El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-04-09

beds. The savage marauders, however.
were gone, and not knowing where the
balance of the family were. he went
down to the settlements, and giving
the alarm. came back to the scene, found
his wife ard the children. In this same
year an election of some kind was to be
held at ..OId Nashville,'' and McLel
land and his neighbors concluded to go
down and vote. Besides himself, the
men were: Sam Jones, his two sons,
Eli and Wiley, Isaac Standifer and Sol
Long. McLelland went ahead of the
balance and they told him to wait, as
the Indians might kill him if he went
alone. but he said he would go on. as
the Indians would not kill a ScOtchman.
a bout ten miles on the road above
Nashville there is some peculiar shap-
ed mounds called Sugar Loaf hills. .
Here the Indians attacked McLelland
and killed him, and his body was found
by the other men as they came along
and was taken to town and buried.
Mr.. Boales was also acquainted with
most of the men who participated in
the famous fight called "Bird's victo-
ry". This was fought on Little river.
about three miles from the present
town of Bolton, county seat of Bell
county The settlers far and near oc-
casionalIy would all fort up at ''Old
Nashville to stand off an Indian raid
of unusual proportions. The ladies of
Nashville, Tenn, had taken up a sub
scription and bought a small cannon
and sent to the settlers at this place to
| help defend themselves and it Is
thought that it saved the place from
attack, the Indians finding out it was
there by hearing it occasionally DIT sum
| set or on some holiday occasion.
| In 1888 or 1899 five of Captain Erath's
rangers were killed at place called
| Post Oak island or grove This was a
dense mott of tim Der, surrounded by
open prairie not far from the road
which led from the upper settlement to
the town. The Indians had been max
lag some desperate raids and Ecath
thought best for the people to move
down to town until it was over, but
some of them were not prepared with
teams and wagons enough to go, so the
captain sent five of his men to cold
Nashville" for the wagons. The men
had secured the articles and were on
their way back when they were at
tackled by a superior force of Indians
in the prairie near this grove. The
particulars OF this struggle could not
be given, as none were left to tell the
tale. but from the sign of the fight it
must have been desperate. The names
of the men wer5 Dave Farmer, Clabe
Neill, Jesse Bailey, Aaron Cullins and
Sterrett Smith, The delay of these
to send some more men to see what had
become Of them, and found that here
they had met their fate at the hands of |
their savage foes. The bodies of Gull |
Inns and Smith were found in one of
the wagons, where they had remained |
and fought their part of the battle. |
The other bodies were scattered in the !
prairie between the road and mott of |
timber. 1t is likely the Indians dis
covered them long way off and hid |
their force behind the timber, and |
when they made the charge cut the |
rangers OF from this protection aud |
they had made a desperate effort to
fight their way through the Indians to |
it. 1t Is likely also that some confusion
reigned and that there was no concert
OF action by the rangers, as the scatter
ed condition of the bodies would show.
Also about this time old ''Grandpa
Neiil'' was killed by Indians within 300
yards of the house of Mr.. Boales. The
mOrning was fOggy, but when the re-
port of the gun was heard that killed
him the neigh bors seized their weapons
and went to his aid. but only found his
dead body. he Indians could not be
found on account of the dense fog. One
of the sons of the old man named Will
Lam was killed with I. lot OF surveyors
on Battle creek. Or. Hill was also in
this fight, but made his escape. James
Shaw, a representative of the people,
was wounded by Indians while out sur
veyiug. Also il this fight ii negro
man belonging to HOltselaugh was
killed. His master and others made
their escape.
About 1910 a mail route was ostab-
lished from cold Nashville'' to Wash
in ton and Independence. A man
named Joe Taylor carried the mail and
often had narrow escapes from Indians
On one occasion they pursued him so
close to town that the citizens heard
his calls for help and came to his aid in
time to save him. His old fint-lock
gun failed to fire, and the Indians ran
on both sides of him and tried to catch
his horse by the bride. They also
shot Taylor in the shoulder with
Scoppet bali and he shot one of the
the chase the mail bag was lost.
In 1871 three families lived on Walk
err creek, where Cameron is now.
They were Captain Dan Walker, Billy
Smith and a man named Monroe. The
Indians being bad. they concluded to
move down to the big settlement on the
Brazos, and were fixing to start from
the same house when they were attack
ed bv the Indians. The men had just
commenced to lift a big box toto a
wagon when the savages made
their appearance, and dropping it, ran
into tha hDusc and bait lie commenced.
Now it seems that all the money wealth
of the Smiths was ia the box, and when
the Indians advanced to the protection
OF the wagons TO shoot from, Grandma
Smith ran out under fire. and. lifting
the lid of the box, secured the money |
and ran back without getting hurt, |
leaving the box lid standingup. An In
dian had the curiosity to know what was |
in the box, and era led up behind the |
standing box lidand reached his hand |
around TO feel in the box but at this |
moment rifle ball fired by Mr.. Smith |
put an end TO his existence, the ball |
passing through the box lid before hit |
TING the indian. The hustiles how left !
and the white men finished loading and |
came on to ''Old Nashville" The |
Smiths were related to the Boales |
family.
Mr.. Boales knew the old pioneer Bap-
tist preacher, L n. Morrell, and at
tended a camp meeting once that he
held. and the crowd was fired on by
band of Indians as they pallOped by