The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 184, Ed. 2 Monday, December 24, 1951 Page: 33 of 48
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Emmett Trevey Found it Rugged
In Scurry County 60 Years Ago
THE ABILENE REPORTER-NEWS Q C
Abilene, Texas, Monday Evening, Dec. 24, 195177
By HAMILTON WRIGHT
Reporter-News Staff Writer
SNYDER. Dec. 24. — Life in
Scurry County in 1889 and the ear-
ly 1890s was wild, uncertain, filled
with hardships and privations that
only a mother’s faith could over-
come.
So insists Emmett Trevey, T1.
who lives on o small place three
miles northeast of Snyder. Agile of
body, accurate in memory. Trev-
ey recollects the old days of Seur
ry County pioneers, tells of the
d oughts, the half dugouts settlers
lived in, the old Slaughter stone-
wall corral, Indian artifacts.
Trevey, a native of Rockbridge
County, Va., emigrated with his
parents, Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Trev-
ey. In 1882 to Hays County, south
of Austin.
in 1889 when Trevey was 9 the
family migrated to Scurry Coun-
ty in two covered wagons with s
cavy of horses. In the family were
the parents and three sons. Trev-
eys memory of scenes on the road
is blurred, but he remembers
Zephyr “because it was Christ-
mas. "I was thinking of ranches,
too," he commented. “We stopped
at Williams Ranch — where. I do
not know.”
The trip was completed by Jan.
9, at Sand Rock Springs, or old
Green Spring, south of present
Camp Springs, in east Scurry
County. The family took over one
of J. E. Green’s dugouts built by
Green in the 1970s
OCCUPIED DUGOUT
tion here, and R J. who also fives
near here and has a ranch lease
and runs some Hereford cattle
The retired ranchman and pie-
Mar seeks information on an old
rock corral in southwest Scurry
County where the family settled in
the early 1890s. He thinks it was
built by the pioneer C. C. Slaugh-
ter in the 1870s It stands intact, a
large affair, with high, thiek na-
tive - stone rock walls He thinks
it was aband fed about 1800 by the
Slaughters when they migrated to-
ward the Plains
STONE CORRAL
“I saw an old house moved off
from the vicinity of the stone cor-
ral.” he noted. "The corral could
be used today except that ranch-
men in the vicinity have better
ones,” he explained. The land the
pens were on was owned by the
State and had been used for free
grazing in an early day.
Death Rate Drops
In Belgian Congo
broken off The frontiersman took LEOPOLDVILLE, Belgian Con-
pm in many roundup* in the vi- 50, Dec. 24. U—The center of the
einity of where the big municipal Dark Continent has ceased to be
dam la now being built He has the "white man’s grave. The lat-
seen sensational rises on the Colo-est figures on European health in
rado River that came down from the Belgian Congo show a rapid
Tobacco Draw sourring near La- improvement from year to year,
mesa, from tributaries about Gall which brings death and illness
and from other draws rising south- figures down to almost European
east of Tahoka. proportions. Death figures dropped
“Plenty of water used to go between 1946 and 1950 in spite of
down the Colorado near Bull * substantial immigration. •
Creek.” he said. But he admitted Of the dreaded “killers” like ma-
in recent years the Colorado riv-l --------------------
er where the big dam was being!
built had flowed only a feeble
stream after showers. •
"It’s awful dry," Trevey re-
marked. "but even now — bad as
it is — it cannot approximate the 1
crushing drought of 1892-93 when
the life of the pioneer was sustain-
ed by a small portion of cornbread
and sowbelly ”
On an Easter Sunday, Trevey
recalled two boys discovered the
skeleton of a white man between
a boulder and the bottom of a
mound near the Bull Creek area
where he lived. It was presum-
ed the man met death in an early
day. Strangely, Emmett remark-
ed. there was no metal or other
article by which any clue might
give his identity. The skull was
well preserved
NEW YEAR TERM-
re quickly for prompt plo
ture. Select student body. E
1317 S. 1st
Years
men
Ph. 4-8573
Trevey and his mother occupied
the dugout while his father and
brothers sought a permanent
homestead. Later, the father and
sons having been successful in
finding land, they moved to a
point about nine miles south %
PRESSTIME AT FANNIN—Last stronghold of the two-cent newspaper seems to be Fannin
School, which has a weekly edition called The War-Hoop. A monthly from September un-
til November, The War-Hoop is now a weekly,, selling 350 papers each edition in a school
of 385 students. Shown at the mimeograph are Benny Wright, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wil-
lard Edward Wright, 2342 North 18th St.; Brenda Ingalsbe, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Reed ______________
Ingalsbe, 1609 Shelton; Terry Bowen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nori C. Bowen, 1341 Lil- present Ira, just south of the Colo-
ius; Carol Pine, daughter of Mr and Mrs Arthur Pine, 1601 Graham; and Gloria Webb, “add Diver
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hal Morelock Webb, 1350 Shelton. Bill Earles is the faculty
sponsor. '
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MOVING W T.
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(Mrs. Alpha Allen, Owner)
Ph. 4-7110
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Insured to $10,000
Baylor to Open
Paris School
WACO, Dec. 24.—Baylor Univer-
- sity will offer courses in art, dra-
ma. and conversational French
language in a new branch of the
University in Paris, France, Pres-
ident W. R. White has announced.
The new branch, Baylor Arts
School in Paris, will begin its op-
eration as a summer school, fea-
turing a 12weeks term in June,
July and August 1952, Dr. White
said. Expansion to include the rest
of the year may come later.
- Reynold Arnould of Paris, vis-
iting chairman of the Baylor art
faculty and an outstanding eon-
temporary artist, will be in charge
of the Paris branch. Other faculty
members for the summer of 1952
are Paul Baker, chairman of the
Baylor drama department, and
Mrs. Marthe Arnould, wife of the
director.
Dr. White said that a quota of
25 students has been set for the
initial session next summer. Stu-
dents will pay a fee of $900, which
amount will provide transportation
from New York to Paris and re-
’ turn, room and board, tuition, and
- other necessary expenses.
-i January 15 was set as an en-
rollment deadline.
Students will sail from New York
June 11, Dean Carroll said. They
will be met in Paris by the Ar-
noulds and taken to summer liv-
ing accomodations at a student
center, where they will be among
other American students.
Weekend trips may be planned
to Switzerland, Belgium and other
sections of Europe. The group will
return to New York the latter part
of August.
Farm AND Home Savings AND Loan ASSN.
, Represented by
W. WILLIS COX
318 Cedar St.
Abilene
Ph. 2-2805
Largest Savings and Loon Association in the Southwest
End of Holy Year
MONTREAL, Dec. 24. n — For
the first time in history, the big
Montreal Forum will be used for a
midnight mass on Christmas Eve,
marking the end of the Holy Year.
More than 15,000 persons are ex-
pected to attend the pontifical man
to be celebrated by Archbishop
Paul-Emile Leger, of Montreal.
rado River. .
The elder Trevey took up a half
section of school land from the
state in 1890. The wild area was
verging on a drought which struck
in 1892 and 1893.
"It was the worst I have ever
seen Emmett said. "Ranchers lost
hundreds of cattle — they just died
like flies. My father, pinched to
get rid of his, shipped out a car-
load. Father forfeited his claim to
the tend, but we continued to live
in our half dugout on the place.
This subterranean home was five
foot under ground, with boxing
plank for roof, which never failed
to leak when it did come a shower.
“It was during 1891 that father
died and mother and I continued to
live there. My brother Andy was
also with us but Worked for a
ranchman to help us eke out a liv-
ing. He acquired some land.”
DEEPLY RELIGIOUS
Trevey’s mother, a devoted
Presbyterian of the old school, was
deeply religious. "My mother had
great faith God would take care of
us. And she had a little money
and with help of three brothers we
managed to get along in a way
We produced nothing and while we
remained after the drought only a
little grain was grown.”
The Trevey family moved to a
new location at the mouth of Bull
Creek, which is near the mammoth
dam being built now by the mu-
nicipalities of Snyder, Big Spring
and Odessa. A house 16 feet
square, a dugout, with no catling,
was built with some lumber haul-
ed from Colorado City and some
salvaged from the old dugout.
Trevey and his mother farmed
in a small way, later raising cot-
ton. and raised horses. In litiga-
tion later they lost possession of
their homestead.
Emmett in 190« drifted to Pecos
where he acquired four or five
sections on the east side of the Pe-
cos river, north of Barstow. He
prod cattle for Johnson Brothers
and the last six months there for
Sid Kyle Ranch.
He returned to Scurry County-
in 1911 and married, returning *to
the old homestead he repossessed
His mother died in 1923.
Speaking of the 1917-1918 drought
which he also weathered, Trevey
remarked:
"I had accumulated a small
bunch of cattle and horses when it
struck. When it was finally over I
was in debt to the bank and slight-
ly indebted to the School of Knowl-
edge.”
TWO SURVIVE
Of the family only Emmett and
his brother, Andy, survive. Andy
lives near Scurry County (Win-
ston) Airfield southwest of Snyder
He is seven years older than Em-
“We old timers in 1890 thought
the skeleton must have been there
before we came,” Trevey said.
In the locality Indians left signs
in Bull Creek banks of their pres-
ence in the 1870s. Trevey says
there are peculiar fabricated nich-
es cut into the sandrock near his
old home place which had been
drilled out by the aborigines. They
were ovens used by the Red Men.
he surmised. And some were used
for grinding corn. A few of the
small borings were oblong and
others rounded, some 18 Inches in
diameter. In the vicinity Trevey
and neighbors found Indian arrow
heads, but never what they thought
was an Indian grave. His brother,
he said, found a medium arrow
head made of translucent flint. “It
was very small and evidently was
contrived by an Indian artist," he
said. Most arrows found had parts
West Germany Has
Half of Demolished
Roads Back in Use
FRANKFURT, Dec. 24. (—More
than 3,000 road and river bridges
were demolished in West Germany
during the last war, either by the
Allies or by Hitler's retreating
forces. Almost 4.000 have been re-
constructed, including half of the
46 demolished Rhine bridges. ,
German firms, which carried on
the" vast reconstruction program,
have gained valuable experience
which already has helped them to
win big foreign orders.
One of the most recent contracts
abroad is for a bridge more than
1,500 feet long over a lake near
Stockholm, Sweden. It’s a new type
of suspension span. The suspension
pillars will divide instead of frame
the driveway. The first such bridge
described as ideal for highway
traffic, is to be ready next spring
in the Ruhr.
Iowa Farm Land
Has Boom Prices
AMES, Iowa, ‘Dec. 24. 1* — An
acre of Iowa's good dark farm soil
costs more today than any time in
the last 30 years.
Not since the 1920-21 land boom
has the state's farm land com-
manded such high prices
Iowa forms are now selling on
the average for 8212 an acre, W. G.
Murray, head of the department
of economics and sociology at Iowa
State College, reported today in his
annual survey of form land prices.
This is a 815 increase over last
year’s average acre price of 8197.
It is one more step upward in the
steady climb of Iowa farm prices
which started from a low of $69 an
acre in 1933
Merry
Christmas!
mett.
Speaking of the fascination at
early ranching, Trevey remarked:
“I’ve never seen an old cow
puncher but that wanted to go
back to it — in his mind," Emmett
laughed.
Emmett Trevey was born April
19, 1880. He has two sons, 8. W
Trevey, who operates a filling sta-
Candy for Needle
VICTORIA, B. C.. Dec 24. -
City authorities propose a new test
for diphtheria immunisation which
may do away with injections by
needle. The new method is to give
children caramel-flavored candies
containing the equivalent amount
of toxoid Between 70 and 100 stu-
dents In each of three age groups
will take the test here
mimovuine uow.
AT CHRISTMAS
a
stact
1060 North Second.
a
tcber.
OP
he Royal Shop
325 Sycamore
Phone 4-8121
laria, yellow fever, leprosy, none
has numbered more than seven
victims during the past year.
Enough milk was produced us the
United States in 1951 to fill a river
3 000 miles long, 49 feet wide, and
three feet deep. ______.
AUTO
LIABILITY
INSURANCE -
CASSLE & CASSLE
155 Cedor Phone 2-3219
$5000.00 FOR $1.10
The "American Tripmaster” trip accident policy provides $5000.0)
principal sum benefits (plus medical expenses) for 3 days for only
$1.10. This policy covers you wherever you are—even at home—
against travel accidents and other accident that occurs during th -
policy period. Coverage may be written from 3 to 180 days and
for amounts up to $25,000.00.
Insurance Bonds Home Loans
Carroll-Howerton Agency
Phone 4-7012
Bryan Building
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The Abilene Reporter-News (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 184, Ed. 2 Monday, December 24, 1951, newspaper, December 24, 1951; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1648763/m1/33/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Abilene Public Library.