TX BIOS:  James Reed
   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 R
   
   FOLKLORE--White Pioneers
   
   Miss Effie Cowan, P.W.
   
   McLennan County, Texas
   
   District No. 8
   
   No. words 500
   
   File No. 240
   
   Page No. 1. Reference
   
   Interview with Jamed Reed, of Dublin, Texas, taking a rest cure at
   Marlin.
   
   "I have lived sixty-two years in or near Dublin, [?] County and
   celebrated my eighty-eighth birthday on April 2, 1939. Texas had been
   in the Union only four years when I was born in [?] County.
   
   When I was only ten years old, my parents and three other families
   decided to move westward. I rode horseback on the trip and helped to
   drive a small herd of cattle to our new home. On September 4, 1860,
   the four families landed on Honey Creek, just three miles east of the
   site of the town of Carlton.
   
   "There were Indian raids often and all through the section in which we
   lived. The Indians would steal our horses and cattle and sometimes
   they would kill some of the settlers. Bread was occasionally scarce,
   but every day we would have plenty of wild turkeys and venison to eat
   and there were lots of fish in the creek. It was a beautiful country,
   but wild yet it was a hunter's paradise.
   
   "When I was seventeen years old, I became a cowboy and I helped to
   drive many herds of cattle to the northern markets. In 1876, I moved
   to Cottonwood, three miles east of Dublin, and since that time, I have
   lived in or near Dublin, except for about eight months which I spent
   in Fort Worth.
   
   "The prairies were masses of tall, thick buffalo grass and that was
   why stock raisers moved to the West. But this very grass was often a
   source of great danger because careless campers left fire to set this
   grass on fire.
   
   "People did not live as close together in those days as they do now.
   00022"When people were fighting grass fires, they often stopped at the
   [nearest?] place for water and we would invite them in to eat. We
   would always have enough on hand to feed a large number of people, and
   could have it ready quickly. When any one saw smoke rolling up into
   the sky, they loaded their wagons and buggies with barrels of water
   and wet sacks and started out to help fight the fire. There couldn't
   be too many helpers at a fire fight, for this was hard work. The
   fighter would often have to fall out to 'get new wind'. As a last
   resort in fighting a fire, a beef would be killed, and the carcass
   dragged over the smouldering grass. I have seen a grass fire that was
   three miles wide and it seemed that the fire would go on forever.
   [Some?] one suggested that we kill a beef and drag the fire out. A
   large, fine beef was killed and cut in half. Each half was dragged,
   hide down, by two men on horse back, through the fire. Finally, the
   fire was put out in this way, but the fire had swept through a fifteen
   mile strip.
   
   "A well-remembered fire was the one that burned from the [?] ranch to
   the Chittenden ranch and the men fought fire from noon until late at
   night. Yet, with all its hardships, I think the pleasures of those
   pioneer days over shadow the sorrows and troubles."

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