BIOS:  A. Harry WIlliams

   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
   
   Early Settlement
   
   Edward Townsend P.W.
   
   McLennan County
   
   District # 8
   
   no. words 350
   
   file no. 230
   
   page no. 1
   
   A. Harry Williams (personal interview)
   
   In 1865, there was only one village in the southern part of what is
   known as McLennan County. It consisted of one small store, a
   blacksmith shop, and church was held occasionally out under some Live
   Oak Trees. The principal merchandise sold was brandied cherries,
   Hostetter Bitters, tobacco, and groceries. This village was then known
   as Masterville, now Bruceville, Texas. There were not many people
   living in its trade territory and these people were joined together
   for offensive and defensive purposes.
   
   During the war, bushwhackers, army deserters and other bad and
   dangerous characters drifted into this part of the country. At this
   time, E. Tom Cox, a great hunter, lived at Masterville. One of his
   neighbors, Henry Williams owned a few negroes. Cox and Williams
   trained the dogs by having them run one of these negroes. These dogs
   were very useful in deer hunts. In a deer hunt, old Roller, the leader
   of the pack, chased the deer into the hidden camp of these outlaws in
   one of the upper marsh thickets on South Cow Bayou. The outlaws
   recognized the dog as being one of Tom Cox's "negro dogs" and killed
   him. They decided that Cox was out after them with the dogs, so they
   sent him a warning note, which was dropped in a store in Waco village
   where Cox and Williams were known to trade. The note stated: " We have
   heard and we know you have been hunting and trying to run us [down?]
   with "negro dogs". So we are sending you this note and now warning you
   that if you three D--D--D-- don't leave this county and that at once,
   we will shoot your d----- hides so full of holes that they won't hold
   corn shucks." This open note was signed by a dozen of these known bad
   men. The store keeper put a boy on a horse to take the note to Cox and
   Williams and their close companion, Bill Long.
   
     NOTE: [C12?] [?] [Texas?]
     
   00022They decided they must answer the note. To be sure that their
   reply was received by the bad men, they sent it direct to their camp.
   The outlaws had moved their camp to thickets of Owl Creek beyond the
   Leon River. The answer was addressed to the signers of the threatening
   note. The answer was: "We have received the note dropped by you and
   signed by several of you. Answering the same, we wish to say that we
   have not been hunting you with negro dogs, or in any way hunting you
   or meddling with you or any of your sort. We are living here, as you
   know, have our families here and all we have is here. we did not come
   here to be run off and we are not going and all we ask of you is not
   to shoot from behind a tree." This was signed by [Tom?] Cox, Henry
   Williams and Bill Long. Three men against dozens of outlaws. The
   friends went armed and met often to talk over the situation.
   
   Williams' horse, Billy Buttons, was the fastest horse in this part of
   the country. One afternoons as Williams was going home from a visit to
   Cox, Cox decided to play a joke on Williams and at the same time see
   how fast the horse, Billy, could run. He put on a strange hat, got on
   a strange horse, and took a short cut up a long branch. By riding
   fast, he came out in sight of Williams who was just about half way
   across the prairie. Cox had with him a big, old, muzzle-loading rifle.
   He thought that Williams would run for the brush when he saw what he
   thought was a stranger, but, instead, Williams slipped off on the far
   side of his horse and laid his old shot gun, known as "Old Betsey"
   across the saddle. Cox knew just how Williams was armed, and how far a
   bullet from "Betsey" would carry, so he stayed back out of gun-shot
   range and sent a bullet from his longer-ranged rifle singing over
   Williams' head. Instead of running, at the report of the rifle,
   Williams leaped into the saddle and started full speed right at the
   man with the rifle. 00033In the twinkling of an eye, Cox realized that
   the joke had turned with a vengeance--that Williams' "Betsey"
   chambered twenty-one buck-shots in each barrels that Williams was a
   dead shot--that he had nothing but an empty rifle. It was up to him to
   let his friend know who he really was, and do it quickly. Before this,
   they had agreed that , if at any time, one must make himself known to
   the other, that he would pull off his hat and hold it high in the air
   on the end of his gun. William was often heard to say that he never
   saw a hat get on a gun so quick and get up so high in the air in such
   a little time as Tom Cox's hat did that evening. Long before [DEL: he
   :DEL] Williams got in range [DEL: of :DEL] with "Old Betsey", Tom
   hollered out: "Hold up Henry, this is only Tom." This was an
   unthoughted joke and came very near being a tragedy. But E. Tom Cox
   was a great practical joker until he died. Ever after this, when Cox
   got too rough, Williams would say to him: "Probably you want to see
   how fast Billy Buttons can run."

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