TX BIOS:  James Thomas Wood
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   Washington, 1994.
   
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   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
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   0001
   
   Life History
   
   Words
   
   EDITORIAL FIELD COPY
   
   by
   
   Mrs. Florence Angermiller, P.W. #15
   
   Page 1
   
   232
   
   Pioneer Experiences Before and After 1875 REAL COUNTY, DISTRICT #10
   
   JAMES THOMAS WOOD.
   
   "This is a sketch of my life from a child up to now, on the frontier
   of Texas. I was born in San Saba County January 6, 1857, and lived
   there until I was twenty-one years old. My father was a among the
   early settlers in that county. I have been told by some of my
   relatives that my sister, two years older than myself, was the first
   white child born in San Sabe County.
   
   "My father had a large family. He was married, twice and had seven
   children by each wife. My mother had one girl and six boys, and my
   step-mother had four girls and three boys.
   
   "My mother was like most other women of those days. They had to card
   and spin and weave to make cloth to clothe their families. They also
   knitted all of the socks. People didn't buy everything they wore then
   like they do now. They didn't have to have silk stockings to wear
   every day like most of the ladies and girls do these days. They wore
   good substantial clothes which they made themselves, and they got
   along just as well as they do now, if not better. I don't know how
   many pretty blankets and coverlets my mother had that she made
   herself, but she had enough to keep her family warm in cold weather,
   and plenty when company came to spend the night. If the women got new
   calico dresses in those days, they were just fine enough.
   
   "My grandfather settled on a little creek known by the name of
   Richland.
   
     NOTE: C.12 - 2/11/41 [?]
     
   00022
   
   He had quite a large family and owned several Negro slaves. His
   children all married and settleddup and down the little creek, so when
   his grandchildren came to see him, they were quite a bunch of little
   folks. He would get us all together and go fishing or plum hunting,
   and we would surely have a fine time. He seemed to enjoy it just as
   much as any of us. I thought there was no one on earth like my
   grandfather. When he was with us, we never thought of Indians or
   anything like that, although they came in almost every light moon and
   stole horses and often killed someone.
   
   "As my grandfather died when I was small, I'll say something about
   what my grandmother has told me of her experiences on the frontier.
   Everybody called her Aunt Betsy and called Grandpa, Uncle Jimmie Wood.
   
   "Grandpa cleared a little field and cut holes and made rails and
   fenced it. He dug the land up with a hoe, planted corn and raised it
   for their bread. Of course, it wasn't much trouble to kill deer and
   turkey for their meat, but they didn't have much fat about them, and
   she had to have grease to make soap; so she saved all of the deer and
   turkey bones, put up an ash hopper and filled it with ashes, poured
   water on the ashes, which dripped lye, then made soap.
   
   "People couldn't go to the store in those days, buy a can of lye, and
   make a pot of soap in a few minutes. They didn't know there was any
   such thing as concentrated lye.
   
   "My father was a blacksmith by trade, but he worked at it only at
   times because the heat and dust from the forge seemed to injure his
   eyes, so he followed the ranch business until after I was grown.
   
   "People didn't farm much in San Saba County when I was a boy, although
   it is a fine farming country now. Of course, there was some farming
   done then, but very few farmed for a living.
   
   00033
   
   "My father raised a few of all sorts of stock except goats. He raised
   a little buffalo calf on a cow, and it stayed with the cows just like
   the other cattle. After it was two or three years old, he sold it to
   Dr. Hudson for fifty dollars.
   
   "Dr. Hudson was starting to drive a herd of cattle to market, and he
   took the buffalo with the cattle. The cattle stampeded one night and
   the buffalo with them. The next day it went up to a man's house with
   some of the cattle, and the man killed it, thinking it was a wild
   buffalo.
   
   My father was a great hunter, and he enjoyed hunting bees, as well.
   One time he had been off on a hunt and found a bee tree. He didn't
   have anything to put the honey in, so he killed a deer and cased its
   hide, then [out?] the bee tree, filled the deer hide full of comb
   honey, and took it home.
   
   "One of the worst murders I ever knew about and one of the saddest
   sights I ever saw happened there in San Sabe. An old man came in there
   from up north who had some money. It was thought that he came there to
   buy cattle, as cattle were being driven out of that country by
   thousands after the Civil War.
   
   "There, were two young men came in there, either with this old man or
   soon afterward. They claimed that they were waiting for the old man to
   buy the cattle, and they were going to help drive them up the trail.
   
   "My father and Dave Low ran a blacksmith shop in San Saba at that
   time, and Mr. Low ran a hotel. This old man slept in a little room in
   the back of the shop and took his meals at the hotel. One morning he
   failed to go to breakfast, and when they went to see about him they
   found him dead. He had been gagged and robbed. The murderers had tied
   00044a big red handkerchief in his mouth and left him that way. I went
   and looked at him just as he lay there. It was one of the most awful
   sights I ever beheld.
   
   "The wo young men were missing that morning, so the officers suspected
   them of being the murderers, and they sent word everywhere to watch
   for these two men. They were caught not far from Lampases and brought
   back.
   
   "The sheriff wanted to chain them together, and he had Pa to make some
   irons to go around their necks. Then he brought then to the shop and
   had them kneel down while Pa braided the irons to their necks. I
   watched him while he was fastening then together, and it looked
   awfully bad to me to see those man chained together.
   
   "The smaller one of the two confessed to the murder, and they were
   taken off-somewhere and put in jail. The bigger one broke jail and ran
   off, but the smaller one refused to go with him. I don't remember
   whether or not they ever tried the little man for the murder.
   
   "When we lived on Highland Creek, there was an old man by the name of
   Poe who lived just acros the creek from our house. He gave me a scare
   some way--I don't remember just how it happened. I was small and every
   time be saw me he would halloo at me and I would run. I was so afraid
   of him that I would watch for him, and if I saw him coming I would run
   and crawl under the bed and stay hid until he left. He was the only
   person I remember being afraid of when I was a little fellow. I don't
   think a bunch of Indians would have scared me worse if I had seen the
   coming.
   
   "This old man had be a married and his wife was dead. His children had
   all married and left home, and he married an old maid named Mary Gay,
   a fine woman. I thought a lot of her; she was so good to little
   children.
   
   00055
   
   Sometimes old Grandpa Poe would go somewhere to be gone all night or
   several days, and Ma would get me go and stay with Mrs. Poe, or Aunt
   Mary as we called her, until he came back. I liked to stay with her,
   but I would watch for old Grandpa, and if I saw him coming, I would
   run, or slip off and go home.
   
   "The poor old follow went on a buffalo hunt with his son, Jess Poe,
   and some other men. He got tired of hunting and wanted to go home
   before the rest of the party did, so he hitched his mules to his wagon
   and started home. That night he camped and hobbled his mules out to
   graze. The next morning it was foggy, and while he was hunting his
   mules he became lost and couldn't find his way back to camp. He was
   out several days without anything to eat or drink, and when the rest
   of the party started home and got to where he camped, finding his
   wagon there, they began to hunt for him. They finally found him lying
   in the edge of a little hole of water with his tongue so swollen that
   it stuck out of his mouth. He was so weak from thirst and starvation
   that he was helpless, and something had bitten him on the mouth --
   they supposed it was a skunk. They took him home, but he lived only a
   few days afterward.
   
   "I was very small when the Civil War broke out, so I don't remember
   much about the first part of the war; but I remember well when it was
   over. Uncle Spence Wood was in the war, and when it was over, we heard
   that he was coming home, and all that could went to meet him. We were
   so glad that he had gone through the war and had come out without a
   scratch although he fought in several big battles. He said that the
   Yankees, as they owned the Northern men, came near to cutting him off
   from his command in one battle. He was riding an old sorrel,
   straight-backed horse that he called Straighty. He just turned old
   Straighty loose and outran them and got back to his command safely.
   
   00066
   
   Uncle Spence was the only one of Pa's brothers who was in the civil
   War; the rest of them were on duty guarding the frontier against the
   Indians. My father belonged to the Minute men. They served as rangers
   to scout after Indians, although they had to scout only ten days each
   month unless the Indians made a raid in the country. Then they were
   supposed to be ready to go at a minute's notice.
   
   "Sometimes my father would be gone for two or three weeks, and there
   was no one but my mother to look to for protection. But we felt safe
   as long as she lived, for she could shoot a gun as well as any man,
   and father said that she could beat him shooting a 'sixshooter.'
   
   "We didn't have as good schools then as we do now. Generally, out in
   the little country school, the term was very short, often not more
   than three or four months. So my schooling was just enough for me to
   learn to read, write, and spell, and some arithmetic. I just got to
   division; so addition, subtraction, and multiplication were about all
   I learned in arithmetic.
   
   "I went to one school three miles from home after I was large enough
   to carry a gun. So pa let me carry a gun, for the Indians were coming
   in almost every month. If they saw that a person had a gun, they were
   not so likely to run on to him. Besides, I could shoot very well.
   
   "There were lots of deer there, but I had never shot at one. So one
   evening on my way home from school I went hunting for a deer. I saw a
   little buck under a tree hunting acorns, so I slipped up to a log and
   lay my gun on it in order to take a rest to shoot. It started to come
   toward me, so I waited until it got within seventy-five or eighty
   yards of me and shot at it; the deer ran a little way and fell dead.
   
   "As I was the oldest boy in our family, I was the ox driver, or bull
   whacker, as some called him. The last time I was in Austin, A man
   named John Stevenson and I went with an ox team each from San Saba
   00077to Austin after a load of lumber. I think that the distance was a
   hundred miles. I believe that we got one dollar per hundred for
   hauling the lumber. It was in the winter and we weren't feeding our
   oxen. We hobbled them out at night, as the range was fine, and they
   could get plenty to eat.
   
   "Sometimes some of the old oxen would try to run off at night. They
   would hit the road after dark and go just as far back toward home as
   they could before daybreak. Then they would quit the road and go into
   athicket and lie down. They would lie so still that we could not hear
   their bells ring -- we always had one ox of each yoke belled. This may
   sound like a big story to anyone who never drove an ox team, but those
   who have had the experience of freighting with an ox team know their
   tricks.
   
   "Before we got to Austin a big snow came and covered the ground
   several inches deep. We stopped at the edge of a little town --
   Baghdad, ,I believe it was called -- and bought feed for our oxen from
   a man named Oliver. He let us sleep in his barn, so we stayed there
   until the weather got so we could travel. Then we went on and ot our
   lumber and finally got back to San Saba. I think that we were a month
   on the road.
   
   "Another time we went from Richland Creek to the Concho River twenty
   or thirty miles below San Angelo and gathered a wagon-bed full of
   pecans. The country wasn't settled up then; we seldom saw any body or
   any sign of a ranch. So anyone could gather all of the pecans he could
   find, as no one claimed them. The country was full of all sorts of
   game, so that we could hunt when we wanted to kill as much game as we
   needed. But we didn't hunt except when we needed a turkey or deer to
   eat.
   
   "We weren't gone amy longer on this trip than it took us to get our
   load and get back home, for it was dangerous to be traveling up in
   that country, because the Indians were passing through there often. We
   carried 00088our pecans to San Saba and sold them, I think that we get
   four cents a pound for them.
   
   "Two of my uncles were killed by Indians. Uncle John Myers was killed
   somewhere on the plains. We never knew for sure whether the Indians
   killed him or not, but he was killed on 'Indian credit', as many
   people were killed in those days. Uncle Boze Wood was killed on
   Richland Creek. He and Uncle Henry Wood were out north of Richland at
   what is called Cottonwood Pond, hunting, when the Indians got after
   them and they had a running fight. Uncle Boze was shot but got home
   before he died.
   
   "Awhile before he was killed, he and his wife were sleeping out on
   their porch and had two horses tied close by their bed, so that they
   could watch and try to keep the Indians from stealing them. Sometime
   in the night the Indians slipped up and cut the ropes, and led the
   horses away without awakening them or disturbing several dogs that
   were lying about in the yard.
   
   "A man by the name of Jackson Brown lived on the creek two or three
   miles above us, one day an indian boy walked into his yard, approached
   Mr. Brown, and extended his hand to shake hands. Of course, Mr. Brown
   couldn't speak the Indian's language, neither could the Indian boy
   speak our language, but there was a man on the creak named Jones who
   could speak seven different languages, so he was sent for. Mr. Jones
   asked the boy why he came, and he said that he had had a sore foot and
   that the other Indians had run off and left him. He didn't know where
   to go and finally decided to go in to a white settlement and give
   himself up, and Mr. Brown's ranch was the first one he came to. He
   didn't have his bow and arrows with him and Mr. Jones asked him where
   they were. He said that he had hidden them before he come to the house
   and went with them and 00099showed them where the bow and arrows were.
   One of the arrows had blood on it, and Mr. Jones asked what he shot
   with it, and he said he had killed a little fawn with it.
   
   "The next day Nute Brown took the Indian boy to town so that everyone
   might see him and stopped at our house for us to look at him. He was
   the first wild Indian I ever saw, and I think that he was the lousiest
   thing I ever saw. His hair hung down on his back, and I don't suppose
   that it had ever had a comb pulled through it. It was just covered
   with nits and lice.
   
   "When Nute got to town with him he had the boy's hair shingled off
   short, and the doctor put something on his head to kill the nits and
   lice. Nute got him some clothes and dressed him up so that he didn't
   look like the same boy when he took him home. He stayed with Mr. Brown
   a long time and seemed to be very well contented. Mr. Brown had some
   boys about his size, and I saw him a number of times with them and saw
   him go swimming with them, I believe that he was still with Mr. Brown
   when I left that country. I heard afterward that some of Mr. Browns
   folks took him up to San Angelo, and he wanted to stay there with the
   Mexicans, so they left him there.
   
   "A man by the name of Wiley Williams lived at San Saba who used to
   stake his horse out on moonlight nights in an open place, hide
   somewhere close by and watch for Indians. One night he noticed
   something come up close to the horse and heard something grunt or make
   a noise like a hog. He looked carefully and it appeared to be someone
   on all fours. He shot at it with a double-barreled shotgun and it ran
   off. The next morning he trailed it and found a dead Indian.
   
   "I remember of hearing my father tell of a company of Rangers being
   camped close to a settlement. Some of the Rangers had families living
   in the settlement, and sometimes some of the men would go home to see
   001010how their folks were getting along. One morning they heard a
   turkey gobble in the direction of the settlement and as one of the men
   was going to see about his family, he told them that he would go by
   the turkey roost where they had heard the turkey gobble, and if he
   killed the turkey he would bring it back to camp. After he had been
   gone a little while and had had [DEL: tome :DEL] time to get to where
   the turkey had gobbled, they heard a shot. The man didn't come back to
   camp with the turkey, and they supposed that he had missed it and gone
   on home. As he had told them he would do if he failed to kill the
   turkey.
   
   "The next day they heard the turkey gobble at the same place. Another
   one of the men wanted to go to see his family, so he told them he
   would go by the turkey roost and that if he killed the turkey he would
   bring it back to camp, and that if he missed it he would go on home.
   After he had been gone a little while they heard another gun-shot. The
   man didn't return to camp, and they supposed he had gone home.
   
   "The third morning the turkey was still gobbling at the same place,
   and another one of the men told them be wanted to go home and would go
   by and see if he could kill the turkey. It wasn't but a little while
   until they heard him shoot, and pretty soon he came back to camp
   without the turkey. He had killed it, but it was a buck Indian instead
   of a turkey gobbler. He had hid in an old hollow stump that had been
   burnt on one side and would watch in the direction of the Ranger camp
   and was able to see anyone approaching from that direction. He had a
   hole to put his gun in and shoot through. So he had killed the first
   two men. But the third man had come up on the wrong side of the stump
   and spied the Indian in there and had killed him.
   
   "I suppose that this man had suspected that there was something wrong
   about the turkey and went around on purpose, or the Indian might
   001111have gotten his scalp. So the Indian had gotten two scalps, and
   lost his own life with it by attempting to get the third one.
   
   "After mother's death, my father married a girl by the name of Warren.
   Her mother was a widow and lived in Burnett County. One time father
   and my step-mother left us older children at home to take care of the
   place while they went on a visit to Burnett County to see Grandma
   Warren. They were gone several days, and one [DEL: ight :DEL] night
   while they were away we heard our two dogs barking just like they were
   baying at something in our yard. (We lived in a bottom where the
   timber made so much [DEL: shad :DEL] shade that it was very dark in
   there at night.) So I yelled at the dogs and hissed them, and they
   barked like they were about to tear something to pieces. The next
   morning we found either sock tracks or moccasin tracks in the yard. We
   had some lum bushes set out in the yard, and one of them was almost
   twisted off at the ground. We thought that the Indian, or whoever it
   was had tried to break the plumb bush off to fight the dogs with. We
   always thought that it was an Indian hunting for horses, as people
   usually tied their horses up at night in some place to try to hid them
   from the Indians, especially on moonlight nights, or when they thought
   the Indians were liable to make a raid in the country.
   
   "My father had a mare with a very pretty little colt, and he took her
   off one night and tied her in a bottom where he thought she would be
   safe if the Indians came around. The next morning when we went to see
   about her, the little colt had gotten the rope around its neck and
   choked to death. I was like most children and thought it was awfully
   bad that the colt choked to death.
   
   "While we lived in San Saba, before my mother's death, my father had
   gone of the prettiest yellow dun mares; she was just as pretty as a
   picture. He staked her out one night right in the edge of town, not
   over 300 yards 001212from where the courthouse stands. The Indians
   came along and cut the rope and led her off. He heard the dogs barking
   all over town and heard horses traveling around town, but we supposed
   that it was someone living there who had been away and was returning.
   The next morning our horse was gone, and several others had been
   stolen that night from other persons.
   
   "I remember being at Grandpa's once when I was just a little boy, and
   we children were put at play. We heard someone hallooing away off as
   though he was in distress, but being small, we didn't pay much
   attention to it. We just played on, and about ten o'clock that morning
   someone came and told us that the Indians had killed old Man Beardy
   Hall out near the round mountain that morning. He had gone out there
   that morning to see about some cows and little [?] that he had out
   there. I suppose that he was feeding them to gentle the pigs. The
   little round mountain was about half way between Richland Creek and
   the San Saba River. Anyone could get on the little round mountain and
   see along way in every direction he supposed that these Indians were
   in this mountain looking out to see if they could locate a bunch of
   horses and [?] Mr. Hall, slipped up on him, and murdered him. Of
   course, they took his scalp so that when they got home they could have
   their big war dance, as that was their custom when they made a raid
   and killed anyone.
   
   "One of the worst scares I ever got by the Indians was when I was
   about thirteen years old. 'bout seventy-five Indians came down
   Richland Creek one day. The first place they came to was close to the
   head of the creek. [?] man named Warren Hudson lived there. He was
   standing in the door as they rode by. They stopped and led a pony off
   that he had staked closes to the house and rode on down to where a
   family of children lived by the name of Harkey. There were twelve or
   thirteen of these 001313children; both the father and mother were
   dead. But some of the children were grown, so they still stayed in the
   homestead, some of the children were playing out on the road; when
   they saw the Indians coming they all ran to the house except one
   little [DEL: girs :DEL] girl; she climbed up in an old live oak tree
   that leaned over the road, thinking they were cowhunters until they
   were almost under her. She just sat still and the Indians rode under
   her without seeing her. As they passed the house Joe Harkey got his
   gun and shot at them two or three times, but the Indians rode on
   without paying any attention to him.
   
   "A little farther down the creek they ran on to about fifteen cowmen
   who had a bunch of cattle rounded up and had a battle with them. It
   was about amile from our place. We could hear the guns shooting/
   faster than I ever heard guns shoot before, or have since. It wasn't
   long until we could hear the horses running, and in a few moments we
   saw the cowmen coming as fast as their horses could run. Alex Hall was
   in the lead. As soon as he got close enough he called to father and
   said, 'John, you all better hide; there are a hundred, Indians after
   us.' So we boys, or the largest ones, just run through the high woods
   in the fields as fast as we could and ran across the creek to where
   Uncle [??] lived. In a few minutes Pa and the rest of the folks came
   over there and the cowmen with them -- all but a man named Bomar. They
   said the last time they saw Bomar the Indians were right on his heels
   and that they were satisfied that the Indians had killed him.
   
   "In those times everybody used what were called cap-and bell guns and
   pistols, sot it took some time to reload a gun or pistol. So the
   cowmen men got powder, caps and bullets fromPa and reloaded their guns
   and pistols. Then they all went down on the river where their families
   lived 001414except two--they left Parson Davis with us and another man
   to wait on him. The Indians had lanced Parson Davis, under the arm,
   but he soon got over it.
   
   "We all stayed at Uncle Spence's that night. Uncle Spence lived in a
   field, and about ten o'clock that night we heard someone halloo down
   back of the field, and Pa stepped out and asked, 'Is that you,
   Bomar?'/ Bomar answered, 'Yes,' Pa said, 'I thought you were dead.'
   'No, he said, 'I aint dead.' So he came on in. The Indians hadn't even
   scratched him. Mr. Bomar said that the Indians crowded him so close
   that he ran to the creek, jumped off his horse, and ran under a little
   bank in the edge of a hole of water. He stayed there a few minutes and
   listened, and soon as the Indians quit making a noise, he slipped out
   and went into the post oaks and climbed up into a thick-topped elm
   tree and stayed until after dark. Then he got down and came on in. The
   hole of water he hid in was called the Bomar Hole after that, and the
   flat where they had the battle with the Indians was called the Bomar
   Flat.
   
   "'In the battle the cowmen had with the Indians, if they killed an,
   Indian, the Indians carried him off, as they always did if they could.
   They found blood on the trail the Indians took, so we supposed they
   had wounded some of them. These Indians had robbed the Widow Lindley's
   house and burned it as they came in up on the Colorado close to
   Trickum. The Widow and children happened to be away fromhome, or they
   might have been murdered.
   
   "Capt. Wood was in this battle, and he shot at an Indian who had a
   dress skirt of Mrs. Lindley's on his head for a headdress. He either
   cut it off his head or made him dodge till he lost it, for it was left
   lying on the battle ground.
   
   "After this raid, the few families that lived on Richland Creek
   decided that it wasn't safe to stay there because the Indians were
   coming 001515often and in such large bands, and that the few neighbors
   up and down the creek wouldn't have much chance to defend their
   families against one of the large bands of Indians. So we all moved
   down on the river close to San Saba town where it was more thickly
   settled, so we would have more protection. When we moved, we crossed
   the trail the Indians made that had the battle with the cowmen. It was
   so plain that we could see it for a hundred yards or more ahead of us.
   
   "Sometime after the battle on Bomar Flat, I was horse hunting one
   morning in the Bomar Flat and I looked up the creek and saw Sam [DEL:
   Dunkin :DEL] Duncan come riding down the road. As I was afoot, I
   thought that I would sit down by the side of the road and wait until
   he came up to me. He saw me and thought that I was an Indian sitting
   there and raised his gun to shoot at me. So I got up and stepped out
   in the road where he could see me; then he came on to me. He told me
   that the Indians were in the country and said for me to be very
   careful. He said that he came very near shooting me.
   
   "As soon an the Indians quit coming in such large bands and so often,
   we moved back on Richland Creek at our old home. But they made several
   raids after that, off and on for several years. My father had a nice
   bunch of horses, and they kept stealing them until they got nearly all
   of them.
   
   "I had claimed several horses, but the Indians had stolen them. So I
   bought a pony and Pa bought a fine mare at the same time. We had had
   them only about two weeks when the Indians stole them one night. Some
   neighbors followed them the next morning, overtook them sometime that
   day, and captured all of the horses except the ones the Indians were
   riding. The Indians saw the men coming after them, and they ran and
   made their escape. Then the men drove the horses back and put them in
   a pen and notified the people to come and get their horses. I went
   that evening and 001616got my pony, but pa didn't get his mare. We
   supposed that an Indian was riding her, an she was a good animal, and
   the Indians always rode the best horses they had when they thought
   there was any danger of being overtaken.
   
   "A short time after that the report got out that the Indians were in
   the country again and some of the neighbors got up a little squad of
   men and boys to go up on the head of Richland to look for them and try
   to catch them as they went out, or try to strike their trail. I went
   along with them; I think that there were about twenty of us. I was
   about fifteen years old then, and there were some more boys in the
   little band about my age. We rode all day and didn't see any signs of
   Indians.
   
   "About dark some of the men decided that there wasn't any use in
   staying out that night and were in favor of going home. However, some
   wanted to stay all night and said that they were going to do so. Then
   those in favor of going home decided that they would stay too if they
   would all hobble their horses and herd them. So everyone agreed to the
   proposition, and they unsaddled their horses and hobbled them, all
   except my horse and Bill Shipman's we were going to take the first
   turn herding the horses. By the time we were ready to go on herd, some
   of the first horses that were hobbled out had grazed off some
   distance, so we started out to round then back and get them all
   together again so that we could herd them. Bill Shipman went west of
   the camp and I went east. In a few minutes Bill ran back to camp and
   said that he had [he had?] seen a man out there on a horse, and the
   men all got their bridles and began to catch their horses and saddle
   up. Jim Harkey got his horse saddled first and galloped out in the
   direction that Bill had seen the man, and he saw a man on a horse in
   the direction that Bill and seen the man, in the shade of a tree. The
   man ran, and Jim chased him some distance and shot his pistol empty at
   him, but he soon disappeared in the brush. After we all 001716got all
   of the horses rounded up and caught, we decided that it would be best
   to tie them and guard them so that the Indians couldn't run in and
   stampede them. So we guarded them the rest of the night, and the next
   morning we hunted the country all around there to try to find some
   trail of the Indians, but we failed to find any trail that we could
   follow so we gave up the hunt and went home."
   
   PART TWO TO FOLLOW.

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