THOMAS ACEY BROWN
"I was born in Rusk County in 1860," says Mr. Thomas Acey Brown.
My father was a ful-blooded Englishman and mother was Scotch Irish.
"I was about 17 years old when I left Rusk County ,, looking for a
ranch job. I meandered over into the Palo Pinto and Ranger section, where
I worked for the old Slaughter outfit. Everybody knowed that Slaughter bunch
all over the states. The old man was a Baptist preacher, C. C. Slaughter
was a banker in Dallas and was worth over three million. Lum, another son,
was the black sheep, did a little gambling and everything else that came
his way. Bill and John were ranchmen, on a large scale. The whole outfit
owned a great part of Texas . They just kept right on, right on growing
up with Texas . That's why they were so famous. I worked with that outfit
for several years during round-up times.
"Old preacher Slaughter and Ross captured an Indian boy when he was
just a little shaver; he had growed to be about 25 years old when I worked
for them. This Indian boy was a mighty fine rider, did most all the breaking
of Slaughter's horses. He never wanted to go back to his tribe after he
was grown.
"When I was up in Palo Pinto County , I heard about an Indian climbing
over a high rail fence when a guard shot him, and he died standin' straight
up, leanin' against that fence; then the settlers tied him to a horse's
tall and dragged his into town. They all gathered around, skinned him, and
made quirts out of his hide.
"Yes and I heard about them Indians a-skinnin' a white man alive and
him a livin' over it too; don't know if it was so or not, I just heard it.
"I knowed Jessie and Frank James, Sam Bass's bunch, (Blackie) Frank
Jackson, and Warren Jackson, they were all train robbers of the Texas Pacific.
These robbers and Indians would get back in them Palo Pinto hills and nobody
could get 'em out without puttin' hounds in after 'em.
"The killin' of Sam Bass was all a plot, they didn't get him fair.
Old Murphy plotted a way to catch him, went into Round Rock to get a shave
and gave officers a signal when he passed by. The officers surrounded the
bunch and killed Sam. Then Jackson took a shot at Murphy when he was in
the barber chair, but didn't kill him.
"There was lots of wild people in this country when I came out here
but they didn't get out much. These wasn't bad fellers; anyway we didn't
think so then. They'd come out and do a little robbin' and give any poor
person in need some money; they never killed unless they were forced to.
Every one of them boys was drove to doin' what they done; ain't like the
skunks now-a-days, hold you up for two-bits, then killed you for not havin'
it. These here preachers! If I don't roast 'em when they come to my house
a-tellin' us to pray. 'Pray, pray, don't forget to pray, brother! Just go
to it boys but don't forget to pray when you got to the forks of the road.'
Why, Clyde and Bonnie prayed every day-can't tell by that. These here meetin's
where they get down and roll and then have to drag 'em out in the brush
and fan 'em. Bah! Ain't no more to them than these doctors hum-buggin' around.
Why, here I am 78 years old, takin' medicine for my kidneys and it ain't
a-doin' me no good. I can't hold out to walk at all and I used to be as
good as a horse. I've slept in wet blankets too long I guess, 'til I'm just
dead now, still a-walkin' but I'm dead just the same. Sometimes I do take
a tumble but just get up and keep a-goin'. I don't mean to fool with them
doctors though. Oh! These doctors and preachers; it's a wonder to me anyone
is a-livin' now-a-days. One will tell you, you are goin' to hell and the
other quack a-givin' somethin' he doesn't know if it will kill or cure.
Then they talk about the bad boys robbin' trains long ago. I know which
I'm for.
"After I left the Palo Pinto Country, I went on down around Fort McKavett
and the Brady section a-workin' for Dwight Benjamin. There were only two
old boxed cabins at Fort McKavett at that time.
"A bunch of Indians came through them parts and killed several white
men and just cleaned Brady of horses.
"An old man was goin' down the road in a wagon when three Indians a-walkin'
and two on horseback went up and killed the old feller, cut his horses loose
and took one of them; the other one got away and ran home. The family knew
something had happened. The same horse ran home once before when Indians
attacked the old man and he was saved that time. The Indians went on and
made their next raid at Salt Gap, killing a Mexican and taking a bunch of
horses from there. The soldiers from Fort Concho and Fort McKavett followed
but they were led further and further away from water until they were starved
out. The old broken down horses were all they ever got back.
"There was plenty of trouble over that wire cuttin' business and nobody
was ever supposed to know who done the cuttin'.
"They didn't have many ranches in them days, camps were scattered over
the range and they tried to stretch a little wire around some of the land
and make a ranch. It didn't do no good for a long time. This was the cause
of the cattlemen and sheepmen's little fussin'. It didn't amount to much
where I was, of course the cowmen would run the sheep off their range but
they'd come right back since there wasn't no fences.
"Speakin' of stampedes, I never seen one happen with the cattle on
home grounds. When they were on strange ground the least little noise would
just scare the life out of 'em.
"I've rode some mighty bad horses in my days; never struck but a few
I couldn't tame. I always tamed them before I rode 'em. These rodeo horses
are not so bad. Four or five men get in the stall and go to throwin' saddle,
ropes, and stuff all over them and get 'em scared to death before they bring
'em out. The boys used to say I could conjure them. Why, l've led a-many
a-one right out of a lot when he had never had as much as a halter on before.
I pet him up a little, get right on and they never pitched a bit. These
rodeo horses think they supposed to pitch and go right ahead and do it.
"I knowed Booger Red real well; I just lived across the mountain from
him, when he lived on a little ranch out from San Angelo. He was makin'
merry at Christmas time and bored a hole in a tree, filled it full of gun
powder, then struck a match to it, and it blowed him up. That's why he was
so ugly. He naturally was red headed and freckle faced, then when this powder
black specked him and blowed both eyes side-ways, he sure was a booger.
He was a mighty good rider when he was a boy and I guess he did get to be
a real rider after he had so much
practice in his shows. They say he had a boy that was about as good as he
was.
"I went back to East Texas and got married when I was 37 years old,
and settled down. I came back out here about 25 years ago and have stuck
pretty close since."
(From WPA Life Histories, interview with Mr. Thomas Acey Brown, Tennyson,
Texas, interviewed, February 1, 1938.)