 00033to give it to them the next day.
   
   "In 1849, the town of Waco was laid off by Waco Spring on the Brazos
   and a year later, the surrounding county was authorized to be formed
   into a county. It was called McLennan County for the Neil McLennans,
   the first settlers. Their son, John McLennan, helped Major Erath
   survey and lay off Waco, and incidentally, owned the first piano in
   Waco, brought by ox wagon from Galveston. Their piano is now in the
   Log House, in Harrington Park, Waco, owned by the Daughters of the
   Confederacy.
   
   "Mrs. McLennan was a gentle, unassuming woman, spinning and working to
   make her home in the wilderness a pleasant place in which to live.
   They had six children and their descendants are among the prominent
   citizens of McLennan County, and still own a great deal of land,
   inherited from the first McLennans. They are both buried in the old
   family burying ground at South Bosque.
   
   "Another colorful figure [of?] Central Texas and McLennan County was
   Mrs. Shapley Ross. Se was born in Missouri, September 27, 1817, and at
   the age of seventeen, married Captain Shapley Ross. They moved to
   Iowa, and, in 1846, came to the Republic of Texas, settling near
   Cmeron.
   
   "Here the children had for pets, at one time, two buffalo calves. The
   girls liked to feed them buckets of milk, and when the feeding was
   over, they were rewarded for their pains by being knocked down.
   
   "The Indians paid a visit to the Ross home and pointed to everything
   in the Ross kitchen. Mrs. Ross gladly complied with their wishes, and,
   to her astonishment, they left, leaving the house and family unharmed.
   
   "Another time, young Sul was out in the woods with his father. Seeing
   Indians, Mr. Ross picked up the boy, ran with him to the house,
   00044cautioning him not to tell his mother that the Indians were near.
   Mr. Ross that day was wearing a buckskin shirt that was long and
   belted at the waist. Young Sul in the house kept remarking, "Papa's
   shirt sure was flapping." These facetious remarks soon disclosed the
   fact of the Indians.
   
   In 1849, knowing that Waco was to be laid off as a town, the Rosses
   moved to the Brazos and camped where East Waco now stands. This land
   of future Waco belonged to Mr. Snyder in Galveston. Major Erath
   received permission to survey the land and sell it off as lots. On the
   eventful day, Major Erath began at Waco Spring and laid off Bridge
   Street. The men were there with axes ready to cut down trees and build
   houses, as soon as the sale of the lots was over. The lots were
   auctioned off, and cheap as they were, people thought they were too
   high.
   
   Mr. Shapley Ross bought the first two lots at five dollars a piece,
   the being between what is now the Suspension Bridge and the New County
   Bridge. Here, they built a double log cabin. All the cooking was done
   out of doors, and they carried their water from Waco Spring.
   
   "Later, this house became too small and a two-story log house was
   built on the land where now stands the Cotton Palace, and at one time,
   was Twelfth and Ross Streets.
   
   "Two daughters, Mary and Margaret, went to school at Independence,
   making the trip on horseback. At one time they met the Indians, but
   when they found that they were the daughters of Shapley Ross, they
   were released.
   
   "Mr. Ross ran a ferry boat across the Brazos near the Spring for
   seventeen years. One day, when Margaret was sitting on the porch of
   the log cabin, she watched the ferry pulling up to the bank. On it
   stood 00055a handsome young man. He was George Barnard, who ran a
   trading post on the Tehuacana Creek. He was the first man in McLennan
   County, and at his colorful post from 1844, many Indians had come to
   trade deer, bear and buffalo skins. Seeing him, Mary facetiously
   remarked he was going to be her future husband.
   
   "So it turned out. Her sister Margaret at the same time became engaged
   to Frank Harris. The girls decided upon a double wedding and sent a
   negro to Houston for supplies for the wedding. He returned two months
   after the wedding was over. Captain Ross gave each of them ten acres
   of land aro nd where the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Rail Road station
   now stands. Mary Street was named for Mary Ross, and Barnard Street
   for George Barnard.
   
   "Sul Ross, later, became a celebrated Indian fighter and governor of
   Texas.
   
   "Mrs. Ross was a gentle, true pioneer woman, enjoying the early growth
   of Waco and her descendants are among the most prominent citizens of
   Texas."

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