Mr. and Mrs. Wm. H. Beeman: Incidents of the Early Days in Texas - The First Citizens of This Section of the State

Dallas, Tex., Jan 21 - (Special Correspondence.) Three and one-half miles east of the News office, standing in a pretty grove of post oaks about 30 paces from the track of the Texas and Pacific Railroad, stands the modest home of the two oldest living pioneer settlers of Dallas County—Mr. and Mrs. Wm. H. Beeman. These venerable settlers of the then western wilds of Texas, date their residence here from a period prior to the organization of Dallas County, prior to the settlement of Peter's colony, prior to the annexation of the Republic of Texas to the Federal Union.

Wm. H. Beeman was born in Green County, Ill., on May 11, 1827. His father. John Beeman, was a farmer who moved from Illinois to what is now Bowie County, Texas, in 1840, stopping for a year near Dalby Springs. He was accompanied by his brother, Jos. J. Beeman and family, and some five years later another brother, Samuel, moved to Texas. Including the children born in Dallas County, the total offspring of the three pioneers numbered 24 sons and daughters.

In the latter part of the year 1840 Major John Bird of Bowie County, acting upon authority from the Republic of Texas, raised a company of three months rangers in Eastern Texas and proceeded to a point on the north side of the Trinity River, about 22 miles northwesterly from Dallas, and there built a fort. The defense was erected for protection against the Wichita and other roving tribes of hostile Indians, and to form a nucleus for a colony. John Beeman was a member of this company (which consisted of about 30 men) but on the way out his arm was broken by accident. He remained, however, until Bird's Fort was finished, and then returned to Bowie County for his family. The following autumn (1841) he and his brother James moved their families out to Bird's Fort together with Hamp Rattan and family.

As an inducement to settlers, the Republic of Texas promised to feed them all the first year, or until a crop could be made and gathered. In this, however, the Government failed utterly, and the pioneers had to rely on their own resources. On the way out the immigrants stopped at Fort English [sic] (the present site of Bonham) where they met Major Bird who advised them to take out some corn and beef steers, "as the boys at the Fort are pretty short of rations," he said. Major Bird negotiated with Mr. Bailey (?) English [sic] (who was general trader) for five beef steers and a lot of corn, giving his note $100 for the same. John Beeman and Hampton Rattan indorsed the note and Rattan getting killed by Indians, Beeman afterwards had it to pay in full.

When the party of immigrants arrived at Bird's Fort, they found the garrison entirely destitute of provisions, having had nothing to eat for a week. One of the Rangers, Riley Cole, had a few days before, picked up the feet of a calf that had been lying out on the prairie for six weeks (the calf having been butchered and eaten at that time) and he boiled these dry and discarded bones into a sort of soup, or jelly. This was greedily devoured by the starving garrison and was the last morsel they had until the Beemans and their companions arrived.

Some small attempts at farming were begun about Bird's Fort, but on account of the malarial conditions in the vicinity, caused from a stagnant lake, the pioneers decided to quit the locality and hunt for a more salubrious spot.

A short time prior to the immigration of the Beemans and their friends, Hamp Rattan and Captain Mabel Gilbert to Bird's Fort, a sturdy frontiersman named John Neely Bryan had pitched his tent upon the bank of the Trinity, about the foot of what is now Main street of the present city of Dallas. Bryan (the father of Dallas) went to Bird's Fort early in the year 1842 and invited the newly arrived settlers to pay his camp a visit, with the view of locating in his vicinity. Here is the account of the late Texas Historian, Major John Henry Brown, of this incident:

"Late in November, 1841, John Neely Bryan, a Tenneseean, who had spent some time in the settlements on Red River, camped alone and erected a tent on the banks of the Trinity, near the site of the courthouse, and remained alone till the succeeding spring, except when visited by persons looking at the country. In the spring of 1842, several other families having arrived at Bird's Fort . . . abandoned the fort, and removed to Dallas . . . The actual settlement of Dallas County, therefore, began in the spring of 1842, when the first cabin was erected and the families of John Beeman and Capt. Gilbert being the first to arrive and relieve the loneliness of the adventurour and true-hearted avaunt courier, John Neely Bryan. Mrs. Gilbert was the first American lady in Dallas County and Mrs. John Beeman the next."

Mr. Beeman (John, the pioneer father of Wm. H.) asked Bryan to give his camp a name, so that the new settlement could be designated. Bryan, being a great admirer of George M. Dallas, named the place to his honor. After a two or three days' visit, Bryan's guests decided to settle in his vicinity and returned to Bird's Fort for their families. Cap. Mabel Gilbert, who had moved to the fort about two months after the Beemans, set to work and made two large dugouts from big cottonwood trees, and into these he loaded his family and household effects, making the trip to Dallas by water. He was formerly a Mississippi River steamboat captain, and for this reason he probably preferred travel by water to an overland trip in an ox wagon. The distance from Bird's Fort to Dallas by water is fifty or sixty miles, and on account of low water and heavy drifts, "the fleet" of Capt. Gilbert was ten days en route. The Beemans did not move down until April, 1842. Under the laws of the Republic of Texas a section of land (640 acres) was given to each head of a family. Capt. Gilbert located his claim some two miles west of Bryan's camp (now Dallas), and John Beeman settled on the east side of White Rock Creek, six or seven miles east of Bryan's place, on a tract of land afterward known as the Lagow league.

Mrs. W. H. Beeman, whose maiden name was Martha Dye, was born in Oldham County, Kentucky, April 30, 1825. She came with her father, Benjamin Dye, to Texas in 1947, settling upon White Rock Creek near the present town of Garland, where her father died a few years later. She was married to Wm. H. Beeman in 1851. Twelve children were born of this union, six of whom are now living in Dallas County. Both Mr. and Mrs. Beeman, though "up in years," are living in the enjoyment of good health, and seem contented and happy. They are proud of the distinction of being the oldest living pioneers of the great county of Dallas, and they love to talk over the old days of strenuous yet pleasant pioneer life. They related a good many interesting incidents of the early days of Dallas, and recalled with affectionate regard the names of a number of pioneer friends who have "crossed over the river to rest in the shade of the trees." Besides John and Joseph J. Beeman, Hamp Rattan, Capt. Mabel Gilbert and Alex W. Webb, who, with their families came to Dallas from Bird's Fort in 1842, there were others who settled in the county during that year. They were Thomas Keenan and family; Preston and Pleasant Witt, twin brothers; John and Eli Witt and family; John H. Cox and wife and George Cox from Illinois; Dr. Collier (?), who was killed the following year by Indians; Wm. W. Hobbs and Wm. Lamar and wife from Illinois.

The only living relatives of Wm. H. Beeman who were here in Dallas County in 1842, are his brother, J. W. Scott Beeman, living one mile north of his (Wm. H's) residence; James H. Beeman, another brother, now living in Burnes County; and two sisters, Mrs. Margaret Bryan and Mrs. Nancy Hobbs, the former living with her son, John Bryan, and Red River, sixteen miles north of Wichita Falls, and the latter at Orphans Home, near Dallas. Scott Beeman was born in Bowie County, Texas, in 1841, being now 61 years old, an unusually old native Texan. He was not a year old when the family moved to Bird's Fort. Hence his life has been spent mostly in Dallas County.

Mrs. Margaret Bryan is now about 74 years of age and is the widow of John Neely Bryan, above referred to as "the father of Dallas." When she was married to Mr. Bryan, Dallas County east of the Trinity was a part of Nacogdoches. This was the first marriage of white people within the bounds of what is now Dallas County, and John Bryan, Mrs. Margaret Bryan's first born, was the first white child of Dallas. He was born Jan. 9, 1846.

As above related, John Beeman settled upon what was afterward known as the Lagow league on White Rock Creek. One of the first precautions was to fortify against the roving bands of Indians which then made frequent raids into the white settlements. He erected a sort of blockhouse as a place of refuge from these raiders. Before this was completed, however, he had a rather thrilling adventure with a party of "red skins." About this time the surveyors of Peter's Colony were running lines throughout this section, and one of them, meeting Mr. Beeman, told him that some one from their old state of Illinois had brought two letters for the Beemans. Mounting his horse, he rode up to the headquarters of the colony near the present town of Carrollton and found the letters awaiting him. On his return, when about one and a half miles from his camp was some fifteen or twenty Indians. They attempted to "head him off" and surround him, but he was riding a very fleet horse and he outran them. He reached his camp bareheaded and gave the alarm. He and the other members of the family went hastily to work setting up four-feet oak boards around the wagon and putting the women and children behind these, the father and his sons stood guard with their guns expecting an attack momentarily. The savages, however, retired without making any further demonstration, although their superior numbers gave them a great advantage. The next morning Mr. Beeman rode back to recover his lost hat and found it, with his two letters inside, near the site of the Episcopal College, just north of the city.

Prior to this incident, on Christmas Day, 1841, Hamp Rattan, who moved with his family from Bowie County to Bird's Fort as stated, in company with Alex W. Webb and Solomon Silkwood were out on a bear hunt on the east side of Elm Fork near the site of the present town of Carrollton. They found what they took to be "bear sign" upon the bark of a large cottonwood tree. They thought they discovered the marks of claws upon the tree and they proceeded to cut it down, expecting to find one or more bears in the hollow trunk above. Rattan was cutting upon the tree when they were fired upon from ambush by a small party of Indians and Rattan was killed. His body was buried at Bird's Fort "in a rude coffin made of an old wagon body," Major Brown states. Mrs. Rattan, wishing to enclose his grave, was assisted in her labor of love by Wm. H. and J. J. Beeman and John Cox, who, with the widow, went in an ox wagon from the Beeman camp on White Rock, to John Neely Bryan's camp at Dallas. This ox wagon, W. H. Beeman says, was the first vehicle that ever made tracks in Dallas. From Bryan's camp they proceeded a short distance from the river into an immense cedar brake, where they split out the cedar timber for the pickets with which to enclose Rattan's last resting place."

Indian depredations continued in this section for several years after the advent of the Beemans. In 1843, after a vain attempt of President Houston to assemble a counsel of chiefs of the various tribes then in this section at Grape Vine Spring (near the present town of Grape Vine), he had to return to his official duties at the capital, and left Gen. E. H. Tarrant and Geo. W. Terrell, with John H. Reagan as pilot and Col. Thos. L. Smith, commander of the escort, to effect a treaty of peace. This was finally accomplished at Johnson's Station, a point three miles south of the present town of Arlington. Since that time Dallas County has been exempt from Indian raids, though for many years afterward counties to the west suffered great annoyance. Up to about 1841 Indians made raids as far east as English's [sic] Fort (Bonham now). W. H. Beeman says that when his father and family arrived there on their way out to Bird's Fort in the latter part of that year, he saw an Indian scalp nailed upon the gable of the tradinghouse. The red skin had been killed in a recent raid into that section.

"Where did you old pioneers get your supplies from in those early days?" I asked Mr. Beeman.

"We didn't get a great many supplied for the first few years, but what we did get were hauled by ox wagons from Shreveport, La., over 200 miles distant," he replied.

Continuing he said: "We lived principally on honey, venison, wild turkey, bear and buffalo meat, all of which was abundant. I have killed buffalo right around the Fair Grounds over there and lots of bear in White Rock and Trinity bottoms. Deer and turkey could be seen any time all around here. Every morning we could hear the turkey gobblers along the creek. For the first few years though, before we began to raise wheat, flour was a luxury but few could afford. Judge John Thomas, the first judge Dallas County had, was about the only man in the country who could afford to have flour and sugar. I went to a wedding at his house once and they had pound cake. When we went to entertainments in those days we generally spent the night. We lived too far apart, usually, to go home in the dark. I stayed all night on this occasion. Next morning old man Wilburn happened in for breakfast. The pound cake—what was left from the wedding supper—was still on the table. When asked to have a piece of nice, hot cornbread, Wilburn replied, "No thank ye, this punkin cake's good enough for me," and he proceeded to devour all the punkin cake in sight, much to the disappointment of all us young folks who also had an appetite for that dainty.

"We didn't dress as fine back in the forties as the present inhabitants of Dallas do. Deer skins were plentiful and I've dressed many one. We made nearly all men's and boy's clothing out of buckskin. Also made mocassins of it for footwear. John Neely Bryan was very expert in making buckskin clothing and sewing with sinews. We wore coats, pants and leggings of buckskin. Bryan once made himself a very warm coat out of a striped blanket. The stripes were deep red and dark blue, and upon special occasions I used to borrow it. I wore it to the wedding at Judge Thomas'. True, it was somewhat gaudy in appearance and did not fit me altogether as well as an up-to-date tailor made rig, but it was very comfortable in cold weather."

After a pause, as if in reverie, the old pioneer resumed: "My father and his boys cut the first direct road from English's [sic] Fort into Bird's Fort. This was in 1841. We cut the road and dug down the banks along the pioneer highway, and it was no small task, you may be sure."

At this point the old man remarked: "Oh, I can tell you enough about the early times in Dallas County to keep you writing all day, but maybe The News wouldn't want too much at one time. If you'll come back again before long, we'll talk some more over those rather rough, yet withal, good old times."