These
are the personal recollections of Embry Hatfield
of the early days in Parker county and Palo Pinto county, Texas.
This
is the last week in October 1983 and getting near to Christmas, a time
when we begin to think of our loved ones and hope to hear from them,
send cards and presents. I had my eightieth birthday last April so I
am getting along in years which makes me realize that I am one of a
very few of the generation of my family still alive. I feel that out
of love for my children and grandchildren and those yet to be born that
it is my duty to pass on what I know and have learned of the history
of our family so they can have and cherish the memory of their roots
and heritage of a pioneer family that helped settle this great country
of ours that we live in and enjoy.
The
Hatfields settled in the Kentucky and Virginia area about the time that
Daniel Boone made his push westward. I think we are all aware of the
Hatfield and McCoy feud. My grandfather (Mark Hatfield) had migrated
to Texas before the feud took place. He migrated to Texas around 1873
and the feud didn't occur until the 1880's.
My
great-grandfather (Alexander Hatfield) was born in Kentucky but he moved
his family to Dallas County, Missouri where my grandfather grew up,
met and married my grandmother, Clarinda Bruton. I think they married
some time in the early fifties. (Sept. 16,1849 Springfield, Missouri)
They had eight children - two girls and six boys. My father (James Bruton
Hatfield) was born in Missouri in 1867.
Wagon
Train to Texas
According
to the stories my father and grandmother told me, there were 23 families
that formed a group that came to Texas via wagon train. At this time
Oklahoma had been designated as an Indian territory so they traveled
down the line of Oklahoma and Arkansas to stay out of trouble with the
Indians. I don't know exactly where they crossed the Red River but they
crossed North of the present towns of Dallas and Ft. Worth, Texas.
At
the crossing they were attacked by Indians. Indians would come out of
the Oklahoma territory on horse stealing raids. These pioneers had their
stock pulling covered wagons along with their loose stock and they had
a pretty tough fight. My grandfather Mark Hatfield made the statement,
"If we all hadn't been just out of the Civil War and trained in
warfare; we might have got the worst of it." The Indians managed
to steal some of their horses but they were able to track the Indians
down and recovered some of their horses.
In
the fight my grandfather's brother-in-law John Green was wounded, so
they went into Ft. Worth which at that time was just that, an Army fort.
Pioneer settlements had located themselves around the fort for protection.
The Army surgeon at the fort treated Mr. Green's wounds. They wound
up staying in the area for a little over a year.
In
the meantime the wagon train had broken up. One of the Hatfield brothers
went on to Bell County and one of them turned back to Arkansas. My grandfather
and one of his brothers, Howard Hatfield and the sister (Ann Green),
with a number of the other families that were on the original wagon
train, headed for Palo Pinto county with the intention of settling in
the Littlefield Bend (a large bend in the Brazos River). The Hales and
Ubanks families were among those on the way to Littlefield Bend.
Indian
Fight at Cox Prairie
Just
past Weatherford they stopped at a settler's cabin. This settler's name
was Cox and the land which surrounded his homesite has since become
known as Cox Prairie. My father's oldest sister (Sarah) was sick and
expecting a child so they stopped close to Cox's cabin and circled the
wagons for protection from Indians. Most of the grownups were at the
Cox house. They put the sister in the house where she could have proper
care for the baby to be born. My father said that about sundown (they
had left the children down in the wagons), some of the folks in the
house began yelling at the children to come up to the house because
the Indians were raiding.
This
scared the children and in their confusion and hurry to get to the house,
they left five year old Jim. Jim later said that for some reason he
doesn't remember being scared. He was trotting behind the other children
when he looked over in the bushes and saw a couple of Indians jabbering
and pointing at him, he didn't seem to be scared because he didn't realize
what the commotion was all about. They didn't want Jim anyway, they
were after horses.
Jim
said that when he made it inside the yard fence which was made of log
posts and poles and saw all the men lined around the fence with their
guns and he heard the other children crying, then he began to get frightened.
He started whimpering and his Dad (Mark Hatfield) gave him a pat on
the butt and said, "James, you get in the house there, get in there."
When he went into the house his mother Clarinda and sick sister were
in another room and they wouldn't let him go into that room. So he went
into the kitchen where grandma Hale was washing the dishes and singing
"Amazing Grace." Old grandma didn't seem to be scared, so
Jim thought he should stay with her. He grabbed her apron and tagged
along with her. When grandma Hale had finished with the dishes she went
over to the corner and picked up an old musket and said "Jimmy,
you go get in there by the fireplace with the rest of the kids. They
ain't no Indians gonna bother you as long as I've got this old musket."
Then she walked out into the yard and joined the men in protecting the
house from the Indians.
My
father went on to say that there were so many Indians that they didn't
even fire on them because they were afraid they would have been massacred.
The Indians managed to get most of their horses but the next day with
some help from the Rangers or State Troopers, they tracked the Indians
for several miles and recovered some of their horses.
My
father's sister had a still birth and she died a few days after the
baby. They were among some of the first that were buried at Cox Prairie,
my grandfather and grandmother are also buried there.
Life
along the Brazos River
When
they left Cox Prairie, they went to Littlefield Bend and stayed there
for a year or so. Most of the good land in this area had already been
taken. My grandfather scouted across the river and settled on a piece
of land by the old road. (Red Bluff community) At that time the old
road was the only direct road from Ft. Worth to El Paso. They built
a log cabin and put up a rail fence around his corn field. In addition
to farming they raised cattle on the open range and started their new
life on the Texas frontier. They later built a larger log cabin with
a "dog trot" through the building. This old house stood until
I was eighteen or twenty years old at which time it was destroyed.
My grandfather was also a good rock mason and worked a great deal in
building construction. He built a number of buildings in the area and
some of the ones he built in Mineral Wells, Texas are still standing
today. My father James Bruton Hatfield grew up in this area. He told
me that some of the first paying work he performed was helping his grandfather
cut railroad ties for the new railroad. The railroad came through in
about 1880. My father later worked with the railroad in building and
repairs.
My
father, being a good fiddler played at a number of dances. My mother
was a good dancer, loved to dance, was a nice looking woman and was
very popular at dances. They met, fell in love and married. They worked
around the railroad and at this, that and the other, until after my
two older brothers (Noah and Herman) were born. About this time my other
brother Tommy, who passed away as a child, was born.
The
Old Red Bluff Community
(some of the people living there were: Mark - Terrell - Benton -
Jim - Poley Hatfield, Jim & Ed Emberland, Charlie Marlo, Louis Goin,
Housewrite, Wricht (Harry Wright?), Cambell, Guy Roy, Barnes, Autry,
Matt Snow, Lee Brown, Cox)
They
bought a place from the state of Texas, it was about four miles southwest
of my grandfather's (Mark Hatfield) old place. The place was in the
mouth of a canyon and part of the land ran back on top of a mountain.
They built their log cabin in the canyon mouth and lived there for a
few years. Most of their good farm land was on top of the mountain.
The area began to build up and the residents even built a school. In
about 1900 my father and mother built a new house on top of the mountain.
In April 1903, I was born in the new house. In January of the next year
my mother and brother Tommy passed away. This left my father with me
(the baby) and his two other boys to make it alone.
My
grandmother Hatfield lived with us until I was about three years old.
She went blind and had to move in with her other son, my uncle George
who lived in grandpa Mark's old home. My two brothers were nine and
eleven years older than me so by the time I was seven or eight they
were out on their own.
I
didn't have many playmates as a child except for my dogs and I had a
horse: in fact I had plenty of horses to play with. I had the whole
area for miles around, the mountains, river, creeks and streams for
a playground and I enjoyed it all. I've never regretted my boyhood.
Most of my school days were spent at the Red Bluff school. My grandfather
and grandmother Hatfield had donated the acreage for the school building
which was close to their old home. I went to school there until it disbanded
when I was twelve years old. My father transferred me and his land into
a district on top of the mountain. I finished the other two years of
my schooling up there.
My
father was a community worker, he worked with anything in the community
that would help the community, church or school. He was a trustee of
the school for thirty years. When World War I started in 1917, I was
about thirteen or fourteen, both my brothers entered the war. I remember
I did a lot of hunting and trapping in the area during the war as fur
prices were good. I trapped for small varmints and really enjoyed it.
I
also visited my grandmother Shoemaker who lived close to Garner. My
grandmother Hatfield passed away when I was about eight years old. (Feb
25, 1913) My grandmother Shoemaker died in 1929.
Texas
by Ship
I'd
like to stop here and relate the story of the migration of my mother's
family from Georgia to Texas. My mother's parents Eugene and Susan Shoemaker
migrated from Georgia to Texas about 1870. Their oldest child John was
born in Georgia. My grandmother told me the story of their trip. Instead
of coming via wagon train as most did, they sailed from a port on the
Georgia coast around the Gulf of Mexico to Texas near Galveston. They
were passengers on a freight ship which had just hauled a load of buffalo
hides to the northern markets. On the way back they had booked passage
on this ship. They loaded their belongings on the deck and they lived
on deck during their voyage to Texas. She said that the stench of the
buffalo hides was still present on the ship and between the hide smell
and sea sickness, that was the sickest she had ever been. She was never
so happy to see dry land as when they docked in Texas.
When
they arrived they bought wagons, ox teams and yoke of oxen. They loaded
their supplies and started for the frontier. It took them until about
1880 to reach their destination in Parker county near Millsap about
five miles from where my father's family had settled. Grandfather Eugene
was a good carpenter and they worked on various building jobs and farmed
along the way. My mother (Mary "Mollie" Shoemaker) was born
near the coast of Texas, I don't know exactly where, I wish I did.
Not
long after they arrived in Parker county, my grandfather Shoemaker passed
away in about 1895. My grandmother, left with the family on her own,
herded cattle on the range and about 1900 bought the place near the
town of Garner. She raised her family on this land and she passed away
there in 1929.
I'll end my story here, hoping that you will get something out of it
and that you will keep records of your family. You may not realize it
now, but the older you become, the more you'll appreciate the history
and heritage of your family. I'd like to urge each of you, my children,
grandchildren and great-grandchildren to keep records of your family,
your wives' and husbands' families and tie it in. It's something you'll
always be proud of. There's nothing greater than our heritage of where
we came from and where we are going.
The Hatfields
- early days in Texas ©
Selected
entries from tapes of Embry L. Hatfield
