Latest / Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881 / 014 - The Salt Lake War and a Long Trek

Transcript

014 - The Salt Lake War and a Long Trek · Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter eleven of Six Years with the Texas Rangers eighteen
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: seventy five to eighteen eighty one. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Six
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Years with the Texas Rangers eighteen seventy five to eighteen
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: eighty one by James B. Gillette. The Salt Lake War
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and a long trek. At the foot of the Guadalupe
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Mountains one hundred miles east of El Paso, Texas, are
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: situated several large salt deposits known as the Salt Lakes.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: These deposits were on public state land for a hundred
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: years or more. The residents along the Rio Grande in
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Alpaso County and in northern Mexico had hauled salt from
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: the lakes for a charge where there was no one
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: to pay, as the deposits were not claimed by any owner.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: All one had to do was back his wagon to
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the edge of the lake and shovel it full assault
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: and drive off from San Elizario to the Salt Lakes.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: It was just ninety miles and there was not a
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: drop of water on the route. The road that had
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: been traveled along by big wagon trains was almost as
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: straight as an arrow and an extra fine condition. The
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: salt hollers would carry water in barrels to what was
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: known as the halfway station, about forty five miles from
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: San Alazario. Here they would rest and water their horses
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: and leave half their water for the return trip. The
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: team stirs would then push onto the lakes, load their wagons,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: rest the teams a day or two, and on their
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: return trip stop at the halfway station, water their animals,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: throw the empty barrels on top of the salt, and
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: without again halting, continued to San Elizario on the Rio Grande.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Charlie Howard, after his election as judge of the Alpaso District,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: made his home at the old town of Franklin and
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: now known as al Paso. He saw the possibilities of
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: these salt lakes as a money making proposition, and, knowing
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: they were on public land, wrote his father in law,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: George Nippleman at Austin, to buy some land certificates and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: send them to him so he could locate the land
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: covering the salt deposits. As soon as the land was located.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Judge Howard forbade anyone to haul salt from the lakes
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: first securing his permission. Mexicans along both sides of the
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Rio Grande adjacent to al Passo became highly indignant at
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: this order. A subcontractor on the overland mail route between
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: al Paso and Fort Davis named Luis Cardis supported the
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Mexicans and told them Howard had no right to stop
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: them from hauling salt. Cardis was an Italian by birth,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: had come to al Paso County in eighteen sixty, married
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: a Mexican wife, identified himself with the county, and became
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: prominent as a political leader. He was a Republican, while
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Judge Howard was a Democrat. Cartis and Howard soon became
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: bitter enemy, and in September eighteen seventy eight, this conflict
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: between them became so acute that Howard killed his opponent
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: with a double barreled shotgun in s Schultzen Brothers store
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: in Franklin. This at once precipitated the contest known as
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the Salt Lake War. The brave threats were made against
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: Howard by the Mexicans. After killing Cardi's judge, Howard led
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: to New Mexico, and from his seclusion in that state,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: he called on the Governor of Texas to send rangers
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: to Alpasso to protect him in the courts over which
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: he presided at that time, and how a company of
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the Frontier Battalion was within five hundred miles of that town.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Alpasso was seven hundred and fifty miles by stage from
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: San Antonio or Austin, and the journey required about seven
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: days and nights travel over a dangerous route, an unusually
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: hard trip on any passenger attempting it. The Governor of
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Texas therefore sent Major John B. Jones from Austin to Topeka,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Kansas by rail, and that's as far west to New
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: Mexico as the Santa Fe Railroad ran at that time,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: and thence by stage down to al Paso. Major Jones
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: dropped into the old town Franklin, now Alpasso, unheralded and unknown.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: He sat about the hotel and gained the information he
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: needed and made himself known to the authorities, and proceeded
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: at once to organize and equip a company of twenty rangers.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: John B. Tayes, brother to the episcopal minister of that district,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: was made lieutenant of the new command, which was known
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: as a detachment of Company C and stationed in the
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: old town of San Alizario, twenty five miles southeast of
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: El Paso. Soon after this detachment of Rangers had been authorized,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Judge Howard appeared at San Alzario and sought protection with it.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: No sooner had it become known that Judge Howard was
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: back in Texas than the Ranger company was surrounded by
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: a corn of armed Mexicans twenty three hundred number, who
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: manded the body of the jurist Tenant. Tayes refused to
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: surrender Howard, and the fighting began. Was kept up two
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: or three days. At intervals. Sergeant Baltimore, in passing through
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the courtyard of the buildings which the Rangers were quartered,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: was shot down and killed by Mexican snipers located on
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: top of some adobe buildings within range of the quarters.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Then an American citizen, mister Ellis, was killed near company
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: sas camp. After several days of desultory fighting, the leaders
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: of the mob, under a flag of truce, sought an
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: interview with Lieutenant tays The lieutenant finally agreed to meet
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: two of the leaders and while the parley was in progress,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: armed Mexicans, one at a time, approached at the peace
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: party until forty or fifty had quietly surrounded Lieutenant Tayes
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: and put him at their mercy. The mob then boldly
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: demanded the surrender of the Ranger company, Judge Howard and
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: two other Americans, Atkinson and McBride, friends of the Judge
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: that had sought protection with them. There is no doubt
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: that the Mexicans intimidated Lieutenant days after he was in
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: their hands, and probably threatened him with death unless their
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: demands were granted. The Lieutenant returned to the ranger camp
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: with the mob and said, was it is all settled?
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: You were to give up your arms and horses that
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: you will be allowed to go free. The Rangers were
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: furious at this surrender, but were powerless to help themselves,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: but the mob had swarmed in upon them from all sides.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: Billy marsh, one of the youngest men in the company,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: was so indignant that he cried out to his commander,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: the only difference between you and skunk is it skunk
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: has white streak down his back. Judge Howard, seeing the
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: handwriting on the wall, began shaking hands and bidding his
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: ranger friends goodbye. As soon as the Mexicans had gotten
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: possession of the ranger's arms, they threw ropes over the
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: heads of Howard Brian Natkinson. Then founding fast running ponies,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: they dragged the unfortunate men to death in the streets
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: of San Alzario and cast their mutilated bodies into possas
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: or shallow wells. Mexicans then disappeared, most of them, crossing
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: the Rio Grande into Mexico. Lieutenant tes at once resigned
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: as commander of the Rangers, and Private Charles Ludwig was
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: made first sergeant, placed in charge of the company until
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the Governor of Texas could send the commissioned officer to
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: take command of it. Had lieutenantes held out twenty four
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: hours longer, a thing which he could easily have done,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: he would have escaped the disgrace and mortification of surrendering
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: himself and his company to a mob of Mexicans. Were
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: within that time, john Ford, with a man of New
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: Mexico cowboys, swept into the Rio Grande Valley to relieve
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: the besieged Rangers. On learning of the fates of Howard
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: McBride Atkinson, Ellis and Sergeant Baltimore. A rescue party raided
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: up and down the valley from San Alizario to El
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Paso and killed several armed Mexicans accused of being part
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: of the mob that had murdered the Americans. The present
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Battalion of Texas Rangers was organized May first, eighteen seventy four,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: and in all their forty six years of service, this
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: surrender of Lieutenant Tyes was the only black mark ever
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: chalked up against it. Afterward, when I arrived an ol
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Passo with Lieutenant Baylor, had many talks with Privates George Lloyd,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Doctor Shivers, Bill Rutherford, and Santiago Cooper, all members of
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Taes's company, and most of them believe Lieutenant Taes had
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: a streak of Yell in him, while a few thought
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: he made a mistake in agreeing to an interview with
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: the mob, thereby allowing himself to be caught napping and
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: forced to surrender. Conditions in El Paso County were now
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: so bad that Lieutenant Baylor was ordered into the country
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: to take command of the Ranger company. For leaving to
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: assume his command, Lieutenant Baylor was called to Austin from
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: his home in San Antonio and had a lengthy interview
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: with Governor Roberts. Baylor was instructed by his excellency to
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: use all diplomacy possible to reconcile the two factions and
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: settle the Salt Lake War peaceably. The Governor held both
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: sides to the controversy were more or less to blame,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: and what had been done can I be undone, and
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: the restoration of order was the prime requisite rather than
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: a punitive expedition against the mob members. On July twenty eight,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy nine, Private Henry Maltimore and myself reached San
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Antonio from Austin and presented our credentials to Lieutenant Baylor,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: who thereupon advised us that he had selected August second
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: as the day to begin his march to San Antonio
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: de al Paso County. In his camp on the San
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Antonio River in the southern part of the city, the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant had Mustard myself as sergeant, and Private's Henry Moltimore
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: dick ed gos Small, crim Cow and George Harold. Early
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: on the morning of August second, eighteen seventy nine, our
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: tiny detachment left San Antonio on our long journey one
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: wagon carried a heavy old fashioned square piano. On top
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: of this was loaded to Lieutenant's household goods. At the
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: rear of the wagon was a coup of game chicken
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: four hands and a cock, where Lieutenant Balor was fond
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: of game chickens as a table delicacy, though he never
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: fought them. His family consisted of Missus Baylor, two daughters,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Helen aged fourteen and Mary, a child of four or
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: five years, and Miss Kate Signore, sister of Missus Baylor.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: The children and ladies travel in a large hat drawn
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: by a pair of mules. Rations for men and horses
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: were hauled in a two mule wagon, while the rangers
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: rode on horseback in advance of the hack and wagons.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Two men traveling in New Mexico and a two wheeled
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: cart asked permission to travel with us for protection. Naturally,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: we made slow progress with this unique combination. As well
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: as I can remember, eighteen seventy nine was a rather
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: dry year, for not a drop of rain fell upon
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: us during this seven hundred mile journey. When we passed
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Fort Clark in Kinney County and reached Devil's River, we
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: were on the real frontier and I will to attack
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: by Indians at any time. It was necessary therefore to
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: keep a strong guard posted at all times around our campfires.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: A knight Lieutenant Balor entertained us with the counts of
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: early days on the frontier. He was born August twenty fourth,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty two, old Fort Gibson, in the Cherokee Nation
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: now the state of Oklahoma. His father, John Walker Baylor,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: was a surgeon in the United States Army. Tennant Balor
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: was a soldier by training and by inheritance. In eighteen
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: seventy nine, he was in his forty seventh year and
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: stood six feet two inches tall, a perfect specimen of
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: a hardy frontiersman. He was highly educated, wrote much for
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: papers and magazines, was a fluent speaker, and a very
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: interesting talker and story teller. He was less reserved than
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: any captain under whom I ever served. He had taken
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: part in many Indian fights on the frontier of Texas,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: and his descriptions of some of his experiences were thrilling.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: The Tenant Baler was a high toned Christian gentleman and
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: had been a member of the church from childhood. In
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: all the months I served with him, never heard him
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: utter an oath or tell a smutty iron. He neither
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: drank whiskey nor used tobaggo. Had he written a history
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: of his operations on the frontier and a biography of himself,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: it would have been one of the strangest and most
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: interesting books ever written. I have not the power of
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: language to describe Lieutenant Baylor's bravery, because he was as
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: brave as it is possible for a man to be.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: He thought everyone else should be the same. He did
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: not see how a white man could be a coward.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: He had in a fierce battle fought by the Pache
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Indians on October five, eighteen seventy nine, I saw some
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: of his rangers refused the budge when called upon to
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: charge up a mountain side and assault the redskins concealed
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: above us and some rocks. George Harold, one of the
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: attacking parties, said, tenant we charge up that hill over
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the ground, every one of us will be killed. Yes,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I suppose you are right, declared Baylor, contemptuous smilele on
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: his face. Then, pointing some Mexicans hidden behind some boulders
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: below us, he added, you had better go back to them.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: That is where you belong. Tennant Taylor was as tenderhearted
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: as a little child and would listen to any tale
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: of woe. He frequently took men into the service, stood
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: good for their equipment, and ovan had to pay the
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: bill out of his own pocket. All men looked alike
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: to him, and he would enlist anyone when there was
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: a vacancy in the company. The result was that some
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: of the worst sends, some owned valley wrestlers, got into
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: the command and gave us no end of trouble, nearly
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: causing one or two killings in her camp. Baylor cared
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: nothing for discipline in the company. He allowed his men
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to march carelessly. A scout of ten or fifteen men
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: would sometimes be strung out a mile or more on
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: the march, as suppose to one who had commanded a
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: regiment during the Civil War, detachment of Texas Rangers looked
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: small and insignificant, so we let his men have pretty
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: much their own way. To a man like myself who
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: had been schooled under such captains as Major Jones, Captain Coldwell,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Captain Roberts, and Lieutenant Reynolds, commanders were always careful of
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: the disposition and conduct of their men. This method of
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: balers seemed suicidal. He just seemed inevitable that we would
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: sometime be taken by surprise shot to pieces. Another peculiarity
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: of this wonderful man was his difference to time. He
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: would strike an Indian trail, take his time, and follow
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: it to the jumping off place. He would say, there
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: is no use to herry boys, We will catch them
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: after a while. For instance, the stage driver and passenger
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: killed in Equipment Canyon January eighteen eighty had been dead
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: two weeks before the lieutenant returned from a scout out
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: in the Guadalupe Mountains. He had once directed me to
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: make a detail of all except three men in camp,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: issue ten days rations, and have the men ready to
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: move out early next morning. An orderly or first sergeant
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: has hardly ever called upon the scout unless he so desires.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: But the Lieutenant said, had better come along, sergeant, he
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: may get another chance to kill an Indian. He seemed
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: unreasonable to think he could start two weeks behind a
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: bunch of Indians, follow up and annihilate the whole band,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: But he did give comanches Rakaia was two weeks start,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: and they would have been in Canada. That the apaches
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: were slow in a different proposition with which to deal.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Baylor was one of the very best shots with firearms
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: I ever saw. He killed more game than almost the
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: entire company put together. When we first went out to
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: al Paso. He used a Winchester rifle. Right after the
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: first Indian fight, he concluded it was too light and
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: discarded it for a Springfield sporting rifle forty five seventy.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: He always used what he called rust sticks, that is,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: two sticks about three feet long, the size of one's
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: little finger. These were tied together about four or five
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: inches from one end with a buckskin thong. Shooting, he
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: would squat down, extend the stick's arms length out in
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: front of him at the longer end, and spread out
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: tripod fashion on the ground with his gun resting in
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the fork. He had a perfect arrest and could make
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: close shots at long range. The Lieutenant always carried these
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: sticks in his hand and used them on his horse
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: as a quirk those days. I used to pride myself
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: by my shooting with Winchester, and I soon found that
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Baylor had me skinned a mile when he came
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: to killing game at long distance. I never could use
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: rest sticks, for I always forgot them and shot off hand.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I cannot close this description of Lieutenant Baylor without mentioning
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: his most excellent wife made the long, tedious journey from
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: San Antonio to help Passle County with us. She was
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Sally Garland sign Or born February eleven, eighteen forty two.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Her father was a wholesale merchant at Galveston and at
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: one time mayor of that city. Missus Baylor was a
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: highly educated and very refined woman, and the skillful performer
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: on the piano, A bright, sunny disposition, and kind heart.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: One of her friends among the rangers at once. How
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: sad it is to that of the twelve persons in
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: that little party that marched out of San Antonio on
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: August two, eighteen seventy nine, only three are living, a
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: small miss Mary Baylor and myself. When we had passed
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the can Spring on Devil's River, there was not another cattle,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: sheep or goat ranch until we reached Fort Stockton, two
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: hundred miles to the west. It was just one vast,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: uninhabited country. To day it is all fenced and thousands
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: of as fine cattle, sheep and goats as can be
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: found in any country. Romos Hills the old Spanish Trail
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: to versus most of this section, and in traveling over
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: it to day one will meet hundreds of people in
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: high powered automobiles, where forty years ago it was dangerous
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: for a small party of well armed men a journey.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: While ascending Devil's River, I learned that Lieutenant Baylor was
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: not only a good hunter, but a first class fishermen
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: as well, where he kept the entire camp well supplied
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: with find bass and perch, some of the latter being
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: his large as saucerers. Forty miles west of Beaver Lake,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: we reached towards Well Situated and Howards Draw, a tributary
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: of the pe Coast River. Here we saw the burned
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: ruins of a wagon train that had been attacked by
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Indians a few months before. All the mules had been captured,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: teamsters killed, and the train of sixteen big wagons burned.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Had the same Indians encountered our little party of ten men,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: two women, and two children, we would all have been massacred. Finally,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: we reached old Fort Lancaster and an abandoned government post
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: situated on the east bank of Live Oak Creek just
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: above the point where this beautiful stream empties into the
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: pe Coast. Camped here and rested under the shade of
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: those big live oak trees for several days. From this
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: camp we turned north up the pe Cooas, one of
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the most curious rivers in Texas at that time and
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: before its waters were much used for irrigation in New Mexico.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Pey Cooas ran bank full of muddy water almost a
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: year round, not more than thirty or forty feet wide.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: It was the most crooked stream in the world, and
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: though only from four to ten feet deep, was so
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: swift and treacherous that it was most difficult to ford. However,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: it had one real virtue. It was the best stream
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: in Texas forth blue and yellow catfish that ranged in
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: weight from five to forty pounds. We were some days
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: traveling up this river to the Pontoon Crossing, and we
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: feasted on fish. At Pontoon Crossing. On the Peacoast, we
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: intercepted the overland mail route leading from San Antonio to
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: El Paso, a way of Fredericksburg, Fort Mason, Menard, Fort Macavett,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Fort Concho, Fort Stockton, and Fort Davis. Thence west by
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Eagles Springs, the equipment Canyon, where more tragedies and foul
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: murders had been committed by Indians that at any other
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: point on the route. Ben Fricklin was the mail contractor.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: The stage stands a built of adobe and on the
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: same unchanging plan. On each side of the entrance was
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: a large room. The gateway opened into a passageway which
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: was roofed and extended from one room to the other.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: In the rear of the rooms with the corral, the
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: walls of which were six to eight feet high and
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: two feet thick, also a sun dried brick. One room
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: was used for cooking and eating, and the other for sleeping,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: quarters and storage. The stage company furnished the stage tender
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: with supplies, and he cooked for the passengers when there
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: were such, charging them fifty cents per meal, which he
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: was allowed to retain for his compensation. When stage rolled
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: into the station, the tender swung open the gates and
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: the teams small Spanish mules dashed into the corral. The
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: animals were gentle enough, and once in the enclosure, mean
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: and as wild as deer went on the road. The
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: stage company would buy these little mules and lots of
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: fifty to one hundred in Mexico and distribute them along
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the route. Tiny animals were right off the range in
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: real unbroken broncos. The mules were tied up or tied
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: down as the case might be, and harnessed by force,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and they had been hitched to the stage coach or
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: a buckboard. The gates to the corral were opened and
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: the team left on. The intelligent mules soon learned all
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: they had to do was run from one station to
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: the next. Cannot be stopped between posts, no matter what happened.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Whenever they saw a wagon a man on horseback approaching
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: along the road, they would shy around the stranger, and
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the harder the driver held them, the faster they ran.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: On our way out, our teams were pretty well fagged out,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: and often Lieutenant Baylor would camp within a few yards
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: of the road. The Spanish stage mules would see our
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: camp and go around us on the run, while their
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: drivers would curse and call us all the vile names
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: they could let their tongues do for camping in the road.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: When we camped at a station, it was amusing to
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: me to watch the stage attendants harness those wary little animals.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: The stage or buckboard was always turned round in the
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: corral and headed toward the next station, and the passengers
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: seated themselves before the mules were hitched. When all was
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: ready and the team harnessed, the driver would give the word,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: the station keeper threw open the gates, and the stage
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: was off on a dead run. There should be a
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: monument erected to the memory of those old stage drivers
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: somewhere along the Oilverland route where they were. Certainly the
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: bravest of the brave took amand with lots of nerve
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: and strength to be a stage driver in the Indian days,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: and many many of them were killed. The very last year,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty that the stage line was kept up, several
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: drivers were killed between Fort Davis and El Paso. Several
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: of these men quit the stage company and joined Lieutenant
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Baylor's company, and every one of such ex drivers made
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: excellent rangers. From Pontoon crossing on the Pecoast River, we
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: turned due west and traveled the stage route the remainder
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: of the way to El Paso County if Fort Stockton,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: we secured supplies for ourselves and feed for our horses.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: First place, at which such rations could be secured since
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: leaving Fort Clark. Fort Stocking was a large military post
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: and was quite lively, especially at night when the saloons
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: and gambling halls were crowded with soldiers and citizen contractors.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: In leon Hols, ten miles west of Fort Stock, we
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: were delayed a week because of Missus Baylor becoming suddenly ill.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Passing through wild Rose Pass and up Olympia Canyon, we
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: suffered very much from the cold that was only last
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: of August. Coming from a lower Ohio altitude, we felt
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: the change at night keenly. That was the first cold
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: weather I had experienced in the summer. Finally, on the
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: twelfth day of September eighteen seventy nine, we landed safe
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: and sound in the old town of Isleta, a Passo
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: County to forty two days of travel from San Antonio.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Here we met nine men the remnant of Lieutenant Tay's
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Company Sea Rangers. The first few days after our arrival
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: were spent in securing quarters for Lieutenant Baylor's family and
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: in reorganizing the company. Sergeant Ludwick was discharged at his
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: own request, and I was made for Sergeant Tom Swilling,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: second Sergeant John Seaborn, first corporal, and George Lloyd's second corporal.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: The company was now recruited up to its limit of
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: twenty men. Four winter, Lieutenant Baylor bought a fine home
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: in fifteen or twenty acres of land from mister Blanchard.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: The rangers were quartered comfortably in some adobe buildings, with
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: fine corrals nearby, and within easy distance of the lieutenants residents.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: We were now ready for adventure on the border. When
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: we arrived at Isletta, the Salt Lake War had quieted
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: down an order had been restored. Although nearly a hundred
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Mexicans were indicted by the Alpasso grand Jury, no one
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: was ever punished for the murder of Judge Howard and
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: his companions. And going over the papers of Sergeant Ludwick,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: I found warrants for the rest of fifty or more
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: of the mob members. Though most of the murderers had
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: fled to Old Mexico immediately after the killing of the Americans,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: most of them had returned to the United States and
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: their homes along the Rio Grande. I reported these warrants
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: to Lieutenant Baylor and informed him that with the assistance
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: of a strong body of rangers, I could probably capture
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: most of the offenders in a swift raid down the valley.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: The Lieutenant declared that he had received instructions from govern
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Roberts to exercise extreme care not to precipitate more trouble
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: over Howard's death, and above all things, not to incite
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: a race war between the Mexican offenders and the white
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: people of the country. He decided, therefore, we had better
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: not make any move at all in the now dead
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Salt Lake War, and of course I never again mentioned
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: the matter to him. Though the Salt Lake War was over,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: new and adventurous action was in store for us, and
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: within less than a month after our arrival on the
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Slight we had our first brush with the Apaches, the
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: tribe of Indians I had never before met in battle.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter eleven.