Interview with J.C. Montgomery,Hall County, Texas
Submitted by Darren McCathern quohadi@arn.net
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Written By:  Mrs. C. May Cohea P.W. 


Interview with: Mr. J. C. Montgomery 

President of First National Bank, 

Memphis, Texas 

(Mr. Montgomery approved the history already prepared of Memphis and added a few 
items of interest on old Salisbury and the Indian scare of 1891 and of the 
eccentric Col. Hughes, whose estate still owns the Rocking Chair ranch near 
Wellington). 

Mr. Montgomery, whose father was the founder of Memphis, was just coming into 
manhood at the time of the Indian scare. He was rather undecided whether it was 
1890 or 1891, but said perhaps the latter date was correct. The scare started 
when Mr. Huddleston saw cowboys on the Rocking Chair ranch near Wellington 
killing a beef. Mr Huddleston rode his mule to death to get to town with the 
news. The agent at Salisbury sent out the news and added that he was leaving 
immediately. It was about dusk when the news was brought to Wellington and about 
midnight at Memphis. The Rev. Price organized the men at the latter place and 
drilled them so that they would be prepared to defend the town from the expected 
attack. Mr. Montgomery remembers that he was sent out to Dr. Cannon's house 
about a mile from town to warn him, but the doctor just grunted and turned over 
in his bed and went back to sleep. A Mr. Huddleston now lives at Estelline, 
perhaps the same one who acted the role of Paul Revere in the Indian scare. 

In the early days old Salisbury grew up on the Fort Worth and Denver; however, 
when Memphis was established, all the inhabitants moved to the new town site. 
Nothing remains of Salisbury today. The original community of Salisbury was 
established by R. E. Montgomery, no relation of the Mr. Montgomery who founded 
Memphis. R. E. Montgomery was a townsite man for the railroad as it built 
through the Panhandle. He arranged for towns every seven miles or so, thus 
bringing Salisbury into existence. The site of Salisbury is about 3 and a half 
miles southeast of Memphis, the ground being farmed over at the present. For 
some time the basement or foundation of the old Salisbury hotel remained to mark 
the spot, but nothing can be seen on the site. [Today?] a farm house sits on the 
site of W. L. R. Dixon's store at old Salisbury. Tom J. Cox 

was Dixon's store manager in Salisbury. Mrs. Ewing, another old-timer of 
Salisbury, was buried near oneof the mounds in the vicinity. 

Mr. Montgomery knew the eccentric owner of the Mill Iron and the Rocking Chair 
ranches, Colonel Hughes, who loved to hunt, bringing his bird dogs, several at a 
time, with him from Denver to hunt on the range, which he made into a preserve, 
one still being kept on the Rocking Chair by his descendants. His daughter comes 
out from Denver to visit the ranch near Wellington at the present time. 

A negro drove the four fine horses which the colonel had to his coach, a huge 
thing, larger than a motor car and smaller than highway coaches. The coach 
contained sleeping quarters and cooking facilities, thus resembling the trailers 
of the modern time. Once when Hughes was crossing Salt Fork near Wellington, the 
coach mired in the sand. Taking out the horses the party left the coach and went 
to get help to extricate the lumbering vehicle. On their return, the coach had 
disappeared, having sunk in the treacherous quicksand. 

Colonel Hughes maintained a hunting lodge neat Estelline on the Mill Iron until 
he established a game preserve on the Rocking Chair. 

The daughter of his manager of the Mill Iron, Bob Green, is now Mrs. Arthur 
Eddleman of Estelline. Buck Eddleman, her father, was an old cowboy on the 
ranch. 

Joe Birchfield, caretaker of the Hughes ranch near Wellington, should still be 
living there. 

Large ranches in the region of Hall County in the early days were the Shoe-Bar, 
owned by T. S. Bugbee, the Mill Iron, by Hughes; the J. A. by Adair-Goodnight; 
the 96, by J. A. Finch; and the Diamond-Tail, W. R. Curtis. 

Sources:
American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-
1940