frontier times – Page 5 – Texas History Notebook

Edward H. Tarrant

Edward H. Tarrant (1796 or 1799 – 1858) was the namesake of Tarrant County. He was born in South Carolina and was the son of Samuel A. Tarrant and Nancy Anna Hampton Tarrant. He was the youngest of at least four children. His father died in 1799 and his mother remarried after many years. Tarrant was living in Muhlenburg, Kentucky at the outset of the War of 1812 and is said to have participated throughout the war, including the Battle of New Orleans. After the war ended, he lived for some time in Tennessee before moving to Texas after 1830, settling first in Red River County.

Two Texas Grigsby Families

There have been numerous families with the Grigsby name who lived in Texas around the time of the Texas Revolution and the Republic of Texas. We mention two families today. They both had interesting stories. One settled near the eastern border of Texas, generally in Jefferson County and the other more in and around Houston County.

Lonesome Dove Baptist Church

In the July 3, 1941 issue of the Llano News, Llano, Texas, an article recounted a recent reunion of the Hallford family. The writer quoted a church historian named J. N. Raysor in telling the history of an early North Texas congregation, the Lonesome Dove Baptist Church.

Bill Kelley’s Mine

This is a story of a legendary Big Bend area mine. It is sometimes referred to by other names in newspaper accounts, books and articles. Since Bill Kelley figures into the story, more recently it has been called “Bill Kelly’s Mine.” Mrs. Eugenia H. Chandley wrote about it in the March 22, 1939 edition of the Alpine, Texas Sul Ross Skyline. According to the legend, a young man named Bill Kelley was from the Black Seminoles in Coahuila, Mexico and told some of his relatives of finding a treasure on the Texas side of the Rio Grande. Kelley had told his employers, the Reagan brothers, of coming across an outcropping of stone that shined like gold, while he was holding a herd of horses for them. Kelley chipped off some of the rock, put it in his pack and relayed the news of his find to the Reagans.

Cowboy Strike of 1883 and the Ghost Town of Tascosa

Image credit: Boston Globe, Marcy 24, 1883

In the spring of 1883, the newspapers like the Boston Globe reported that hundreds of cowboys went on strike for higher wages. The next day, a Wyoming newspaper gave more details, repeating the $50 per month demand. This article alluded to the possible threats of danger facing cowboys who declined to participate in the strike, but gives the number of strikers to be two hundred. Both have typographical or transcription errors. “Tosasa” in the Boston Globe article is probably a misspelling of Tascosa. The Wyoming article calls the county of the strike “Lascasa” and places it near the Texas-New Mexico border. The articles begin to settle down in a few days and give the location to be Tascosa.