W. L. HAYLEY, PIONEER WEST TEXANS, 1944, Coke and Runnels Counties, TX ***************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net 31 January 2001 ***************************************************************** Source unknown but believed to be San Angelo Standard-Times, June 1944 W. L. Hayleys, Pioneer West Texans, Are to Observe 45th Anniversary Wednesday West Texas pioneers in the true sense of the word are Mr. and Mrs. W. L. Hayley of Snyder, who will observe their 45th wedding anniversary June 28. It was in 1899 that William Larkin Hayley and Ethel Anna Pearce were married by the Rev. G. C. Berryman of Robert Lee in the Pearce Hotel at Ballinger. After living in Robert Lee for three months they moved to Bronte where they lived 27 years. They are parents of three children, Hubert A. Hayley of Lufkin, a veteran of World War One; Mrs. Frank Strom of Snyder; and Holiday H. Hayley of Tyler, serving now in the Texas State Guard. Mr. and Mrs. Hayley have both lived colorful lives. Mr. Hayley, born in Mississippi on Oct. 31, 1875, came to Texas at the age of three with his parents, Col. and Mrs. H. H. Hayley. He has served 38 years and 10 months as postmaster at Bronte and Norton. He retired from the post office department in 1938 and is now a retired druggist and postmaster. His wife was his emergency assistant in the post office throughout the years. She took a full-time job during World War One to release a man to join the Army. * * * Once the post office safe at Bronte was blown to bits by outlaws. The loss to Uncle Sam was not so heavy but Mr. Hayley lost $75 besides the wreckage of the safe and office. Some remains of the loot were found under a railroad culvert about a mile north of Bronte; but the outlaws were not apprehended. * * * When the main street of Norton was destroyed by fire, most of the post office essentials were carried from the burning building, but the post mark stamp was lost. The next mail went through as usual but with an improvised post mark written by Mr. Hayley. Requests from over the U. S. came in for a copy of the postmark. As the inspector for instructions told Mr. Hayley he had permission to answer them, each letter was answered personally, even during the busy period of reconstruction of the office. * * * Ethel Anna Pearce, born March 2, 1880, was the first white child born in Runnels County. On Valley Creek in Runnels County the family had no address and received no mail during their four months residence on this land. Mr. Pearce paid 50 cents an acre for the land which was bought then as a part of Tom Green County. H. D. Pearce, her father, rode horseback over the country and helped to organize Runnels County. He and W. N. (Newt) Copeland, also an organizer, arranged 158 signatures necessary for organization of the county. While living at Paint Rock, Mr. Pearce helped to survey the county line between Concho and McCulloch Counties. His nine year-old son, Hubert, drove the wagon team for the surveyors. * * * The Pearce family suffered many hardships during residence on Valley Creek. When Ethel was about one month old Mr. Pearce moved his family. He stretched the first tent in Runnels City so that children might attend the first school in the county. Mr. Pearce started the post office there with mail kept in a tool chest. First the mall came slowly; later it came twice a week by stage coach from Abilene to San Angelo. * * * The second person to move to Runnels County was Maj. G. W. Perryman, an old bachelor lawyer from Washington, D. D., who later became the first county judge of Coke county. The third person to move ther was J. C. Bowman, a saloon keeper from Coleman. Maj. Perryman told the Pearce that he would starve to death if he relied on his own cooking. Consequently, he became the first boarder in the Pearce home. Since Mrs. Pearce was the only woman living in the town for about four months, she was literally drafted into cooking for early prospectors and cowboys. Maj. Perryman's law office was just large enough for his bed, desk, and chair, with walls lined with bookshelves holding his many law books. The office was the first house to go up in the new county seat. The lumber was hauled from Abilene in a wagon. * * * THE PEARCE THREE-ROOM HOUSE AND THE SALOON WENT UP SIMULTANEOUSLY. THERE WAS ONLY A VACANT LOT BETWEEN THE HOUSES, SO MR. PEARCE PUT NO WINDOWS ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE HOUSE. THE FRONT ROOM OF THE HOUSE WAS RENTED TO THE COUNTY AT $10 A MONTH TO BE USED AS A COURT ROOM UNTIL THE COURT WAS MORE PERMANENTLY LOCATED. THE SECOND ROOM CONTAINED THE POST OFFICE AND RESTAURANT. COWBOYS AND PROSPECTORS USED THE "MAIL BOX" TOOL CHEST AS A SEAT WHILE EATING. AT TIMES MR. PEARCE WOULD ASK THEM TO STAND WHILE SOME ONE RECEIVED HIS MAIL. * * * The third room was the living quarters for the family. Although the town contained at one time 700 inhabitants, few people moved in the first year. Road juries were appointed with Mr. Pearce and two others as a committee for the Runnels City-Coleman road. In 1882 Mrs. L. F. Gressett, a present resident of Ballinger, traveled over this road with freshly-cut brush lying on each side. Mrs. Gressett was among the earliest settlers in Runnels City. Mr. Pearce was a committee member appointed to help dig a public well on the town square for the city's drinking water. Water for household use had to be hauled several miles from Elm Creek. The water supply became critical during the terrible drough of the early 1880s. The government shipped a carload of flour and bacon to Coleman to be divided among the needy of Runnels County. The first memory of Mrs. Haley's was the coming of the cowboys to town-- getting drunk, galloping their horses, whooping and shooting their six- guns. Mrs. Haley's left foot was almost severed on a broken whisky bottle on the main street. With her mother as her only doctor, it was a year before she could walk again. A runner was sent to Coleman for a doctor who arrived on horseback with quinine. When she was deaf for two years, then hearing returned in one ear. * * * Although there were no doctors in the county during the first few years, Mrs. Pearce was never too busy to answer the calls of the sick. Many times on a dark night over dim trails, traveling behind a man in a saddle who held her baby. Mrs. Pearce bound up wounds of the cowboys. She nursed them and cooked something special on their birthdays. There was a rough element of cowboys and they hated Mr. Pearce because he was Justice of peace. He always believed his life was spared because of his wife's kindness. * * * Mrs. Hayley lived in Runnels City, now a ghost town, until she was seven years old when the family moved to Ballinger. The first town lots were sold June 29, 1886. The six youngest Pearce girls were raised in the pioneer Pearce Hotel. Several churches in Ballinger housed the first schools while the six- room rock school building went up. Mr. Pearce acquired one of the finest libraries in Ballinger and reqired his children to read several hours each day. Mr. Pearce sent his oldest daughter, Mary, to college two years, but he did not have the funds to send the others. When Mrs. Hayley was a senior in Ballinger High School, she was chosen as having the plainest and neatest hand-writing. Therefore, she was offered a job of copying tax rolls of Runnels County. She performed this job at home between her duties in the hotel. Then Mrs. Hayley spent a year setting type by hand for the Coke County Rustler, which is now the Robert Lee Observer. Her brother the late Hubert Pearce, was the editor. Mrs. Hayley loved to write and became a correspondent for many papers, among them the San Angelo Standard Times, Bronte Enterprise, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She has received several prizes for magazine articles. The Hayleys believe in contructive hobbies. Mr. Hayley grows fine pecan and fruit trees. Mrs. Hayley grows and distributes fine flowers, makes scrap books, and photo albums. Both have helped a worthy friend through college. Several months ago the Hayleys bought a home in Snyder to be near their only daughter, Mrs. Frank Strom, whose ranch is 15 miles from Snyder. Their lives are outstanding, examples of the hardships and rewards endured by the real settlers of this West Texas. NOTE: This articles was found in one of the scrapbooks that my grandmother Ethel Pearce Hayley made. Mary Love Berryman