Freestone County, Texas
Reflections


Freestone Past/Present
J.R. “Sonny” Sessions

Buffalo and other Game Animals

  Early accounts of our area between the Trinity and Brazos Rivers tell 
of an abundance of wild game, deer, bear antelope and buffalo. This 
made the area popular hunting grounds for the nomadic  Indian tribes.
  Later this area intensively cultivated (mostly cotton) and it easy to find 
Indian artifacts, especially arrow heads of all descriptions. The spring 
fed creek area were the best as this where the Indians camped. Today 
virtually all our land in pastures and artifacts hard to find.
  Buffalo herds continually migrated but came to this area occasionally 
As a youth wet weather water holes were common in some areas. The 
older people called  them “Buffalo Waller’s” and said  these created  
from Buffalo wallering and digging with their  hooves, throwing dust on 
their backs to help keep the fly’s and mequitoes  off.
  The last written report of Buffalo was in a Leon Co. paper in l851
Which read “Fairfield invaded by last herd of Buffalo seen here , 
residents took their horses and guns and pursued with no success.
Cotton Gin native Avery McKinney tells of a Buffalo skull left in an old 
field he saw as a youth. Years ago I was shown an area near Cotton 
Gin’s old two story stage coach station where trees been damaged and 
said caused by Buffalo stampede thru the area.
  By l900 there none left, the antelope were probably the first to go, bear 
hunting continued until late l800’s in Walker Lake area (Richland 
Creek Lake now), the deer and turkey wiped out completely along with 
the large cats which once common. The deer here today came from 
those brought into the area after WWII. The turkey have never made a 
successful comeback.

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                     Whisky Day’s
   Some years ago friend Rev. Dewey Morgan brought me a small 
copper replica of a whisky still from one of the Southern States where
“moon shining still done”. There was contraption between the coils and 
the cooker I had never seen before, asked on my whisky making friends
what this was. He told me it was a ‘thumper keg’ buy they weren’t used 
here as our makers so good they didn’t need them. I asked what it did 
and was told it kept the mash being distilled from ‘pukeing”-or going 
into the coils before ready and messing up the end product. 
  Wasn’t unusual for rats, possums or other varmints to get into the 
mash while it working in the barrels and drown, usually removed before 
cooking but doubt any mash thrown away, guess it added little extra 
flavor. While mash would fatten hogs it .  could kill cattle. Many 
operations had fences round them to keep hogs and cattle out.
  When running the mash thru the cooker or distillery it could be run up
To three times,  anything distilled after that was poisonous and called 
“feisel”. Some whisky cookers were capable of getting better production 
than others, it a skill.


                         Grandpa’s Report
...
  At the April Freestone Co. Historical Comm. meeting Frank Steele 
presented very informative program. Mr. Steele written timely articles 
printed in Mexia paper on American history, someday will use one on 
Gen. George Washington I found very interesting. Keep the good work
Up Frank. Frank the son of my good friend Dutch Steele.
  The May Historical Comm. speaker was Mrs. Wanda Donaldon, great-
grand daughter of Texas Revolution veteran Captain Haley who buried 
at Salem Cemetery. Mrs. Donaldson a native of Teague and niece of 
Woodrow Lamberth now  lives in Temple, a retired school teacher who 
now very involved in genealogy and family history.
...