The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-01-03
A HERO or FOUR WARS.
He is One Hundred and Ten Years Ol

IlG IS OIlG uIiuISu anu I VI SSiN' O'S
 and Appears Good for Twenty Years 1 More-Captain Isaac Brock of Texas
 He has Fought Mexicans and Indi-
 ans. and is Also a Veteran of the
 Civil War.
 Isaac Brock a citizen of McLennan
 county, no longer hunts deer and wild
 turkeys, owing to dimnesa of vision,
 which has afflicted him for about t"d
 wars. He is getting old, he says, and
 cannot handle his rifle steadily or draw
 fine bead, as he did until few years
 back. His old rifle still hangs on the
 buckhorn rack, and he likes to take it
 down and clean it up. Once it was a
 fiintlock, but in 1865 le had it altered,
 and now it shoots with a percussion
 cap. He talked in 1865 about changing
 it to a breech- -loader, but his sons
 bought him a Winchester, and with the
 new-fangled weapon he manages to be | patient. He always preferred the old deer rifle, for with it he was infallible as a marksman until his eyesght weak conlbe county, N. C., the 1st of March, 17SS; therefore he is one hundred and ten years old. Recently he remarked: If live until 1900 l will have lived in three centuries He grew up among the soldiers who won the independence of his country He saw Washington and Light Horse Harry Lee. He was mere boy when he met the living be- roes of the American Revelation, and his heart grew full of zeal from such associations,
 When the second war with Great Britain commenced he enlisted and saw the redcoats in battle array on more than one occasion. He condemns the suggested Anglo American alliance re- marking that France is the original and only true friend of this nation. After the was of 1872 Isaac Brock moved to Georgia and engaged with limited suc- cess in gold mining. Being good blacksmith, he earned little money at repairing tools for the miners and farmers. With his Georgia friends he concluded to try his luck in Texas, and hither he came with small colony when Texas was a Spanish possession. The Georgians and North Carolinians settled in the Nacogdoches district. and had thrilling experiences with the law less element who practiced Kidnapping slaves and occasionally murdered set tiers. Uncle Isaac was the hunter for the colony of ten families. all depending on his rifle for meat During that dra- matc period of his life he married Lu- cinda Caroline Hill, frontier belle, who shared with him his hunt rs lodge and bore him four children He was scout in tie Texas war for indepen- dence, and was thrown frequently into company with Dave Crockett whom he regards as one Of the worlds great est heroes. He was personal friend of Sam Houston, and had the confidence of that warrior and statesman.
 In 1861 he was in Rusk county, Tex as and was impressed into service by the agents of the Southern Confederacy for, although far past the age of ex- empticn his skill in iron and steel was regarded as indispensable, and he was put at the head of an armory. A can- non he cast for the southern army was used in more than one battle Uncle Isaac was at heart a Union man, and got into trouble with MT. Davis gov- ernmewnt on more than one occasion He is nearer bweing typical southern CT now than he was during the ar. He is proud of his country and favors ter ritorial expansion. In the Indian wars occurring since 1865 to protect Texas settlers from Lipans. Comanches and Apaches he was conspicuous for skill and gallantry. His woodcraft, rsemanship, iron constitution and ability to endure all tho vicissitudes of frontier life made him an invaluable ranger under Rip Ford, John B. Jones, Sul Ross, George B. Erath and other great leaders in those dark and trou- blesome days.
 In ha double cabin on the Bosque, quivers full of war shafts, Indian hand made saddles. shields. bows, spears, feather headwear and other tog- gerry of the savages are preserved and will pass down to future generations as proof of the prowess of Isaac Brock, when the Olu man, WHO IS Sll1l III SOOu health, shall have passed away.
 The Indian encounters he engaged in for defense and rescue would give theme to writer which would need no embellishng. Every part of the old mans history is thrilling.
 He married again. After the death of his first wife he fell in love with Sa- rah Jane Sparks, lovely Texas girl, courted her, and the couple were uni- ted in wedlock in a primitive meeting house. by an old pioneer preacher. The second wife still lives, the happy moth- CT of twelve children, making sixteen children born to the old ranger.
 For many years he resided at the | Bor{.ue Falls, near China Springs, l eighteen miles west of Waco. He now resides with Ed Drahn. who married his daughter. The home of the Drahns is near Valley Mills, Bosque county, about twenty miles from Waco, and there he will end his days,
 Last week, at the request of Presi- dent J. c. Deane, of the Texas Photog- [ raphers' association, Uncle Remus came to Waco and sat for his picture. In his | hand he held stick cut from the grave of General Andrew Jackson, which has 1 been carried by him ever since when | occasion seemed to call for the use of a | cane.
 Uncle Isaac is a digniffed old gentle |