Jones County, TX - History - Progress **************************************************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Albert Scarborough Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm **************************************************************************** Jones County Jottings. PROGRESS by Larry Chittenden, Post-Ranchman. We are tired of singing love sonnets, and now since I'm here on these tracts, I am gwine to be, sah, a painter, to give you some pictures and facts. You may find I am not a great artist, but I'll portray the things that I know, For I cum hyar way back in the eighties. I have shore seen this West country grow. So if on my ten leagues of canvas Jones County is thirty miles square The colors look splashing and gaudy, remember the pictures are there! They are sketches about my surroundings, the things I have heerd, sah, an' seen; Of the progress, the people, of Stamford, of Anson, and dry Abilene! Of Sweet Water; yes, and her railroad. Macauley and Bug Scuffle, too! Of the Orient Star which is rising I hope that old road will go through. I am neither a Kipling nor Byron, though Kipling, he sings of a Star, Where "those who are good shall be happy," and "draw the things there as they are," So, Kip, you bad better come out here. We'll draw you! and tune up your tones; For I tell you, old chap, we are pious, an' happy out hyar in ole Jones. Yes, sah, I'm back in this country, way back on my old cattle range. Where the breezes are allers a blowin', but. I tell you, Jones County seems strange. Where once there was nuthin' but prairie, fine grass and some buffalo bones, They are raising big crops and wire fences, connected to new telephones. Them telephones are to amazin', these long wire fences of mine Will carry a message as surely as a regular telephone line, The captains who live in Nienda are using our south string of fence To talk to the keyrnals in Anson! By gad, sah, Jones County has sense. Our merchants are building rock houses, our Court house is putting on style; And now, sah, instead of a pistol, our Sheriff is packin' a smile! He says; "Now thor ain't nothln' doin', no killin's or stealin's in town." That the bad men and maverick branders has gone, sah, way back and sot down! But I heered he was watchin' some parties with that big meller laughin' brown eye; That "the Grand Jury's fixin' for beesness." Oh, I tell yer, our Sheriff is sly! Where rustlers and cattle thieves flourished and mavericks browsed on the range There are farmers, and houses, and windmills, be gad, sah, this country is strange. Where brush breakers dwelt in big wagons and traveled with rifles and dogs, There are drummers, and hackmen and buggies, fat horses 'and cattle and hogs. + The dogies with long horns have vanished; the Herefords have driven them out; The ranges are all getting settled; the man with the hoe is about. Where of old the coyotes and rabbits and prairie dogs gamboled at morn There are unsheltered plows, and big reapers, in fields of oats, cotton and corn. Where rattlesnakes, polecats and lizards once lurked 'neath the beargrass so cool You will find the old woman a washin', and the children en route for the school. There are bonus bees. too, and they're buzzin' 'bout givin' to railroads wot's near, But we don't have no ticks in Jones County! Thar's none of them boll weevils here! We have churches, but alas, they're scrappin', the same as in ole settled parts, Over doctrines, and creeds, and small matters, which do not affect sinners' hearts. We have meetings, they call 'em "protracted." them holiness fellers is here A practicin' out restitution. One convert has brought back a steer. An' Cizzero Scarborough told me, when 'we taken dinner with Ciz, That "a neighbor had brung back some lumber which he, sah, declared, sah, was his!" An' one chap who "stole from a widder" he ate up her shinnery sow Confessed, sah, and paid for that porker, and hence is more happy just now. Ah, that's what we call good religion. If you do a man wrong make amends! Creeds really amount to but little unless a chap's square at the ends. The Dallas Morning News. May 05, 1903. Pg. 15. [contributor's note: The article mentions Cizzero [Cisero] Scarborough, I do not know which line Cisero belongs, but probably the line of Jones County Sheriff George A. Scarborough.]