TX BIOS:  Dr. Ed B. Smith
   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 1250
   
   File No. 240
   
   Page No. 1 Reference
   
   Interview with Dr. Ed B. Smyth, White Pioneer, Mart, Texas. Elias B.
   Smyth, (father of Alva P. Smyth); about the year 1848, my father,
   Elias R. Smyth, while a young man in his twenties, came to Texas from
   the State of Alabama and lived for a year or two at Palestine, Texas.
   About the year 1850, he married Miss Elizabeth Wood, at her home near
   the old town of Springfield, Texas, three miles from the present town,
   Grossbeck.
   
   "After my mothers' father died, father took charge of the plantation
   at Springfield, and when the war between the states came, father
   joined the Confederate army, made his head slave, Henry Majors, the
   overseer and he looked after the farming and kept the work on the
   plantation up until fathers return when the war ended. There were four
   boys and three girls born to my father and mother; Alva P.,
   (deceased); myself; Tom; Lee, (deceased), and Ella, Beulah and Mabel;
   all lived to be grown and to rear families of their own.
   
   "My grandmother Wood brought her husband to Texas in a covered wagon,
   he being too ill to sit up, was brought upon a bed, it was hoped the
   change of climate would restore him to health. They brought their
   teams, tools and slaves with them, crossing the Mississippi River at
   Memphis, Tennessee, and reached Springfield, Texas, after a trip of
   two months. This town at that time was the county seat of Limestone
   County. They settled about five miles from old Parker Fort and near
   Springfield. The town of Springfield being moved to the present town
   of Groesbeck, when the Houston and Texas Central Railroad was built in
   three miles of Springfield in 1870.
   
     NOTE: C - 12 Tex.
     
   00022"In the reconstruction days, following the war between the
   states, my father was living near Springfield when the trouble with
   the freed negroes took place. I can remember when the white men would
   come to our houses seeking my father's advice in dealing with this
   situation. I remember, one day several men came and after a lengthy
   discussion they told father "if he said the word they would take up
   arms against the troublesome negroes." But, father was a man who did
   not advise anything which would cause any more trouble and felt that
   there was already enough trouble and advised a more conservative
   course.
   
   "In those days the banks were at Waco and Dallas, the nearest distance
   to [Waco?] being forty miles and over bad roads, travel by horse-back.
   Father did not like to take these trips so be buried his money near
   the house. I remember how, when he sold his cotton one time he buried
   a thousand dollars under a post which was around a potato bank.
   Robbers would rob the stage-coaches and trains but it was seldom that
   money hid at the house was found.
   
   "I can remember our father buying an old negro women named Aunt
   Caroline, to take care of us children. He gave a thousand dollars for
   her. She remained with the family until long after the slaves were
   freed. Aunt Caroline was our delight, it was she who interceded for
   us, it was she who delighted us with ghost stories and tales of
   hob-goblins and the like. When the slaves were freed my father
   provided for them. He furnished them and let them work the land, he
   saw that they were never in want. 00033"The plantation was in the
   [Navesota?] bottom and at that time the prairie was not considered
   good for anything but ranches. About the year of 1879, he bought what
   has become known as the Smyth ranch. This was about twenty miles from
   Mexia and six as the present town of Mart. At that time Mart was
   called Willow Springs.
   
   "The ranch consisted of around six thousand acres, four thousand of
   this was in ranch and two thousand in farms. The ranch was stocked
   with horses and cattle. My oldest brother Alva P., was given charge of
   the ranch and lived on it for some years, until he moved to Mart. At
   my fathers death in 1889, this estate was divided between us children
   and part of it was cut up into farms and sold. Several of us had
   married and lived on the ranch until we later moved to other towns for
   the benefit of the schools. I moved to Mart where I still reside.
   
   "The country where the ranch was located was open prairie, no wire
   fences. When we had the round-ups the cattle were rounded up by the
   thousands and the cowboys would cut the calves off from the cows and
   brand them. The cattle were driven to the northern markets or shipped
   later by train. We had our roundups for the cattle in the spring and
   summer and in the fall we rounded up the horses and the branding was
   done after cool weather arrived.
   
   "The horses were driven to the corral where the branding took place.
   Several men worked together. A fire was built outside the corral, but
   near the fence. Each colt was roped and thrown. One man placed his
   knee on the colts neck, caught one of his ears in one hand, so that
   its head was on the ground, with the nose pointing up in the air. This
   required 00044considerable skill and was the most effective method of
   holding the colt on the ground. A further precaution was taken by
   tying the two hind feet and two fore feet together, and held slightly
   off the ground. As soon as the colt was secured in this way one of the
   men came with the red-hot iron and applied it to the colt's side,
   shoulder or hip. The application took only a few seconds. The colt was
   released to join the others. This process was continued until all the
   colts were branded. This brand lasted the animal throughout his life.
   Sometimes the brand was altered by thieves, or if the colt was sold,
   by changing the original brand into other letters or figures of brand
   used by the buyer or the horse thief.
   
   "It was not often that the branding of cattle or horses took place in
   the summer on account of being infected by insects and if they were,
   heroic remedies were used, sometimes by heating a branding iron and
   applying to the infected parts, then treating with ointment, kerosene,
   or turpentine.
   
   "It might be of interest to tell how the herd was started. The hands
   were sent out on the ranch to pen a bunch of horses. The next morning
   other horses were driven into the pen, these were driven to the nearby
   grass and a cowboy kept them together. At first there would be from
   thirty to forty, and each day this was increased until the correl was
   full. They were kept near the ranch house and soon learned the way to
   the corral when they came up at night. It was not difficult to handle
   several hundred head of horses in this way. All one had to do was to
   get on the back side of the herd and give a few yells, that would
   start the leading mares that had been in the herd the summer before,
   and they led the rest to the corral. After the first two days the herd
   was referred 00055to as the cavey-yard. This word was coined from the
   Spanish, Caballada. It comes from the same word that is used for
   horse, Caballo, Americanized in "kaveyo". In each herd there were the
   stallions, they were often good herders themselves. They rarely
   allowed any wandering in the herd. On sight of danger they swiftly
   lead the herd to safety, if out on the range.
   
   "There is a legend of the early '70's, of a handsome gray stallion who
   with his band of twenty mares, roamed the prairies, at his will. He
   was described as a pacer who never broke his gait as he easily out-ran
   all his pursuers, as he sailed on and on, always just ahead, with his
   mane flying out on both sides of his neck like wings, his long tail
   sweeping the ground he seemed to skim through the air like a flying
   bird. He was more a phantom horse than a real flesh and blood animal.
   Many and varied were the efforts made to catch him but they all ended
   in defeat. He could always be found near his range of the Navasota
   bottom until the tide of emigration finally drove him and his herd
   into the boundless West.
   
   "I remember the prairie as it was when I came to live there. They were
   beautiful in the spring with the wild flowers, and when the spring
   rains brought up the bluebonnet and the red Indian head, golden-rod
   and other wild flowers it was a landscape in as beautiful picture as
   could be painted.
   
   "In 1886, I married Miss Belle McLeish of Shreveport, Louisiana,
   daughter of Peter and Elizabeth McLeish. Mr. McLeish was a merchant
   and architect, and plantation and slave owner. Mrs. McLeish
   superintended the plantation while he followed his business. Their
   plantation was located where the city of Monroe, Louisiana now stands.
   Mr. McLeish 00066built the court house and jail. They both are still
   standing as monuments of those early days of the beginning of the town
   of Monroe.
   
   "There were seven children born to us. All lived to be grown. They
   were Alva P.; Bessie; Willie; Clyde; Leon; Azile; and an infant who
   died at birth. Bessie, wife of Ernest Strange of Mart passed away in
   November of 1918."

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