The Mexia Weekly Herald (Mexia, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, March 14, 1941 Page: 10 of 16
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When Texas Pioneers Faced Danger and I hath
Bv
V'-
<1k\' known
Llano c
HAZEL O. BOWMAN
Llano, Texas
(Copyright 1941, by the Southwest Maanxinc Co.)
MAS. SUSAN PHILLIPS, well
pioneer woman of Llano,
county, Texas, recently ob-
served her 92nd birthday. Born
in Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches county,
Texas, December, 1848, she with her
parents moved to Llano county in 1855.
"I am proud to be classified as a Tex-
as pioneer," said Mrs. Phillips, "but I
would not want to live *
my pioneer life over ' 1 y
again. We pioneers not
only endured hard-
ships, trying to make a
living, but we had to
contend with the In-
dians. They took all
the joy out of life.
From day to day we
lived in fear that sav-
ages would kill some of
us, or kidnap some of
us, or steal our horses
or oxen, the only means
of transportation in
those times. People go-
ing on a journey never
were sure they would
return home alive.
Prowling savages lay in
wait to kill men who
were out herding their cattle or plow-
ing their fields. When the menfolks
were away, the Indians would attack
families, kill women and children, or
carry them away in captivity. Such a
life was not conducive to peace of mind,
or to happiness. Brave as a rule, we
could not always cope with Indian cun-
ning and treachery.
Neighbors More Friendly
"I think people nowadays should be
very thankful. They can go when and
where they please in safety; can ride
over fine roads comfortably and swift-
ly, can' see more of the world in
one day than we pioneers saw in one
year. But with all the modern appli-
ances, modetn schools and churches, I
can't see that folks are any better to-
day than they were in pioneer days. I
believe pioneer neighbors were more
friendly and more appreciative of one
another. They stood by in sickness, in
health and in death. Wo had two close
neighbors and we also had several
neighbors net so close, who lived 10 to
15 miles from us, yet we called them
neighbors nevertheless."
Mrs. Phillips can tell you many stories
in connection with the War Between the
States. She had five uncles ih the Con-
federate army, one of
■ whom was killed in ac-
tion. As a young girl,
she knitted many pairs
of socks for Southern
soldiers, first carding
and. spinning the wool
she used in knitting
the socks. Clothing for
her family was spun
and woven at home on
hand-driven # spinning
wheels. She' smiled
while telling the time
she attended a swell
banquet and ball in
Llano, wearing a brand
new. home-spun dress
that she made* herself.
MRS. SUSAN PHILLIPS
4 Llano, Texas.
Made Trip in
Wagon
Covered
''My parents were named Tate and
they moved from Nacogdoches to the
Llano-Burnet section when I was just
7 years old. We made the trip in, a
covered wagon drawn by one yoke of
oxen. West Texas looked so different
from East Texas that it seemed a
foreign country to me. But I soon fell
in love with the broad prairies, the
tree-clad mountains and the clear rip-
pling streams. We settled first at the
foot of Long mountain, near the pres-
ent site of Buchanan Dam. Later we
moved to and settled at Sandy moun-
tain in Llano county. Father establish-
ed a small country store there and also
served many years there as postmas-
ter. ' He would go to Austin by wagon
to buy supplies for his store. Mother
moulded butter and packed it in salt
Rare Exhibit in U. T. Library
By ANN WARD
3900 Lake Worth Dr., Fort Worth, Texas
(Copjiriehfc 1941, by tho South writ Mmiulnc Co.)
the Bare Books Library of the
University of Texas, at Austin,
is a rare collection of hair from
the head3 of famous men and
women. The late Mrs. Miriam Lut-
cher Stark, of Orange, Texas, bought
the collection in 1920, and after her
death it was presented to the Univer-
sity of Texas by her surviving son,
H. J. Lutcher Stark.
The price paid by the wealthy Mrs.
Stark for the collection is not revealed,
but it must have been in the thousand^
of dollars.
Included in the collection is hair
from the heads of George Washington,
.v.v
I 3.5 " 'fir- \ J ■
■K&jRl
LEIGH HON!
Front page cover of Leigh Hunt's scrapbook collection of human hair.
first President of the United States;
John Milton, poet and author of "Para-
disc Lost"; Dean Swift, author of
"Gulliver's Travels"; Dr. Samuel John-
son, lexicographer, and author of
"Lives of the Poets"; Samuel Cole-
ridge, poet and author of the "Ancient
Mariner"; Henry Lee, who made the
motion in Continental Congress for
adoption of the "Declaration of Inde-
pendence" ; Charles Lamb, English
essayist; Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor
of France and commander of the French
army at the "Battle of Waterloo"; Wil-
liam Hazlett, English historian; Thom-
as Carlyle, English statesman and au-
thor; John Keats, Percy Bysche Shel-
ley, Robert Browning, William Words-
worth—all English poets, and Lucretia
Borgia.
Hobby of Leigh Hunt
This rare collection of hair from the
heads of" famous persons was a hobby
of Leigh Hunt, English journalist,
magazine editor and poet. He began
the collection about 1814 and continued
to add to it on up to the time of his
death in 1859. The collection was
finally brought to America, sold to an
art collector at a fabulous price and
later bought by Mrs. Stark.
Hunt mounted each lock of hair on
separate pages in a scrapbook, accom-
p a n i e d by a
sketch, or por-
trait, of the
person to whom
the hair onc<5
belonged. The
scrapbook c o v-
er, in Hun t's
own handwrit-
ing, bears the
title: "Collec-
tion of Human
Hair Formed by
<F. H. (Leigh)
Hunt."
The locks
from the heads
of George
Washington and
Henry Lee are
both gray and
of a similar tex-
ture, that of the
former being
slightly finer,
due perhaps to
wearing a wig,
which was sty-
lish for men in
colonial times.
Milton's hair,
a rich chestnut,
is well-preserv-
ed. Date of the
collection is not
known.. Hunt
m o u n t ed the
hair on a page
beneath Mil-
ton's portrait.
The po r t r a i t
bears Milton's own signature.
Thin, impressive but perhaps a bit
pitiful, are the strands of Napoleon's
hair. There is no doubt of the authen-
ticity of the specimen. In fact, it is
nothing but such a shred or two as
might have been picked from the neck-
cloth as a valet cut his hair. It is en-
closed in a very small bit of paper, at-
tached by sealing* wax. Hunt secured
it through Lord Byron, whose initials
are enscribed within the packet.
Two Locks of Swift's Hair
There are two locks from the head of
&
----- - - zk
aipMlf
' * tfb $
which father took to Austin to sell.
Lard, rendered from our hogs, he also
took to Austin and sold. We made a
living off the land and always had
something to sell."
The terror of reconstruction days fol-
lowing the War Between the States was
graphically brought home to the Tate
family by imprisonment of Mr. Tate,
along with other Southern sympathiz-
ers, who were taken to Austin by the
Yankees and placed ill an underground
dungeon. Mr. Tate, while in prison,
was fed uncooked bacon and stale bread.
During three months of confinement in
this damp dungeon he contracted a
bronchial cough from which he suffered
many years. Finally, after spending
$300 on lawyer and court fees, he ob-
tained his freedom.
Didn't Mind Hard Work
"While father was in prison at Aus-
tin, my 15-year-old brother, John, had
the c^res and responsibilities of the
family." continued Mrs. Phillips. "We
all worked hard, and didn't mind the
'hard work, but we never'knew when
Indians might kill some of us. At last
friends persuaded us to move to Burnet
county, near Marble- Falls, where there
were more settlements and we would be
safer from Indian attack.
"It was while living in Burnet coun-
ty, in 1867, that I met and married Mr.-
J. R. Phillips. His father had a place
on White's Creek, in Llano county, and
there we went to live in a one-room log
cabin." ,
W4ien asked to describe her first
home, after marriage,' JYIrs. Phillips
said:
"It was a 14-foot log room, with a
door and one small opening for a win-
dow. Later we built a picket room at
one end, partly for protection against
prowling savages. The two rooms were
about 30 feet long. There was a wooden
floor in one room, but the other room
for a while was a dirt floor. We had a
"stick-and-elay" chimney, and I cooked
meals on the fireplace in skillets and
pots. I was married several years be-
fore, I had a stove. We sold enough
lard to buy the small stove, which cost
$40. It thrilled me to cook on that
stove."
Mrs. Phillips, often left alone with
Dean Swift—one a handsome brown,
the other a fine glossy white. The locks
were accompanied by a note of ex-
planation from Mrs. Ridgway, Swift's
housekeeper. The white strands were
cut during an illness which caused his
death, she wrote. The other was cut
probably in his middle-age.
Rough and flecked with white is the
hair of Dr. Samuel Johnson; not dis-
appointing, however, for its very
coarseness suits the accepted idea of his
rugged personality. He had a disdain
for esthetic things. It is easy, to imagine
him running his huge blunt fingers
through such a shock of gray and
white-
In 1839, from Mrs. Gillman whose
identity is not clear, Hunt secured the
gray lock of Samuel Coleridge. The
strands are few and it is not as well
preserved as the others. It is said to
have been cut from the poet's head af-
ter his de^.h. ' ,
Gray and grizzled fitly describes the
hair of Thomas Carlyle. The few
flecks of brownish red among the
coarse lock make it extremely distinc-
tive. The date of its collection was
1840.
Shelley's hair is a delicate chestnut,
dashed with gray. Its strands suggest
a slight wave. The lock was cut off
about three years before he died and
sent in a letter from Italy. Hunt ob-
tained it in 1820.
Heat's Hair Strikingly Beautiful
The strands of William Hazlibt's hair
arc thick and smooth—a glossy black
color. It was collected between 1826
and 1830.
In direct contrast to the thick mass
of Hazlitt's hair, are the more delicate
light brown locks of Charles Lamb.
Hunt secured them in 1826.
Remarkable for their beauty are the
locks of Keats' hair. There are two
specimens in the collection, each equal-
ly beautiful. The color is brown with
auburn highlights. Long and exqui-
sitely thick, the locks become almost,
ringlets.
Robert Browning's graying lock is
but a stubble of hair. Thick, coarse
and curly, it is by ^tr the curliest of
the lot. Hunt came into possession of
it in 1856.
William Wordsworth's lock is a snowy
white. From its texture one would
surmise that it. grew In great abun-
dance and in a rather unruly manner.
It was added to Hunt's collection in
1845.
Sunny golden is tho hair of Lucretia
Borgia. Although there are but few
strands, they are firm and healthy-
looking. Hunt confesses that it was
"given me by a wild acquaintance who
stole it from a lock of her hair pre-
served in the Ambrosian Library at
Milan." On the envelope is the in-
scription: "And beauty draws us with
a single hair."
—PAGE
her two small children, was in constant
fear of marauding Indians. After a
raid they sometimes passed along a
ridge near her house, fleeing from
rangers or irate settlers. At such times
Mrs. Phillips relied on the protection of
two neighbors, Mrs. Levi Crownovei'
and Mrs. Bill Hardin, who were older
and more experienced frontier women.
She would go to their homes when
frightened, and the two-story rock
house of the Crownovers was consider-
ed safe from Indian assaults. Phillips,
who had to leave home mornings to ride
the range, lived in apprehension lest he
would return home some evening and ' pistol.
"The first white marr killed by In-
dians in the Llano section soon after we
moved there was Jonas Dancer, a pio-
neer preacher," said Mrs. Phillips. "He
had promised some road workers to help ,
them work a back country road, agile
ing to meet them next morning at
Gollihar crossing, on Llano river. That
night he had a fearful dream and told
his wife about it. The dream so horri-
fied her that she begged him not to
leave home that day. But he paid no
attention to her and left to keep his ap-
pointment with the road workers-, not
even taking with him his shotgun or
find his family either murdered or kid-
naped by savages.
« Kill Favorite Horse
"One night the Indians came and kill-
ed our favorite horse in about 20 yards
of the house," Mrs. Phillips related.
"She was a pretty sorrel mare. My hus-
band, hoping to thwart the thieving
redskins, had locked her that night to a
tree with a chain attached. The Indians, ' son of a prominent Llano county pio-
mad because they couldn't release the neer. She says:
mare, shot and killed her with an arrow.
These same Indians, before leaving the
neighborhood, stole two horses and shot
another, one'—a fine blooded animal—at
Levi Crownovers."
Mrs. Phillips recalls the time the In-
dians killed Mr. and Mrs. Thomas
Phelps, who lived a few miles from
Round mountain,
/ "They were fishing on Cypress
mmm
creek near their home," said Mrs. Phil-
lips, "and late in the evening a colored
boy came galloping up horseback to tell
them that Indians w;cre coming. Mrs.
Phelps wanted to go on to the house
immediately, but Mr. Phelps persuad-
ed her to wait a while because ..the fish
had begun to bite well. Thiir slight de-
lay, however, proved fatal. The Indians
rushed from a nearby thicket and
brutally murdered the young couple.
The negro boy escaped.
BRITAIN READY
To Repel
Invasion
By a STAFF EDITOR
IgpfiHERE is a general feeling in Eng-
land that an invasion of the Nazis
in early spring will be attempt-
ed. Hitler stands desperately in
need of a decision this year. He pre-
dicted that 1941 would see the end of
the war. His situation is not getting
better in the occupied areas of Euro-
pean countries: the moral of his army
must be suffering from inactivity, and
finally he must strike before the full
weight of United
States assistance can
reach Britain.
Drew Mi d d le t o n,
American Press Euro-
pean correspondent,
said that informed
military and diplo-
matic circles in Lon-
don were ready for
"the might i e s t on-
slaught of histo r y,
with bombings on an
unimaginable sc a 1 e
and the use of every
modern weapon, in-
cluding flame throw-
ers and gas . . ."
"Germany will try
to break Britain and
win the war before
May," Middleton quot-
ed army and navy
men as saying.
He further quoted
them as saying that
Britain would beat off
the German invasion
attempt, but only af-
ter sacrificing half of
her force, three-quart-
ers of her battle fleet
and a£ least 250,000
troops.
What Would Be the
Price?
If that should be Britain's price, what
would be the price that Germany would
pay? Obviously it would be much
higher. In September, the British
were knocking down four German
planes for every one they themselves
lost. If that ratio should hold this
at
4
'WJ
Www
*
Dancer arrived at the river cross-
ing ahead of the other men and waited
their coming. It is surmised that the
Indians sneaked upon him unaware.
The road workers found his lifeless
body near the river crossing filled with
arrows."
Mrs. Phillips believes the same band
of savages who lulled Mr. and Mrs.
Phelps also killed .young Hiram Wolff/
"Hiram- and his little brother were
out in the woods hunting some strayed
horses. When the boys first saw the
Indians they ran under a bluff for pro-
tection and Hiram put up a brave fight,
but the odds were against him. He was
shot, scalped and his little brother cap-
tured and carried away by the Indians.
A posse of Llano citizens pursued the
savages who headed north toward the
"After a raid they sometimes passed along a ridge near her house, fleeing from rangers."
hills. One of the posse shot a horse
from under an Indian who had charge
of and was riding dpuble with the little
Green boy. This Indian escaped on an-
other horse, but the boy was rescued
by the posse and returned to his par-
ents."
Mrs. Phillips lives with a daughter,
Mrs. J. T. Hallfprd, of Llano. Her other
children are Mrs. A. H. Hughes, of El
Paso, Te^ajj, and E. L. Phillips, of San
Angelo, Texas.
time, the German air force would suf-
fer relatively more than the British.
Presumably the Germans would use
everything they had in the way of war-
ships. If therefore Britain should lose
"three-quarters of her battle fleet,"
could Germany hope to save any of her
fleet?'
That leaves only the question of
troops and lives. An attacking force
always has to expect to lose more than
the defender, even though it may not
1 '
..>t<
A British merhanic makes ready n huge bomb before plating it
in the loading rack of a huge homher (left) that is to take off ,
for an undisclosed German port.
have worked out that way in Poland
and France and even though it may not
be working out that way now in Libya.
What then would be-Germany's loss
of men if England expects to lose a
quarter of a million? One might an-
(Continued on Pago 4, column 6)
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Stewart, A. M. The Mexia Weekly Herald (Mexia, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, March 14, 1941, newspaper, March 14, 1941; Mexia, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth299700/m1/10/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Gibbs Memorial Library.